33. That's A Location

AUTHOR POV

The complete seventh floor of the Parker corporations is in havoc to find the reason behind the sudden downfall of the stocks. Few employees are trying to get in contact with the city police and few others trying to cool down the customers and shareholders. Adam slept in his blissful couch inside his office room while the situation is turned upside down outside the cabin doors.

Several cyber security employees are trying to break down the firewalls of their own office to access the data which is made restricted to everyone except Sabrina and Nate. They tried to track the IP address of the system from which the office security system is restricted. The hairs of some employees are pulled off by their own hands due to pressure and tension. Stocks kept going down while they were trying to break the chain of events.

Mike stayed awake for the full night not realising it's almost dawn. The sun peeked through the tall skyscrapers casting a shade of gold on the city. Mike yawned for the n'th time when the sun hit him with gentle rays of morning shine. He didn't even sleep a wink all night, kept watching the two humans sleeping. One in the river of whiskey and cigarette smoke, another one on a bridge of sleeping pills.

His senses were alerted when Adam turned on the couch trying to shake off the drowsiness. He watched Adam while he did his morning routines in his office cabin itself and the floor got filled with employees slowly. Adam stayed inside the cabin holding his head and called for his assistant to get him some coffee. The slaggy woman walked in wearing a five inch high heel with her dress not even reaching her thighs. She held a tray with a coffee cup, some water and hangover medicines. Adam was busy massaging his forehead due to a headache that he didn't notice her coming in. He lifted his head up when she knocked on the door trying to get his attention shifting the tray to the other hand.

He scanned her body from head to toe in the most lustful way possible while smirking. "what a shameless bitch you are Adam!" Mike thought when he sensed something upcoming heated events that are going to happen inside the office, while people behind the doors are trying every possible way to resolve the issue and restock the market. She walked up to him giving him a slutty smile and placed the tray on the table and inched in closer to him. Mike averted the binoculars towards Lyra's room and saw that she is already up and the room is empty.

"Agent Star?" He spoke into the mic of his bluetooth device to confirm she is awake. "Are you there?"

"Yeah I'm up. What's the situation there?" Lyra asked after spitting the mouthful of water into the basin. She dipped the soft dry towel on her wet face and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

As always, her skin looked pale and in contrast with her jet black hair, she looks even more cold. She sighed and waited for Mike's response.

"Uhhh....the situation seems to be a cyclone in all the office floors. Except for Adam's cabin"

"Why? Is he least concerned about it?" Lyra asked him while opening her window curtains completely, staring at Mike's location directly. He stared at her figure from behind the large glass doors while answering. The light peach shades of sunlight falling on the building are in the same shade of her bare face. Pure and clear but pale and dull. He looked at her and said " uhh .the thing is, he is not even concerned about it. He...uhh...he is about to have some love sessions with that slut. Looks like the medicine is not enough for him"

With that, Sabrina came into line and said "leave it to me. He will be on his feet for this entire day. I pitied his company and didn't want to drop it to null. Now he will regret not being concerned"

She opened her laptop and started to drive the stocks even more negatively shocking all the employees of Parker corporations. She smiled mischievously while tapping on the keyboard repeatedly and rapidly. With every click she gave on the keyboard, the company is losing hundreds of shares. Adam's bank balance started getting affected by it too. It started decreasing until it was out of control. Sabrina enjoyed the process, she clicked the keys imagining them as piano keys while singing a song. Mike laughed at her gestures and grinned while taking the binoculars to his eyes and shifted them towards Adam's office.

The plan seems to be working because the manager of the cybersecurity section came dashing inside the cabin. The woman who was about to kiss him a moment ago, is pushed to the wall behind her by Adam's powerful hands. She just stood there in shock and composed herself after realising what happened. The manager almost thought he was blinded by the scene in front of him. He quickly turned around facing the door and instantly apologised to Adam for his mistake. Like whose mistake is it?

"What is it?" He asked the manager strictly after glaring at the assistant for her dumb decision. The manager quickly answered him "Sir, the stocks are falling rapidly again sir. Someone is playing with us. They haven't done anything from last night but decided to play with our stocks now"

Adam reached for his specs and looked down fidgeting with it"Then what are you doing here? Go and find who it is"

"We tried sir. But the location is shifting every time. One time, it is showing that the target is in polco. Another time, it says the target is in Alcowon. It showed somewhere in another country sir. " The employee is almost on the verge of dying.

" Argile?"Adam guessed the country name randomly after he finished saying.

The manager shook his head and spoke "Roventis sir. And other times, the GPS showed that they are in the middle of Nicorane Ocean"

" So what do you say? That we give up?" Wearing his specs, Adam questioned the manager.

Taking a deep breath, he said" We need better equipment and professionals sir. We only have limited equipment and strength"

After thinking for a while, he thought he could get help from his cousin's side and assured the manager. " I'll get it by afternoon"

" We will keep trying until then sir" the manager left immediately after finishing his sentence. It was like he disappeared into the air. Adam looked at the lady before him and gestured her to get out. Mike saw this and intimated the team mates about the manager's arrival.

