Save the Billionaire

Chapter 17

Today is the day that James, the former secretary and office extraordinaire, is set to train not one, but two lucky souls in the fine art of executive secretarial tasks. Good luck to both of you I thought.

James first introduced Dave Begonia to me. He is now the new executive secretary to the CEO. I guess they will have a long talk about his work regarding the ins and outs of the office. He has a stark contrast to James' personality. Dave is quite bubbly, energetic, and smiling a lot while James is the somber type. 

I gave James a hint that I don't want to be introduced as the wife. I still can't fathom the idea that I'm married. Carl and I are just becoming close. James said to them that I am a very close friend to the CEO and I can come in and out of the office.

The other new hire in his office is the assistant to the executive secretary. He sure needed a lot of people. She looks like a sweetheart with curves at the right places, noticeable even if she's covered in a black business suit in a knee length skirt.

As James introduced us together casually and her name is Rosy. I can't help but notice her demeanor from formal to snobbish and she walked away towards her desk. What the heck was that I asked myself. I guess she's not that friendly type.

I walked hurriedly to Carl's office and put a bottle of barley tea with macadamia nuts. He sometimes comes to the office too early. He is usually busy and he really needs some energy boosting.

Suddenly my phone lights up like a Christmas tree. Messages from my coworkers flood in faster than a stampede of caffeine-deprived office workers on a Monday morning.

"OMG, we've been hacked!" screams one message.

Now, I'm no expert in hacking, but even I know that getting hacked is bad news. I mean, who in their right mind would want to mess with our company's system? We're just a start up and it will affect our reputation from our clients. 

Was that their main purpose to ruin our newly built fame in this industry? We are not some big chip that they could get anything. But, it is a huge blow to us why the heck we were hacked. There must be some lacking in our security. I'm sure of it. We need to find why and how it happened so we could find a solution.

As I arrived at the office hurriedly, this early morning I thought panic spread like wildfire through the office. Oddly enough I find these people seem to be excited like a pack of hungry hyenas. This is not an attitude I was expecting, alarmed yes but there is fire in their eyes.

I'm surrounded by a group of young, eager engineers, all puffing out their chests like peacocks and high-fiving each other like they just won the lottery. I mean some sneaky hacker dared to test their precious system.

Most people would be panicking at the mere mention of a hacker, but not these guys. Oh no, they're positively gleeful at the prospect of someone trying to crack their code. It's like watching a bunch of kids on Christmas morning, tearing into their presents with wild abandon.

"Did you see that? They actually tried to hack us!" one engineer exclaims, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"Yeah, I bet the cybersecurity team is cracking their nerves!" another chimes in, clapping his hands in the air like he just saw a winning performance.

As for me, I'm just standing there, trying to wrap my head around the sheer absurdity of it all. I mean, who in their right mind celebrates a hacking attempt like it's a birthday party? But hey, who am I to rain on their parade? If these guys want to throw a celebration every time someone tries to mess with their system, then who am I to stop them?

Moments later our director asked all people present in the office to huddle up. He announced formally what happened hoping no one will share this incident outside. But, that is impossible I thought and he knows this. 

He called names in front and created a new team to investigate and track the trail of those hackers because they didn't stay longer in the system.

"This might not be the last" he said. Somehow I felt it's ominous. There are more to come.

Then after all this commotion. The general called me to follow him in a conference room with other engineers inside already. "Why the heck I was called?" I whispered with a coworker. We both are bewildered because we are basically new in this company.

We were informed that we are going to be a different kind of team and must focus on Salus AI. They've given us laptops and said this is the only device to create codes for Salus. 

What?! Salus AI?! The Salus AI?!