Take My Breath Away

"Calvert and Evelyn went on a date. It's all over the tabloids. Photos of them leaving the office together, going on a date, and Calvert driving her home. They even interviewed Carlos. Do you know what he said?" Joshua told his friend in a grave tone.

Suddenly, Sheffield had a bad feeling about this. "What did he say?" he asked.

"Carlos said that Evelyn and Calvert were dating right now. They're getting engaged."

Sheffield fell speechless. He had just woke up. How could his woman be about to get engaged to another man after a scant few hours? How could he have lost her that fast?

However, Sheffield tried to brush it off. "He's trying to make me give up. I won't fall into Carlos' trap."

"Well, duh. But Evelyn's about to get engaged to another guy. Why are you acting so calm?" Joshua felt anxious for his friend.

He regretted turning Carlos down when he suggested Joshua get engaged to her. At least he might be able to let them see each other, if covertly. But now they had a problem. Calvert loved Evelyn with all his heart. There was no way he was letting her out of his sight.

After a moment's consideration, Sheffield said, "It doesn't matter. Evelyn loves me. This is so much fake news. We'll figure out a way through it. But enough about me. What about you? How's it going between you and Terilynn?"

Joshua didn't even know how to answer that. His friend was losing the love of his life, and he was asking about him? Sheffield didn't seem the least bit concerned. But when it came to Terilynn, Joshua was happy. "Well, I kind of benefited from Calvert exposing the news that you were dating Evelyn. Terilynn thinks I'm a victim and feels bad for me. Ha-ha!"

Terilynn invited Joshua to dinner and explained in a roundabout way that her sister didn't mean to hurt his feelings. She tried her best to comfort the man. They were getting along pretty well, all things considered. They had a chemistry, an easy way about them. They were comfortable with each other.

Sheffield rolled his eyes and said, "A man and his son-in-law are natural enemies. Now we have the same enemy. With us against Carlos, he'll be the one on the ropes. Now get lost. I need my beauty sleep."

Joshua couldn't believe his ears. "How can you be so heartless? Evelyn is getting engaged to some other guy. How can you sleep at a time like this?"

"You don't get it."

"What?"

"I need more sleep. Carlos is not dumb, and with no sleep I won't be able to outwit or outfight him. Just leave me alone, okay?" Sheffield opened the door

re infected by some nasty virus. I know how to remove it. The clock is ticking. If you don't say yes within ten minutes, you'll lose much more than one point five billion," answered Star Anise.

In the Information Age, most important documents were stored electronically. Carlos was well aware of that and he knew Star Anise was not joking.

Suddenly, Carlos had a bad feeling. He asked, "Let me guess. The virus is your doing?"

"Hey, nothing gets past you, Mr. Huo. I can see why you're a CEO," Star Anise replied, and sent a smiling emoji which was so big that it covered Carlos' entire screen.

Carlos was enraged. "Think I'm a pushover?" Star Anise was so arrogant! He was not afraid to admit that he was the one who hacked the ZL Group's computers. And now he intended to blackmail Carlos into buying his internet security suite.

Star Anise sent another smiling emoji and answered, "You can only say yes. No one has beaten my virus. You see, I wrote it especially for you. It's got two payloads, making it doubly dangerous. First, my virus will overwrite the first megabyte of the hard drive with zeroes. The zeroes tell you what I think you are—a big, fat zero. You'll lose everything. You could use backups from the cloud, but I already took care of that. I just changed the password. The second payload will deploy shortly after the first. It attacks your BIOS, making you unable to start your computers at all. So when do you intend to pay me? I'd hurry. There are only eight minutes left, Mr. Huo."

Carlos' face soured at the hacker's words. He picked up his phone and called the IT department. "Get rid of this virus in five minutes. Otherwise, all of you will be fired!"