LYRA POV

We spent half of the day in our designated places with me inside the hotel room and Mike on the terrace. After I showered and dressed in a cream colour t-shirt and black trousers. Locking my hair into a French braid, I looked at my reflection in the mirror and nodded satisfied. locked the room and decided to be with Mike on the terrace. Getting inside the elevator, shoving my wallet in my sling, I press on the ground floor button and wait for it to descend. Dashing out of the elevator, I walked through the streets of the city and entered into a small restaurant where they serve breakfast too.

I brought some breakfast for both of us and stayed with him for the rest of the day watching the people in company go all mad. As the sun started to burn in the sky, we set up a small tent with the huge torn banner cover along with some iron rods. Securing the banner with a rope, we both settled inside under the shade to protect ourselves from dehydration. All the while, the company failed to track the location from where the database was hacked. In fact, they took half of the day to find that their stocks and database crashed and hacked. Sabrina told stories about her family and Mike talked about his life dream. We watched the fugitive and their trials every now and then.

In the afternoon, when the sun hit our heads directly, Mike decided to get lunch and drinks to cool ourselves off. I stayed inside the tent unable to bear the melting heat from up above my head. "should we go into the room? It has coolers inside" Mike said while he walked up to me holding a carry bag in his hands. He was gone for like thirty minutes and came back with burgers, water bottles and soda cans. I shake my head in no, gaining a sigh from him in annoyance. We were munching on our burgers when siren sounds came resonating through the city streets. I thought that they called some military forces to protect the company. Leaving everything in the carry bag, we both held our binoculars to see what was happening curiously. Only to be disappointed for Adam's IQ.

"They used sirens for cybersecurity team? Wooowww..I was excited they found us and called the city police. Dumb idiots. " I said in disgust. Like really...who sets the siren off for just a cyber security team? Fools. Just trying to grab the attention.

"Let's see how much time they will take to track you down" Mike said jokingly placing his binoculars on the ground and going back to his burger. I reached for the drink and gulped it down while watching them through the lens.

AT 2:34 PM

After a while, hours of being in the blazing sun, I said out of frustration, "I don't think they're going to get it by today" I stood up from my place and walked around the terrace stepping out of the shade.

To which Mike replied wiping the sweat off his forehead "Who told you to be this secret while hacking? You must have given them a hint. This would be finished by now" we were sweating like hell. It's like the sun is taking revenge on us. The salts from our bodies left through the sweat pores and drenched us in sweat. The air is still like it's some hot summer day, not even disturbing a small dry leaf.

My eyes fell on a small piece of plastic lid and I reached for it. Swinging it over my face, it somehow blew air, cooling my face a little bit "I am not a service provider to leave them a hint. They should find it themselves at least" I wiped the sweat on my arms with a towel and grabbed a waterbottle gulping it down my throat. Pouring the rest of the water on my face and neck, I sighed praying to God to cool the atmosphere a bit.

" The sun is too open today. All these days have been so cloudy and now? Blame it on our fates" Mike said drinking water from another bottle.

" Blame it on that pathetic idiot Adam. God!!! Please blow some air at us. We are drenched in sweat!! What is the use in showering in the early morning?" I settled under the tent again unable to bear the heat from the mid afternoon temperatures. We spent another three hours there until it's almost 20 minutes past 5.

Just then Mike noticed that Adam's cabin was filled with the security team from earlier, he quickly grabbed the binoculars and held it near his eyes.

I was looking at the man working on a nearby TV tower through my binoculars when Mike spoke.

"Lyra....I think you need to see this" he said not even looking at me.

" What?" I turned to him and saw that he was watching the scene. I ran beside him and looked at the scene happening inside the company.

We could not hear what they were saying but based on Adam's actions and his hand movements, we came to a clear idea. Adam is pointing to himself while talking and he grabbed his laptop and showed them. It is then that we got it. They found that it is done from Adam's laptop.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Mike asked me to confirm he is not daydreaming because of the heat.

I zoomed my lens to the highest level "Yeah...we are almost there...finally" releasing a sigh of relief that they found the fact at last, "they should've found earlier. That would have saved us from drying ourselves up. It's almost getting dark. What's the use of setting a tent here? Waste of energy and waste of litres of our sweat"

" Yeah....we almost turned into stones" he said slowly while watching them.

" You know what to do now right?" I lowered my lens and glanced at him.

" I will set everything up at the decided location"

" Yeah just be careful " bringing my binoculars to my eyes again, I tried to read their lips but failed.

" Keep it to yourself. You are the one who should be careful" his mouth is curving up in a sarcastic smile.

Just then, all the employees left the cabin and went to their respective systems while Adam stayed inside. He lit a cigarette and started taking big puffs while tapping something on his laptop. And he continued working on it and called someone in the middle of it. After a while, he looked like he realised his laptop had been hacked. His face is filled with terror and shock. He stood up from his seat and paced back and forth in his office. A man in a red security suit came inside the cabin and started talking. He gave his laptop to Adam to show him something on it.

"What is that?" I tried to zoom more but the limit was reached and it would not magnify beyond this point.

"That's ...a location. I think you need to go" Mike said slowly lowering his lens in slow-motion.