Chapter 9 Evelyn
NINE
EVELYN
I walked into RSS Friday morning to complete chaos. Servers were down, phones weren’t working, and staff were racing around the building, trying to figure out what was happening. I rushed to the Hive, where Jax was already seated, typing frantically.
“What’s going on?” I asked, quickly logging into the system.
When Jax didn’t respond, I repeated myself. “Jax, what the fuck is going on? You can resume whatever beef you have with me after we fix whatever is happening.”
He ran a hand through his hair. My voice had obviously snapped him out of what he was working on.
“A virus was planted into the server. I can’t find where the bug originated, but it’s attacking the entire database.”
Fuck, that wasn’t good. I couldn’t help but wonder if the glitches I’d found were connected to this.
“We tried getting a hold of the boss and his secretary said he won’t be in until later this morning. The one day that he doesn’t come in early, Armageddon decides to happen,” Jax griped, then added, “The rest of the team should be here momentarily.”
As if he’d summoned them, they entered the Hive at that exact moment. After debriefing what we knew, I began delegating tasks, not caring if I was overstepping. We didn’t need personal information getting out on the dark web and into the wrong hands.
Lennie bypassed the security system, removing limitations on the company’s databases so we could work as fast as possible. I could have bypassed the security wall if I truly tried; however, I didn’t want to blow my cover.
An hour had passed when I was able to identify the corrupt files and start damage control. I placed my hands on my head and took a deep breath, alerting the rest of the team.
“Holy shit Evelyn, how did you know where to look?” Gwen asked.
“I noticed a few files were glitching the other day and thought it would be a good place to start.”
“It was a good idea,” Jax murmured.
My eyes widened at the compliment. I looked from a still-frantic Lennie, who missed the comment, to Ollie and Gwen, who were both stifling a laugh.
Thankfully, I’d been able to stop the virus from attacking any other files. Had we not found it when we did, who knows the damage that could have ensued.
Lennie sat in her sat and blew out a breath. “Great work, Evelyn, glad we had you here for this.”
Kade burst into the Hive, his face hard as stone. “My office now, Evelyn! You too, Lennie.”
I gulped and glanced at Lennie, who had lost all color from her face.
We silently followed Kade to his office. He pointed to the seats in front of his desk, ordering us to sit down. “Someone want to tell me what the actual fuck happened today?” he boomed.
I stayed silent, not wanting to undermine Lennie.
“Sir, there was a virus implanted…” Before she could finish, she was cut off.
“I know that much, Len! What I’m asking is how the hell was the virus able to get in the system in the first place!” He leaned on the heels of his palms on the desk.
“From what we gathered, the virus was implanted internally,” I commented.
He slowly turned his attention to me. “Internally.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, sir. We are still running some analytics to pinpoint a time frame of when it was implanted.” I continued to explain. “The files I mentioned the other day–”
“You were told not to worry about those accounts,” Kade interrupted.
“I understand, sir, but I couldn’t just not do anything to help today!” My voice raised. I understood he was upset, however, he should be kissing my ass. Without me catching and stopping the virus, he could have lost everything.
Lennie sat in silence, tears filling her eyes.
“So forgive me for wanting to keep our clients' and company’s information off the dark web,” I seethed.
“She’s right, sir,” Lennie whispered.
His glare returned to her.
“Had it not been for her figuring out where the problem was coming from… we could have lost everything.” Her voice grew stronger as she spoke.
“I gave her clearance to access the rest of our systems. If you want to be pissed at someone, then be pissed at me.” She met his stare before his eyes softened.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Kade sat in his chair before looking back at us. “What can I do to help?”
The question was directed to Lennie, although I responded.
“Damage control. I have a list of accounts that were affected by the virus. I think it would be a good idea to let the clients know of the attempted breach, but assure them that we have it handled.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. His jaw ticked. He was not pleased with me taking charge.
“Evelyn, send me the list. Lennie, keep me updated and let me know when the rest of the analytics are in. Under no circumstances are you to discuss this with the other departments.” We both nodded and stood.
Lennie was the first to leave. I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t wait to get away from the powerful man that now sat at his desk.
I pushed down the handle to leave. “Oh and Ms. Mowers… I will only say this once. Next time there won’t be a next time if you do not follow an order.” I scowled at him.
As I stormed out of Kade’s office, I bumped into a wall, not a wall, a man and yelped. Machine put his hands on my shoulders to stabilize me.
“Easy there.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled as I stepped past him.
I spent the rest of the day being pissed at Kade. I didn’t care how gorgeous he was, a simple “thank you” would have been awesome. I couldn't wait to go to Badger’s self-defense class tonight to work off some aggression.