Round 2

Sam's penthouse.

When Sabrina was training, she was feeling weird. She felt that something's wrong with Sam. With slight hesitation, she said "Sir..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm..hungry.."

Sam had a weird expression on his face when he heard about the hunger at an odd time, 6:00 pm.

"Uh.. let me check what I have." Sam said.

"Hmm.." Sabrina said.

After a while Sam came back to living room. He told her that he has bread and cheese.

"Grilled cheese is my favourite!" Sabrina said.

"Sweet. Well, let me make it then...now that you say you are hungry..even I'm feeling hungry...might as well make a sandwich for myself." Sam said as he walked back to the kitchen.

"Why..do I feel that I have felt this whole scene before...deja vu? Hmm....." Sam thought while making the sandwiches.

But in seconds his expression went black when he found out why he felt this feeling of deja vu.

"Sam...no..... Jee...just forget those damn feelings! If she knows...what will she think..?" Thought Sam as he turned to see Sabrina who was engrossed in practising her skills for the second round

Putting the thoughts aside Sam was back to his cooking...and well...bread got burnt because of his thoughts.

After some minutes.

"Okay! Here's the meal!" Sam said.

"Hmm...looks better than Leo's...should taste better too.." Sabrina said as she sat down.

"Hope so too." Sam said.

"Are you cooking for first time or something?" Sabrina asked.

"Unlike you, nope. I have done cooking before." Sam said with a slight mocking smile.

Sabrina still was feeling that something is wrong with Sam. Not keeping her curiosity in anymore she asked the question. "Sir...are you okay? I mean it's fine if you don't wanna tell...but.."

Sam who was eating his sandwich choked on this question. Though Sam & Sabrina had been working in a team for almost a year now but not everyday Sabrina asks whether he is okay or not.

"Uh...well... you remember Maya?" Sam asked after drinking water.

"Your girlfriend?" Sabrina asked.

"Not anymore. EX-girlfriend.." Sam said with slight sadness.

"Oh..."

"Jee..he does not look good when he's sad...though a little cute...but cuter when happy..." Sabrina thought to herself.

"I'm not sad about it..though you need to be careful in this competition..." Sam said as he remembered that unintentionally he has given a lot of information about training and stuff to Maya which will become a big negative point now.

"Hmm....Okay. And by the way the sandwich's really good!" Sabrina said.

"Glad you like it. But after this, you'll practise a bit more and then leave." Sam said with serious expression.

"Okay!"

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After Sabrina went, Sam went doing a little background check about his EX-girlfriend.

"To be very honest..until last night I didn't even know she had a brother...but as far as I know...the guy is in the agency and in the competition. He was definetely not in group 1 that means, he must be in group 2. Okay...let me just look at the list." Sam thought.

"Charles...the only guy I don't know...he must be her brother. Hmm...need to keep an eye on this guy." Sam thought as he looked at the list.

After this, Sam closed his laptop and went to sleep.

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The next day.

"Today, we're gonna learn about our opponents. I will go from the people that I have max information about to min information." Sam said with a serious professor tone.

"Okay." Sabrina said as she nodded her head.

"Do you know your elder brother is actually one of the top 10 hackers in the world and no.1 in all the agency branches?" Sam asked.

"No..." Sabrina said with slight amazement on her face.

"Well, now you know. Our toughest opponent might be him. He has the highest probability of winning this round with most points. But then again, we don't know what the round's actual theme will be tomorrow and not just us but anyone." Sam said.

"Hmm..."

"Next is. Sarah, as I've worked with her I know some skills about her. She too is good in hacking but not that good."

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"Last but not the least, Charles. I don't know anything about this dude but he can be some kind of mastermind that we don't know about." Sam said.

After this, Sabrina went to home. Why Sam didn't tell about the danger from Charles was because he didn't wanted her to panic and then lose concentration in the competition.

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The next day.

The hall's setting was changed from a fighting ring to a high tech room. 12 cubicle like structures with sound proof glass with computer inside and any other thing needed in that cubicle was the set up for today.

"Welcome everybody! Today the round 2 will begin! I ask the contestants to get to the stage and go inside their cubicles and look at their computers. You guys will be given 10 mins to familiarise yourself with your computer. After 10 minutes, the theme will be declared." Jordan said.

After this announcement, Alexander, Ethan, Levi, Sabrina, Elijah, Leonard, Charles, Sarah, Jeffrey & Evelyn got inside the cubicle.

After 10 minutes, Jordan came back on the stage with the same golden colour envelope.

"Okay guys! Be ready, today's theme is....." Jordan waved his hand to the drummers to give a drum roll.

"So, for today's theme you all are asked to design a suitable security system for the agency. Time is of 4 hours. But, this isn't the challenge. After you have done designing, the system that you have designed will be applied on the 12 computers connected to the judges, your task is to hack the system of your opponents. And no worries, your own design will not come to you. How can you win this? One is, if you hack max no.of security system designed by others and two, if your system doesn't get hacked in 30 minutes. The highest point to win the round is obvious, 11 and the least is 4. Good luck!" Jordan said.

As soon as the theme was declared, the time set to 4:00:00 started its counting. As soon as counting started, everyone's finger started typing some codes on their fastest speed possible.

After 4 hours, a long bell rang indicating that the time's up. Everyone submitted the security design. Half hour break was given to give the brain a rest. But after half an hour the same race of typing and cracking codes started. There wasn't a way for contestants or the audience to know whose system is getting hacked or whose system is strong enough to NOT get hacked in 30 mins. But, after 3 hours the results were out and they were shocking to every single person sitting in the room or every single person who was watching the live stream broadcasted through the site.

"Wow...as per the judges this kind of result has never been seen. Looks like there won't be the need to hold Round 4 for this competition. We've got our top 3 contestants in this round!" Jordan said with shock but excitement in his voice and expression.

Everyone was shocked to hear this, how can 9 contestants be out so quick?

The scores for this round were as follow

Leonard: 10

Charles: 9

Sabrina: 8

"These people literally hacked all other opponents' system but couldn't either hack each other's system or if they did it took them an hour! But I congratulate you three to making it to the third round. Tomorrow, Round 3 which will decide who our head will be, will be held tomorrow!" Jordan said.

"Someone's leaving the room with a wide grin..." Sam thought as he looked at Charles before he left the hall with Sabrina and with his other team mates.