16 This is it

After negotiating the new terms for the YubiKey hand-over, Philip and Sofie shared a dance together. The intimacy of it made Sofie question her priorities. There was something special between them, something that does not come around very often. But before Sofie could act on her new realization, Philip left her standing on the dance-floor and rushed off.

Sofie entered Elandra for the last time. By now she was familiar with the proceedings, the discreet phone call, the footsteps, the reveal of the immaculately dressed companion as he walked down the central staircase, even her heart skipping a beat when his hand touched hers. Seeing Philip would never get old.

But there was something different this time. There was an urgency in Philip's greeting and he almost rushed her upstairs.

"Philip," the receptionist said, reminding him of their silent communication; of the protocol before heading upstairs, the nod that grants passage. Because this time she shook her head, when he looked at her.

"That's ok. Thanks, Rosie," he said, not breaking his stride.

"What was that?" Sofie asked as they walked up the stairs.

"You did not hand in your blood tests," he replied with a look that said 'and I know why'. What they were planning to do today did not require it. Today, there was a different kind of risk to their lives and livelihoods, not disease or pregnancy.

They reached his suite and Philip swiped his card. Philip moved the card too quickly and the door remained locked. He was anxious. Throwing her a quick glance, he tried again and this time the door opened.

As soon as she had walked through the threshold he grabbed her arm and crowded her into a corner of the room. His face close to hers, he whispered against her cheek, "You don't have to do this."

Seeing her confusion he gave her more room and added, "I moved the cameras, they cannot see us here."

His eyes lingered on her lips, waiting for her response. When none came he closed back in, his heavy body pressed her against the wall and she could feel the vibrations in his chest when he spoke.

"I missed you," he breathed, stroking her cheek.

His hands were soft and warm and Sofie could not help but respond to it. She parted her lips and closed her eyes. His lips found hers in the kiss he denied her the day before.

As their kiss deepened, he seized her thighs and lifted her up until she was angled between him and the wall. His hand brushed along the outside of her legs and slipped underneath her dress to caress her buttocks. Instinctively, she rocked her hips against him; his hardness against her softness. Bolds of pleasure shot through her body as he gently cupped her breast and squeezed the nipples through the light fabric of her bra.

"Stop," Sofie yelped breathless. "Stop, Philip, there is no need."

Fury was in her eyes as he set her down and backed away; not for what he had done but for having let herself be pulled in by his charm, yet again.

"She instructed you to do this. To seduce me. Didn't she?" Sofie snapped at him. "To make sure I am going through with the deal. But that's not necessary, Philip. I want the key and I am prepared to act my part in your little play."

She crossed her hands and looked down.

"What are you talking about?" He was frustrated.

"Oh, don't pretend, Philip. Ms. Hunt wants Kerry gone. So she asked you to make sure that this time I am going through with the deal. She wants the article to be published as soon as possible."

"I don't know anything about that. This deal was between us."

"Was it? Then why the sudden change? Why pretend you want me today when you wouldn't even kiss me yesterday." There was a daring look on Sofie's face, "I tell you why, because you've talked to your fiancé since then. Isn't that right."

He looked down. Of course she was right. In some way it was a credit to him. He did not cheat on his fiancé yesterday. He was loyal to her even when Sofie was playing unfair. But that did not change the fact that he was acting on behalf of Ms. Hunt now.

"What I meant," he said sternly, "is that I don't know about any relationship between Ms. Hunt and MP Kerry."

Sofie laughed. The keen collector of secrets, the man with razor sharp observation skills, who knew both women intimately did not know about their feud? Who was he trying to fool?

"There was an announcement today," said Sofie. "MP Kerry wants to personally supervise the royal commission because she is disappointed that they have not found anything on Ms. Hunt's company yet. Kerry has openly disclosed her vendetta against Ms. Hunt. You are telling me that Ms. Hunt did not know about this before today?"

"What I am telling you is that I did not know about this."

"Be that as it may, let's get on with the plan. I am tired of your games. You are really not as irresistible as you think."

Philip opened his mouth to reply but thought better of it. "As you wish."

He forced a smile into his face and took her hand to pull her out of the blind corner to where the cameras could see them.

"Take a seat, Miss Carter. I get us something to drink."

He walked over to the drinks cabinet and leaned on it for a second to steady himself, before starting to rifle through the assorted drinks.

"I am sorry, Miss Carter, it seems I am out of Champagne. Can I offer you something else or do you want me to quickly run down to the storage room?"

This was the opening of his play. Sofie hated improv but went along with it.

"No, Champagne is what I want. And you know how I love you going personally to make up for your mistake, rather than sending for room service."

"Yes, Miss Carter. I know how you like things just so. I'll be back in 15 minutes."

As soon as Philip had closed the door behind him, Sofie was on her feet and inspected the glass vitrine with the YubiKey. It was locked and the glass looked sturdy. She had noticed this when Philip showed her the key the first time. She glanced around the room for a key. She didn't really expect to find one, this needed to look like a genuine theft rather than a set up.

