Unexpected

Chapter Twenty-Six

A/N: Yeah, haha. Back again. So. As you might have gathered, I am a young author-and like all other human beings, we are ambitious. Let's just say I want Unexpected to reach 4K reads!

PLEASE COMMENT AND VOTE, ALSO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF CLOVER NOW?

CLOVER

"Everything set, everything in order, and everything's ready to go," she announced into her headset. Clover stood in the middle of her Mistress' central accommodation room, watching the huge IT lab with scrutinizing eyes. She tugged at the curls of her blonde hair, wrinkling her nose as one young man dressed in standard white thaumaturge uniform stood, nervously with one hand lingering on his keyboard. Clover spun her gaze to him.

The other thaumaturges working under her stare was wise not to look as she cocked her head at him, and the thaumaturge swallowed visibly.

"What's wrong, Cutley?" Clover snapped. Her job was to please the Mistress. And Mistress would not be pleased if this operation was not executed in the next fifteen minutes. "You have twenty seconds." Her fingers twitched, as Clover's gaze pierced the man, who was beginning to shake.

Whilst Clover knew her reputation in Mistress' quarters was that the blonde was a cold-hearted maniac with only lust of power in her mind, she acted like she couldn't give a damn. Truly, though, it bothered her. Clover hated to be compared with the Mistress, who was a real monster.

But Clover would be lying if she said she wasn't one, as well. Cutley, a second tier thaumaturge raised his chin and answered. A flash of fear sparked in his brown eyes, and for a nanosecond Clover felt guilty for terrifying the man this much. But it had to be done. Mistress relied on her harsh and brutal instincts, along with how much the rest of her crew was intimidated by the sheer determination and the harsh punishments Clover was capable of giving out.

"The time server is blocked," Cutley said clearly, loudly. "The redbox is popping up in most of the firewalls my section is trying to hack into, but the fiberwalls are creating rifts and breaking up our signals."

Clover raised an eyebrow. "Is there any way to get through the firewalls and the fiberwalls quickly and ensuring that we can't be tracked?"

"We can eventually find a loophole, but it would take at least an hour." Cutley responded.

"Mistress pays you to become elite hackers," Clover said, stepping forward. Her green eyes became sharp, colder, harder. Cutley's Adam apple bobbed, but he stood his ground. Good choice. Clover despised weakness in men. "Are you telling me that we cannot achieve this particular assignment unless we have more time?" She stilled herself. "Time we do not have?"

"Yes, Clerare." Clover's pride bristled when she heard that title. It was a name the thaumaturges had adopted after she'd gained the position of second-in-command after Mistress. The price Clover had paid to become Mistress' puppet was high, something she would have never thought of doing before she'd fully let the demons inside her take over.

Clerare was 'one with force' in Latin. Thaumaturges, since youth, learned Latin at a young age after they had mastered English words and their roots.

"Find a way to hack into that server in under ten minutes," Clover narrowed her eyes. "Or else. I'll be doing exactly what my name means."

Cutley nodded hurriedly. Then paused. "There is one person who can help us, though. She is extremely skillful. First tier in hacking. But she is working on another section." Cutley said quietly. He tugged nervously at the hem of his white uniform as Clover regarded him silently, the way a predator stares at his prey. Cutley scratched the back of his neck, and glanced to the back of the room, where four people dressed in pure black uniforms tapped away on their keyboards.