Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 62: SEAL THE DEAL*

How did he come to the conclusion that this was a great time to go on a date?

After overcoming one of the worst crises of my life, I sat in my car at the nearest café and just closed my eyes for a few minutes. Who ever said it was a good idea to send a novice to do a professional spy's job? Or was this some kind of hazing by Andrei? I had just realized that I made the fatal mistake of forgetting to call for help before Daniel came inside the room. If he hadn't been listening from the beginning, things would have gotten much worse.

What I was most concerned about, however, was that I wasn't able to see anything on the program today, despite being able to read the program yesterday morning.

I put in the coordinates for Andrei's location and left the café. He must've found another event to add to our list for the new business.

On Saturday night, before we went up to the deck, I had asked the captain who was in charge of planning the submarine event. He allowed me to speak with the event coordinator on board, whom I asked to use their services in exchange for providing a pool of clients.

He refused my request. When I asked for his reason, he said that he only catered to luxury clients. While being chased out of the room, I only managed to give him Melissa's number after more pleading, and told him I would circle back once I got my business going.

Since then, Andrei and I had compiled a list of other hidden gems and began cold calling them, with no success. A few were simply uninterested, while others were reluctant to bank on an unknown venture.

Their concerns were valid. After all, I didn't even have a business name or even an email address. So much for the help of my billionaire corporate advisor, who didn't even remind me to come up with a name for the business and create an email address.

"I don't recall Andrei Jansen being any kind of billionaire," he retorted at my bickering yesterday evening, after we had received our sixth rejection.

Thus, I officially created my new business. I came up with a name, an email, and I had Andei make a simple landing page. This morning, I got a batch of business cards that I could hand out as well.

Ideally, I would have loved to check out each of these events in person, but there was no time for all of that traveling. I decided I would only go to events hosted by anyone that accepted my request and the ones Andrei conveniently decided to surprise me with on our excessive number of dates.

The coordinates Andrei gave me for today's date were not what I expected. The route took me out of sight of civilization, high up the Spring Valley hills. Several times, the service on my phone chipped out, although the navigation system in the car was still strong, as expected of a high-tech car with its own satellite GPS.

At the top of the hill, humans came back into view as I pulled into the small parking area. Across the parking lot, there was a gathering of people, and looking closer, it was mostly couples. Andrei saw me approaching first and waved. I saw him waving and I treaded the dewy grass as I walked over to him.

"Welcome," he said.

I cut my eyes at him to wipe the grin off his face, for I was still upset over today's mishaps, for which I had convinced myself he was partly responsible.

The set up on this hill was most familiar. It was another hot-air balloon event, only this time, you started from a high point on the hill and descended over the city to a pre-specified destination on the ground.

I needed a breather after that last stressful half of the week. I definitely looked forward to taking in a fresh view while floating up high in the balloon, since a static view on land had gotten boring. Good on him for finding this lovely event, but we had more important matters to discuss.

"Why didn't you tell me that you would be listening while I was on site today?" I asked while we waited our turn.

"I didn't think that was so important for you to know. I think you're only upset about that because you thought you were going to get caught."

I did almost get caught!

In any case, I also thought it would have been good for a complete novice to know they had back up from the start.

Our turn for the ride came all too soon. We got in a bright blue hot-air balloon, but unlike the first time, we were riding alone. These balloons were computer operated as they only required minimal attention to take a descent-only path. The destination was inputted by a worker and we were pushed off the hill for our second aerial date trip.

Except that, I wished I was in a better mood to enjoy this.

"Did you realize that I couldn't see anything on the programs today? You knew that's what would happen, didn't you? And of all the people to interfere, it had to be both Michelle and Daniel, in one day!" I screamed at the top of my lungs to make sure he could hear me over all the air resistance surrounding us.

Why?

Why wasn't he saying anything?

Why am I still so incompetent after all the training I did?

After all my efforts to change and to fit into his world; to become someone even remotely equal to him.

He listened to my venting but I didn't come here to vent; I really wanted answers.

"In the Audix program, you skipped over all the lines I couldn't see. Did you do that on purpose because I couldn't read it? Why couldn't I read it today, when I could read it on Monday morning?"

His attention was still fixated on the scenery beneath us. Even with all my screaming, he still wore a gentle expression.

"I see that you're quite frustrated. However, I didn't want to diminish your efforts. You've been working hard for a chance like this, haven't you?"

Not surprisingly, he already knew all about my training. So, he's saying that was the reason he made me do this alone.

"The reason Michelle knew exactly where you were, was because the Audix program integrated with their system when it was uploaded. That also meant, it integrated with a part of their Undercode program written by Michelle."

Say what now?

"She was watching you to see if you would inadvertently type in any of the sections that contained Undercode. If you did, then it would confirm that Andrei Jansen had connections to the Undercode families. Things would have become difficult after that."

So, that loud exasperation after I finished was because she was relieved that I 'couldn't see' the Undercode.

"It's a good thing I drilled you on line jump commands, right?"

"Ha-ha, I guess so," I replied in a dry tone.

"Line jump commands are the most basic ways to fool someone that you can't see the Undercode. Mine are especially effective, since I integrated a command to hide the cursor. You did great remaining focused until the end."

His cool tone and high praise doused the raging flames of my pent-up frustrations. For the first time, since we got in the balloon, I took in the view of the city and the small people treading the earth.

What would my life be like if I could do everything over - if I never came upon anything regarding the Undercode and its heirs, and just lived a perfectly normal life?

"Well, I can't have that," said the voice beside me in a deep, husky tone, that sounded like its owner was condemning that very thought.

I turned to look at the source of the voice, looming over me, enclosed between his hands that were now resting on the edge of the basket.

What was this all of a sudden?

"It's not all of a sudden," he replied, adamantly keeping up this unsettling habit.

"You asked me why you couldn't see anything on the screen today, didn't you?"

I did. So, he was going to answer the question, after all. We didn't need to be in such a compromising position, though, but it's not like I tried to push him away.

"As soon as the Audix program integrated with Merz's Undercode, most of the program I wrote was converted to be able to seamlessly match up with the program Michelle wrote."

What does that even mean?

"What I'm saying is, Michelle likely wrote her program at the highest level of Undercode so the program I wrote also converted to a higher level so that it could integrate properly."

"How does it just convert like that?"

"That's a more advanced lesson, but if written in a flexible translation language, a program can be completely written in a lower level of Undercode that can change its format to a higher level if prompted. But a higher level of Undercode can't be translated to a lower level. The completed program you saw was only written so that you could see it with your contacts."

Ah. I see now.

"Did you forget? Your contacts are only set to see up to level two of the Undercode."

Even though we were supposed to be on the same team, even I was being played in the palm of his hand.

"As soon as the program had uploaded, you would not have been able to read most of the program."

There's no way he didn't account for this possibility. Taking advantage of a situation to suit one's own objective - he's doing exactly what he told me he does.

So, what does he want from me?

The answer was obvious now. Actually, it was the only thing he ever wanted, but I was too busy taking advantage of his kindness to give it any regard.

In order to continue this undercover mission, I couldn't use these contacts anymore. Therefore, I would need to undergo the surgery to be able to see higher levels of the Undercode and agreeing to do the surgery is basically signing off on getting engaged.

His eyes pleaded with mine to make the ultimate choice.

His fingers stroked my cheeks to melt my defences.

Then, his lips touched mine to seal my future into oblivion.