Chapter Text
“And finally, I’d like to thank my employees for all the innovation and dedication that I’ve witnessed over the last 3 months. With their help Hale Technologies has experienced almost 40 percent growth in the hardware division and over 50 percent in software and services. We have made several crucial acquisitions, most notably Argent Securities, and expanded are reach globally. I look forward to another quarter of growth and improvement across the company. Thank you.”
With a slight nod of his head Derek Hale stuffed his speech – written by his assistant on black Hale stationary- back into his tuxedo jacket and made his way back to his table, situatied at the front of the large ballroom. The speech, short and to-the-point, had seemed to do its job. The applause quieted as another man dressed just as well as Derek, but without the same intense and powerful gaze, took the stand. “Thank you again to Derek Hale, co-founder and CEO of Hale Industries. Now please help yourself to the fantastic meal we have for you tonight..”
Derek tuned out the man’s voice, glancing down at his wrist to check the time. 7:39. He was technically supposed to stay until 10:30 when the annual company dinner officially ended – to “socialize and engage with stockholders” as he had been told – but he figured he could make it out by 9:00 with some sort of business excuse.Smoothing down his lapels and adjusting his polished cufflinks, Derek turned his attention back to the present.
Putting on the best smile he could, Derek flashed his white canines and hoped he looked delighted to be there. Sitting around the table were the top shareholders of Hale Technologies, mostly board members alongside several other company executives. Most were dull but tolerable, Few were pleasant enough to be around. Dinner plates were set in front of them and the hall began to fill with small talk, bits of conversations drifting his way.
"...how are the kids? Joe must be 11 by now…"
"…Vacation planned for two weeks…"
"…pasta is fantastic…"
Derek contributed a few words when needed, but mostly avoided the conversation choosing instead to sit back and keep to himself. His mind buzzed, unable to think of anything but the business deals and corporate strategy that had occupied his mind for the past several weeks.
On top of his already-stressful schedule, Derek had been in charge of the recent acquisition of Argent Securities and tasked with making the merger run smoothly. The task hadn't seemed challenging from the start, just several company meetings and paperwork, but had given way to heated arguments between Hale's stubborn CIO and Argent's bitter CEO. All Derek wanted was to go back to his apartment and sleep for 12 hours without disruption.
As dinner began to slow down, Derek noticed a familiar shock of red hair hurrying his way. A frown slowly spread across Derek's face. This was one of his Lydia's few nights off - a perk of being an assistant and not an executive- and she wasn't supposed to be here. Lydia was as well dressed as anyone in the room with tight black dress that ended just past her knee and red heels that clicked as she walked across the marble floor. To anyone but Derek she would have been just another face in the crowd, albeit a stunning, well-dressed, and young face in the somewhat boring and greying crowd. However, the slight frown lines and her slightly wrinkled dress caught his attention immediately.
Standing to meet her, Derek nodded his head in the direction of the lobby and led the way out of the noisy room. The doors clicked shut and suddenly the two were alone; lighthearted small talk giving way to a much more deafening silence. Wasting no time, Lydia stopped and looked pointedly at Derek.
"Security breech, we don't know how big yet. Only one attacker as far as we can tell. No location yet. Mahealani is in the process of determining what information has been compromised and closing off any potential access points that could be exploited. Boyd is waiting with the car in front."Lydia's voice remained calm, but Derek knew that it was a vise. A security breech of any size could spell disaster for the entire company that he had been working to build up.
Derek gave himself a second to collect himself, and then he was all business going full-steam ahead. He pulled his cellphone from his pocket and stalked towards the black car outside. Pulling open the heavy door, he immediately began barking orders to his assistant.
Lydia slide in beside him gracefully, pulling her planner and phone into her lap. With a sharp nod to Boyd they were pulled away from the curb and toward Hale Tower.
"Get Jackson Whittmore on the phone now. He is the best in the industry, freelance security, low profile. I want Argent's top security here, both physical and cyber security. But do not bring Chris Argent in, he will just make everything more complicated."
In the five minutes it took them to reach the tower, Derek had already thought up every possible scenario that may have happened. There were so many vulnerabilities scattered through Hale's applications and none of Argent's apps had been tested. There were bound to be issues lurking behind closed doors that had yet to be unearthed.
As soon as the car pulled to a stop Derek was outside and joined by James, another lead security team member. "It's bad, Derek. No services have been taken down and no money has been stolen, but they have all of our data."
"What do you mean all of our data?" Derek spit out, his glare sliding over to James's worried features.
"All of it. Every customer information database has been compromised. They have usernames, passwords, dates of birth, credit card numbers. Everything."
A wave of nausea washed over Derek and he stumbled briefly before continuing his sprint to the Bunker.
The bunker had been built just six months prior and was exactly what you would expect. Dark room, no windows, monitors covering every surface, the bunker was state of the art and equipped with everything needed in a cyber attack. It was cold and uninviting, immediately putting Derek on edge.
