CIA : Its not what you think

Chapter Ten

April's POV

I think I put the tough old man in to a slight coma because the other end was dead silent. I can add that to my CV.

Without missing a beat, I continued in to the details without icing on the top.

"We are currently unable to enter the database except the backups and in order to gain access back, we have to provide a certain passkey which to be honest, sir, we have no idea about as ransomwares normally require a monetary payment. You might be also wondering about the security filters as well and I can assure you that they are in good working condition. Only,... the ransomware was built to specifically bypass our security features to ensure uninterrupted entry in to the database. We are already investigating if any data is being accessed from third parties but at the moment, we have none which I can say is a simple assurance that we can have for a little while."

Still silence. For a moment, I checked the caller display to check whether the call was off. As it wasn't, I resumed after a little pause, to magnify the seriousness of the situation.

"To explain the snooping part, we identified from the backups that the last intercepted item by the processors before we lost access to the databank ,to be an email. As ridiculous as it sounds, we decided to believe that the email was the source of ransomware and dug in to retrieve it. I assure you...it was the source. So the snooping was legal. I have already passed the news to the DNI"

"Hold it...right there" The Director's voice came, sounding a bit shaken. "The DNI knows?"

Typical of him to ask. Losing his power was the top concern. "Yes. He does. He will cover it up for us" I couldn't help adding with a sarcastic tone, to highlight the DNI's smart decision to hide this situation from the higher administration.

"Oh...right. That's good-"

"-it's another way of the DNI giving us time to solve this Chinese puzzle, sir, or else some hacker out there is going to pull a Snowden. Again."

I was terrified to the bone core. I'm not going to pretend I'm not. Yet it's not the time to react to it.

I was always taught to bring out the reaction later and action initially, with the CIA and my parents being my teachers.

Out of nowhere, two voices played in my head and within seconds I realized it was a recall where one voice was my own.

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                                          "But what if he ignores me? It's gonna be so embarassing because that's what you males love doing. They love to tease girls and the friendly ones mostly turn out to be rude, two-faced pricks"

             "I assure you that I've personally never rejected a talk with a girl who wanted to talk. But first, you need to go and give it a try. Otherwise you will never know whether he does ignore you or not. And, we males love a confident lady. Go on, off you go"

                                         "But say he does ignore me? I'm gonna get teased so much-"

                "Then that's where I deal with him, sweetheart. You should never judge a book by its cover"

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A sudden chill raked down my spine at the recall. I stared unblinkingly at negative space between the VTs. 

The other voice in my head....

How did it take me this long to realize it?

Adrenaline shot up through my veins at hope that came out of the blue. This is IT!