I Hate That I Loved You!

42- Hackathon (1)

After dinner, Rizi carried Leo to her room to rest.

She helped him shower and change into his night pajamas.

Leo laid down on the bed, Rizi ruffled his hair and spoke in a loving voice "Baby, Mama has to travel for some work tonight. I will back by tomorrow night. Aunt Sara and Uncle J will be here with you. You be a good boy. Okay?"

"Where are you going mama?" Leo asked curiously.

Rizi thought for a while and explained "It's a software security competition. It is related to mama's business."

Leo's eyes sparkle with excitement. "You mean hacking? Like Dark WebMasters. I heard Uncle Zack speaking about it."

Rizi was dumbfounded.

That tattletale Zack!

She gave fake laughter and explained "Well, it is not like 'Hacking' hacking and bad guys." She raised her two fingers of each hand and draw quotation marks in the air, while uttering the word 'Hacking'.

"It's like who's will save a system from a villain named virus. You see mama and Uncle Zack along with Aunt Abby will try to save that system." She tried to reason with him.

She didn't want her son to know that his mother is the most famous hacker of the dark web named "Dark Web Master 01". More than that she didn't want him to think anything negative about her and another reason was he was too young to know all these things. She knew Leo is mature and smart than kids at his age,but for her he was still her baby toddler.

Leo nodded obediently.

His mother thinks he too young to know about these things but he already knows all the technological stuff and he knows his mother is the famous "Dark Web Master 01". It's just that he likes to play dumb in front of his mama.

Leo sighed and nodded again like an obedient little boy "Ok mama. You go and win. I will be a good boy here."

Rizi placed a quick kiss on his forehead and lie down beside him.

Leo snuggled into her embrace and closed his eyes. Rizi caressed his back.

"Remember to keep your watch always with you. Whenever you feel something wrong with your health. Quickly press the SOS key. It will alert me, J, Sara, Aunt Maria and Doctor Mills. Okay?"

Rizi was worried about his health. She didn't want to leave him alone here but they had to drive for 4-5 hours to reach that event destination and location was quite desolate.

She cannot risk his health. They would have used Jason's chopper, but they wanted to keep it low profile. Extravagant entry will bring unwanted attention to her group. She had set SOS alert in Leo's smart watch. For any emergency, all of them will be alerted including the doctor who is working on Leo's treatment.

Zack occupied guestroom to catch couple of hours of sleep. They were supposed to leave at midnight.

Jason and Sara helped Aunt Maria to clean up the dining table. After clearing things up, both walked towards Jason's room.

At midnight, Rizi and his team prepared to leave for the event.

They got ready, took their bagpacks and boarded Zack's land rover. Zack added location coordinates into the GPS and drove off.

On the way, they discussed about their strategy on how they will deal with the malware affected system using their software.

At early morning 5 am, they reached their destination.

It was an abandoned school building at desolate area. There was no building or houses nearby. Property was quite huge like an old mansion with big iron gates. Organizers had cleaned the place for the Hackathon event and it looks decent from outside. There were lots of security guards with Ak-47 in their hands.

Security seems quite tight.

Indeed, they have to keep security tight as it was discrete event with no media coverage. Many big shots, government officials and sponsors will also come for this event.

Dark Web was not only place for nefarious illicit activites but also a hot bed for cyber security threats and risks. Hacking tools & software that can directly or indirectly be used to attack companies were usually traded on the Dark web. Information on latest virus and malware frequently floats around.

Government also relied heavily on the Dark Web. Although they use the dark web for their own benefit like finding intels, underhand dealings, tracking criminals, they're also keen to be a part of the marketplace where some of the juiciest hacking exploits technique will be bought and sold. They want to be first to have dibs on it. They wanted to keep themselves updated with advance technology and security for National interest.

"Looks like many big shots are coming!" Abby chirped from the back seat.

"Let's go and find a place to rest. Entry will start at 9 am and then we have to setup our system. That will also take some time." Rizi spoke while looking around the gate and observed the surrounding of the place.

"Yes, I have already booked a guesthouse in a nearby village. It will take 20 minutes to reach there." Zack informed while trying to control his yawn. He was tired after driving for so many hours.

Zack turned their car around and drove towards the guesthouse. It was small guesthouse with 4 rooms only. All three of them wore mask to cover their faces and entered guest house.

They entered their respective rooms. Zack threw himself and sprawl all over the bed.

Rizi and Abby took their bags and went to their respective rooms.

After resting for a while, Rizi went to the Abby's room with her bag.

Both the women, opened their bags, took out their make-up tools. They fiddled with it for a while. It took them quite a while to get ready.

Both of them wore black joggers paired with black hoodie and white sneakers.

Abby put on a blue wig and Rizi put on a pink hair wig hiding her jet black hair.

They applied minimal makeup. Both had fresh natural beautiful face even without makeup.

They wore grey contact lenses, black baseball cap and black mask that covered their noses and mouth.

After taking a last glance in the mirror,

They carried their backpacks and went out of the guesthouse.

Outside the guesthouse, Zack was waiting for them leaning on his land rover.

He wore the matching black outfit, a cap and white sneakers.

"Let's get rolling guys." Zack gave them each a tiny micro spy Bluetooth device and boarded the car.