Chapter 7 - The Server Room Breach
Panic surged through my veins as I realized exactly what my mother was trying to do.
She was not just here to demand money or throw a tantrum in the lobby.
She was here to steal Julian's proprietary data to pay off the massive debts my father owed.
I sprinted toward the security desk on my floor and slammed my hand on the emergency lockdown button.
Red lights immediately began flashing in the corridors, automatically sealing the elevators and stairwells.
I grabbed the head security guard and told him my mother was currently using my stolen badge to access the executive server room.
We ran down the hallway, bursting through the heavy fire doors that led to the secure data center.
The server room was bathed in the blue light of a hundred humming computer towers.
My mother was standing near the primary console, frantically plugging a small silver flash drive into the mainframe.
"Step away from the console!" the security guard shouted, drawing his taser.
My mother froze, her eyes darting around the room like a trapped animal.
I walked toward her, completely disgusted by the lengths my family would go to avoid getting actual jobs.
She tried to yank the flash drive out, but the security system had automatically locked the USB port due to the lockdown.
The guard quickly placed her in heavy zip-tie handcuffs, securing her to a metal railing while we waited for the police.
I pulled the silver flash drive from the machine and handed it to Julian, who had just rushed into the room.
Julian plugged the drive into a secure diagnostic tablet to see what files she was trying to steal.
He looked at the screen, and his confident expression suddenly transformed into a mask of pure confusion.
He slowly turned the tablet around so I could see the lines of code on the screen.
My mother was not trying to download proprietary algorithms from Julian's company.
May you like
The flash drive was pre-loaded with a highly aggressive, military-grade computer virus designed to wipe the entire corporate network.
My mother did not know how to code, which meant someone infinitely more dangerous had sent her into this building.
