Читать книгу Second Time Lucky - Malihanelo Molapo - Страница 5

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As she stared into her breakfast of muesli and strawberry yoghurt, Criselda wondered about the current state of her life and how it had come to this point. She had been living alone with her kids for just over a year now since her divorce from Sifiso had become final.

They lived in a three-bedroomed double-storey house that she had bought with her ex when they had first started earning decent money. The furniture and drapery in all the rooms were simple yet elegant and were mostly in earthy brown and cream tones. Criselda liked things to be down-to-earth, although she had made sure that all her kitchen gadgets were either silver or black.

The custody ruling had been pending because of disagreements over the types of visitation rights, and even though things hadn’t quite gone her way, she was relieved that it had finally been ruled upon. A quiet-mannered woman of thirty-three, she had philosophically accepted her recent transition from being a married woman to a single mother.

Her world was full of love, with shrills of laughter and squalls of fighting that went on each day between her nine-year-old twin boys, Siyanda and Sandile. Although they weren’t identical, they were both the spitting image of Sifiso.

The twins were the central point of her life. After a day spent working as a senior program analyst for Baikopanyi Technologies, the highlight for her was coming home to them. Even though her job was highly demanding because of the accounts she was responsible for, she always made sure she spent enough time with her precious boys.

She did make attempts from time to time to have more of a social life – she had spent so many years juggling being a wife, mother and rising career woman that she hadn’t always put enough effort into developing this part of her life. All in all, though, she wasn’t that outgoing, so whenever she got the opportunity to spend time with her close friends, she tried to ensure that she made the most of it.

Baikopanyi Technologies held many high-profile accounts, both in government and the private sector, and Criselda was looking forward to being made partner one day. She put in many hours, even if it meant she had to bring work home to attend to after the kids had gone to bed. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to manage all these things without Florina, her housekeeper, who was currently experiencing a family emergency that had kept her away for a week.

When she saw the first rays of sunlight on the grey marble counter tops of her kitchen, she knew it was time to get the kids up and ready for another day of school.

“Eish, life,” Criselda sighed. With that she put her unfinished breakfast in the fridge and headed upstairs to wake the boys.

* * *

It was 8:15 when Criselda walked through the big, illuminated glass doors of Baikopanyi. As usual, she greeted Johannes, the security guard, who had been there for as long as she could remember. His friendly, toothy smile always made Criselda feel welcome when she passed him at the door.

Upon entry she was welcomed by a spacious foyer, the walls of which were panelled with sheets of black marble. Large potted plants were neatly arranged in an attractive but corporate manner. In the centre of it all was a large reception desk, set up against the backdrop of a huge screen to resemble an open office.

All the phone calls for the building came through the switchboard down here. This was manned by Tseli, a beautiful, tiny-framed girl with the most unfortunate manner. She seemed to think that nothing in the world was positive, and when she smiled, it would always be only with her teeth.

“Good morning, Tseli. Lovely morning, isn’t it?”

“Good morning, Mrs Moyo. Yes, I suppose it is.”

“Indeed it is. Anything for me?” asked Criselda.

“I’ve already given Suthukazi all your messages, Mrs Moyo. She just went up.”

Suthukazi Jones, a light-skinned woman of thirty, was Criselda’s assistant and supervised all the junior programmers in the department. She also was a very close friend and confidante, since they had been hired around the same time at Baikopanyi, nine years ago. The two women had immediately clicked and shared a lot at work and in their private lives.

Suthukazi was also single, but had never been married. She had an eight-year-old daughter from a failed engagement to her high school sweetheart. Her daughter had lived with her mother in the Eastern Cape since she was born. Since then Suthukazi only seemed to date once every two years, according to Criselda’s observations.

Suthukazi’s casual dress style of jeans and tops was always accompanied by flat shoes or sneakers, which she said made her feel comfortable running to and from the server room all day. It was quite the opposite of Criselda’s pencil heels that perfectly matched the tailored business suits she wore to work.

As Criselda entered the main door to their wing and aimed for her spacious office, Suthukazi walked out of hers, which was right next door.

“The system at Hampshire Holdings was hacked into this weekend,” she said in panicky voice.

“And a good morning to you too, Kazi,” Criselda replied. “Let’s talk in my office.” With that she opened the door, walked in, put her bag and laptop on the desk and sat down on her high leather seat.

“Okay, slowly now, tell me what’s going on.”

