32. The Bright Red Line

AUTHOR POV

Inside the main office of Parker corporations, the walls are vibrated due to the huffing sounds of people. The brightly lit room is empty while the restroom inside the office is dimly lit. The water is running continuously from the shower muffling the other sounds coming from it. A female voice whispering very slowly is interrupted by the sharp ringing of a mobile on the office desk.

After a while, a man with a bathrobe steps outside the bathroom while tying the robes around his waist. His body dripping with a mix of water and sweat. A muscular arm reached for the mobile placed on the table while his other hand held a snifter glass with a little whiskey inside. His chocolate black eyes gazed at the caller id which read as 'fucker' and irritation fled into his eyes as he lifted the call before placing it near his ear.

"What the fuck are you doing Adam? I swear if the stocks go down any further, I am going to kill you. Where the fuck are you ?" Rink, Adam's cousin who seems more responsible over all the other cousins, shouted into the mobile. Adam can see the popping veins on Rink's forehead as he yelled his lungs out.

"So sad you don't have that option now Rinky. The stocks will go high in a minute. Call me in a while just to reveal the big news for me will you" he spoke with arrogance spilling out from his voice.

" How can you be so sure?...don't tell me you're fucking Alister's daughter again? What would everyone think if they heard that their boss is taming his personal assistant?" Rink asked calmly but his tone filled with frustration. Adam looked at a small figure coming out of the restroom.

A woman wearing a bathrobe came outside the bath. Her body dry compared to Adam,but the wet locks of her hair is dripping with water as she leaned onto the dressing table applying her dark red shade of lipstick. She glanced at Adam with lustful eyes and neared him. Resting her total body weight on his bare chest, she hugged his torso and lifted her head up to look at him.

"You won't believe me if I say no. So ..yeah. I made deal with her father to deal with the stocks" he played with her hair curling it with his index finger while he spoke in the call.

" Do you even know what you're doing Adam? I just can't believe you so reckless and irresponsible. My shares will be sold by tomorrow Adam. I can't deal with this shit again and again. Atleast stand by your words and save the stocks you fucker " Adam just smiled at the lady infront of him and took a long strand of her hair in between his fingers. He reached for the hand and breathed in the fragrance of her shampoo closing his eyes in satisfaction. He smiled mischievously and hung the call.

"I will meet you tomorrow Mr.Boss" she said after changing into her slutty dress and left the cabin. The office is all empty and quiet as it's past working hours. She left after bidding him a goodbye. Adam sipped his whiskey and laid on the couch inside his office and drifted to sleep unaware of the tornado which is about to slap his arrogance out.

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In the hotel beside the Parker company building, Lyra sat on the chair with her laptop infront of her. She spoke to her team mates and fed them with information along with the plan proceedings. Mike got onto terrace of the building opposite to the parkers company and held a binoculars in his hand watching Adam's every move. Mike set up a small aluminium container that is left in shambles on the terrace to sit near the half built brick wall on the edge of the terrace. He decided to start monitoring him after the lady left. Nate and Sabrina sat inside the surveillance room in the secret base with their laptops ready under their hands.

James is busy in sending the mails to the government officials who were responsible in this Hades agency regarding the abduction of Adam Parker, the drug dealer, weapon smuggler and human traffickler. He is debating with a higher authority official on a call while sending the respective mails to other officers. After getting clearance form all of them, he sighed in relief but a small turmoil grew inside his brain whether this plan succeeds or not.

Lyra connected to the Parkers office network and started to hack his laptop. Mike kept all of his attention on Adam to sense even a small disturbance in the plan. After a while, Mike noticed that Adam woke up from his sleep and is going to open his laptop and warned Lyra to hurry up.

"Agent Star? Hurry up. The target is reaching for his laptop" Mike said into his bluetooth watching Adam through the binoculars.

He called her again when he didn't get any response from her. "Star?"

"I'm doing it stay quiet" Lyra snapped at him and continued typing on her laptop rapidly.

Adam stopped in midway to light a cigarette and continued stepping towards the table where his laptop is placed. All of their faces are filled with tension as they all knew, once he opens the laptop, he can see the harmful configuration being downloaded in the system's home page. Lyra tapped on the keys hurriedly.

Mike saw him take the laptop into his hands and walk towards the couch. "Star? He took the laptop in his hands"

Lyra sped up her process after hearing Mike "It's almost over"

Adam walked to the couch with laptop in his hand and cigar in his other hand. He placed it in the ashtray and laptop on table before him.

"Star!! Quick!!!" Mike warned her again to rush the process.

"I'm trying to focus here Mike!! Stop taking" Lyra yelled into the mic and focused on the hacking.

The zoomed view of Adam's office made him visible while taking the cigar into his hand again "He is about to open it. Hurry up" Mike's hand started to sweat in tension.

Lyra couldn't handle the ranting "Its not in my hands!!! The configuration is taking too long to download...now shut up " she frowned and continued typing the keys. Almost hitting them.

"Star!!!" Mike alerted her when he saw Adam open his laptop and type the password. As soon as the system took password in and unlocked the laptop, Lyra tapped on one last time to clear the data and spoke into the earpiece in relief.

