Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 61: CAUGHT REDHANDED*

"I get the feeling you're freaking out right now."

That deep, lustrous voice came from inside my ear. However, I couldn't respond. Two people were in the room, one of whom was standing right beside me as I began panicking. I could not see anything on the screen and I didn’t know whether it was the same for Daniel.

"Hey. I heard Daniel's voice, so I remotely turned off the computer. Just hurry and get out of there."

Don't frighten me like that. So, the screen was dark because it was turned off. Thank goodness for that save, but he could have told me he was going to be listening in.

I tapped my fingers on the table like I was pretending to play a piano. We got the software out of Daniel's sight by a hair, but I still needed to retrieve the USB device I had inserted earlier.

"I could start somewhere else if you want to use this room."

I was desperate to leave or make him leave. Even if Daniel turned around, the department chief was still standing at the door facing in my direction. Both of them had to leave so that I could remove the USB device without looking suspicious.

But, they didn't leave.

We were all still there after ten minutes. Somehow, they had started a grand conversation about ice hockey, which was Daniel's favorite sport. Since he had talked about it at length when we were together, I was able to contribute my share of the conversation. I kept my comments general and was careful not to mention anything that he could connect back to our prior conversations.

This was dragging out and I still couldn't find my opportunity to take out the drive unnoticed over all the yelling and laughter of the two males, who were still unfavorably in my presence. Not to mention, I caught occasional stray glimpses of Daniel's eyes on me. Don't tell me he already became interested in me even after I used the eye drops and made sure to avoid eye contact with him?

Finally, I heard someone outside calling for the chief and Daniel, and thankfully, they both left the room. I immediately reached for the USB drive, and pulled it out. As soon as I did, Daniel's head popped back in the room and he stared at me with my hand frozen in the air, looking 100% suspicious.

I stared right back at him, looking 100% suspicious. Our eyes locked in place for a full five seconds and I committed my second foul of the day.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Did he hear the sound of the USB drive being yanked out? I wasn't sure, but I also wasn't going to give myself away so readily.

"The computer seemed to have shut off, so I was looking for the power button on the CPU. I wanted to leave it on for you to use."

"Oh, how nice of you, but I can turn it on when I come back."

"Okay, no problem."

I lowered my hand which held on to the drive. The USB drive was small, so I was able to hold it without looking awkward. Although I had my right hand in a fist, I turned the back of my hand to face Daniel so that it looked natural enough that I was in the middle of raising my hand to check for the CPU power button, but I was also able to hide the drive enclosed in my hand.

"I just forgot to introduce myself. I'm Daniel, the co-owner of this company. Michelle didn't mention she had a new intern. When did you start?"

"Yesterday," I replied.

"Oh, I wasn't in yesterday so that's why we didn't meet. Well, it's nice to meet you. What was your name again?"

"Melissa."

"See you around, Melissa," he said with a semi-flirtatious smile I instantly recognized.

He popped out as quickly as he popped back in and I wasted no time in finally getting out of that room.

During transit to the next room, Andrei told me that the program had finished downloading in the background, so the first part of the plan was somewhat of a success.

I had barely been here for an hour and I already felt stretched to capacity. This was what a real undercover mission was like. Perhaps it really was too much on my own. I had fooled myself into thinking I was ready for this because of my first success at Bolster.

The next room I went to was a mini server room; hopefully there would be no intrusions because this was an even smaller room than the first. I needed to confirm that the core program had been installed and run the first part of the Audix program here. This was also an opportunity to plant the evidence we would need to begin our takedown of this company.

Before any interference arrived, I quickly uploaded the black evidence from the second USB chip drive. When that was finished, I put it away and then I inserted the first USB drive with the Audix program.

My renewed wish to complete this job peacefully was respectfully denied as the door to the server room opened again and I watched as Michelle entered smiling.

"How is everything going?" she asked.

"Great so far. I've been keeping my head down while I tried to get the software going."

"Oh good. That's good," she replied with somewhat of an awkward pause. "I saw you've met Daniel too, by the way."

"Yes, I did. You own the business together, right?"

"Yes, but is that all he said?" Her possessive shriek could not be any louder.

"Um, it was a brief introduction," I said, trying not to fan the flames.

"Oh, well, he's my fiancé too," she said in a 'friendly' tone as she rested her hand on the back of my chair.

She also took the opportunity to glance at the computer screen in front of me.

"Are you single?"

Does she think every woman that he meets is after him or something?

"I have a boyfriend," I replied while ignoring the chuckling in my ear.

"Oh wow. Are you expecting a ring anytime soon?"

What's with the excessive questioning about my relationships?

"Definitely," replied the voice in my ear.

