Hacking Alderson

//Chapter 13 // Be Honest!

There's a hard knock on the door followed by a distinct voice from the other side. "Alderson!" Mr Sutherland, aka the guy I generically call The Guard, says. I sigh and roll out of bed, I throw on a robe and pick my lingerie off the floor before answering. "Where's Elliot?" Mr Sutherland asks looking past me. "He's taking a shower." I answer. He stares at the remainder of our romantic dinner on the table. "Are you hungry?" I dare ask. "A little." He answers. I sigh and step aside. I knock on the bathroom door and inform Elliot of Mr Sutherland's return. He was only gone for an hour what does he want? "So you and him are dating?" He asks chewing the rest of my steak. "We're engaged." I answer. "Congrats." He answers. "Thanks." I reply sitting on the couch. Elliot comes out of the bathroom in a towel. "What's up?" He asks. "Tyrell wants to see you." Mr Sutherland says. "Can we talk?" I ask Mr Sutherland. He agrees and goes outside with the plate. "You said he was dead." I say. "I thought he was." Elliot replies. "Mr Sutherland found him Ell, he can't be dead." I say too tired to show emotion. He looks away and thinks. "Maybe he lied." He mumbles. "He who?" I ask. "Nevermind. I'm going to get dressed." He answers. He takes the towel off and I bite my lip. "What?" He asks. "Nothing." I answer coyly. I get up, and jump into his arms. "Mr Sutherland is waiting." He says smiling. "He has a full plate of food so he's distracted." I reply. "I'll be asleep when you come back so......." I warn trailing off and walking my fingers up his chest. "You're so mischievous." He says. "You could've put me down at any second." I reply. "Maybe I don't want to." He says. I smile. 

"Please be careful." I say. "Don't worry Tyrell just wants to speak with him." Mr Sutherland assures. "Okay then." I agree. I kiss Elliot and he gets in the SUV. He waves and I reply the gesture. As they leave I sigh. I don't like him and Tyrell working together but I trust his judgment. I turn and go back to the apartment.

An hour later I find myself pacing the floor. My nerves a wreck, sweat popping off my forehead, my heart unsteady. "I need a distraction." I think to myself. I go to the bags and start to take the clothes out and put them on hangers. Just a couple hours ago I loved them, now they're just fabric. Nothing has meaning unless my Ell is okay. I get my phone.

"Yes mom I'm okay." I reply. "Good, i was just making sure. I know Elliot is taking excellent care of you." She says. "Oh i've been meaning to ask him to do me a favor with something. Could you let him know?" She asks. "Sure." I answer. "We're having some trouble with the system. It went down." She replies. "Mom! There's someone in your system and you're not even worried?! Why didn't you have someone call Elliot the moment the system went down?" I ask. "I was hoping he could fix it when he comes into work tomorrow." She says. I sigh, "Mom that's his job he does it 24/7 . You have to be assertive you're a CEO! You do know you could be losing thousands of dollars as we speak!?" I reply. I put her on speaker and go over to our main computer. I access her system directory. I know, I hacked my mother's company. But I've been in it for years. You clearly see why i'm worried about it. "I'm checking it for you. There's no telling when he's coming back and this could be serious." I say. I send him a quick text letting him know about the system outage. After searching for a bit I see the problem, Dark Army. They left their signature. Dammit! It was one thing when they were messing with ECorp and Phillip but now they're hacking Saya and attacking my mom. "I found the attackers. They're using a rootkit." I say. "Call in your entire team and get them on this asap." I add. "I....I don't know their numbers. I don't deal directly with them they're Elliot's team. They only send reports when something big happens." She replies. "Mom, we're going to have to talk about your company's structure later." I say. "Okay." She replies. She's always been horrible at anything tech related, otherwise she's a good CEO. I look through the system for anything else they might be hiding. "They've been on us for days but they're only now shutting the system down?" I think to myself. My phone beeps. "I'll call you back." I say. I press the button to answer the other call. "Lexi, Dark Army just shot up the diner me and Cisco were at. The FBI released his sketch and they must have saw it!" Darlene says. "Are you guys okay?" I ask. "Cisco is dead!" She answers.