The Hated Millionaire Heir

Unexpected

Alarms echoed inside the server room, nose tearing rings blasted the walls forcing those inside to exit the building, “Call Sam ASAP!” Rocky ordered. Smoke brewed on the far west of the building, people were still running out coughing, their eyes red and tears flowing. “The fire is from the server room.” Rocky stated, his wrists clipped his waist his elbows poked out, he walked left and right two step and a turn, his worries were evident and reasonable. The fire had managed to spread across the whole basement and somehow to the ground floor, smoke rose from the elevator and filled the reception area. The beautiful inviting arena was now a scene of soot and toxins, “Mr. Sam we have a situation.” The secretary informed.

On the other side of the phone Sam placed his newspaper on the table, he wore his glasses and worriedly he asked, “What happened?”, “Sir its best you see for yourself.” The voice imposed. “I’m on my way.” Sam remarked ending the call, “Honey we have to go.” He ushered his wife, “What is it?” she asked resting the flat dough on the kitchen table. “I don’t know but it sounds serious.” He claimed, he wore his brown coat on top of his fitting silk shirt, his trunks were well off and to the door he rubbed the dust off his leather boots. “Have you tried reaching out to Mary?” she asked from the kitchen area, “Not yet I will call her on the way.” He answered. Bending down he tied his laces into bunny ears and brushed the slight mud on the edge with his saliva moistened finger. Sam rose and glanced at his watch, “Honey we have to go.” He reminded his wife, “I heard you. Give me five minutes.” She hissed. Pausing her cake baking for the emergency she set the oven for a steady fifty degrees for thirty minutes, the table was still covered in flour and baking soda yet she placed her white kitchen robe on top of the powdery mess. Eliz exited the kitchen with sticky hands and body covered in cooking oil, she went up the stairs to the master bedroom for a shower meanwhile his husband was thin on patience. “Honey, meet me there.” He ushered, “Give me five more minutes.” She insisted, “If I do we will both be late so, see you there. Bye I love you.” He proclaimed. Grabbing the keys Sam closed the door behind him as he walked to the black Saloon car. He revved the engine and zoomed off tension itching his skin, “What can it be?” he pondered at the red light stop. Sam had reached the highway in five minutes in spite of the hectic traffic, “Five more minutes.” He whispered. Foot on the gas he drove off switching lanes and overtaking consistently, in a matter of minutes he was within the ten-meter range.

Commonly or mostly, he could see the company’s rooters past the junction but on this particular day he couldn’t see past the cloudy smoke. Sam panicked as he rushed down the free road, he could hear sirens as he neared, he was fearful of the worst as he took the last left turn past the arrow sign that pointed to his destination. Red trucks with white ladders on top, men in heavy clothing and yellow helmets, white vans with sirens on top, a stretcher rolled into the van labelled “AMBULANCE”, he walked into his nightmare and wished all was a dream but the smoke was real, everything was. Three firemen rushed in the building with heavy clothing and axes in hand, ladders stretched to the second floor, on each ladder end was a fire man with a hose in hand, on different sides of the building each tried putting out the fire amidst the storm of smoke. In the basement a team of fifteen firemen was armed with extinguishers putting out the fire at its heart, the raging flames burned most of what was there sparing the walls and highly densified steel. After every ten minutes a pair of firemen crawled out with what they could salvage, hard drives were packed in boxes and rolled out, victims were rushed out and handed to the paramedics for first aid. For the ten minutes he stood there in disbelief the hectic commotion was mute to his ear drums, he was witnessing an eighties film commonly referred as moving pictures, “I’m ruined!” he cursed. The man frozen to the ground suddenly collapsed in tears, Rocky rushed at the sight of his boss’s fall and alarming cries. “Sir don’t panic. Call the medics.” Rocky called, “Relax sir. Relax.” He calmed Sam. “Call the medic..”, the voices faded, “Rela…” the sentences broke into words, words into letters and eventually his eyes shut.

Five hours later in a nearby hospital in a certain ward doctors walked out with a sigh of relief, their gloves clicked as they wrapped them into balls and disposed in the nearby bin. Sam was yet to open his eyes, beside him was his wife who whispered prayer with a tear drop falling, his daughter was yet to arrive but some senior employees were outside the room talking. “Wake up dear.” Elizabeth requested crying, the doctors said he was fine and he was to wake up anytime from now but she was yet to believe the words of the modernized medicine men.

Heavy breaths began, his fingers twitched slightly, his lips murmured inaudible words, the machine beside him that monitored his condition indicated a rise in pulse and pressure, “Call the doctor!” Elizabeth screamed. “Relax, honey please relax!” she whispered, she brushed his forehead blowing slightly to calm him, his eyes were open and bulged out when his whole body suddenly went into a seizure and was shaking violently. “Give me the needle now!” the first doctor ordered, “Madam I need you to step out please.” The second doctor insisted, “What’s wrong with him!” she asked worriedly. “He is having a shock intrusion and it has affected his nervous system.” The doctor explained, “We are helping him so trust us and wait outside please. Okay.” The doctor promised. Elizabeth was escorted out by a nurse with her purse in hand, Rocky sat her down on the waiting bench feet from the door, “Your daughter is on her way.” Rocky informed. Elizabeth thanked Rocky for his gesture with a smile, Rocky went back to his committee while Elizabeth clamped her fingers between each other, she closed her eyes and in tears she prayed for the fifth time that day.

