True Love Waits

The IT director answered in a trembling voice, "Mr. Huo, we've never seen this sort of infection before. It changes every time it hops from one computer to the next. It moves code blocks out of the way, inserts itself, regenerates code and data references, including relocation information, and rebuilds the executable. It's different every time, so established pattern definitions don't defend against it. What's more, we jus can't keep up with it, since it replicates at an alarming rate..."

"Oh, is that so? Then you're all fired. Start looking for other jobs. We'll contract out for IT!" Carlos hung up the phone furiously.

Star Anise's message popped up on Carlos' computer screen again. "Mr. Huo, what's your decision?"

"One billion!" Carlos replied decisively.

"Deal." Star Anise added, "It's what I'd expected you'd offer anyway. So I was prepared to accept it. Perfect!"

Carlos' face completely darkened. If he could find out who the hacker was, he would skin him alive to vent his anger!

Carlos had thought he could track down who Star Anise was by investigating the bank account, but Dixon told him it was a dummy account. It had been shut down as soon as the hacker received the money. He did leave them a group of numbers, which also couldn't be traced. It was for tech support and service.

Carlos wondered if he'd been tricked, but all the computers returned to normal. There was no sign of the virus that had infected them. Not only that, cloud backups were operating normally.

Successfully going through the employee recognition system at the ZL Group's parking lot, Sheffield drove inside and parked his car at a particular spot. Then, he went straight to the floor where Evelyn's office

was.

This time, besides Nadia, there were two more people working as secretaries. Nadia was the first one to spot Sheffield. She stood up and greeted him. "Good morning, Mr. Tang."

"Hello! Your boss in? I have something for her." Sheffield shook the paper bag in his hand. "I know I normally let you have first dibs, but this is Evelyn's favorite food."

Nadia smiled. "Thanks, Mr. Tang. But, our CEO is busy right now..." She forgot to explain the CEO inside the office wasn't the one he wanted to see.

and I'll leave. Don't

secretaries whispered to

How did he get in here?

With a slight smile, she said, "None of our business anyway. We'd better get

"Oh. Of course."

"Eve, Eve, my dear Eve..." The door

a few steps and closed the door. He groaned

was none other than his future father-in-law, the

tactics,' the doctor

up his clothes, smoothed his

eyes met the old

addressed him, Carlos raised his fist and

"Hello, Uncle... Wait, wait... Can we talk about this,

doctor dodged and ran

that was when he found out Evelyn wasn't

door. It required a passcode to open it. The

couch. Carlos took off his suit jacket and approached the doctor, slowly, deliberately-one step at a time. "Um...Mr. Huo, can't we talk this out? Please calm down." "Where's Evelyn? Where's my Evelyn?' he thought

casually threw his suit jacket over

me to be with Evelyn. You don't have to

was like a bull seeing red. He ran after Sheffield as fast as he could; he

Carlos had caught up to him. Left with no choice, he dodged his punch while trying to figure out the

simply tapped in one set of passwords and unlocked it. Not knowing if he had restored the factory setting of the lock or had cracked the password, anyway, the door opened. However, the high-tech lock in Evelyn's office, the one worth hundreds of thousands of

when he saw the door was opened. He hadn't been able to punch Sheffield in the face, and worse, the young man