"Actually, we're kind of in a rocky situation right now. I don't know if things will work out." If she was that concerned about potential foxes around her man, then I'll give her something to keep her sweating at nights.

"Oh no," she said unsympathetically, while her eyebrows twitched in contempt.

"It's too bad Daniel isn't available anymore. He looks like a fine man." I could barely contain my smile as I looked up at her rattled expressions, while I deliberately showed her that I was greedy for the next catch, whether he was taken or not.

"Yes, he really is. I'm lucky to have him," her sadistic undertone couldn't be any more obvious. I didn't want to know what kind of malicious thoughts swirled throughout her head at that moment as her face twisted in all sorts of vile expressions while looking at the red-headed fox that caught the attention of her man.

"Anyway, congrats on your engagement. You two make a perfect match," I said light-heartedly.

"Thank you," she replied, trying to keep it together for one more minute.

Her attention then turned to the screen that had a complex software running. It had been running smoothly the entire time we were talking. I wanted nothing more than to finish this and get out of this stifling room. It should only take a couple more minutes.

The next second, the software stopped loading and an error message came up.

What was happening now? Why does this happen only when people are around?

Immediately, I started freaking out again. I didn't want to, but I couldn't control this state of panic. I just tried my best not to show it in front of Michelle, so that she would not become suspicious of my incompetence. Any degree of suspicion would make it harder for me to move around later, so I had to look like I knew what I was doing.

"It looks like you need to calibrate the software with our internal systems," the two heirs said simultaneously. Wow, they were actually in sync.

"Yes, it looks that way," I said, confused about how to even go about that.

"Function F6 and F8 together," the voice in my ear came to the rescue. I followed Andrei's instructions while trying not to look maimed as I typed on the keyboard.

When we got to the underscreen, as Andrei called it, it initially came up blank, and then a few spaced out lines appeared. It looked odd. I recognized bits and pieces of the Audix software that I wrote, but it looked totally different from before. Not to mention, there were a lot of lines in the program that were missing.

What was going on here? I couldn't make sense of anything on the screen. I regretted taking on this job alone and I wished Andrei was at least here in person.

"Hey, you're fine. I'm here." The voice in my ear was soothing in quality only. My breathing only got heavier by the minute and I was losing confidence in myself. If not for all my training, I would probably have broken down by now.

I mustered what was left of my composure and I just listened to Andrei's instructions as I skipped through the vast majority of the blank lines and gaps in the program, and altered some of the lines I could see in its entirety.

Michelle's eyes scrutinized my every movement and the heavy air circulating in her presence did not help my anxiety. Remembering Tristan's encouraging words helped me to bear with it, but it was not easy.

I finished altering the program according to Andrei's instructions and reloaded the software. The main program appeared without a glitch this time and I heard a gust of a heavy sigh from above me. What was she so relieved about? I was the one dying here.

"Well, let me know if you need anything," she said as she left after confirming that the main software was running smoothly.

"Thank you, Michelle." I replied. I was surprised she didn't add, 'and stay away from my man,' at the end of that.

Michelle finally left the room. After waiting a few minutes to make sure she didn't return, I inserted the other USB drive again with the black evidence. Andrei said to check if I also needed to calibrate that program. Indeed, I did as an error message also came up when I tried to run the program.

Following the earlier instructions, I pressed the function keys to get to the screen to calibrate the program. This time, it also had several gaps in the program, much more than the Audix program. It was also more complex and I couldn't make sense of anything here. All I could recognize was a couple of Undercode characters and phrases every few lines.

Did he know this was going to happen and that's why he was listening from the beginning? In that case, I couldn't believe Andrei made me come here alone.

This time, I had to alter the program from the top. I followed his instructions carefully again because I also had to type in the blank spaces I couldn't see, but that he clearly could.

I was anxious about finishing this before someone else decided to come here, but I couldn't afford to make any mistakes and mess up the program.

The trembling in my fingers became worse the longer I continued typing and I couldn't make it stop. I kept myself together and focused on finishing the alterations correctly instead of paying mind to my panicky state.

Finally, I had reached the last line of the program and I reloaded it after I finished. It worked. The program successfully loaded and I was done. I cleaned up the evidence once both programs were finished and jetted out of that room as quickly, but still gracefully, as possible.

"Where are you?" I said to Andrei after I tapped the top button on the earpiece..

I had to be bailed out multiple times on my first day on the job.

"Good work today."

It was not good in the slightest. I barely kept my composure when I was in trouble and I almost put the entire plan in jeopardy.

"Where are you?" I repeated. "I need to see you, right now."

I was, without a doubt, not cut out for this job.

My phone vibrated inside my bag. It wasn't my regular phone that got the message. It was Melissa's.

The message from Malik read, "Then, will you meet me for an impromptu date right now?"