Christian

"What happened?" I asked Brad as soon as he entered my office.

"I'm not sure. I got logged in to the servers a little past midnight today, and noticed an unauthorized user had accessed our network. I'm not sure how they got through our firewall, but they did. The files they accessed were incredibly confidential, Christian. I'm talking private corporate to corporate information. Files dating as far back as the beginning of this company... and our family."

"Did it have anything on you?" I asked Brad as he set paperwork in front of me.

"I honestly don't know. There were files that we hadn't opened in years, sitting in that server. This shit is bad, Christian. Like really fucking bad." Whatever calm façade Brad usually had, was crumbling to pieces. He wasn't even wearing his usual suit jacket, just a dress shirt. His tie had been loosened around his neck, and his once perfectly done hair was now a complete mess.

I could feel my own heartbeat quicken as my mind spiraled. This shit was bad... like really fucking bad. If someone found out about Brad being my brother, an outrageous amount of shit could come to light. There was confidential information on our mother as well.

"Pull every file the unauthorized user was able to access. We're going to need to see what they saw."

"It's a shit ton of files to sift through." Brad spoke honestly. He looked like he had already tried.

"I don't give a shit." I replied. "If it takes all night, it takes all night."

"It's going to be incredibly difficult to do this between the two of us, Christian. I'm talking there is a shit ton of files the user accessed. They jumped around quite a bit, like they was searching for something." Brad explained. "We're going to need some help."

I glanced over the reports he had set on my desk, and I could see some of the files that were opened. Some were from a few years ago, some decades old.

"I think I've got just the team ."

Alex

"What are we doing here?" Derek leant in a little too close, and whispered to me. I gave him a shrug.

I was every bit as surprised to see both Derek, Joan, and myself sitting in the waiting area outside of Christian's office. Christian had called us in about ten minutes ago, yet there was still no sign of him. I couldn't imagine what he would need with all three of us. Hell, from how frantic he was this morning, I didn't think I was going to see him at all today.

He had woken me up pretty abruptly. All he said was that we needed to get our things checked out to make an early flight. We didn't talk much during the duration of the flight. He managed to bring a smile to my face when his hand slipped into mine... yet he stared straight ahead, deep in thought, for the majority of it. I couldn't figure out what he was thinking, but something was very clearly troubling him.

"I'm as lost as you are." I whispered back to Derek.

"Do you think we're getting fired?" Joan questioned.

I shook my head. "No, this seems different. I don't think-"

Before I could finish that sentence off, Christian's office doors flew open. "Come in." Brad spoke to all three of us. For a second there, I barely even recognized that it was Brad when he walked through and held the door open. He looked like a freaking mess... for his standards of course. His hair was far from the neatly combed over style. He wasn't wearing a suit jacket, or even a freaking tie.

We all sort of awkwardly shuffled into Christian's office. Christian was sitting at his desk amongst boxes and boxes of paperwork. I got this fluttery feeling in my stomach when he glanced up and our eyes locked. He gave me a smile, but it faltered slightly.

"Have a seat." He instructed both Derek, Joan, and I. We sat down right in front of his desk. "So you're probably wondering why I've pulled you all from your daily tasks today. I just want to take some time to thank you all for coming up. Brad and I have had a few things brought to our attention that we will need each of your assistance with."

I squirmed a little in my seat from how intense Christian's eyes were as they focused in on me.

"Early this morning, I received word that there was an unauthorized user who managed to break through our firewall and access some of our highly confidential files-"

Before Christian could finish, Derek blurted out "Okay listen I am so sorry. I won't ever access those porn websites again, I promise."

Immediately, my fingers went to massage the bridge of my nose. This fucking idiot.

"I hadn't meant any harm by it, I just like to see some tits every once in a while. It really lifts the spirits, you know?"

"Derek." I snapped at him. "Please shut up." When I glanced back over at Christian, he had his hand up to his mouth in an attempt to muffle his laughter.

"Shit, I needed that this morning." He chuckled. "No Derek, I'm not accusing you, or anyone else here. We will have a discussion, however, about those porn websites. That's just going to have to be for another day. What I'm trying to say here is that we were hacked by what we presume to be an outside source."

Well, shit.

"Brad gave me a call in the early hours to inform me on what had happened, and that was why we had to leave so abruptly this morning." He said that last portion to me. I gave him a nod. "We can see what files they accessed, but unfortunately, there's a lot of information that was compromised. Everything on that server dated back to the start of this company.

"Brad and I have started the meticulous process of sorting through the information, but we realized pretty early on that there was no way we could do all this by ourselves. This is why I've requested you all here today."

"Why us?" Joan asked. Before Christian could reply, Brad did.

"Because you are probably the only employees Christian has bothered to get to know."

I tried to stifle a laugh, and Christian just shot Brad a look.

"As much as I'd like to say that isn't true, it is. I also wished I could say that you have a choice on whether you'd like to participate, but really, you don't. In addition to that, I can't verify how long this is going to take, but for good measure, you might want to clear up your schedule for the night."

••

Don't worry, I didn't forgot about y'all!
It was my sisters birthday this last weekend so it got just a tad bit busy...
but I'm back, baby xoxo