They never discussed how to steal the key. Philip clearly did not want to know anything more about this than he needed to. Yet the faith he put in her abilities to get the key out of a secure cabinet and access the emails in just 15 minutes was astounding. She smiled. But it was not unfounded.

She took out a device she brought with her just in case. It was a suction cap with a metal arm on it and a little diamond cutter at the end. Tracing it around in a circle sliced through the thick glass seamlessly. She pulled the suction cap and the circular glass plane came off. The opening was just large enough for her hand to reach through and grab the YubiKey.

She hesitated for a second. Was there a pressure sensor that would trigger an alarm? Tracing around the outline she could not feel any wires so she went on instinct and pulled the key out.

Her heartbeat was drumming in her ears as she opened her laptop and stuck the YubiKey into the USB drive. She brought up MP Kerry's email account and typed in the password, "Kerry4PM". The system prompted her for the YubiKey and Sofie pressed the button on the device to provide the second part of the authentication process.

"Something you know and something you have," she said under her breath as the account unlogged and revealed the headers of MP Kerry's emails. There were three unread emails.

Re: Royal Commission needs to nail the bitch - We found something that will sink them. See attached what looks like an offshore account for ...

Fwd: New funding sources - Dear Mrs Kerry, we might have a new revenue stream for your campaign. We can make it legal if …

Changes to your upcoming Elandra visit. - Dear Mrs Kerry, we regret to inform you that your regular companion will not be available anymore. We would like to set up…

Bingo. She logged into the terminal and typed in a command to start downloading the email folder. She closed her laptop, the data was transferring without her computer needing to be connected.

Sofie glanced on her watch. If Philip's timing was on point she had less than 2 minutes left. She scrambled to her feet and placed the YubiKey back into the display. Squirting glue on the rim of the glass pane, she carefully avoided the sharp edges of the cut glass. The last thing she could use was for the tips of her false fingerprints to be sliced or get caught in the glue. Appearance can be changed easily; fingerprints not so much. She lifted the glass in place and removed the suction cup.

Upon close inspection the cut was glaringly obvious but from a distance it could easily be mistaken for a trick of light. She was proud of her handiwork and slid back into the seat where Philip had left her, breathing a sigh of relief.

The lock on the door clicked and Philip entered with two bottles of Champagne, as promised. A flicker of confusion crossed his face as he saw her lounging leisurely on the couch.

"I hope the wait wasn't too long."

"Not at all, Philip. But it reminded me that I have another appointment today. I am sorry we will have to cut this short."

She stood to gather her bag and walked towards him and the door.

So this is it.

For all her cold determination she could not stop the hot spark flaring up as their eyes met. She stepped closer, leaning into his body. Her hand slipped into the opening of his collar, feeling his skin. She drew him closer and their lips met in a hungry kiss. One last time.

"Goodby Philip," she said, breaking free and turning for the door.

"Wait." He caught her arm to turn her around. "I am not ready yet, Sofie," he whispered, letting his hand slide up her back. He pulled her in but this time his kiss wasn't passionate. It was desperate and resigned.

He shut his eyes and breathed her in. "I'll walk you down."

Sofie's stomach cramped as they arrived in the lobby. He held out his hand and put on a smile to wish her farewell. He was a damn good actor. If only she could figure out, which version of him was the act. Though knowing him so far, it was likely that nothing had been real and she never actually met the real Philip. A chapter to put behind her.

As soon as Sofie arrived home she opened her laptop to look at the treasure she bought with the heartache that would stay with her for a while longer. There were more than 500,000 emails. Even if she filtered it down to the months before and after the opposition leader's death it would still be the equivalent of 20 books to read; impossible to find the needle in the haystack before the election.

She needed to automate this. She fired off her secure messaging app and reached out to her network.

SofiaBlack: Need a computer program to find something in a lot of text. Who can help?

It only took seconds for the "..." to pop up. Someone was replying to her message.

SlimRat: I have a new NLP algorithm. I'm keen to turn the hyper parameters on a real-world-dataset, see what the accuracy is.

SofiaBlack: Can you say that again in english?

SlimRat: I can help you. Just let me know roughly what you are expecting to find and I can feed my new program with the keywords.

SofiaBlack: Excellent. Need to warn you: this is dangerous.

The "..." popped up and disappeared several times. SlimRat took several attempts to word his reply. Was SlimRat scared? Impossible, that person was just as versed in staying underground as she was. Though she knew nothing more about the person, they never actually met. SlimRat had teamed up with her on several other projects in the past. No, SlimRat wasn't scared, there was something distracting.

SlimRat: Not expecting a walk in the park, Sof. Send the encrypted file the usual way. I'll have something back by tomorrow, unless the news keeps distracting me. There is something big going down in England ATM.

SofiaBlack: You are a trouper. Thanks.

Sofie switched on the news to find out what SlimRat was talking about.

"The circumstances are rather dubious," the anchor announced, "A spokesperson told NewsTonight that she suffered a fatal heart attack. But why she was at this country house and who the younger man is, she was with, remains yet unknown. We now switch live to the house..."

The picture changed to a helicopter view of Elandra and the ticker at the bottom of the screen read: 'Breaking: MP Kerry found dead'.

avataravatar
Next chapter