How to Fall in Love ✔

How to Fall in Love (50)

                        I didn't sleep a wink. Since my root key—the password needed to enter the network wherein my code was—was extremely loyal to me, only I could use it. It couldn't be touched and wouldn't be until the end of time and no power on earth could destroy it—again, save for me.

                        In other words, only I could take down Genesis by infiltrating their program and creating my own line of defence.

                        Which meant Sloane was right—I was the threat they were facing right now.

                        E. The Perp Report

                        This was the last option, and to normal people, this would be the smartest one: I could call the cops, file a perpetrator report, and direct them to the Genesis team for industrial espionage.

                        However, this option, too, was null and invalid, and it was because of this—in my research, I found a box entry Sloane entered. Basically, it stated that Genesis began with the error in the website which I found and exacerbated using my own bug, meaning I technically contributed to Genesis. If this was the case, they had logs and people to vouch for my contribution to the mission, which made me an accomplice. If it was industrial espionage, there would be a clause for accessories—and that meant whether or not I liked it, if Genesis went down, so would I.

                        There was nothing in it for me.

                        Out of all these five options, there were two options I decided to go with. The process would be taxing physically, mentally, and emotionally—but they were the best ones.

                                                ۩ ۩ ۩

            There were only twenty hours, thirty-three minutes, and forty-five seconds left before Genesis.

            The time written on it said it would break out at 14:00 tomorrow, Friday, starting with the shut-down of all the computers of Laurel-Tech. But with Daniel's knowledge of my knowledge of their existence, I highly doubted they'd go with the planned time, and that they might even move the planned date a day earlier—so I reviewed their mission, planned out the plausible alternate choices they could make, and made a defence plan.

            At 5:27 in the afternoon of Thursday, I had made ready the program that would attack Genesis and defend Laurel-Tech. This was Option D: The Code Kill—weaving what would rival Genesis. I had no guarantee it would work, but I did know that it had the best chances of defeating Genesis. This part was relatively easy in spite of the ungodly hours I'd spent in creating it—relatively easy, because the other option that I chose was harder. Out of all options, this was the most difficult.

            Option C: The Truth Confession.

            Instead of subjecting myself to be face-to-face with Finn, I decided to situate myself in a posh-gothic restaurant about half an hour away from my mother's memorial service in Queens. I had borrowed Isabel's portable Wi-Fi before going to the diner, setting up a network accessible only by me, making sure my IP address wasn't traceable.

            But with the minds that Genesis had, tracing my IP address would only take a few minutes. The program itself was invisible, acting like an unperceivable force that safeguards Laurel-Tech, but the process of installing that program wasn't.