She drove carelessly on the two-way road, she was past the speed limit yet she felt she was slow and the car was motionless, every moment she glared at her watch and cursed. At the red light she stopped for a brief pause of all the tension around her, she rolled down the window for the breeze to cool her, when the red turned green she rolled it up and drove away. A left turn on the unusually packed road she cautiously drove watching out for the hectic movement and panic, she neared her father’s company and noted the charred black color on the building walls. She neared and noted the abundant ambulances and fire trucks, how exhausted the paramedics were, the countless victims with scars and various degree burns, some feet away from the vans she parked her car. Mary alighted and walked to the nearest fire truck, calmly she reached out to the nearest fire man, “Hello how bad is it?” she asked, “Madam we aren’t sure till we can canvass the whole building. Right now, we are wrapping up the fire in the basement.” The fireman responded. “How did it start?” she asked again, “Like I said till we are done we cannot know for sure but likely is the basement because we are having it rough putting it off.” He concluded. “Thank you.” She appreciated, leaving the man to his work Mary walked back to her car and drove off to the hospital.

“How you feeling?” she asked, “Better.” He answered, an hour passed and Sam was now conscious and stable, the doctors assured her he will be discharged in a day or two. Sam and Elizabeth conversed silently within themselves while Rocky and his team were still outside, “She will be here.” Elizabeth answered the query that pondered Sam’s head. Parked the car in the parking lot, Mary exited and her purse hanging on her shoulder she rushed inside the hospital, “Ward 52.” The receptionist guided her. Mary rushed up the stairs and after the first floor she walked in the third room on her right past her employees who greeted her pausing their argumentations. “Dad!” she screamed, Mary rushed into her father’s arms in tears sympathizing his condition, “What happened are you okay?” she asked panicked. “I’m fine.” Sam assured her, for the five minutes she was there she was affirmed infinite times that her father’s condition would be better and he would be discharged and eventually be the energetic lad he was before. “We are glad to see you up sir.” Rocky spoke, the team walked in after the emotional rain inside had calmed, five members were present including Rocky, each had his own department to monitor and now was the time they assessed the impact of the sudden calamity.

“How bad is it?” Sam kicked off the conversation, “I spoke with the men back and unfortunately sir our servers were severely damaged,” Rocky paused, “the processors that hold the server data have been destroyed completely and the few that have been salvaged have most of the data incomplete.” He informed. “How long will it take for us to recover?” Sam asked, sitting in an upright posture he took a deep breath before a team member spoke, “Five months sir. We have to work on reconstructing the server room, importing new servers, securing our data that may have been breached, reconstructing the reception area and other costs.” The lad explained. “What do you mean our data may have leaked?” Sam asked, his tone had a hint of worry and tension, “Sir when the servers were destroyed our online firewalls and blockades may have been temporarily down and despite the alternative protective measures there is a chance some data may have leaked.” The lad ushered. “Okay so before anything else we need to work on getting our firewalls back on. “Run a security scan on every access to our website and analyze every piece. Check for suspicious addresses, anonymous user names, any detail that seems untraceable.” Sam instructed. The lad with his orders exited the room, “What else do we have?” Sam asked rubbing his nose with his palm.

“Sir we have another problem.” Another lad began, “What is it?” Sam asked impatiently. “When our servers were down many of our business operations were down as well. All our orders were delayed, bookings we made were cancelled, every financial transaction and business meetup was impassible.” The lad remarked. “Are we up or do we have a solution?” Sam asked, “Currently we don’t. Without our servers we cannot conduct any transaction. The reconstruction will take at least five months and if we wait for that much…” the lad cut his statement as a sign of evident doom for the Kang’s enterprise. “Is there a way we can temporarily hold our business till we can reconstruct?” Sam asked, “If we can find servers strong and big enough to run our core data we can have some borrowed time to stay afloat.” The lad hinted. “Good so we can hire servers from other companies.” Rocky stated, “Hiring a server for an hour costs five figures and we need those servers running every hour so hiring will be VERY expensive.” The lad muttered insisting on the term very expensive.

“Which company can we set a meetup and negotiate on this topic? A company that can spare servers and keep our business running.” Sam anonymously asked, “There is only one company. One technological company with more servers than we do,” the lad paused. “The Masons.” Mary finished, for a brief second the people in the room glared at each other in silence, however, Mary looked down. Everything she had done before she came here, before the news reached her doorstep, she recalled every action and word uttered.