“Yes. It’s him.” Her palms slicked, and she wiped them on her pants.

Alex moved to sit next to her, scooting the chair closer. “How do you know it’s him . . . or her?”

“I’d always thought of Nebulous 2.0 as a man—the way he ‘talked’ to us before. The aggression. I could have been completely wrong, of course.”

“Right, but how do you know it’s actually Nebulous 2.0 and not someone else? If he’s as skilled as you say, wouldn’t he write self-erasing code? Fake his web addresses. Route his attacks through other people’s devices?”

“He does it all. But I have the advantage in this case.” She closed her eyes and drew in a calming breath. “You know when you hear someone speaking . . . you know their voice. Or a song on the radio, you know who’s singing. I can recognize his voice.”

“You’re kidding. Even in boring code?”

“He has some tells. An extra parenthesis here and there. Certain styles. His previous attacks were what we call advanced persistent threats that build over time. I started there. I knew where to look, and that’s where I found him. His tactics are sophisticated, but they haven’t changed. He pursued me because he saw the skills I already had, then built on those and taught me . . . um . . . well, if I can say that.”

Alex gently squeezed her shoulder. “You definitely can. You’re one of a kind, Mackenzie. I’m surprised you’re not part of the national response team of ethical hackers.” He left his warm hand on her shoulder, and she soaked up his assurances.

“Who says I’m not?”

“Are you?”

She laughed. “If I were, this entire scenario would be different.”

“So you found malicious code. And he’s attacking Hanstech because he wants revenge.”

“He’s invaded the system, but his code isn’t set to run yet. He’s been here for a while. Exfiltrating information. I need to find his rogue access point and shut it down.”

“Rogue access point. You mean an unauthorized rogue access point created by a malicious attacker as opposed to a well-meaning, unauthorized hacker, like what you did tonight?”

She flicked her gaze to him. “Yes. Mine is still also a rogue access point. The cybercriminal also could have gained access via Air-Fi through a well-placed smartphone, router, or even a fire alarm. I need to find that and shut it down before my access point is found and shut down.”

Alex dropped his hand and paced again, which she tried to ignore. “He’s stealing secrets. I need to—”