GABRIEL
Blue takes it calmly, while I, still slightly on edge, say,
"Weren’t situations like this usually a reason for concern for you, something that called for extra caution?"
"They were, but at the beginning of the week I have almost no meetings outside the building, so I’ll just spend that hour here."
"And what if it’s a setup meant to prevent police or security from getting here quickly during that hour, and some team breaks in and has free rein until help arrives?"
Blue sets aside the stylus he had been turning between his fingers and says,
"I like the way you think. Scenarios like that are always possible. But I want to believe that with you here, whatever happens, you’ll be able to handle it."
"Blue…" I close my eyes briefly. "I mean, Mr. Lowen. I admit, I like risk. I’ve always been drawn to risky situations, but this is suspicious."
"Gabriel. Elevators sometimes break, and there isn’t always a terrorist attack behind it," Blue says calmly.
"After twenty-three attacks, or twenty-four if you count that paintball incident, I’d be a bit more cautious than that, and trust me, you’re talking to someone who’s broken the law more than once and played on the edge a lot."
Blue presses his lips together slightly, as if thinking, his eyes drifting over me.
"Why do you like risk so much?" he asks, dropping the elevator topic.
"I like it—" I stop and sigh. "Actually, I should use the past tense. Liked. It made me feel alive."
Blue grimaces slightly.
"Poor reason."
I shrug. "Perhaps. But for a moment, I stopped being nobody, irrelevant, somewhere in the background. I became someone dangerous, someone people were forced to pay attention to. And it gave me that rush."
"I take it this was related to hacking."
"Yeah, but we should get back to the elevator thing…"
"I’m more interested in your illegal dealings." Blue pierces me with his sharp gaze.
I give a small shrug, though much less confidently this time.
"Well, I pulled a bunch of stunts I probably should’ve gone to jail for, some with my friend Archer, who’s an excellent systems hacker, and some completely on my own, staying up at night and playing…
the villain online." A hesitant smile appears on my face.
Silence settles over the room. Blue lightly moves his fingers over the table, rolling the stylus back and forth in short motions.
"Give me an example of what you did," he says, lifting the cup of green tea Simon brought him earlier.
I smile modestly. "Would you know how to break into a city traffic camera system?"
There’s a short pause. Blue sets his cup down, slower this time, but doesn’t answer. He just watches me.
I tilt my head, a faint grin pulling at my mouth. "I’ve done it."
That earns me another look… assessing.
"Have you?" he says with no obvious reaction.
"Yeah. I’m a criminal, I guess, but that part you already know," I say in a casual tone, feeling that edge of satisfaction creeping in. "Municipal traffic grid. Cameras, signal control, the whole thing. Nothing huge, a mid-sized city system, but still."
Blue leans back slightly in his chair, studying me now with a somewhat peculiar expression.
"And how," he asks, "did you manage that?"
There it is, almost like he senses that’s exactly what I want. He gives me space to talk, to explain myself.
That makes it the second time already.
Marcel never asked. He didn’t care what I did, only about the results if they were useful to him. Blue asks, and he listens. Why?
That actually means something these days, when most people are focused on themselves and talking about their own issues. He gives me his full attention, his eyes fixed on me.
I rest my forearms on the chair arms, leaning in slightly. "They were running outdated firmware on the roadside controllers. Most of those cabinets still use default creds or weak authentication if nobody bothers updating them."
He doesn’t interrupt, so I keep going.
"I didn’t even start with the cameras. I scanned the network first, mapped exposed endpoints, found one controller that was reachable through a misconfigured gateway. From there, it’s basically pivoting."
Blue shifts just a fraction.
"Once you’re inside that segment," I continue, "you can sniff traffic between devices. A lot of those systems don’t encrypt internal comms properly, so I grabbed session tokens, replayed them, and got access to the central monitoring interface."
I tap my thigh lightly with my finger. "After that, the cameras are easy. Live feeds, archives, even signal timing if you want it."
There’s a brief silence. I sit back, watching him, waiting. Blue considers me for a moment, his expression unreadable.
"That is," he says finally, "a reasonably efficient exploitation chain."
"Reasonably? Was that a compliment?" I say, chuckling softly.
Blue picks up his cup again, unbothered. "Do you need one, Gabriel? You identified weak points in an undersecured system and used them. Simple as that."