"I'm done" all of the members who were listening to her breathed a sigh of relief when Lyra said that.

Now, it's Sabrina and Nate's turn to start crashing the data and logistics. Lyra packed her bag and stayed inside the room. Their plan is to let Adam find that the hacking is done from that room and he should start chasing her. She decided to relax a bit and ordered room service. She talked ,about what Adam is doing , with Mike while Sabrina and Nate did their work.

Sabrina crashed the database and gained access to it before Nate started selling Adam's stocks. The constant and dull loss slowly gained speed and Adam lost almost half of the company stocks within an hour. Adam, who was unaware of all this came to know about the rapid deployment only when his cousins called him to warn about the stocks.

His drowsy eyes sparked up when Rink screamed his voice out in the phone telling him to hurry up. Adam couldn't understand what's happening. He called Alister, a trustee of Parker corporations, who takes care of all the lost stocks and losses.

"What the fuck is happening Alister!!???" He shouted into the phone when the other person lifted the call.

"I am trying to get the data Adam. I was working on it when the sudden collapse started" a faint voice can be heard from other of the call

Adam poured his pent up frustration from all the yelling and shouting he got from his cousins on Alister "The fuck are you doing then? Watching it go all down?"

"Mind your tongue Adam ! I am working on it" he warned as he is the only person who could handle this situation.

"You better correct it soon" Adam spoke with arrogant tone while lighting another cigarette.

"Why would I correct it? I am not the one who did this" Alister corrected him and hung up the call.

"Well, you are responsible for this " Adam couldn't accept that he just hung up on his face. His head throbbing in pain due to all the sudden outburst of loud voices. He walked inside the cabin to and fro, holding his head and sat down after a while before his laptop. Opening his laptop, he opened his company's database and noticed that it's not working correctly. The system malfunctioning led to an increased pain his head as his mobile rang continuously again and again.

The stocks went from highest to lowest in just three hours. Sabrina and Nate shouted in happiness when they successfully completed the task and sent Adam's company from top to bottom corner in stock value list. Mike cheered for them from the same position he has been for the past four hours.

"Oh my god that's a good work" Nate said into the mic giving Sabrina a hug.

"Yeah congratulations to our team. We did this!!" Sabrina yelled pulling out from Nate's embrace.

Mike said to them after listening to their conversation. "Not yet. There's still half of the plan left to do"

"When will it start?" Sabrina asked Mike while she walked towards the kitchen of the cafe to make herself some coffee.

Mike looked into his binoculars again and said "After he realises who did this" and he smirked thinking about that situation.

James came inside the surveillance room and gave Nate a hug greeting him. All the while, Lyra stayed silent.

"Star? What happened?" Mike asked her to answer. But when he recived no answer, he directed his binoculars towards the room in which Lyra is staying and saw that she is lying on the bed covering herself with sheets.

He saw her bluetooth placed on the bedside table and guessed she must have fallen asleep. He shifted to Adam's room again and monitored him silently.

"What happened Mike?"

"She is sleeping James"

"Oh I didn't realise it's almost past 2 Am. Guys let's get some rest. Good night Mike" James said into the bluetooth and switched it off before entering the small cozy living room with small beds.

"Like you all let me sleep tonight" Mike mumbled to himself. He must be awake monitoring Adam's every move. He can clearly see every inch of his cabin from the terrace. He rested his elbows on the wall and stayed in that position without fliching for the chilly winds.

The atmosphere on the outside is so cool and pleasant while the inside of Adam's office cabin are resonating with the ringing of every landline telephone which is present inside the building. People are calling every section of the company to confirm the chaos of stocks. Adam closed his ears tightly and kept looking his laptop screen. Tapping his feet to the ground continuously, he tried to control his anger.

A nerve in his eye pricked while he looked at the straight red line on the stock graph on the screen. He looked at the bright red shade of the graph as his anger went up to a high level. He grabbed his mobile which is constantly ringing and smashed it to ground. Screaming his lungs out in frustration, Adam stood up and dragged the drawer sliding his right hand inside to find another mobile while his left hand held a half burnt cigar.

He dailed his security and cyber section manager and ordered to find the reason for this chaos. He couldn't sleep all night. No matter how many times they tried, the IP address of the target system kept jumping through out the entire world. Mike stayed on the rooftop watching him go all crazy and mad to find the reason and casually taking glances at sleeping Lyra in the exact beside location. She took her sleeping pills and drifted to sleep after having some food delivered by room service.

Lyra slept soundly in the luxurious bedroom and other team mates slept on the bunk beds inside the secret base while Mike stayed awake monitoring Adam from afar.

Meanwhile, Adam's cyber security team is all disrupted. Every employee is ordered to be in the office immediately. The seventh floor on the Parker corporations is all brightly lit and employees are running here and there. Adam came down to see the situation but he returned to his office after seeing the cyclone of confusion and typing sounds made his head hurt like death. He just slumped on the couch after drinking a full bottle of whiskey and drifted to a deep sleep.