"Calvert and Evelyn went on a date. It's all over the tabloids. Photos of them leaving the office together, going on a date, and Calvert driving her home. They even interviewed Carlos. Do you know what he said?" Joshua told his friend in a grave tone.
Suddenly, Sheffield had a bad feeling about this. "What did he say?" he asked.
"Carlos said that Evelyn and Calvert were dating right now. They're getting engaged."
Sheffield fell speechless. He had just woke up. How could his woman be about to get engaged to another man after a scant few hours? How could he have lost her that fast?
However, Sheffield tried to brush it off. "He's trying to make me give up. I won't fall into Carlos' trap."
"Well, duh. But Evelyn's about to get engaged to another guy. Why are you acting so calm?" Joshua felt anxious for his friend.
He regretted turning Carlos down when he suggested Joshua get engaged to her. At least he might be able to let them see each other, if covertly. But now they had a problem. Calvert loved Evelyn with all his heart. There was no way he was letting her out of his sight.
After a moment's consideration, Sheffield said, "It doesn't matter. Evelyn loves me. This is so much fake news. We'll figure out a way through it. But enough about me. What about you? How's it going between you and Terilynn?"
Joshua didn't even know how to answer that. His friend was losing the love of his life, and he was asking about him? Sheffield didn't seem the least bit concerned. But when it came to Terilynn, Joshua was happy. "Well, I kind of benefited from Calvert exposing the news that you were dating Evelyn. Terilynn thinks I'm a victim and feels bad for me. Ha-ha!"
Terilynn invited Joshua to dinner and explained in a roundabout way that her sister didn't mean to hurt his feelings. She tried her best to comfort the man. They were getting along pretty well, all things considered. They had a chemistry, an easy way about them. They were comfortable with each other.
Sheffield rolled his eyes and said, "A man and his son-in-law are natural enemies. Now we have the same enemy. With us against Carlos, he'll be the one on the ropes. Now get lost. I need my beauty sleep."
Joshua couldn't believe his ears. "How can you be so heartless? Evelyn is getting engaged to some other guy. How can you sleep at a time like this?"
"You don't get it."
"What?"
"I need more sleep. Carlos is not dumb, and with no sleep I won't be able to outwit or outfight him. Just leave me alone, okay?" Sheffield opened the door and kicked Joshua out of the apartment. Bang! The door was closed and the living room was quiet.
After a while, a bright light shone in Sheffield's eyes. He went back to his bedroom, took out his phone and sent a message to Evelyn. "Eve, do you love me?"
If Evelyn texted him back a "yes," he would heave a sigh of relief. He wouldn't even mind if Carlos announced her marriage to Calvert publicly.
But if Evelyn said no, then his heart would be torn into pieces. His heart hurt at the thought.
He waited for more than ten minutes, but no answer.
Sheffield leaned against the headboard and turned on the laptop. He contacted an old friend and asked, "Is that file repository you set up still there?"
Since Carlos had so much time to deal with him, he decided to make trouble for him so that he wouldn't have time to mess with him. But for that, he needed some special software. Software that his friend had stashed in that repository.
After everything was done, there was still no reply from Evelyn, which made him restless. He took a shower, changed his clothes and left the house.
In the CEO's office of ZL Group
Dixon knocked on the office door and strode in. "Mr. Huo, the IT director reported that a hacker penetrated our firewall last night. Every computer in the office has been infected by a strange virus."
Carlos, who was focused on the market of the aquamarines, frowned at the news. "What happened?"
"Our IT guy said that our security suite was old and it's time to upgrade."
"Then change it!" Carlos thought maybe it was time to fire the IT director. Replacing the security suite was such a small matter, yet the IT director had to run it by Carlos. Carlos was so busy every day that he had no time to handle it.
After a short pause, Dixon stammered, "But...the IT director has been in contact with the developer of the most advanced security suite in the country. For an enterprise system like ours, the price tag is pretty steep. And the developer of the security suite wants to talk to you in person."
'In person? Seriously? What's up with that?' Carlos was stunned. He hadn't encountered someone this arrogant for a long time. He snorted, "So how much is this likely to run me?"
"One point five billion dollars." Dixon himself was shocked by this price.
Normally, a security suite for a company this size would cost tens of millions of dollars at the most. There was no system that would cost a hundred million, let alone a billion.
"One point five billion dollars?" Carlos sneered. "Forget it. Find another company."
"But this security solution is pretty amazing, if you can believe the IT director, that is. All the ZL Group's companies in the world are able to use it, and they stand behind it. Free tech support and service for life. After it's installed; it only needs to be updated and we won't need any additional hardware. It might last decades." Dixon thought the IT director was a cunning man. He didn't report this matter to Carlos, but asked Dixon to do it instead.
"So who is this person and why should I meet with him?"
"Well, word has it he was a big-time hacker back in the day. He stays mysterious, and people don't know much about him."
"A hacker, eh?"
"Well, yeah, at first, and then a honker. Now he's more skilled than his peers."
After a short pause, Carlos asked, "What's his name?"
"I don't know. His handle is Star Anise."
'A hacker named after a medicinal herb? Intriguing, ' Carlos thought to himself. "Call him. Let's give him his face-to-face."
Dixon heaved a sigh of relief and left Carlos' office. He was off to tell the IT director that Carlos had agreed to meet the guy in person.
Dixon had only been gone for about ten minutes when a dialog box popped up on Carlos' screen.
A square dialog box was displayed on his screen, but Carlos had never seen this kind of dialogue box before. At the top it said "Star Anise." Text appeared in that box.
"I have an offer for you. One point five billion dollars for the exclusive cyber-defense system for ZL Group," the text read.
Carlos sneered and typed a few words on his computer. "Star Anise, I gather? How do I know I can trust you?"
"I heard ZL Group's computers are infected by some nasty virus. I know how to remove it. The clock is ticking. If you don't say yes within ten minutes, you'll lose much more than one point five billion," answered Star Anise.
In the Information Age, most important documents were stored electronically. Carlos was well aware of that and he knew Star Anise was not joking.
Suddenly, Carlos had a bad feeling. He asked, "Let me guess. The virus is your doing?"
"Hey, nothing gets past you, Mr. Huo. I can see why you're a CEO," Star Anise replied, and sent a smiling emoji which was so big that it covered Carlos' entire screen.
Carlos was enraged. "Think I'm a pushover?" Star Anise was so arrogant! He was not afraid to admit that he was the one who hacked the ZL Group's computers. And now he intended to blackmail Carlos into buying his internet security suite.
Star Anise sent another smiling emoji and answered, "You can only say yes. No one has beaten my virus. You see, I wrote it especially for you. It's got two payloads, making it doubly dangerous. First, my virus will overwrite the first megabyte of the hard drive with zeroes. The zeroes tell you what I think you are—a big, fat zero. You'll lose everything. You could use backups from the cloud, but I already took care of that. I just changed the password. The second payload will deploy shortly after the first. It attacks your BIOS, making you unable to start your computers at all. So when do you intend to pay me? I'd hurry. There are only eight minutes left, Mr. Huo."
Carlos' face soured at the hacker's words. He picked up his phone and called the IT department. "Get rid of this virus in five minutes. Otherwise, all of you will be fired!"