Chapter 1 : The crisis
The news was everywhere.
Screens in restaurants, offices, and car dashboards replayed the same headline, over and over:
SINCLAIR CORPORATION UNDER CYBER ATTACK. BILLIONS AT RISK.
People whispered in hallways as Ava Sinclair walked through the glass doors of her company’s lobby. Conversations died instantly. The receptionist, pale and fidgeting, scrambled to switch the channel the moment Ava’s cold eyes flicked toward the screen. Her heels echoed sharply on the marble floor as her assistant and two senior staff hurried behind her.
Ava said nothing, but the tightness in her jaw told a story on its own.
The moment she entered her office, she slammed her tablet onto the desk and pressed her fingers against her temples. “Have they found someone yet?” Her voice cut through the room like winter wind.
Her assistant swallowed. “We’re trying. IT teams across the city are looking into it. But… we may have found someone promising.”
Ava lifted her head slightly. “Promising isn’t enough.”
Before he could respond, there was a soft knock on the door. A junior employee stepped in, breathless, and behind him walked two figures.
The first man was neatly dressed in a company badge. The second was not.
A young guy, probably twenty, strolled in looking as though he had rolled out of bed and walked straight into a corporate boardroom. His T-shirt was wrinkled, his hair was a mess, and a small backpack hung loosely off one shoulder. He didn’t even bother to pretend he belonged here. Yet he walked with a confidence Ava had not seen all day.
“This is the one we found,” the employee said. “He… says he can fix it.”
Ava’s eyes moved from the man’s scuffed sneakers to his face. He was undeniably handsome, dangerously so, with sharp eyes that didn’t match his careless appearance. He looked nothing like a professional, nothing like someone she would ever hire, nothing like someone she should trust.
“Can you do the job?” Ava asked, her voice flat, unreadable.
Most people trembled when she spoke.
He didn’t.
He met her gaze without flinching. “Yes. I can.”
It was the way he said it — not arrogant, not unsure, just… certain. As if failure wasn’t an option he even considered.
Her assistant glanced at Ava, expecting her to dismiss him immediately. She hated disorganization. Hated unpolished people. Hated anything that didn’t scream excellence.
But she held his gaze a moment longer, something flickering in her eyes.
“Put him on it,” Ava said quietly.
The room froze.
“Ma’am?” her assistant whispered.
“You heard me. He starts now.”
And just like that, the haggard young stranger stepped deeper into her office — the only person bold enough to look her in the eye — and the only one who might be able to save everything she had built.