“Well, I just received a hellish call from Adam. Someone stole all the information on all their clients. He’s especially worried about their banking details.”

“Okay, let me ring him straight away.” With that Criselda picked up the phone and made the call. With bated breath she waited for their client to answer. One, two ... “Hi, Adam, this is Crisel ...”

“Dammit, Criselda, how could this have happened? I pay you people a fortune to make sure that my clients’ security is tight. How the hell did this happen? You better tell me this is part of a security drill you’re doing or else ...”

Criselda could tell from the sudden pause that Adam was foaming at the mouth and couldn’t finish his sentence. This always happened when he was angry.

“Adam, please remain calm. I’ll quickly check my servers and I’ll be there within the hour.”

Adam Carelse, CEO of Hampshire Holdings, was a very difficult client to please, but also the most willing to pay top rates for the best quality, which he had been receiving from Baikopanyi for the past three years. Hampshire Holdings had under it a cluster of food and clothing franchises, coupled with a few companies that were financial service providers.

Criselda’s CEO, Martin Thobejane, often stressed the fact that Hampshire was their main bread and butter – and therefore she should never screw up as far as they were concerned. Would she now have to admit to him that she’d done exactly that?

She tapped into their drives but found nothing amiss and no indication of a drill. Then she briefly grilled some of the junior programmers, but to no avail.

Laptops in hand, Criselda and Suthukazi quickly got into the company van and sped to Hampshire in the leafy suburb of Sunninghill. As they approached, the security guard, who seemed to be on the lookout for them, quickly opened the automatic high iron gates that had a bold HH embellishment on them. The gates couldn’t open soon enough and Suthukazi sped in, almost scraping the driver’s side of the van.

The two women rushed into the building and headed straight for the server room, where an impatient Adam was pacing up and down. They quickly greeted him, connected their laptops to his server and started working.

* * *

After five hours Criselda walked into Adam’s office to give her findings. She was a little startled when she realised he was not alone.

There was another man, who looked strangely familiar even though his back was turned to her. She gasped when he turned around as Adam gestured towards her. It was JD! Or rather the owner of the handkerchief on which those initials were embroidered.

“Criselda, meet a business associate of mine, Justice Dlangamandla of JD Dynamics. I’ve called him here to try and find out who hacked into my system. He specialises in forensic technology. Justice, this is Criselda Moyo, who has been managing my system on behalf of Baikopanyi Technologies.”

“Good day,” Justice said curtly in his deep, husky voice.

“A good day to you too, Mr Dlangamandla,” she replied.

Adam showed Criselda a seat and asked her to proceed with her findings.

She sat down and explained that whoever had done the job had covered his tracks very well because there seemed to be no point of entry or exit in the system. This made it hard to find any leads.

As she continued to explain, she could feel Justice’s frosty stare and it made her stutter more than once. After a brief discussion Adam decided that JD Dynamics would be in control of the investigation, while Baikopanyi would be consulted if and when needed.

Criselda was upset. “But Adam, you can’t do that. I’m responsible for installing and maintaining the system. You can’t just put us on the sideline while somebody takes over our hard work. Martin will be livid.”

“If you’d done your job properly, we wouldn’t be in this position, would we?” Adam answered coldly. “Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I have to leave for a meeting in Midrand. Please get acquainted in the meantime.” With that he took his briefcase and promptly left the office.

After what seemed like forever Criselda attempted to break the silence.

“You left your handkerchief with me, the other day at court,” she said nervously. “I’ll get it back to you next time we meet.”

“No, it’s fine, you can keep it. Besides, we’re not here to discuss handkerchiefs but your serious inability to run a simple system like the S 5.2. Just give me your notes and I’ll take it from here, thank you.”

His reply left Criselda not only irritated but almost at a loss for a response. She wondered what about her made this man so curt with his answers, so cold in his stares and so annoyed by her presence. He seemed to want to get away from her as soon and as far as possible, just like the last time.

“All right, Mr Dlangamandla. Please give me your e-mail address and I’ll send them once I’ve reported back to my boss.”

He took out his card from the breast pocket of his jacket and gave it to her.

“No later than tomorrow morning, please.”

Then he swiftly got up and walked out of the door without even so much as a goodbye, leaving that woody, musky smell of his behind.

Criselda was angry – at him, but more so at herself. Why did this man have such a strange influence on her? How could she allow him to throw her off balance like this? He had no manners, and to top it all, her job was on the line because of him.