Chapter 3

It turned out that answering phones wasn't nearly as hard as I'd imagined.

The girls in admin were really curious about my old gig, and super friendly to boot.

Too bad I couldn't spill any secrets—everything about my past job was classified. But once they saw how good I was at fixing their phones and computers, they were totally blown away.

The crazy thing was, in just one month, I ended up with more genuine friends than I'd ever had before.

The girls gave me a total makeover, picking out outfits that actually matched my vibe and tossing out all the clothes Alex used to force on me.

That was when I realized—Alex had only ever tried to turn me into a clone of Emily.

But now, rocking my own look, I finally felt confident and cool—this was the real me.

With everyone totally blown away by my transformation, I kicked off my workday feeling unstoppable.

Of course, just my luck—the first call I got today was from Emily.

She pestered me every single day, oversharing all the latest team gossip like it was her personal mission to annoy me.

"Sophie, guess what Alex did today? He gave me a codename—Bright.

"Isn't that hilarious? You used to be Shadow, and now I'm Bright. Looks like I'm the one lighting up Alex's world now, huh?

"I'm getting along with everyone so well. They all say I'm the team's mascot—every day they shower me with snacks and treats. Honestly, it's almost too much attention.

"Sophie, when you were the only girl on the team, did you ever get pampered like this?

"Oh, but you were just too plain. Nobody ever wanted to bother talking to you."

I went through the motions, asking in my default switchboard voice, "How can I help you today?"

Her voice was sickly sweet, but every word she said was like nails on a chalkboard.

"I just wanted to call and thank you, Sophie, for taking the fall for everything back then.

"If you hadn't taken the fall for us losing the competition, Alex and I wouldn't have what we have now.

"And if you hadn't refused to admit you were wrong back then, Alex wouldn't have figured out how he felt about me so fast.

"Sophie, how are you always so nice?" Emily asked.

I let out a cold laugh. "Don't mention it. Anything else?"

She was clearly frustrated that I just let her say whatever she wanted and didn't let it get to me.

She wasn't just calling to show off—she wanted to piss me off, report me, and make sure I got kicked out of here for good.

No way was I going to let her get her way.

I recorded every single call she made.

For a whole month, she called twice a day—morning and afternoon. That added up to over forty calls, nearly fifty hours in total.

After she hung up today, I packaged all the recordings and sent them straight to their leader, Richard Hayes.

[Mr. Hayes, I never expected training to be so relaxed these days. The new recruits seem to have plenty of time to chat on the phone.]

[When I first joined, training filled up every minute—I barely got six hours of sleep.]

[Mr. Hayes, even though I've been transferred to admin, I still care about our team. I hope these recordings will be useful to everyone.]

Who couldn't pull off the sweet, innocent act?

During my time in admin, the girls taught me a lot—this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Word was, that very night, Richard handed down a punishment to Emily.

She had to write a three-thousand-word reflection, bawling her eyes out and calling me shameless the whole time.

Alex told me all about it the next day when he came to confront me.

"Sophie, go tell Mr. Hayes this whole thing was just a scheme you pulled to get back at Emily.

"Do you even realize she didn't sleep at all last night? She cried her eyes out, and now they're all swollen."

I looked at Alex like he was just some random stranger.

He wasn't my captain anymore, and he sure as hell wasn't my boyfriend. What made him think I'd still do what he said?

When I kept quiet, Alex shot me a knowing smile. "Sweetheart, I know you did all this just because you're jealous.

"Just say sorry to Emily and admit you were wrong to Mr. Hayes, and I'll let it go.

"Your mom's still waiting for us to get married. You wouldn't let her down, right?" he added.

I couldn't believe he was really using my mom to threaten me now.

I sneered, saying, "Alex, I can't believe you're just another self-absorbed guy.

"You think you're the only man on earth? Jealous? Because of you? Please, you're just my ex.

"If you keep bothering me, I'll report you, too."

With that, I pointed at the security camera.

Alex's face paled instantly. He just muttered, "Suit yourself," and turned to leave.

As I watched him walk away, my fingers itched to get moving.

A month had passed without any coding, and I was yearning to dive back into the digital realm.

But without the NSA's account, any hacking I did with my own credentials would be straight-up illegal. I couldn't risk my future for that.

I pulled my hand back and resigned myself to answering the next call.

I spent the first half of my life chasing my dad's dreams, and now I was spending the rest trying to be the daughter my mom always wished for. Honestly? It was not the worst thing.

At least my relationship with my mom was way better now.

The phone rang, and I put on my professional smile before answering. But instead of a voice, all I heard was a strange, crackling static.

My heart skipped a beat.

The sound was so eerie that it left an unsettling hunch that something bad was on the horizon.

Before I could even react, someone behind me shouted, "My computer!"

"Soph, come quick! Something's wrong with my computer!" one of my coworkers called out.

"Soph, mine, too! Is this some kind of virus? Seriously, do viruses like this even exist anymore?" another chimed in.

My anxiety was going through the roof.

I rushed over to my coworkers, my eyes glued to their screens.

That signature attack pattern... It had to be those hackers from Aspien.

They actually had the guts to hack straight into the city's system, right out in the open.

My fingers itched to jump in and fix it, but the moment I pulled up the control panel, I stopped myself.

I was just a call center rep now—no clearance, no official account, nothing to fight back with.

I shot my coworkers an apologetic look. "Sorry, this is way out of my league."

To my surprise, instead of blaming me, they started comforting me. "Soph, don't be so hard on yourself. It's totally normal not to know how to fix this. We'll just get IT to handle it."

"Exactly! It's just a job, no need to take it so seriously and let it mess with your mood," another chimed in.

"Hey, look on the bright side—with the system down, we can just chat and chill. It's basically a free day to slack off!" someone else joked.

Honestly, seeing their kind smiles, I couldn't help but let it all go.

Just then, alarms started blaring all through the National Security Agency.

They kept going for a solid two minutes—I could tell this was no joke.

The city's core system, the backbone of everything, had been down for over five minutes.

Time to launch emergency operations.

Right then, my phone buzzed. It was Richard calling.

His tone was dead serious. "Sophie, get to the tech room right now. Don't walk—run! Get here, now!"