“Don’t Mike,” Grace scolded her husband, placing a hand on his forearm. “You shouldn’t joke like that.”
“But it’s true!” Mike exclaimed, “I bet they don’t even know what’s going on. What is this ransomware that they’re blaming this on? Or at least, that they’re rumored to be blaming this on.” He laughed, the ridiculousness of the entire situation forcing him to react that way, otherwise Mike knew he might just have a minor breakdown. He was trying to stay positive and believe that it was just a stupid mistake, but he couldn’t completely quash the little voice in the back of his head reminding him that he had quite possibly lost everything.
“According to this,” Art answered, reading an explanation from his cell. “Ransomware is a type of malware virus that threatens to publish data or destroy information unless a ransom is paid.”
“So, what does that mean?” Jessie asked, trying to figure it out in her head. “That Trident has used our money to pay a ransom? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No,” Art shook his head. “I think that Trident has refused to cooperate with some sort of virus or something, and so as a result, the money has been wiped out.”
“Wiped out?”
“Wiped out. Stolen. Hidden. I don’t really know what to call it,” Art shrugged. “But it at least makes it sound like the money can be retrieved to some extent.”
“Oh great,” Mike scoffed, “so we only lose half of our life savings, rather than the whole lot. Brilliant.”
“Mike, stop it, please,” Grace pleaded, “you’re not helping.”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just a bit of a hard blow to deal with. If this is true, Grace, then we literally have nothing left. We’ll lose the house. We’ll have to take Caleb out of school. We won’t be able to care for your mother anymore. We won’t be able to buy food or new clothes. Won’t be able to leave this island. We’ll be stuck here. With nothing to show for it.”
“Come on Mike,” Art reasoned with his friend, seeing how distressed his words were making both Jessie and Grace feel. “It’s not going to be that bad.”
“Isn’t it?” Mike took another swig of his soda, now wishing he had opted for something a little harder instead. “What can we do if we don’t have any money, Art? Nothing. Money is literally what makes everything tick. Our lives will change forever if we suddenly don’t have that anymore.”
Silence washed over the four parents as each of them let Mike’s words sink in. It was a harsh reality that they’d all been doing their best to avoid thinking about, each of them aware of the countless different ways their lives would change if all their money was truly gone. Jessie looked over at her husband and reached out to him, their fingers interlocking across the kitchen island. Family was the most important thing, but there still had to be other elements in place to support that. They needed money to survive. Without it, Jessie didn’t know what they would be forced to do.
Chapter 5
“We’ve got to tell them something. There’s been a news crew outside this building for the last two hours. Whatever we tell them has got to be better than all the speculation that’s going around at the moment.”
“Are you sure? At the moment no one really knows what’s going on. What is it they say? No news is good news?”
“No news is going to bring this place to the ground. People are already inside the building. They’re putting our lives in danger. We’ve got to release some kind of statement.”
“Alright, alright! But saying what?”
***
The two of them continued to argue, completely unaware of the fact that a man had just jumped from a window only three floors below.
Samuel Westchester sat on the carpeted floor of the finance department hallway, his head in his hands as he tried to process the event. It was impossible for him not to blame himself. Perhaps if he’d said something differently or tried a different tactic, he would’ve been able to talk the man down from the ledge. He told himself that even trained professionals failed sometimes, but that didn’t make him feel any better. People were dying from this disaster now and he was still hidden away inside without a clue what was happening.
Samuel tried to ignore the fact that he’d just witnessed a suicide and focused on the reasons why the man had jumped. He clearly worked on this floor of the building, which meant he likely knew more than most about what had happened within Trident. It certainly wasn’t good news, but Samuel was still hopeful the knowledge of what had happened would equip him with the means to deal with whatever happened next.
Forcing himself to his feet, he re-entered the room where the man had jumped, the window still wide open as a warm breeze floated through, occasionally flapping loose papers on the desks. Samuel could still hear the angry crowd down below, the same crowd that was momentarily silenced by the arrival of a tumbling body. Squeezing his eyes shut and trying not to think of it, Samuel walked over to the only computer in the room that was still lit up. It had to belong to that man – and would hopefully contain the answers which had driven him to jump.
The first thing that Samuel did was click on the home icon at the bottom left of the screen. This opened up the dashboard, with the users log in details displayed at the top of the page. Where his computer showed swestchester, this computer featured the user details of rhauser. The man had been one Mr. R. Hauser – now lost to the world forever. Samuel paused for another moment