The small room was packed with almost every cyber security member staffed at Hale Industries and several from Argent Securities, their green security badges and uncomfortable poses marking them as newcomers. Phones were out and furious typing could be heard below the drone of conversation.
Lydia joined the crowd, phone already at her ear and looking oddly calm in the swarm of chaos and shouting.
Derek took a seat, trying to collect himself in this foreign territory. A loud beeping drew his attention and within seconds he had been pulled into the chaos.
17 hours later not much had improved.
The room had quieted down considerably as the cyber security team stared intently at their screens or graphs and code. The pieces of conversation that he heard went way over Derek's head, but he tried to absorb them anyhow, hoping he may be of some use.
Derek was not a cyber security analyst, nor was he a computer scientist, nor did he know a single thing about technology. Yes, he knew how to use a computer and he could email just fine, but he was in charge of business. Acquisitions, stocks, and budgets were more his area. Being CEO of a technology firm gave him more knowledge than most CEOs, but not enough to help out at all in the bunker.
He had taken to sitting in the corner with his laptop, sending out email after email trying to contain the incident. His team could fix this, but if it went public he was screwed. His forehead burned and his vision was blurry from concentrating on his screen for so long, but he could never sleep if he knew what was happening here.
Eventually the silence became too much and Derek slid from the room grabbing his laptop as he left. Walking up the two flights of stairs to the twenty-seventh floor and turning down a long hallway, Derek knocked on the last closed door.
"Come in!" said an inappropriately cheery voice.
Derek walked in and let the door swing closed behind him. A complete wall of windows highlighted the grandeur of the large office. To the left stretched central park and behind that the empire state building jutted into the sky, its distinct silhouette distinguishable amongst the many skyscrapers. The city moved along as if nothing was happening here at Hale Tower, to everyone outside this was just a normal Friday night, no security breeches to worry about.
"How do you sound to fucking cheery right now," Derek muttered and he walked past the large wooden desk to stand at the windows.
"Oh come one, you know Danny will fix this. Right?" Laura sighed and pushed herself up from her desk, coming to stand next to Derek at the glass panes.
Derek could see her reflection in the window, her green eyes focused on him and a small smirk playing across her face. Her dark black hair hung loose around her face, the wavy locks now reached the her mid-back like they did when they were kids. But that was about the only similarity between then and now. Dressed in a tight black pencil skirt, white button down, and 5 inch heels Laura was the epitome of powerful business woman. Gone were her days off cut-off jean shorts and ponytails. Now, at least while at work, there wasn't one hair out of place. Years ago she had been taller than him, her growth spurt had come early and his late. Tonight, standing next to him in her heels she was shorter by just an inch.
"Can you try to take this seriously, Laura? This is bad and even if this doesn't go public it's my head on the line. The CEO is always the first to blame." Derek turned to his sister, his frown deepening with each passing minute.
"Relax. It will be fine. If anyone gets caught up in this it will be Danny. And everyone loves the kid, they'll just wag a finger at him and move on. These things happen and you'll get through it." Laura reached out and squeezed his shoulder, strolling pass him to the bar on the far side of the room. "Now, drink some of the whiskey I know you love and calm down."
Grabbing two crystal tumblers, she poured them each two fingers of whiskey and pushed the drink into Derek's hands. The cold glass sat awkwardly between his fingers, the alcohol going untouched. Just being away from all of the chaos of the bunker was helping him get his head on straight and sort through the information that had been crammed into his mind over the past few hours.
A quick rap on the door drew Derek's gaze away from the amber liquid in his hand and back to the problem at hand. Without waiting, the door was pushed open and Danny Malahei stepped inside. The untouched whiskey was set down on Laura's desk, quickly forgotten, as Derek grabbed the paper from the Danny's hands. After realizing that he couldn't make sense of the data, he looked at the man, one eyebrow raised expectantly.
Danny grabbed the top sheet of paper from the stack, on it was nothing more than a string of numbers circled in red pen.
"I have an I.P. address. West side of the city. 45th street, probably The Frontier building."
"So?" Derek asked, not comprehending what he was being told. This had to be something important, good he hoped. Derek didn't think he could handle any more bad news today.
"We know what computer did this. If we have a computer we have a hacker. The FBI can be there in 20 minutes -"
"No," Derek barked, swifly snagging the man's phone before he could hit send. "No one calls the FBI. We can still contain this."
"Bu-" Danny started to protest but immediately stopped when he saw the look on Derek's face. The tired and defeated aura that he had been giving off since he had reached the bunker that evening was gone. A determined scowl and cold eyes had replaced it as he once again began to bark orders.
"Get my security detail and Boyd - get me the fucker that did this. I want him here within the hour and I don't want anyone outside of management and the cyber security to know about this." Even with the low tone it was clear that Derek was not to be argued with. Danny gave a swift nod and scurried out of the room, phone already pressed to his ear.