Steps

Step 9: The Box

The server room was hot, EXTREMELY HOT. But maybe that was because she was sitting right behind an active server. Hot fan, hot air.

It was probably sometime around midnight now. Leah had been in the server room since about 5, and had never gotten around to opening the door after everyone left. She was currently tethered to the back server with her laptop, going through the files again. 3 months later, still here, still encrypted. Her phone buzzed on the table across the room. Setting the laptop by the server, she rolled her chair across the room with one push of the foot. She looked at the phone. New text from Cisco.

Hey i got held up again. i'll be there soon i promise. don't leave.

She replied. Don't worry. I'm working on something. Not leaving anytime soon.

Leah wondered what had him held up. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but it always made her wonder. What could he be doing so late at night? She rolled herself back over to her laptop and began looking over the encryption again. This code, how many hours and she poured into it? It sometimes seemed as though she'd never break it. She groaned. A few more hours of work wouldn't hurt though.

Skimming it over again, she noticed something. That variable... WAIT. If she changed it to null... would it? Wouldn't hurt to try. She highlighted the line and slowly typed over it. "NULL;"

Suddenly, the computer froze. Had she cracked it that easily? Wait.... The screen started to scramble, then went black. Oh no. No, no, no. This was a virus, wasn't it? Crap! Man, she was going to get grief for this if it was. The screen came back on, only this time it was completely blue. A logo popped up in the right-hand corner of the screen. It looked familiar. She'd seen it before.

An... atom?

A loading dialog appeared in the center of the screen. Project A.T.O.M.? What was... this? Crap! Why was THIS on her server? No, no, no, no, no! This was not good. She had been expecting fraudulent finance reports at most, not this! If this was anything like the project file of the earthquake machine that destroyed the Glades... oh no. The dialog informed Leah that the project had finished loading. Should she... open it? She hovered the cursor over 'ok.'

A loud noise came from the main office. Oh crap. OH CRAP. She quickly detached her laptop from the server and slipped it behind some boxes. If she got caught....

She gave the server room one last look over before she headed for the door. It looked like she'd never been in here snooping, right? Right... Slipping out the door, she quietly headed back towards her office. Maybe, if she played it cool, whoever it was would just think that she had been working on the copier. It was still broken after all....

Or maybe... maybe this was just Cisco playing a cruel prank on her. She checked her phone again. No new messages. Still, it was possible. She walked in her office and retrieved the package. It had just gotten here earlier today. This package was actually much smaller than the usual ones. And much lighter too. Leah wondered what it could be.

More noise came from the main office bay. She slowed walked out of her office and looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary... Suddenly, Leah was very aware of the gun being pointed at her.

"Hello there. I wasn't expecting anyone to be here this late. Tell me, what are you doing here?" Leah looked up. A man in a dark blue winter jacket stared her down. Well, she assumed he was staring. He was wearing goggles that covered his eyes, so she wasn't exactly sure where he was looking. "I asked you a question..." The gun inched closer to her. Leah started backing up.

"I-"

"Chill Lenny, what is this girl going to do to us?" A girl came from behind him. She was tall with dark brown hair. It looked like she had a gun of her own. Wait... those weren't normal guns...