ire and Matthew stepped out of the car, their footsteps echoing across the parking lot as they made their way toward the towering Metacortex building. But just as ire reached for the door, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and frowned, eyes narrowing as she saw the alert.


    "What now?" she muttered.


    Matthew, sensing her tension, nced over. "What''s wrong?"


    ire held up her phone. "Someone''s hacking into Cryptonic."


    Matthew''s eyes widened, and he let out a low curse under his breath. "Seriously?"


    "Yeah," ire said, biting her lip. "I need to get to Cryptonic, fast. Can you drop me off?"


    Matthew paused for a second, then shook his head. "No way. Forget driving-let''s take the helicopter. You''ll get there a lot faster."


    ire shook her head. "We don''t have time to wait for the helicopter now. Let''s just go." She turned on her heel, heading back to the car, and Matthew followed right behind her.


    Matthew didn''t waste a second. As soon as they were back in the car, he floored it, weaving through traffic at a reckless pace. ire stared at her phone, frustration building. Without herptop, she couldn''t do much except watch the alert notifications sh across the


    screen.


    "How did this happen?" Matthew asked, gripping the steering wheel a little too tightly. "Cryptonic''s systems are supposed to be bulletproof."


    "I don''t know," ire said, shaking her head. "This is the first time anyone''s ever hacked into Cryptonic. It doesn''t make sense."


    Matthew took a sharp turn down a side street, hoping to bypass traffic, but they came to an abrupt stop as they hit a wall of cars. Both of them cursed in unison.


    "Of course," ire muttered, leaning back in her seat. "Should''ve listened to you about the helicopter."


    "It''s fine," Matthew reassured her, though his voice sounded tight with frustration. "You were in a panic earlier. Traffic shouldn''tst too long."


    Unfortunately, "not too long" turned into 20 minutes of inching through the city streets. By the time they reached the outer edges of town and the traffic finally began to clear, Matthew was practically pressing the gas pedal through the floor.


    ire kept ncing at her phone, helpless. "I hate this. I can''t do anything until I get there."


    Matthew shot her a quick look. "We''ll make it. Hang tight."


    The car sped through the nearly empty roads, and after what felt like an eternity, they arrived at Cryptonic''s building. ire didn''t wait for the car toe to aplete stop before she jumped out, with Matthew close behind.


    As they hurried inside, ire spotted her secretary, Billy, waiting for her by the elevator. His expression was grim, his tone serious. "ire, it''s bad."


    "What''s the situation?" ire demanded as the elevator doors opened, and they stepped inside.


    "The IT team has been trying to regain control, but it''s like someone''s hijacked everything," Billy exined, his voice low. "They can''t even use their monitors. It''s like they''ve beenpletely locked out."


    ire cursed under her breath. As soon as the elevator doors slid open to her floor, she marched straight to her office, tossing her bag onto the couch without even looking. Herptop was open in seconds, and she fired up her multiple monitors, her mind racing with a thousand possibilities.


    "I''ll deflect whatever this is," ire said, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "Whoever''s doing this can''t be too far ahead. We''ve got to stop them before they steal anything or-"


    But just as she was about to enter the code to shut down the attack, everything went quiet. The alerts stopped. The hacking attempts vanished like they''d never even happened. ire froze, her hands still hovering over the keyboard. "Wait... what?"


    Matthew, standing behind her, furrowed his brow. "What''s wrong?"


    "It''s gone," ire said, staring at her screens,pletely bewildered. "The hack... it just stopped. I didn''t even do anything yet."


    Matthew blinked in confusion. "Wait, isn''t that a good thing?"


    ire looked up at him, her face a mixture of disbelief and suspicion. "No, it''s not a good thing. Hacks don''t just stop like that. Whoever was doing this didn''t just give up." Billy, standing awkwardly by the door, chimed in. "So... what now? Is it over?"


    ire shook her head. “I don''t know. But something''s definitely off. We need to figure out what just happened." She nced at Matthew. "Can you check the system logs? See if we missed anything?"


    "I''m on it." Matthew heads out of ire''s office to his work.


    As Matthew scoured the logs, ire leaned back in her chair, her mind still spinning. The attack hade out of nowhere, and just as quickly as it had started, it was gone. And that wasn''t how things worked. Whoever had hacked Cryptonic wasn''t some amateur-they knew exactly what they were doing.


    ire stood up and turned to Billy. "Billy I need you to check if the IT team has gotten control of the monitor." he nodded and headed out of ire''s office.


    Making her way out of the office to Matthew''s she pushed the door open. "Found anything?"


    Matthew shook his head, his fingers still typing. "No trace of who it was. Whoever did this is seriously good."


    "Yeah, I figured as much," ire muttered, rubbing her temples. "Whoever they are, they''ve been nning this for a while."


    "So... what''s our next move?"


    ire stood up, pacing back and forth. "We wait. And we prepare. If theye back-and they will-we''ll be ready for them."


    Matthew nced up from hisptop, his expression serious. "We need to step up security on everything, not just Cryptonic. If they''re targeting one system, they could go after more."


    ire nodded, already mentally running through the steps they''d need to take. "Yeah, good idea. We''re not letting this happen again," she said, her voice determined.


    "Who do you think will do such a thing? Is it that Eligos guy? Or maybe that person who managed to break down your firewall two days ago."


    ire thought for a while. "Honestly, I don''t know. It''s confusing. This is the first time I can even think straight to handle this situation. A situation about hacking which is my specialty."


    "I''m sure we can find whoever this person is," Matthew assured her.


    For a brief second, she felt like everything was under control. Everything was fine.


    But, of course, it wasn''t.


    Just as she started feeling a little toofortable, her phone buzzed in her hand, vibrating against her palm with an urgency she didn''t like. She nced down at the screen and frowned. It was Sandra. "Everything alright?" he asked, noticing the look on her face.


    "I don''t know." She swiped to answer the call, bringing the phone to her ear. "Yes, Sandra, is there something wrong?"


    "Uh, Ms. Peterson... we''ve got a


    situation," Sandra''s voice was high-pitched and tense, which only


    made ire''s stomach tighten. That


    wasn''t a good sign. Sandra was normally calm, even in the face of a small office fire.


    "What kind of situation?" ire asked, though she already had a sinking feeling she wasn''t going to like the answer.


    "The system''s down. Metacortex''s entire system... it just crashed out of nowhere."