A/N- Hello, FFN! Sorry for the late update! I had planned on posting this morning, but I needed cigarettes, so I went to the store and ended up having a wreck! Fortunately no one was hurt, but I had to make a really fun trip to my insurance company's office, so I've been pretty busy all day. Anyway, here's chapter 4!
B&B
Sally curled up in her chair behind her desk. It was Monday morning and she wasn't completely awake yet.
Saul was also behind the desk, trying to work on the camera feed. "That's just overkill." He said to the laptop.
"What?" Sally asked, yawning.
"Whoever took over the camera feed is behind about fifty proxies." Saul replied, annoyed.
"So what does that mean?" Sally asked.
"It means it's going to be a lot harder to find out who they are and shut them down, but maybe if I worked through lunch, I could get through half of them by the end of the day." Saul explained.
"You don't have to do that." Sally said.
"I do if you want to regain control of your laptop." Saul said.
"Well, yeah, but you don't have to work through lunch, I'm not in any hurry to get that camera feed back up." Sally said.
"But what will we tell Shirley?" Saul asked.
"For now, we can just tell her that it'll take a while." Sally said.
"Where is she anyway?" Saul asked.
"She's going to be a little late, she's been getting this nasty skin rash since Saturday; it seems to go away after she takes an allergy pill, but it keeps coming back the next day." Sally explained.
"Sounds like she's allergic to something." Saul said.
"She swears up and down that it's the California air, but I don't think so." Sally said.
"What do you think it could be?" Saul asked.
"I think it's her face cream because the rashes always appear after she uses it, but try telling her that." Sally said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, I just made it through the first proxy!" Saul exclaimed triumphantly.
"Great." Sally said, even though she didn't really think it was so great.
Saul seemed to pick up on her tone. "You don't really want me to fix this, do you?
"Well, if all the hacker is messing with is the camera feed, then why should we worry about it; I haven't been comfortable with the idea of putting a camera on my sister since Grams first came up with it; if you ask me, this is a blessing in disguise." Sally said.
"Maybe we should make sure they're not messing with anything else before we decide to give up on this." Saul suggested.
"You're right, I hadn't thought of that." Sally said, standing up and leaning over Saul's shoulder, causing him to blush.
"Let me know if you see something out of place." Saul said, pulling up the files and programs.
Sally noticed a folder that she didn't remember putting there. "I don't think I recognize that one." She said, pointing to the folder.
The name of the folder was This Fashion House Has Spectras In It.
"You didn't put that there?" Saul asked.
"No, I can't think of a single reason why I would name a folder like that, unless maybe Grams put it there, open it and see what's in it." Sally said.
"Opening it might install a virus, maybe we should just delete it." Saul suggested.
"Well, if it's something Grams did, I don't want to get rid of it; besides, if it was a virus, wouldn't it have some random name that has nothing to do with anything else on the computer?" Sally asked.
"Well, yeah, but you don't think that name is random?" Saul asked.
"Well, it makes sense considering that this is a fashion house and it does have Spectras in it." Sally explained.
"Does it sound like something Shirley would name a folder?" Saul asked.
"It actually sounds more like something Aunt Sally would do." Sally said with a laugh.
"Well, if you're sure you're willing to risk a virus." Saul said, hesitantly.
"If it installs a virus, I'll have you to fix it for me." Sally said, laying a hand on his shoulder.
Saul blushed deeper. "Um, yeah, you...you do have me to...um...fix things for you." He stammered.
Just as Saul was about to click the folder, Shirley walked in, wearing quite a bit more makeup than usual.
"How are the rashes, Grams?" Sally asked.
"Painful." Shirley replied.
"Do you think you'll be ok?" Sally asked, concerned.
"Yeah, are you two working on the camera feed?" Shirley asked.
"We were, but it's going to take a while; the hacker is behind so many proxies that it'll be pretty hard to track them down." Saul explained.
Shirley rolled her eyes. "Nothing can ever be easy for a Spectra." She said to herself, sitting on the table next to the door.
"Grams, did you make a new folder on my laptop?" Sally asked.
"No, why?" Shirley asked.
"There's a folder we don't recognize; it's called This Fashion House Has Spectras In It." Sally said.
"Really? Let me see." Shirley said, getting up and joining the two behind the desk.
Saul opened the folder and clicked the first file. What came up was the picture of Aunt Sally's beach house.
"Isn't that the same picture from the camera feed?" Shirley asked.
"I'm not so sure I like where this is going." Saul said nervously.
"Just open the next one." Sally told him.
Saul sighed and clicked the next file. It was another picture of Aunt Sally's house, except it was her back porch, which overlooked the ocean. They could just make out a figure with very red and very big hair standing on the porch.
"Is that Sally? What is going on here?" Shirley asked, nervously. If she hadn't been wearing so much makeup, her skin would have gone pale.
"Keep going, Saul." Sally said.
The next picture that came up was different. It was at some restaurant. Aunt Sally could be seen at a table, playing with the straw in her drink. She appeared to be talking to a man, but because of the angle of the camera, all that could be seen of the man was the back of his head. He had dark hair with slightly gray streaks.
Saul clicked the next file. It was a picture of Aunt Sally in her car, looking over her shoulder as she pulled out of the parking space. Her left arm was bandaged, which meant that the picture had been taken recently. The man she'd been talking to was nowhere in sight.
The next file was another picture of Aunt Sally's house. She was at the front door, fumbling with her keys and holding a lit cigarette between her lips.
The next picture that came up looked like it had been taken right outside Aunt Sally's bedroom window. She was on her bed, watching some horror film on her laptop, completely unaware that she was being photographed.
Saul clicked on the final file. It was a text file that read: This is your fault, Shirley Spectra.
Sally pushed her chair behind Shirley, just in time for her to faint into it.