Chapter 6 Olly Turner

  Olly rushed down the hallway towards his office. “Wait it works? Your thesis works!”

  “Didn’t you hear me I said, I think it was foul play.”, Clara said.

  “Yes, yes I heard that.” He stopped at his door and caught his breath. “If foul play was involved, I may know someone who could help you. I’m sending you her contact info. Call her and explain your suspicions. Look I have to go, I’m sorry I’m not helpful right now but something came up today. I’ll talk to you later.”

  He, hung up with Clara and stormed into his office. “A board meeting now. What is with this last minute timing.” He fumed. “And who authorized HR to cancel my flight for this? I’m supposed to be headed to the west coast.” He looked up and saw the executives pulled up on the wall screen and Entity Techs, CEO Thomas Stein was with them.

  Olly straightened. “What is he doing here?” He pointed to Thomas Stein.

  Jake broke from his whispering with the VP and looked at Olly. “You better sit for this one.”

  He sat down and stared across the way at Thomas.

  “Look I don’t agree with it.“ Jake said. “And I voted on your side, but the board is taking a merger with Stein effective immediately. Here is the shitty part, it came with one requirement that you would not be the CEO under the merger. And you know our numbers, you saw the last report we are bleeding here.”

  He fired back. “Yeah, of course we are bleeding here, Stein undercuts every bid at a loss, I’m fighting this.”

  Stein spoke up. “Look its no bother to me if your company goes under, I’m just trying to be helpful here and not everyone is meant to run a business. Take a break from the stresses of this. I’m offering you a hefty sum for the value you created here. Mr Turner, you just grew too fast for your own good, overreached, it happens all the time.”

  Olly Turner looked around the room in disbelief, All of the executives except Jake adverted their gaze.

  The Vice President spoke up, “This concludes our brief, but necessary meeting. Thank you everyone for attending.”

  His wall screen faded away, returned to one of the many ocean side views he usually kept.

  Olly slumped into his chair. The wall screen announced Jakes call. He answered. “Jake, did you know they’d pull this?”

  “Pick yourself up. No I would have warned you. They went behind my back on this as well.”, Jake said.

  Olly motioned at the remodeled office around him. “We shouldn’t have expanded.”

  “Don’t say that. We knew the risks and we knew it would work.”

  “Well care to explain why it didn’t work?”

  Jake paced across the display. “I think you’re right about about Stein. “

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  “So do I fight this? Can we do anything?”

  “Stein is the worst, he surrounds himself with the sleaziest lawyers and bribes everyone. I don’t think we can fight this and win.”

  “The best bad idea I have is a change of gears. We can reach out Peter Tan for funding. He’s always been a loyal customer and he hates Stein as well.”

  Ivy Grey

  ***

  Ivy answered the incoming message, voice only, “Yes, who is this and how did you get this line?”

  On the other side she heard what sounded like sobbing.

  “Again, who is this? If it’s an emergency, call people who care.” Ivy focused back on her original work and let the call continue mostly as a distraction.

  “Look, I’m not sure why I called, I think you’re supposed to be able to help, but I don’t know how. My life has been turned upside down and I’m not sure why.”, Clara said.

  Ivy hovered her hand over the end call button. “Not sure how this is my problem.”

  Clara continued to speak despite Ivys desires. “Olly gave me your number, but he didn’t explain much else.”

  “Wait, Olly gave you this number?” said Ivy.

  “Yes, he said you could help, I’m feeling like people are after me, or at least making sure that my life is ruined.”

  Intrigued that is a request from Olly, Ivy said, “Send me your contact information and explain exactly what the issue is.”

  Clara placed her trust in Olly and sent her contact info to this snippy girl.

  “My thesis, I can only guess was sabotaged, I’m not sure how. I know my results should have been better. Now my advisor is dodging my calls and the University dropped my enrollment. I know it seems like bad luck, but I’m telling you this isn’t right. Something is wrong. I don’t know what. I feel it in my gut.”, Clara said.

  “Uh-huh, look I don’t usually take these things, but since its Olly requesting, I’ll look into it and I expect my usual rate.” Ivy hung up on Clara.

  Un-muting the voice bridge with Archer. “Archer, did you catch that, she seemed a bit crazy. Look over the school anyways, and do a quick search in the dark web. She seemed a bit emotional to me, not sure what Olly was thinking with this one.”

  ***

  Archer acknowledged Ivy, his keyboard already clicking away. “I’m on it.”

  The data from the university files opened on Archers screen. The notice sent out did seem harsh and more timely than any of the usual bureaucracy. He looked first to see if this was a personal issue or a bitter break up. He dug into the social media side for hints or images in case Clara had dated her advisor. What stood out almost immediately, Clara wasn’t dating her advisor in fact her advisor had been missing since Clara’s departure. He marked that in his report and hacked into the bio lab. Also more interesting was the data in the bio lab, the security logs showed multiple break-ins. He looked at the machine logs referenced them to Claras student ID and pulled those machines firmware. A quick comparisons of the firmware showed the bio printer Clara was assigned were hacked. It had been infected with a virus that tampered with the settings and introduced acids or changed the quantities at the incorrect time. But this behavior was keyed exclusively to Clara’s ID. He attempted to trace back the hack to its source but ran into a confusing swarm of bots, who ever did this covered their tracks and had targeted Clara, interesting.

  Frustrated with the trace he scraped some of the messages from the surrounding Universities. Clara was flagged, marked as a liar, a thief, an insignificant nobody. He brought up similar results from the companies Clara had applied to.

  Archer messaged Ivy back. “It seems that she’s not so crazy after all. I dug up some interesting bits. The work was tampered with and the professor has disappeared. Clara has been marked as a thief and imposter. I just haven’t tracked down the origin yet. I’m struggling to trace this hack back. I’m sending you the data now.”

  ***

  Ivy pulled up the data sent from Archer, he was good, and a hard worker but still had to learn a few tricks.

  The glow of the multiple screens was the only source of light in her bedroom. She focused in on the largest screen and picked through Archers data. She keyed in on the date time stamp of the hack.

  The hack she ran on the main network hubs ran a quick cross reference looking for machines rented at the same time as the hack. To trim the list down she pulled up the bank accounts used to pay for the server time. Always trace the money, it’s harder to hide and easier to trace. She guessed this had something to do with biotech. Ivy filtered the bank statements by companies involved in that sector. One result came back, a subsidiary company owned by Wick Industries, of course Wick Industries the largest biotech company, in all rights a monopoly.

  Now completely bored of the work, Ivy sent a report to Olly.

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  Leo’s prospects darken when he’s sent on a peacekeeping mission to the mysterious desert lands of Ro-Tawgh—a perceived punishment for his dangerous, unstable powers. He joined the king’s services hoping to make a difference only to be cast away.

  But when an ancient and deadly magic stirs and old enemies resurface, Leo and the crew of the Arcturus find themselves in the heart of a storm.

  Amidst the hazards of the desert, while they battle strange creatures, they will find an unexpected ally where they least expect one.

  In a world of fragile peace, shadowy secrets, and unpredictable powers, can Leo master his magic before it destroys everything he loves?