Love and Rivalry

Chapter 17

Kaiba stood in the computer mainframe, watching as his best computer scientists tried to combat the virus that was trying to worm its way through their firewalls. Fortunately Kaiba had prepared for this exact scenario. When the threat first became apparent, he made sure his firewalls were strengthened and multiplied just in case. But it looked like they had run out of time.

But if all of the programmers were at their desks, then who had inflicted the virus? The criminal mastermind behind it all?

Not all programmers were at their desks.

Kaiba flicked the stray thought away. Aria may be brilliant but there was no way she had the capability to instigate a hack of this magnitude. But then how much did he really know about her? It had only been several weeks since he started seeing her as more than just an employee.

"Tell me how this all started, right from the beginning," Kaiba said to Roland standing beside him. He needed to put the issue surrounding Aria aside until he had more facts.

"At exactly 10 a.m., a rogue virus entered our systems," explained Roland. "When our anti-malware systems failed to eliminate it right away, I knew we weren't dealing with a common invader. Within minutes, a dozen of our preliminary firewalls had been breached. That's when I left to alert you to the situation."

Kaiba remained impassive as he mulled over Roland's words. "Have you been able to locate the source of where the virus originated?"

"No sir. The signal jumps around constantly, we cannot get a lock on it."

"We need to find out who is behind this and now. This hacker obviously knows what he's doing. I don't want to take the chance that he might actually get through."

"That will be difficult if we can't get a hold on the signal."

Kaiba thought for a moment. "The hacker has to be plugged into our system somewhere. He wouldn't be able to do this remotely."

"Then I'll begin an immediate search of the whole building sir," Roland said determinedly.

Kaiba gave a curt nod, not looking as Roland left the room. He couldn't keep his eyes off of the computer screens as his workers vigilantly fought off the virus. There was nothing more he could do here. He needed to find Aria and put to rest any thoughts of her involvement.

+++

Aria tried to clean herself up as best she could before venturing back out into the office area. She hoped it wasn't obvious that she had been crying, she didn't dare look weak in front of the other programmers or the insider. As she walked to the back of the floor, she wondered how many more times she would have to do this trek past the offices with a stoic mask on. Aria was tired of having to keep up appearances when all she felt was a heaviness pressing down on her chest.

She hadn't sat down in her chair for two minutes before Kaiba strode onto the floor. Aria's chest lightened a bit at the thought of seeing him, but it quickly deflated when she noticed that his shoulders were tense and his mouth was set into a hard line. She grew even more concerned when it was her office he walked into.

"Seto?" she asked tentatively. "Is something wrong?"

"Where were you earlier?"

Aria was taken aback by the terseness of his question. Gone was any warmth he had been showing her over the past few days, even at her calling him Seto. The Kaiba she had known from before her internship was the one standing before her now. Cold and hard.

"Excuse me?" Aria asked, perplexed. If something had happened concerning the threat, then why was he directing his anger at her?

"I came onto the floor shortly after 10 a.m. and you weren't at your desk," he replied in the same clipped tone.