Is this destiny?

~ Los Angeles, the Cliffside Villa ~

Wednesday, May 31

9:56 AM

In the study room…

Sarah, Aiden, Oni, and Michael are going over the tasks from the White foundation which are currently on hold due to lack of manpower.

"I didn't know there are so many…" Sarah said with a troubled expression. "This will take hours to go through."

"We are postponing everything that is not critical since we got a tip from Samara that someone is taunting her to act against Jeff. Over time, things piled up." Aiden explained why there are so many pending tasks. He felt guilty for allowing it to reach this point and embarrassed that Sarah found out about his incompetence. 

Sarah saw that Aiden is troubled and smiled while trying to cheer him up. "Don't worry about it. We will figure it out together, one at a time. Let's prioritize them based on the importance, how many people are needed, and how long each of the tasks will take. Once we have that, we can talk to Noah and figure out resources needed. It might take days, but we will get this ball rolling."

They were discussing items on the list when Aiden's phone buzzed, and he saw that it's Jeff. It is during work hours, so it must be important.

"Keep on talking, I will take this outside." Aiden said before walking out of the study.

Michael is Aiden's right-hand man at the White foundation, so he is also familiar with the tasks.

About a minute later, Aiden returned with a complex expression.

"Something serious?" Sarah asked.

"I'm not sure." Aiden responded. "Five warehouses and one facility from the White corp. were attacked in the last hour."

"Casualties?" Sarah asked.

"No. They were deterred because of doubled manpower. But Jeff told me that Steve contacted him. He is having some problems at a few locations and he asked Jeff if he can help out."

Sarah was about to say something when her phone started beeping in a way that was familiar but long forgotten. Sarah checked and she saw that it's her application which notifies her when someone from the Hill family starts trending online. And Sarah added Jeff and Aiden to that list as well.

Sarah and Aiden exchanged glances and understood that something is off.

"Oni, Michael… let's drop this planning for now. The two of you check trending articles. See if anyone familiar shows up." Sarah instructed and turned to Aiden. "Do you know which locations were attacked?"

He confirmed and he understood what Sarah wants. "Let's look into security footage to see what exactly happened."

"You think that the person who contacted Samara is making a move?" Michael guessed.

"Highly likely." Sarah responded. "Aiden, can you follow up with Steve? Maybe we find similarities between what happened at locations belonging to White corp. and Long Industries."

"On it."

"I will get security footages and we can review them for anything unusual…" Sarah took her phone and typed instructions for Eve.

While waiting for Eve to gather the videos, Sarah was looking over Oni's shoulder and she could not believe how many online articles are out there. Most of them were some gossip and rubbish, but it was flooding the internet.

"Gabriel will send us locations which had issues…" Aiden said. "What's your status?"

"There are too many. About Jeff, Anna, White corp., Sophia, Felix, Orion Enterprise, Long Industries, Smithsonite corp. Personal and business. Everything is mixed." Sarah thought about how it's interesting that Charlie's company is mentioned, and even Emma's rehabilitation center. "Can you reach out to Charlie and confirm if his locations were attacked?"

"You think that this is coordinated?" Aiden guessed Sarah's thoughts.

"I'm not thinking. Only collecting data." Sarah responded. She does think it's coordinated, but she does not want to create panic. Anyone who would dare to attack the White, Long, and Smith family at the same time is either foolish or… capable.

Sarah swiftly typed instructions to Eve to remove online articles. Sarah wished that Michael and Oni know about Eve. That would make these things easier. Aiden and Sarah spoke about revealing Eve to a few more people, but that was a difficult decision and they ended up postponing it.

Just as Sarah thought about Eve being a secret, Eve's voice was heard in the study: "Master, the video recordings are available…"

Sarah blanked out for a moment. Why is Eve talking?

"What is that sound? Is that a new system you are developing?" Oni asked.

Sarah didn't answer Oni's questions. She bolted out of her seat. "Eve, run self-diagnostic!"

Aiden didn't miss the panic in Sarah's voice, and he tried to get her to calm down. "It will be OK."

Sarah shook her head fervently. "No. Eve violated one of the main directives: staying silent. I'm afraid that something is really wrong."

Sarah realized that Eve called her 'master'. For several years, Eve is addressing Sarah by her name, and not 'master'.

Sarah sucked in a breath before shouting: "Eve! What is your status?"

After a few seconds of silence, Sarah started typing fervently on her computer. Aiden stood behind her and observed for a while in order to understand what she is doing.

A minute later, Aiden squeezed Sarah's shoulder. "Sarah, love. You need to pull the plug."

Sarah was not willing. Her eyes were stinging from the tears which pooled in her eyes and her fingers flew over the keyboard.

"This is Eve." Sarah said in a shaky voice.

"That is more the reason to pull the plug. If someone is in and gets control, they can use Eve against us."

Aiden's words made Sarah's hands stop.

After a long deep breath, she typed a string of commands.

"I'm sorry, Eve... I promise to come back for you." Sarah whispered, and they heard faint sounds of security hatches closing.

"What is that?" Michael asked. So far, he understood that something is wrong and that this is not the right time to ask questions, but now the sounds appeared to be close, so he had to ask.

Aiden responded. "We have a semi-automated security system that we call Eve. It seems that we were hacked. When Sarah shut it down, the lockdown was initiated."

Sarah was grateful that Aiden came up with this to hide Eve's true nature. She was too stressed to think clearly. Eve is her baby, her childhood friend. Sarah created Eve with many lines of code over years and someone managed to get in and to damage her. Sarah gritted her teeth while thinking about possible scenarios. What if they made a copy and then did irreparable damage to the original? What if…?

"Love…" Aiden's call made Sarah open her eyes and look at him. "This is not the time to overthink things. The internet is full of trash about us. Jeff's, Steve's, and Charlie's locations were attacked. Eve was corrupted and there is no way that all this happened accidentally at the same time. Let's fix this. One by one. People first. Eve will need to wait. I will help you get her back."

Sarah gave Aiden a small nod. He always manages to get her focused. A lot of things are happening, and she will be useless if she just spaces out.

Sarah saw that Aiden was silent, and she knew that he is planning. A few seconds later, Aiden started issuing commands…

"Let's get Masika, Nala, Haru, Ron, and Zula here. We need to look at the surveillance videos to see what is going on. And we need to clean up the internet. With Eve down, drones are toys that require someone to operate them… I will override security mechanisms in the house so that we are not locked in. Sarah, contact Anna and Sophia about the situation and suggest that they come here with the kids. It's safer. Talk to Noah and Aaron and notify them that drones are useless. They need to add more manpower to the critical locations. We are not sure if the Army of Chaos is being targeted, but they are vulnerable now… Michael, summon an emergency meeting with others in the house and share information that we have a failure in our security system and that until it's fixed, everyone needs to stay on high alert. Don't forget to contact Hong, he is at the Beach House… Oni, get in touch with Charlie and Steve and suggest that Emma, Bridgette, and Denise come here…"

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