Chapter 1001 - Come back to me (1)

~ Los Angeles, Cliffside villa ~

January 27

1:34 AM

Sarah ended a call with Viper and Phoenix, leaned back into her office chair and thought about last three weeks.

On January 7th Mr. Patel asked her to jam cellular signals for eleven companies, and to make sure that the signal for mobile customers of his company is flawless.

Eleven companies he named are the ones which had more subscribers than his.

The good thing out of this is that she successfully negotiated that one week of signal jamming is worth one job that Aiden previously agreed to. Mr. Patel didn't want any money trail that can implicate him in this, so that means that for two weeks of signal jamming, Sarah managed to complete conditions of the contract Aiden signed with Mr. Patel.

Even with Eve's help, Sarah knew that this is too much for her to handle. Jamming all cell towers in India at random intervals, with random intensity and selecting specific carriers is huge! She never did a job at such a large scale, and she knew right away that it will require a lot of typing, monitoring and tweaking her code on the fly.

Sarah thought of getting her Sigma army to help, but they are lacking the necessary experience, and because there is no time to coach them before the job starts, they would need a lot of guidance… and then Sarah remembered the security conference she attended. As VIPs, Aiden and she participated in special events where they won assistance from seasoned hackers: Viper and Phoenix.

Viper is known for his fast algorithms, and Phoenix for his unorthodox ones.

Sarah reached out to them, and they agreed to help her develop scripts.

Viper created scripts which cause cell phone signal for a given provider to degrade in quality, causing background noise and delays in signal transmission, up to the point of dropping the call.

Phoenix created scripts for obstructing text messages and data packets by inserting random text and causing random time delays.

They finished that promptly and Sarah was able to start her job for Mr. Patel on January 12th.

All the scripts Viper and Phoenix created worked perfectly with the ones Sarah developed, and Eve was in charge of deploying them to the Indian cellular network, and then removing them after some time in order to avoid detection.

On January 13th there was a commotion caused by people noticing issues with their cell phones, and within days it became national news.

On January 20th Mr. Patel gave an exclusive interview on national television where he announced that his company PatelCom is using specific frequencies which are not impacted by these 'random interruptions of unknown origin' in cell phone traffic. He magnanimously declared how his heart is aching because so many people are impacted by this mysterious phenomenon, and he wants to help people get back online and in touch with their loved ones… and that is why PatelCom is giving 25% discount to new subscribers for the first month.

"How generous…", Sarah mumbled while reading the news.

Six days later, Sarah instructed Eve to stop all script executions and to make sure that all traces are erased.

PatelCom is currently #2 company, holding 22% of total subscribers. And people are still switching from their providers to PatelCom because everyone is saying that the service provided by PatelCom is amazing, and the price is great.

Even without any further interruptions in service provided by his competitors, Mr. Patel created an image for his company as the most reliable.

…

Sarah was surprised by an invitation from Viper to talk, and that Phoenix joined in as well. They finished their work, and she was not sure why they contacted her.

"You didn't tell us that we are doing just a small part in such a big operation.", Viper said.

"I thought that Sigma is known for helping people in need. This was an aggressive attack.", Phoenix added.

"You can say that I didn't have a choice.", Sarah responded. "My back was against the wall."

"Do you need help?", Sarah could hear Viper's concern.

"Your work helped me a lot, and I'm out of the contract. Thank you for the offer.", Sarah was touched.

The three of them collaborated smoothly, and both Viper and Phoenix told Sigma to give them a call when she needs extra hands or to brainstorm ideas.

"Thank you, guys.", Sarah said.

"Uhm… I'm a girl.", Phoenix chimmed in.

"Oh, sorry.", Sarah said awkwardly.

They only talked without cameras, so she can't see them, and they use voice modifiers. Everyone sounds a bit robotic... and male.

…

Sarah checked her messages. She finished job for Mr. Patel yesterday and he didn't contact her.

"A thanks would be nice…", Sarah mumbled as she moved to get ready for sleep.

Now that this unexpected work for Mr. Patel is completed, she needs to get her sleep hours in so that she can focus on her army of Chaos. In last two weeks, Sarah was preoccupied with script execution and modifications when needed, so she only participated in attacks but everything else was handled by her generals and Noah.

Their area of influence is increasing steadily, thanks to the effectivenes of her units. The spies are being taken care of efficiently, thanks to Eve.

Based on the communication Sarah intercepted for King and Voronin elites, they are still clueless who is behind the army of Chaos.

Sarah also got an information from Chad that there are more than twenty candidates waiting for Nyx to interview them in fight clubs in Austin.

Sarah is so busy that in last three weeks she didn't go to visit Evalina. Besides removing all of Evalina's teeth and regularly removing her nails as they grow in, most of Evalina's bones were broken. Sarah is making sure that Evalina suffers, but she will not allow her to die. Not until Aiden wakes up.

During her before-bed shower, Sarah thought about JoAnna and Sophia. Both of them asked Sarah on several occasions what she is up to, because they can see that she is sleeping through most of the morning, so she must be doing something that keeps her up during the night. But they didn't probe too much into the topic once she assured them that she is not in danger. Sarah can guess that her sisters don't want to give her a hard time, considering what she went through since the attack on October 24th. 

JoAnna is busy with White family and managing the Golden Ocean Resort. On top of that, she has various other issues, like that woman in the medical research lab of White corp. Sarah knows that JoAnna has a lot on her plate, but that woman is badmouthing JoAnna and based on Sarah's opinion, she should go away.

Sophia's belly is bigger than ever, and she is ready to pop. Her due date is in two weeks and she looks like she swallowed a whole basketball, and she says that she feels like a whale. Sophia is not in a good mood due to body aches and that is probably the reason why she refused more than twenty candidates for a personal assistant which Jeff sent her way since New Year.

The good thing is that they set up a bedroom next to Sophia's room to be a nursery. Or is that a good thing? Sophia is saying that they are looking for a home of their own, but it does not seem that Sophia or Felix are putting any time into it. Well, Sarah does not mind, and they have space.

Back to the nursery…

Pinks and greens dominate the room and Felix and Sophia had so many discussions about what to buy without buying anything, that Emma and Penny took over most of the picking and then provided final two choices for Felix and Sophia to vote on.

Considering that Sophia and Felix can't agree on buying a crib, how will they get a house? It seems that Sarah should find two properties and ask them to pick one. Or maybe she can ask Emma and Penny to do that.

Emma and Penny are getting along great.

Emma is wrapping up treatments for Charlie. He can stand and walk for few minutes without any assistance. Charlie can be wheelchair free if he uses walking aids like a stick or crutches, but he says that he does not like those because they make him look like a disabled person. Sarah wanted to ask: and how is the wheelchair making you look less diabled? But she guessed how that is only an excuse for Charlie to stick to Emma longer. Sarah is busy, but she knows that Jarred stopped by three times in last ten days to remind Charlie that it's time to get back to work.

Penny is working for two weeks already in the newly open art gallery, and she is busy. Sarah saw Penny more than once gazing into the distance while holding onto that pendant that Ben gave her for Christmas.

Sarah made Kitty move slightly so that she can lay in the bed next to Aiden. The leopard is growing nicely.

Sarah hugged Aiden's arm like every evening and wondered, when will he wake up? … It's three months already… and it feels like three eternities. She knows that it can be years until he wakes up, or maybe never… but she does not want to think about it. He said that they will be married in a year. And that is nine months away. And she believes him. She has to.

"So many things happened. You are missing out on a lot of things… and I am missing you. Come back to me, will you?", Sarah mumbled and drifted off to sleep.

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