Eternal Hope

Chapter 3

Carter

Carter groaned in frustration when he noticed that the same SUV that had driven away from the gas station was parked in his usual spot. So much for pretending that his entire day was not just shot to hell, along with his concentration and any drive he’d had.

Watching Emmersyn Martin Payne go through everyday tasks was as fascinating to Carter now as it was two years ago. Carter had fallen for her sassy and loving nature. She was blunt to the point of being rude, yet always was there when you needed someone to lean on and cry to. Hell, she was more likely to cry along with you. 

Carter could still remember when Em went from being the annoying freshman determined make friends with him to something less innocent. He had caught his girlfriend of six years sleeping with her roommate. Her female roommate. Who was also Carter’s best friend from high school. Emmersyn had become really good friends with his ex and was the first person she had reached out to to see if Carter was ok. She had apparently felt guilty for getting caught buck naked mid orgasm on her couch, with his best friend between her legs. Carter had gone to surprise her for their anniversary. And boy had she been surprised.

He had immediately broken up with her, ignoring her pleas for him to “just listen” and run out of there like the hounds of hell were on his heels. He made sure to throw her grandmother’s ring on the coffee table before he left. He wouldn’t have a use for it anymore. Em had found him three sheets to the wind and a knife in his hand. Cutting had always been his go-to choice for calming the noise in his head. And that day he wanted blood. Pretty red rivulets and the stinging pain of the cuts. To remind him that he was alive. To remind him that he could stop loving that cheating b***h at any time. He chose to turn his emotions off that day, that is until Em showed up at his house, unannounced and brandishing two large meat lover’s pizzas.

She had made him feel without really trying. She was always demanding that he face his emotions head on. It was hard, but he did it because she asked. His fiery, blunt, and dangerously kind Emmersyn. She helped him pick up the pieces. She stood by and supported him while he tried to reconfigure his life plan without the girl he thought would be by his side. And then she had taken his hand eight months later and said yes when he asked her to be his girlfriend. It was not easy, but it was instinctual. Carter imagined it felt something like trying to breathe at the top of Mt. Everest. You had to work harder for each breath, but the view made it all worth it. 

Carter physically shook himself out of his memories and consoled himself with the idea that he most likely would never run into Em again. He would never have to confront the fact that he had not gotten laid in almost three years, because the other women weren’t Em. They would have been place holders. Because he was a one-woman man, and that woman had walked out of his life two years ago.

Carter took the stairs two at a time, throwing himself at the door to Clarke & Klein Computing. He was officially late. He had lost time daydreaming of better days, when he had Emmersyn Payne by his side. In his bed. God he was horny. Too bad the thought of sticking his d**k in another woman was nauseating, he could really use the release. 

Turning on his three computer monitors, Carter put in his login and password at lightning speed and threw himself into his work. He loved what he did, but he wanted to do it for a less aggravating company. Clarke & Klein Computing was a national firm that dabbled in everything electronic, from personal to commercial, security to innovation and inventing, they had their fingers in all sorts of pies. It was one of the reasons that Carter had joined the company in the first place. He wanted to gain the experience to one day work on programming biotech. Mechanical arms and legs and s**t. The technology was nowhere near advanced enough and Carter believed that with enough forethought he could make prosthetics that would operate exactly like a natural body part. The problem was not the programming but the mechanics. The technology to create such a prosthetic was decades in the making. He would be waiting a long time before he could work on his dream project. Until then he was stuck slumming it, hacking into government servers and networks, with their permission of course, testing that their secrets were safe and if not, then his job was to plug the holes.

Carter landed the gig because Emmersyn had entered him into a contest, months before their breakup. She had loved learning about hacking, even if she was worse than mediocre at it. Em could barely make her phone work, let alone hack into another computer. But she had found Carter a way to impress potential employers while also earning a significant amount of money. He had gone into the competition confident that he would win. And he had. Each win was dedicated to Em, who even in the midst of their turmoil, still managed to look out for his future. 

Carter had invested the money carefully, and then accepted the offer of a place at Clarke & Klein. It would look good on his resume and should he ever decide to seek employment elsewhere, he would have his pick of companies. Hell, some were even approaching him now, offering him more and more tempting placements. But he was waiting for the right one. 

Carter quickly checked his emails and then moved on to his projects for the week, mentally setting up a game plan to get it all done by Thursday so that he wouldn’t have to worry about work interfering with Friday’s game night. He had missed the last couple of games and had been threatened with dismemberment if he didn’t show to the next game. They met every week, and he had been playing for years. It was Em who made Carter realize that he was friends with the group and that he actually enjoyed their company. There are times when not having a full scale of emotions is nice, like during a breakup, but there are mostly downsides to it, and that is one of them. Carter could have deep feelings about a group or a person and not notice it until it’s pointed out to him. And even then, it could take quite a while before he could develop the words to communicate the thing.

Em had never held it against him, had instead found ways to work within the system of his brain. Something that no one else had been able to do.

Cursing under his breath, Carter began slogging through the patches necessary to make the trap in the firewall and creating a type of virus that would be able to back trace any potential hackers. The idea behind the trap was simple. It they exploited this one area of the firewall they would come away with something like sticky fingers, leaving little fingerprints that could be traced right back to the unfortunate hacker. And because the trap was simply a trail of breadcrumbs, most firewalls wouldn’t even register it as a threat. 

A throat cleared form behind him causing Carter to jump as he swung around to face his direct supervisor, Joseph. And who stood beside Carter’s personal hell? Emmersyn f*****g Payne.

Joseph offered a smarmy grin to Em before gesturing to Carter, “This is Carter Wilson. He will be answering all of your questions and will be your go to as a liaison with the company while you do your research. He doesn’t have any important projects at the moment so don’t worry that you will be imposing on his time.”

