Our Secret

The computer booted up reasonably quickly; however, after the Windows loaded jingle played, another program started loading. It seemed to be a very intensive program due to the long load time.

"Maggie, before I show you this, I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone else; this will be our secret."

"Goo." Maggie gave her confirmation; she wouldn't leak this secret and betray Veronica's trust.

"Thank you," Veronica replied. Now that she'd received Maggie's confirmation she tapped on a series of keys. The computer screen, on which the program was loading, instantly changed to several security feeds of what looked like an office.

The previous loading screen had actually been a disguised login screen.

"Goo… what's this? Who are all these people?" Maggie was quite confused by what was on the screen. Why would Veronica spend all day watching an office?

However, Veronica didn't seem to have heard the question; she was staring at the feed of one of the security cameras.

"Oi. Veronica." Maggie lightly shook Veronica's arm.

Veronica came to and looked at Maggie with a might smile. "So, what do you think?"

"What is it?"

"It's how I watch my boyfriend when he's at work." She said that without blinking an eye, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, as if it was perfectly obvious.

"Oh…" Maggie looked at the screen that Veronica had been staring at. "Is that your boyfriend?"

"Yes, that's him."

"He is very pretty. I like his hair. It's silver and looks soft."

"It's very soft, and it's smells nice; he uses a strawberry shampoo."

"Why do you watch him here?"

"I used to be shy, especially after what happened to my parents, so this was the only way I could be close to him."

"Oh… "

"Would you like to hear how it works? It's a big program; it took me a lot of work."

"Not rea—"

"You see, this is something called spyware; a piece of software that allows the user to covertly obtain data from another's system. In this case the data is the entirety of Graycastle's security footage."

"Veronica, there's really no point explaining this to me; I won't understa—"

"Graycastle's security software is one of the most advanced in the industry, and their system is exceptionally powerful, so getting my spyware past the firewall was one of the biggest problems.

"Rather… it would have been a problem for anyone else. As a board member and Roland's childhood friend, I am afforded a certain level of trust and access, which gave me the perfect opportunity to plant the software.

"The software itself is my masterpiece, my magnum opus, my chef-d'oeuvre. It accesses images from any camera connected to the company's Wi-Fi. Computers, cell phones, security cameras, all of them feed into my software.

"But that's not all!" Veronica was fired up; it felt incredible to explain to someone how brilliant she was.

"If that was all my software did, how could I have the face to call it my masterpiece?"