Filed to story: Mia Bowen and Timothy Barrett Novel
“Sittle Island.”
Nathan choked on his coffee and burst into a cough upon hearing that. “What did you say? Where is it again?”
“Sittle Island. What a weird name. Does this place even exist?”
“No. It’s a virtual one.”
Nathan attempted to connect the dots.
What a coincidence. He and his gang actually formulated the IP address themselves. Only a few were able to use it as of today.
Last night, he shared the program with Mia and this IP address was found out soon.
A sense of foreboding cloaked him. Did he just sabotage his own people with his program?
“Why the silence, Nathan? Send it to me.” Dominic’s patience was running thin.
Nathan coughed. “Wait. I have nothing to do anyway. I can settle this for you. There’s something that I have to verify.”
Dominic raised his eyebrow. “You know this hacker? Are you trying to give him the leeway?”
“I can’t say anything for sure right now. I have to see it personally first.”
“Fine. I’ll ask them to share the control access with you. Your company built our system for us. You know what to do next, don’t you?” Dominic asked sternly.
The call disconnected. Dominc’s hunch kept telling him that something was off about Nathan. Could the hacker be someone Nathan knew?
Nathan received access to the internal system and began his counter against the hacker.
Slowly, he gained the upper hand in the confrontation.
However, the hacker’s modus operandi gave him a sense of deja vu.
His fingers suddenly stopped. After a moment of contemplation, he reached out to Mia.
Meanwhile, a great hacker was attacking Mia. If she had not used the defense barriers from Nathan, her laptop would’ve been intruded instead.
At that moment, her phone started ringing. It was a call from Nathan.
he sudden?
Nathan. Anything?
of guilt put her into a momentary trance before she answered the call. “Hey,
He coughed. “Mia, did you use the program I gave you yesterday?” he dived into the topic right away.
It would be a waste of time beating around the bush anyway. He asked his friends to see if anyone used the defense barriers but the answers were negative.
Therefore, that left him with only one answer.
His question placed her in silence. “How did you know?”
He sighed lightly. His guess was right.
The guilt plagued her more. “Did I cause you trouble, Nathan?”
Yesterday, Mia thought of making use of what Nathan shared to let her steam off. To teach Maya and Randy a lesson.
Encountering a better competitor was beyond Mia’s expectations..
Now that Nathan was checking on her, there had to be a problem.
“No. It’s just that I monitored someone using that program and checked on it. I was worried about you. Need help?”
“I’m good for now, I can handle it.” Nathan’s program was good enough for Mia.
Although a better competitor appeared, she had achieved her objective.
He didn’t expect that answer. “Okay. Call me if you need help.”
Nathan couldn’t pry further unless he intended to expose himself.
After Mia hung up, she watched the monitor. The competitor stopped the chase instead of continuing to track her down.
Regardless, her objective was achieved. Confronting that competitor would be an overkill. She didn’t want to bring Nathan trouble either.
“Mia, what are you doing here?” Maya saw Mia in the waiting area the moment she arrived.
Maya’s heels clicked with every step she made. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told Mia haughtily.
Mia’s eyes shot upward. “I came to retrieve my money. If not here, where else should I go?”
“Oh, you came to retrieve your money? I wonder who said she didn’t mind the compensation at all and yet here she is, all jumpy to get the money back.” A triumphant smile adorned Maya’s face.
As she had expected, Mia cared about the compensation.
Maya lowered her voice. “Want the money? Easy. Apologize to me sincerely and I’ll put in good words to the Demolition Department. How about that?”
The degrading demand didn’t bother Mia at all. “No. I’m waiting for you guys to apologize and wire the money to me.”
Maya cracked up. “Mia Bowen, are you crazy? You must be dreaming. If you don’t apologize to me, you won’t receive that money forever. I’ll make that happen.”
Mia managed a smile. “Then I might as well demand an explanation of the company’s internal system. Let’s see how your brother would deal with it once he knows about this.”
Maya’s expression showed a slight unnatural change before she barked, “That’s my brother. Who do you think he’ll side with?”
Mia sneered in¨Creturn. “We’ll see.”
“You should’ve accepted my offer when I was being nice. You can keep waiting until pigs fly.”
There was no time for Maya to waste here. She had to settle Randy’s problem before he ruined the plan.
If Dominic found out that she was behind this, she would be over.
At the same time, Nathan engaged in a call with Dominic after talking with Mia over the phone.” Dominic, why don’t you ask why the hacker is doing this? That’s the key to resolving the issue.”
“I’ve asked. It could be a trick by a competitor.”
“This means you haven’t gotten the real answer yet. It’s surely not a competitor or whatnot. There’s something else behind this.” Nathan understood Mia very well. The problem didn’t start merely because of a competitor.
Dominic raised an eyebrow. “Nathan, what’s with beating around the bush? Do you know who the hacker is? Are you trying to protect him?”
Nathan gulped down his saliva. “Here’s a piece of advice. Investigate if it has something to do with the demolition of that old neighborhood Mia lived in. See how she’s already forced to hack into the company’s system? Did Mr. Skimmer pick on her?”
Dominic asked, “Are you saying that Mia’s the hacker?”
“Who else could it be? I’ve checked in on her. Besides, she’s my mentee. She knows a lot about hacking into a system. It can’t be anyone else.”
Dominic’s head was still buzzing with confusion.
It was Mia intruding into his company’s system!
It took him a while to regain his composure. He looked at the monitor. “She’s made great improvement! Not bad, not bad. No one in the company can do anything to defeat her. I’m impressed.”
He expected nothing less from his sister. She was bright and adorable!
Dominic, who had been wearing a steely countenance, finally broke into a smile like a brother proud of his sister.
The others in the office watched him with confused expressions as they didn’t know what happened to him.
Why did his expression change over a phone call?
Dominic disconnected the call and looked at the Technical Department.
“What’s the matter? Haven’t tracked down the hacker yet?” Pride swelled in his voice.
The Head of the Technical Department answered stiffly, “No. He escaped and we can’t find his IP
address. We can’t find out who he is for the recruitment either.”
Dominic clicked his tongue. “Look at yourselves. Your resumes are the top ones and you call yourselves a veteran. But none of you can guys?”
even catch the hacker. What’s the use of having you
Although he was telling them off, his tone seemed to convey that he was trying to show off something.
The Head of the Technical Department was perplexed. They failed to locate the hacker and yet Dominic seemed to be in a good mood.
Was the whole department going to be fired?
After showing off his sister to the Technical Department, Dominic turned to face Randy.
His expression turned stoic almost instantly. “Be honest with me, what did you do that caused a hacker to hack into our system? Did you do something to the old neighborhood demolition project?