Then he turned a malevolent grin to Carter, “This is Ms. Payne, she is writing a book and would like to interview computer savvy individuals to help her with her story. She will be your top priority. All of your assignments have been reassigned to me until she no longer needs your expertise.”

Carter could feel himself getting red. “Joseph, the beta firewall is my only project at the moment, and I was SPECIFCALLY asked for. If I am removed, then they may pull the contract altogether. Besides, I have already emailed them my new idea for the holes in the system.” Carter offered an innocent expression, pushing his rage down.

Joseph had been the second runner up in the hacking competition that led to Carter getting this job. Which meant that Carter had proven that he was a more knowledgeable hacker. Carter knew that reviews were due next month and there was talk form the higher ups of promoting Carter above Joseph. Joseph was now using every trick in the book to make Carter look incompetent. He was failing, but it was getting on Carter’s nerves. He was tired of the infighting and backstabbing that ran rampant within the company. 

Emmersyn had watched the verbal tennis match with interested eyes. Her chocolate brown eyes were always full of intrigue and questions about the world around her. Carter could always tell what she was thinking by look into her eyes. Her face rarely gave anything away, but her eyes were so expressive. Carter had missed having those eyes on him. 

Finally, she held up a hand and turned to speak directly to Joseph, “I was assured that you would be handling my questions personally and that YOU would be my liaison. I feel that it would be best that I reach out to Mr.’s Clarke and Klein about this change before any decisions are set in stone. The last thing I want is to impose on your staff or have important projects delayed.”

With her mind made up Em turned and pulled out a phone from her bag. Joseph went pale, while Carter tried to hide his smirk. Emmersyn may seem anxious, but she was as stubborn and strong willed as they came. Though it hurt that she was not interested in spending time with him, he also enjoyed how Joseph was about to be in serious s**t, again. All because he couldn’t keep his personal feelings out of the workplace and constantly used his position to sabotage the employees under him. It wasn’t just Carter that Joseph did this kind of s**t too. He was notorious for taking work that others had done and passing it off as his or reassigning them once a majority of the work had been done. The smart ones, like Carter, had started encrypting their files and writing their code in code just so that it would be impossible for Joseph to continue to do such things. 

It was one of the reasons that he was going to be fired. Because it was becoming apparent that he did none of the work he was assigned but instead was passing it off to the other hackers and then taking it back and putting his name on it.  The higher ups were furious.

Joseph reached out and grabbed Emmersyn by the elbow, yanking her back to him with unnecessary force. “Now just hold on a minute Missy”

“Let go of me immediately.” Emmersyn tried to pull her arm loose, without any success.

Carter stood and without thought had Joseph on the ground and pinned. With one knee digging painfully into Joseph’s lower back and both hands holding Joseph’s arm in a joint lock, Carter was relatively sure that Joseph was not going anywhere. Especially when any type of movement would add to the pain. 

The noise had drawn some other employees. Carter asked one of them to call security so that joseph could be removed from the building for physical assault against a company guest. One of the new interns ran off to do as he asked. The female interns never lasted long under Joseph, and Carter thought he now understood why.

Joseph was yowling like a stuck pig, screaming at Carter to get off of him and that He would be filing a complaint to HR and have him fired. Carter gently twisted the arm causing even more pain and cutting off the nasty expletives falling from Joseph’s mouth, “Be quiet.” Carter growled. Incensed that Joseph actually thought he could put his hands on another individual and get away with it. 

“You ok?’ Carter asked over his shoulder, knowing that Em did not like to be touched when she was unprepared for it. He didn’t look away from Joseph, knowing that if she was in anyway upset, she would not want him to see it. 

“Yes. Thank you. I will call the CEO now.” Emmersyn turned and proceeded to make the call, speaking briefly with the receptionist, who quickly put her through to the CEO Mr. Burke, who was currently running the company after Mr.’s Clarke and Klein stepped back to enjoy what they had termed “the golden years of their lives”. Burke was married to Mr. Clarke’s daughter and so had taken over alongside with Mr. Klein’s son. The three of them were running the company into the ground, and Carter knew that very soon it would be necessary to jump ship. 

Emmersyn was speaking quietly to whomever had answered the phone. Based on the snippets Carter could hear of the low-voiced conversation, she was filling the person in on Joseph’s conduct and Carter’s “heroism”. She hummed softly in response to the other person’s words and then hung up with a quiet goodbye. 

“The security guards will be instructed to watch over him while he clears his desk and then he will be removed from the building. His codes are being removed from the system; all his passwords are being changed. A car will be picking him up to take his to Mr. Burke where a formal complaint against him will be filed.” Emmersyn sighed, running her hands over her hair and twisting some of the coils around her finger, before allowing them to spring back into place. She repeated this three times before taking a deep breath and finally meeting Carter’s eyes.

“Thank you for standing up for me. Though we both know that I would have handled the situation myself without your interference.” Em c****d her head to the side slightly, her eyes asking a lot of questions that Carter wasn’t sure he wanted voiced aloud. 

“Not looking for accolades, I just simply couldn’t stand to see anyone use physical violence against you.” Carter answered honestly. Then realizing what he had said, Carter kicked himself for not just saying ‘Your welcome’ and leaving it at that. “We should probably talk, but let’s get this squared away and then I'll walk you to your car.” Carter prayed that Em understood that he wanted to answer her questions in private and not in full view of his entire department. 

Emmersyn nodded, and then turned her eyes away to look towards the irate security guards. They quickly took the angry slime of a man from Carter and pushed him, rather roughly, towards his office to clean out his personal items. It was then that Carter remembered that the young intern was the sister of one of the security guards. He wouldn’t want to be Joseph right about now.