I shake my head and pout. "Not that I’m fishing for it, but just so you know, none of the guys in my major would be able to pull it off. Most people would be at least a little impressed."
Fuck, that came across as super childish, like I’m basically begging for compliments and acknowledgment.
To be fair, I never really got them, so I guess I’m starved for praise.
Blue sets the cup down again, his fingers resting lightly against the porcelain.
Our eyes meet. He seems to be looking deep into my soul.
"No," he says, just a touch softer. "They cannot."
So it came? A subtle acknowledgment? Or did he simply pity me and hand me what I so desperately wanted, the way you would to a sulky child?
The thought gives me pause. Was that the reason Marcel manipulated me so easily? Was I simply approval-driven, eager to do anything for the smallest bit of praise?
Fuck. Should I try to grow up in that regard too?
I take a deep breath and say, "Yeah, sorry about that. You don’t have to praise me if you don’t feel like it. Fishing for compliments like that is ridiculous."
He studies me for another second. "Gabriel, objectively speaking, it wasn’t an easy system to break. And I like the way you approached it, you know? Though I honestly think your talents could be used in more… fruitful and legal ways."
Here it goes again, the paternal tone.
Blue’s eyes drill into me.
"What’s interesting, though, is that in a way, both of us are looking for ways to bypass systems, except mine are more focused on the organic aspect, while yours are mechanical."
I tilt my head. "Wow. Are you actually comparing me to yourself?"
"Well, I can certainly see that you have an exceptional mind, Gabriel."
Bam, he did it again. Is this genuine, or is he just feeding me sweet praise to make me more… loyal?
Despite my doubts, the warm feeling I shooed away last time hits me again.
"You still won in math," I whisper weakly.
"Was that a competition? Don’t compare yourself to me, Gabriel. I’m twice your age."
"I don’t think it’s about age. I think you’re just better with numbers."
"And yet you’re still excellent. I haven’t met many people with a mind that works almost like a calculator."
I look away for a moment, scratching lightly at my jaw. "Yeah. Well. Thanks."
There’s a brief pause as he reaches for his tablet, glancing at something on the screen.
He’s already shifting gears, slipping back into his own world, while I’m still trying to make sense of my reactions. Praise from someone like him carries weight, maybe more than it should.
But at the same time, there’s probably a lesson for me in all this.
I could stand out among my peers just fine, yet here I am comparing myself to a guy with a Nobel Prize. My constant craving for validation feels painfully immature and probably says more about my self-esteem and character than I’d want Blue to know.
How does he see me now? Insecure, self-conscious, erratic, easy to steer the moment I get a sweet word.
In alphas, those kinds of traits are probably seen by most omegas as deeply unattractive.
Does Blue share this sentiment? Does he prefer strong, self-assured, confident alphas?
Leaning over the tablet, a strand of his dark navy hair slips across his cheek, his pink lips slightly parted. Why do I keep looking at them…
I turn my face toward the glass doors leading out to the rooftop garden, biting my lip hard, desperately needing to change the energy.
"I’ve never been out there. Would you mind if we stepped outside for a bit? It looks nice, all lit up like that."
He lifts his eyes from the tablet. There’s a brief hesitation, then he slowly nods. "All right. I’ll show you the garden."
"Garden sounds big."
"It’s fairly large. You might be surprised," Blue adds, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
When we step outside, the view really is impressive. Straight ahead there’s a beautifully lit rooftop pool, its surface smooth and dark like glass.
"Ничего себе…"[7]
Subtle underwater lighting gives it a soft aquamarine glow, outlining the clean geometry of its edges. Around it are long stone planters filled with soil, housing small shrubs and trees, no more than six to ten feet tall, forming a pleasant grove around the pool.
I recognize a mix of warm-climate greenery, compact palms, trimmed ficus, and dense ornamental grasses, with a few flowering plants tucked between them, something like hibiscus or bougainvillea, adding muted hints of color even in the evening light. The vegetation is contained but lush.
There are also spherical garden lamps casting warm golden circles of light, spaced evenly along the paths and between the planters, creating pockets of illumination.
The light reflects off the pale stone tiles underfoot, laid out in wide, clean slabs that give the entire rooftop a polished, modern feel.
Along one side of the pool, a wooden deck stretches out, it boards a rich, dark tone, slightly weathered, giving it a more organic contrast against the stone.