While Ailon and that person were planning their master plan, Ember was sleeping. During her vacation time, she swore to herself that she would give up everything except sleep. Whatever emergencies they had would have to wait until she got back to work.
This was what she thought when she woke to the constant ringing of her phone. She convinced herself that they wouldn't burn the place down. There were tons of capable people in the office. Though she had to admit, they weren't as capable as she was. But they just had to learn to get used to it. She had 2 weeks left, and she was not about to lose sleep over their problems.
Whatever it was had to wait until she got back to work.
She made sure, before going off, that an email was sent. Unless the company is about to be destroyed, she didn't want to hear from anyone.
Unfortunately for her, the company really was going into meltdown.
Her phone wouldn't stop ringing, so she had to get up and finally answer. Not in the most pleasant mood, she grabbed the phone, trying hard to prevent herself from throwing it across the room.
Seeing the caller, she answered, "Dex, this better be good."
"It's not good, it's bad, really bad. All our systems are going offline. Every platform has a problem. The issue started this morning, and we haven't been able to resolve it. I know you're on vacation, but I need you to come in."
Kicking off the sheets, Ember walked towards her laptop. Usually, she wouldn't use her personal laptop for company issues, but she decided she was on vacation and refused to set foot in the office.
She didn't hang up and told the person on the line to wait.
She hacked into the company server to solve the problem. Telling Dex to put the phone on speaker, she was able to coordinate everyone to solve the issue. While cleaning up the firewall, she noticed the signature hidden in the code.
Some hackers like to leave signatures in their code, just like painters would sign their artwork.
When she saw it, her heart raced. She knew this was her own signature. Her fingers trembled, and her body shook slightly.
Ember continued to fix the issue. Every time, after fixing a problem, she noticed that a string of code hid her signature. It was as if she put it there herself. The more she fixed the technical issues, the more she thought she was fighting herself.
But there was no way something like that could be true.
Even with the shock of what was happening, she remained calm. She did everything she needed to do. She didn't give herself away or let anyone know what she had decrypted.
She would be putting herself on the spot if she did. Because she couldn't yet prove this was not done by her, she had to do some digging first.
When everything was done, she came off the phone and slumped in her chair. Her mind went back and forth, trying to figure out what was happening.
After going home from Ailon's house, she hasn't been anywhere else. Just doing nothing in bed, reading a few books. She traced her steps since leaving. It had only been two days, and she didn't forget anything. Her memory has always been exemplary.
But she couldn't figure out why this happened.
Ember was almost pulling her hair out at this point. Since she didn't do it, then someone was trying to frame her, but why? It didn't make sense. The tech guys in the office wouldn't be able to find things that easily.
Was it specifically planted for her? That wouldn't make any sense either. As far as she knew, she didn't have any enemies who were that tech savvy.
She knew she had enemies, being good at what she did, she knew she had enemies. But after a few run-ins, the most they could do was sneer at her in public or secretly. She has never been a soft person.
"Ugh, my brain is about to explode. Conspiracy theories won't help." Ember got out of her chair and prepared to go to the coffee shop not far from her apartment.
In less than 10 minutes, she arrived at the coffee shop. She took a seat in her usual corner, trying to calm her nerves. However, not long after she sat down, someone sat down across from her.
Ember looked up to see who it was, and shock flitted across her face. It was Amy. The same Amy that she had told to stay away from both of them.
And if it worked right, she shouldn't be anywhere near Ember, but here she was, sitting in front of her as if nothing had happened. Ember had to rub her eyes to make sure she was seeing the right person.
Before she could say anything, Amy spoke, " exhausting day? I'm sure it has been. Such a big work emergency when you're on vacation. That's rough. But I know you dealt with it. How about I give you some more work to do tomorrow?"
Hearing her talk, Ember felt her heart tremble. She looked at Amy, who seemed so at ease.
As if she didn't just admit that she had something to do with the company's entire system nearly crashing. Ember didn't give herself any time to think before she asked, "Was it you? Did you really do it?"
She grabbed Amy's arm across the table, stopping her from leaving before she got an explanation. Amy didn't even flinch, nor did she react to the question. Simply looking from Ember's face to the hand gripping her arm.
A smile slowly crossed her features.
"Looks like someone's a little jumpy." Then, without saying anything else, she pried Ember's hand off her arm, got up and walked away.
Ember didn't even have the chance to chase after her as she weaved through the crowd that was forming in the coffee shop.
By the time she came to her senses and ran out, Amy had already left. And Ember was left with a whole lot of questions.