Kings. Emperors. Rulers of kingdoms they built with their own hands and own sweat. Nobodies who clawed their way to the top with sheer grit and created an era of big inventions in the world of digital technologies.





It was one of these rare moments, his movement was all egomaniac in slow motion, both obssessed with success and blind to the rest people around. They can glare all they want, that didn't bother him. In fact, they can even stalk his story, every detail as accurate as he can make it from memory, personal notes, public court records, etc. Nothing mattered now.



Song lyrics as the password, green lights and the door parted open as the two bursted into the Faraday cage, which was spotless and windowless. The walls, floor, and ceiling were lined with copper mesh that would stop all manner of hacking. The room had no internet, no signal entered or escaped, not even the drip-drop of electromagnetism from monitors. With full-spectrum lighting on both floors, it dimmed as it went dark outside and projected season-appropriate nature scenes on three walls. The rows of monitors were manned by the best coders on two continents. Above them was a huge screen rolling code.

It didn’t look like C++, Java, or anything seen before because he’d rewritten the rule book.

It was beautiful.

He got up on the platform in front of the screen and faced the twenty-three guys sitting at their computers in which they turned away from their screens and trained their attention half on him. most of them were his people, his tribe. From the least social to the blabbermouths, they understood each other and he knew how to give them what they needed.

“Everyone, you can neither ignore nor deny the following.” Straight to the point, Isaac held up a finger. “Do not put it past journalists to accidentally open your drawers to look for an emergency tampon.” Another finger. “Do not put it past them to look at your cables or unintentionally hit your spacebar to drop the screensaver.” A third finger made a W. “Do not think for one second that they didn’t bring someone with a photographic memory. Shut the machines down. Name. Rank. Year of hire. If not, you’re going to have to take a deep breath and talk with Emily.”

He got a little laughter. Oh, anti-emotion and anti-drama women like Emily scared nerds. Another reason to keep them out of cage. Of course, after today’s announcement, everyone’s going to try to get in here and he cannot defend those inside the system against social engineering hacks. People will hand thumb drives, cables, whatever. Strangers will ask them for their pet’s name… which no one can use as a password, but they’ll try.

“As a reminder. The only thing you can confirm with certainty is that no one currently living on planet earth can hack Ghost Intelligence Four. And that, men, is because you have perfected this thing to within an inch of its life. You know it’s going to change the world. Your code is going to be inside the machines of every company in the world, and that’s nothing compared to the day we scale and it’s in every home, on every phone, in every chip manufactured in every factory in every country. That’s you.”

"You have a protocol. And metaphor noted." A woman from the wired team voiced and flipped her brown curl away from her eyes. “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”



Someone on her team snorted with laughter but Isaac paused to let that sink in and leaned on the railing as if whispering in his team's ears, seemingly amused. “See? beware pretty girls… from wired team, David.” he pointed at him. “Beware of mail. Cameras. Your own phone can be used against you if you let a girl in a bar put her number in it.” He took a pencil out of his pocket and held it up. “If any of you need one of these to write down a number, let me know. Because after this, we are going to offer five million dollars to anyone who can get into Ghost Intelligence Four, and you…” Pointed at Joe, a virgin who’d never had a girlfriend.

“You.” He moved to Laurence, who had a weird facial tic. “You.” Roger. High-functioning Asperger’s. “You.” Grady. Social anxiety. “You.” Thom. “You.” Perry. They all lit up when he pointed at them, and the energy in the room was about to burst. “You’re all going to be the sexiest guys in the room.”

Full-mouthed cheers. Exactly what he was looking for and he knew what time it was. Showtime.

Five years and it's done, Isaac was in charge of the best programming team. And on the walls surfaced GI4’s code, it looked like nothing due being masked, and it will continue to look blank unless someone gets in. Indeed, Ghost Intelligence Four is pure virgin code.



Which won't happen considering the room is sealed against Wi-Fi nor internet connectivity aside the electrical outlets route through a secure panel. In short, his system was inaccessible.


Isaac's smile melted like solder on a hot iron. His hand froze in the air as he followed his friend's gaze to one of the projections. Something was wrong, no good at all.


His scream rattled the top of his throat amidst the sounds of scrambling, clicking, keys unlocking drawers where safepasses were stored, but before he could type in a command, the entire system went dark with a sigh of hard drives winding down.

And all stood in the dim, windowless room.

The air crackled with silence broken only by the sound of journalist’s pencil looping over paper, like someone woken in the darkness, writing down the details of a nightmare.

---

---

This is how a guy kicked everyone out, locked the doors and ended up in a dark room full of shattered computers, sitting in front of his laptop with a reputation from king to goat in a split second. Boom. Like that.

To protect his investors, preserve his company and reclaim his rightful place in history. Isaac must follow the clues to the hacker that locked down his revolutionizing system before the official announcement.

Except, this hacker from Nowhere? He’s not a guy.

The nightmare is all woman. And she has a plan for Isaac, a pawn in the game of cat and mouse.