Chapter 213 - "Take My Throne"

Jake has spent the remaining part of the weekend in the office doing all he could to save the software, but nothing seems to work, even his teams couldn't do anything about the virus.

The virus wasn't technically harmful, it only slowed the system and crashed it for a while, at least a couple of times daily, other than that there were no more damages. Files and important details were not lost.

But the number of people who had uninstalled the software from their devices was on the rise, ProGuard was close to it's end. They had noticed that the virus goes away when the software is uninstalled from their devices.

Several calls have being coming through his phone every second, and that has resulted in him switching it off.

Jake raked his hand through his hair frustratedly. He felt like yelling and cussing about how incompetent they all were, but he couldn't lose his cool. It wasn't their fault that they couldn't do anything about it. 

He turned to look at Blake who was in turn looking at the teams working, and he hissed.

"Are you going to do something or what?" Jake snapped at him, making Blake turn to him.

"What do you want me to do?" Blake asked looking at him. Jake narrowed his eyes at him without saying anything. Funny how he'd ask such a question.

He sighed and walked past him without saying thing else. It wasn't Blake's responsibility to fix things, but a little help from him could go a long way most especially at a critical time like this.

He knew of his capabilities, he wasn't just a lazy brat like he pretended to be, but he wasn't going to force him to step on board.

He has been feeling very cranky, but it was worse this morning. He hasn't had a moment of rest or good sleep since the problem began. He missed the quiet time he has been enjoying before this trouble came hitting him. He missed his girlfriend. Speaking about her, he hasn't called her since the last time they spoke, and that was on Saturday morning.

He was sure, Jade was worried out of her mind, since she hasn't be able to reach him because he had angrily turned off his phone. He wanted to call her now, but he stopped himself from doing so. She must also be busy at work, he'd call her later.

"Sir the meeting will begin in five minutes" Patrick informed him. Everyone in the room turned by to look at Jake who was sitted on one of the swivelling chairs at the development department, while he kneaded his temples. He closed his eyes as he nodded responsively.

He calmed himself down and picked up his Jacket, before turning to his secretary, Patrick. "Let's go".

...

Outside Acrosoft.

"What do you think will be the outcome of this?" Shirley asked her boss.

"What do you think?" Hillary returned the question back to her. 

Shirley stayed quiet for a minute as she thought about it. She had to be careful with her reply so as not to get Hillary angry.

"I think you'll get the job, since we have that guy on our side" She paused and waited for a while before she continued. "But you know Jake isn't someone who can be easily shaken up. He hasn't even contacted the hackers forum like we thought. So I think you should also be careful, and preferrably stick to your old plot of using those shareholders, but now—" Shirley stopped talking when Hillary tsked, slowly shaking her head at her.

"Poor Shirley, you don't understand a thing. I thought after being with me for so long you'd have learnt by now. But it seems you still have a long way to go, but let me help you understand things right" She said.

"You see my step son Jake is like a king which everybody looks up to for proper leadership. And just like real politics, not everyone likes the king, and also not everyone hates the king. Some will lay their life for him if it's necessary. So when the traitorous ones begin to seek for his abdication, the loyal ones will protest it and then an internal battle will ensue. But there is a way to surpass that torn, and that is to make the king look incompetent, that way even the loyal ones would be in support of his abdication, claiming it's for the good of the nation. And the good thing is the dowager like me just has to step on to the plate and do the needful. So Shirley if you want to kill a snake you must kill it properly least it grows another head and come right back at you. Taking Jake's support is my first step towards crushing him" She explained with a eery smile. Shirley nodded her head in understanding. She had to give it to Hillary for her careful and meticulous planning. The woman was pure evil.

Not only does She have a good percentage of the shareholders wrapped around her finger, she was also going to turn Jake's loyal supporters against him.

"Ah" She exclaimed, taking a deep breath. "You make me talk too much" She hissed softly.

"I'm sorry" Shirley apologized.

"Don't be, just keep learning" She said slowly, her lips curving upward in a smile.

"Okay" Shirley nodded.

"Then let's go take my throne"

.....

Xenox Inc

Jade's grip over her phone was strong enough to break it into pieces. She has been trying to call Jake since the last time they spoke, but his phone has been unreachable. She didn't know how to reach him. She didn't want to call Amy to give her Blake's number. She didn't want to make a fuss about everything.

He was getting her worried and the more she couldn't get across to him, the more it bothered her.

'Did he lose his phone? Did something happen to him? Was he sick? Even if he was, he should tell her so she wouldn't be this worried'

She was having a hard time focusing on work...thanks to Jake for going MIA on her.

If he dares to call and show up with no reasonable explanation for going 'AWOL', she'd kill him. She tear him apart limb by limb, and throw his carcass in the air. But she was also certain that Jake wouldn't stay away from her without calling her if it wasn't serious.

They might have just been dating for a short period of time, but she knew her man well, he wouldn't keep away from her for no reason. Something was wrong with him.

Jade was still lost in thoughts when Sara came rushing in. 

"Jade there's trouble" She nudged Jade on the side, making her jerk. She almost glared at her when Sara scared her like that.

"Jade what's wrong with you" Sara asked out of concern. Jade seemed out of it since she resumed work this morning. She kept zoning out at every second. Jade shook her head as if she was clearing out a clog of cloud hovering in her head, before turning to look at Sara.

"I'm fine. Just had a stressful weekend" She explained.

"You're sure?" Sara asked again. If she was sick, she could inform their boss, Simon, to give the day off.

"Yes I am" Jade assured her. "What's the trouble you're talking about" Jade asked, while Sara gasped dramatically when she remembered what she had hurriedly come to gossip about with Jade.

"Oh my, did you hear about the new virus that's affecting devices now?" Sara asked, while Jade narrowed her brows.

"What virus are you talking about?" Jade asked. She hasn't heard of such.

"Well I heard that ProGuard software has been infected with a virus, and it has been causing such a uproar. Even our games are suffering of same problem. The bosses are having a meeting right now. I heard the company which owned the software are losing their clientele and customers at the moment, it terrible" Sara paused, she looked up at Jade when something finally dawned on her.

"Isn't this the software you had gone to sign a contract for?" She asked Jade with widened eyes, when she came to this realization.

She narrowed her brows when she noticed the way Jade was staring at her, unblinkingly.

Jade was beyond dumbfounded when she heard the first statement that came out of Sara's mouth. A virus had affected ProGuard? So this was the reason Jake hasn't called her. And here she was getting angry at him. How could she have been so foolish and selfish. But was this really true? Was this really happening to him? She wanted to believe that this wasn't entirely true.

She snapped her head up to look at Sara in the eye. "And who told you this?" She desperately asked.

"Ermm Simon. He told me" Sara told her. 

Jade felt a pang in her heart when she heard her. If Simon told her that meant it was true.

Jake was indeed having troubles at work. 

....

Hey lovelies, I want to say a big thank you for the love and supports, you guys have been showing me.

I promised two chapters upload all week and a mass release of 5 chapter if we made top 150, but unfortunately we didn't. But it still good.

So I'll keep up to my promise of two chapters daily update, but no 5 chap mass release, maybe I'll go for 3....I did good right??

So keep showing your author some love and spoil her silly till she's swooned.

I'm happy to have you guys. Love you.

Mass release day: Take a guess??