Chapter 34
34 Playing Dirty
Ruby took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Fine. We both slipped up today . Got any plans to fix this?”
Troy nodded confidently. “We’ve still got a shot at turning things around.”
“Let’s hear it.”
He leaned in and whispered, “Since she’s acting all high and mighty after fixing the company’s firewall, how about we hit her with something real?”
Ruby raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
Troy gave a smug smile. “I’ll hack the firewall. If it gets broken into, you’ll have a legit reason to go after her.”
That made her smile.
“Good idea. There’s an unused computer in the office next door. Use that one.”
Troy looked relieved. “Perfect. If I use one of the company’s computers, I can access some of the built–in protocols directly. That’ll make things quicker.”
Ruby sneered. “I’m not interested in how fast you can do it. I want you to punch a hole through that firewall and cause real damage this time.”
He was surprised at first, but he quickly understood.
A simple breach wouldn’t be enough to get Alice in serious trouble.
But if the company suffered losses, someone had to take the fall.
That someone would be Alice. She would at least be suspended for investigation and might even end up in jail.
That thought fired Troy up.
“Don’t worry, Ms. Randall. I won’t let you down.”
IT department.
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34 Playing Dirty
With Troy gone, the rest of the team focused on their work.
But anytime things got quiet, someone would bring up the director role .
“It’s probably going to Alice. She’s married to Mr. Eric, after all .”
“Being married to Mr. Eric doesn’t mean anything. Even Mr. Eric can barely protect himself these days.”
“That’s true. So who else has a shot?”
“Maybe Chloe. She’s got experience.”
Just then, someone exclaimed, “Gosh, my computer just froze!”
Another said, “No, it’s a hacker attack!”
When hackers hit the firewall, the IT department always caught it first.
Other departments didn’t notice a thing, thanks to how solid the firewall was.
But in the IT department, it was chaos. Everyone was rushing to block the intruder.
“This hacker has already cracked all our passwords. If we don’t stop him, he’ll steal everything!”
“He already breaches 70%!”
“It’s 75% now!”
“It’s way too fast!”
Everyone was stressed out, typing like crazy and trying everything they could to hold the hacker back.
But the hacker seemed to know their every move.
They were barely holding the line. Then, they got another strike.
Alice casually sipped her water and asked, “Why’s everyone freaking out?”
Chloe Mitchell was one of the most experienced people in the department – already 35 and known for being tough.
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84 Playing Dirty
She had no patience for women like Alice, who relied on men..
And that USB Troy gave Alice? It was nothing special, just some basic code. Anyone who knew the basics of programming could see that.
So, Chloe never thought Alice was anything special.
If Alice had just stayed quiet, Chloe might’ve let her be.
But now? Everything Alice was saying was hitting a nerve.
“Ms. Spencer, are you actually happy to see our company’s confidential info getting hacked? ”
Alice shot back, “Don’t you trust the security systems we’ve got ?”
Chloe figured Alice was clueless.
“No matter how good a firewall is, it’s gonna break if someone keeps hitting it nonstop. And when it does, we’ll lose our secrets!”
Alice still didn’t look worried. “How can you be so sure it won’t hold up?”
“Our team built this firewall-” Chloe paused, then something clicked in her head.
She sneered mockingly.
“Are you saying that it can hold off a hacker because you just patched the firewall?”
Alice nodded. “That’s right.”
Not only Chloe, but the whole team cracked
To them, she was just a clueless country bumpkin.
She had no real grasp of how dangerous skilled hackers could be.
And now she believed a quick fix was enough to stop everything?
While they were still laughing, Alice added, “I’m confident in what I did. The firewall should hold up just fine. You guys might as well relax a bit.”
She barely finished her sentence before someone yelled, “Hey! The hacker is already at 90%!”
Chloe didn’t bother saying/another word and rushed straight back to her desk.
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34 Playing Dirty
Alice sighed helplessly as she watched everyone panic.
In the office, Ruby was also glued to her screen.
…