Eating a wonderful array of fresh fruit, beignets and bacon, Samantha listened to Luca tell her about the writing at the cabin.
“Hematilly Periapt? What’s that?” she asked.
“A periapt is an amulet. They’re usually made by someone of magic, like a witch, warlock or mage. So for example, if it was blessed with white magic, it would be used for something good, like protection. But I’m guessing that it has been created by someone using black magic, and has a nefarious purpose like hexing or perhaps a curse. To be honest, I’ve got no idea what it does or why someone would want it. But it must be pretty important to someone, given they followed you to Pennsylvania and burned down a building to try to get it.”
“But why would anyone think I have it? I mean, I don’t remember much of what happened to me, but I can tell you that I don’t have it. This is the first I’ve heard of it. I swear. I don’t even know what it looks like or what it does.”
“I’m not sure. But this has got to do with Asgear. He probably has something to do with this, or should I say, had something to do with it.”
“Can’t we just search his house? What about that warehouse Sydney told me about?”
“No. Kade and Sydney searched all his properties after the crypt was destroyed. He owned the warehouse in the business district, which has since been demolished, thanks to Kade. They also ran a search to see if he owned any other properties and came up empty. Now he may have owned or rented other properties under an alias, but so far there’s no evidence of their existence. The periapt could literally be anywhere in or out of this city,” Luca speculated.
“Well, I can’t just sit around doing nothing until we go see Ilsbeth. If this thing is real, maybe there’s something about it online. I know that the witches were in the process of converting some of their books over to digital versions, in case of flood or fire. Of course, I wasn’t allowed access to anything when I was at the coven, but I heard them talking about it.”
“We can ask Ilsbeth to let us see the books when we go there tonight,” Luca suggested.
“No offense, Luca, but the witches aren’t going to let a vampire look at their books. The one thing I learned in my week there is that they are very secretive. And since I didn’t agree to join their sisterhood, I wasn’t allowed in the library either. We can ask Ilsbeth, but I know she’ll say no. Don’t get me wrong, she can be very kind. But she also can be a tough as nails bitch. She does not bend rules, period. Besides, I think we should try a backdoor approach at the same time we’re playing nice.”
“What do you mean, backdoor?” He smiled at her, knowing she had something up her sleeve.
“Well, if they are putting all the books into a database, then we just take a peek,” she proposed. “You know, hack in and look at the files and then sneak out. I can do this, Luca.”
“Very impressive, tell me more.”
“I’m considered a ‘white hat’ hacker. That means I purposefully spend time trying to hack into systems to expose their weaknesses, so that I can help clients and our company. There are some folks out there who are considered ‘black hat’ hackers. They do the same thing, but they’re not doing it to help anyone. They might be stealing or just trying to cause trouble. There are other titles in the hacking world too, like ‘grey hats’ who break in and then offer to fix systems for a fee. Regardless, I’ve had to learn all kinds of hacking techniques when I’m testing. The only caveat is that hacking isn’t always as quick as they make it seem in the movies. If I can’t find a gaping hole in their system, I may need to try a few other tactics that might take longer,” she explained.
Prior to her abduction, Samantha had worked as a high level computer engineer for a large government contractor and was known to be one of the best ‘white hat’ hackers in her division; she regularly attempted to hack their own computer systems as part of quality assurance. If the Hematilly Periapt existed and its information had been recorded digitally, she could find it.
A business call interrupted them, and Luca took it in his office, leaving Samantha to work. Borrowing Luca’s laptop, she ran a search on ‘Hematilly Periapt’, suspecting that initial searches would turn up nothing. She had a hunch that this item was only known in supernatural circles and wouldn’t show up on poser sites. People who knew about the amulet were not wannabe witches or vampires. And whoever was threatening her and looking for this item knew that it held seriously potent power; they’d been willing to kill for it.
Samantha knew the coven had a huge physical library that she hadn’t been given access to yet. Ilsbeth had told her that she’d be given the key once she’d completed her training and had sworn allegiance to the coven. Rowan, a young but powerful witch who worked as the librarian, had befriended Samantha. Although she was kind during Samantha’s training, she had gone out of her way to tell Samantha to stay away from the mystical athenaeum. At the time, Samantha hadn’t thought twice to ask about the room, why she couldn’t go in there or what kinds of archives were stored within. She just knew that she wasn’t allowed to go in the library, and that there would be serious consequences for breaking coven rules. But now she wanted very badly to see what was hidden behind those doors.
The one thing that Rowan had let slip during tea one day was that the witches had started moving information to online storage, as it could be safely backed up. Critical data could be kept safe from all kinds of natural disasters and recovered easily. If for some reason their wards failed to protect the coven house, a fire could take out their library within minutes.
Contemplating where to search next, Samantha typed in the name of the coven, Cercle de lumière Vieux Carre, and waited. A single site popped up in her Google search and she clicked. A blank screen flashed onto her computer with two blank spots for identification and password. Knowing she wouldn’t have the identification, she’d need to obtain another witch’s security information, or find a weakness in their system. Samantha switched windows, and logged into her home server, so she’d be able to pull over the software she needed to hack in.
Within minutes, she ran a vulnerability scanner on the coven’s site. She was hoping easy in, but it didn’t show any cracks. Damn. “I’ll find your secrets,” she muttered to herself. “It may take a while, but I’ll get in.”
Picking up her cell phone, she moved forward with a typical ‘black hat’ hacker approach and called the hosting system administrator’s number that she’d been able to search out. Unfortunately for Samantha, they’d been well trained and had not given up the security information despite her name-dropping and helpful attitude. She had to give them credit for not falling for her tactics.
Being one never to give up, she decided to resort to her most reliable but time-consuming method for breaking into computer systems. She accessed both Rowan and Ilsbeth’s email addresses and sent them an email letting them know about the cabin burning and that she was looking forward to seeing them tonight. The email looked innocuous enough, but in reality she’d attached a worm to it. When opened, the worm would infiltrate their systems and attach a key-logging application with a Trojan horse to keep it hidden. The second Ilsbeth or Rowan accessed the online site, their keystrokes would be recorded and sent via messaging to Samantha’s iPhone. They’d never be any the wiser, and eventually Samantha would get the passwords.