The Strong-Willed Sean O'Connor

CHAPTER 9

When the men entered the office, Victor’s brow arched. He had to admit, he had no idea how many people had been contacted to help resolve the hacking issue. 

And now, as these unfamiliar men stood confidently before him, he wasn’t sure who had called them or what their roles were.

“Who are you?” Victor asked, directing the question to the man with glossy, dark hair and the air of someone used to being in charge.

Abrill glanced at the group, then quickly turned back to the monitor. ‘Mr. O’Connor seems like he knows what he’s doing,’ she thought, mentally bracing herself. ‘Maybe I should just listen to him for now…’

The man with the glossy hair gave a subtle nod, his brows arching slightly. “I’m Dante. Dante Cruz.”

Abrill’s fingers froze above the keyboard.

No way.

She turned sharply to face him, her mouth suddenly dry. “You’re Dante Cruz?”

Dante’s lips curled into a half-smirk. “Depends. How many Dantes do you know?”

Her heart pounded. There was no mistaking it. Dante Cruz, the most revered hacker in the city, if not the country. His digital feats were the stuff of underground legend: breaking into impossible systems, vanishing without a trace, and leaving only his name behind like a phantom signature. 

To Abrill, he was more than just famous, he was a figure of inspiration.

If Sean had once caught her attention with his technique, Dante shattered all comparison. Her admiration for him was instantaneous and overwhelming.

“You need to take over this,” she said breathlessly. “You’re one of the best! I’ve read everything about you. Everything.”

Victor raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by Abrill’s sudden outburst. He shifted his gaze between her and Dante, trying to piece together what was going on.

Dante chuckled and gave her a lazy salute. “Flattered. But I’m here to work. Let’s see what kind of mess we’ve got.”

Abrill couldn’t look away. She had been laser-focused on Sean’s method earlier, but now? Now she was completely thrown. She was standing in the presence of someone she had only read about, admired from afar. 

Sean’s earlier instructions faded from her mind, at this point, she barely remembered them.

“Just handle it, please. Whatever you need, let me know,” she said quickly, almost too eagerly.

Dante nodded and moved toward the workstation. Abrill immediately stepped aside to give him space.

Victor’s expression hardened. “Abrill, what are you doing?” he said sharply. “You know it’s improper to hand over a task already assigned to someone else.”

Abrill shook her head, brushing off his concern. “It’s fine. Mr. Cruz is one of the top cybersecurity experts in the city. If anyone can fix this, it’s him.”

Dante slid into the chair like he owned the place. He gestured for Greg to move, then motioned for one of his team members to take Greg’s position beside him.

He scanned the screen with practiced ease. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, moving more out of habit than necessity as he absorbed the data in front of him.

“Who’s doing this?” he muttered, his tone casual but laced with irritation. He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, yet everyone heard it.

Victor frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure if Dante was referring to the hacker or to Sean, who had been handling the issue up to now.

“Just take care of it,” Abrill urged, not wanting Sean’s name brought up. Right now, she didn’t want anything or anyone distracting Dante.

But Dante wasn’t paying attention to her. His smirk returned as he clicked through several tabs, then leaned back in the chair with an incredulous expression. “This is amateur work. No real hacker would leave this kind of trail. Hell, who’s in charge of this mess? Who let it get this bad?”

He gestured lazily at the screen. “Whoever thought they could just walk in and fix this without noticing these red flags is an idiot. I’ll clean it up. But this should’ve been caught long ago.”

Without waiting for a response, Dante reached toward the power controls to shut down the system, only for Victor to suddenly step forward and grab his wrist.

“What are you doing?” Victor asked, his grip firm.

Dante’s gaze sharpened. “What’s your problem?” he snapped, the easygoing tone vanishing. “Do you have something to say, Mr. Stroud?”

Victor slowly released him, sighing in frustration. “I already have someone handling this. He specifically said not to restart the system. He warned us that the machines should be kept running.”

Dante scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Whoever said that is a fool.”

He didn’t wait for clarification.

“That’s terrible advice. Restarting is the only way to flush out embedded corruption. I’ve been doing this longer than most people in this room have had email addresses. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” He leaned forward with a confident glint in his eye. “If you want this fixed, let me work my way.”

Victor hesitated. Abrill watched with wide, hopeful eyes. Greg remained silent, uncertain.

Dante took the silence as permission. He began flipping switches, initiating a full system reboot.

Victor opened his mouth to object, but it was too late.

Dante pressed the final key, and the screens went dark.

He looked over his shoulder at Victor, calm and cocky. “Relax. You’ll be thanking me when this is all sorted out.”

Greg cast a concerned glance at Abrill, but she didn’t respond. She was still watching Dante like a starstruck fan.

Then—

A harsh alarm blared.

Across the screen, red text appeared:

ERROR: SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED. FIREWALL BREACHED. BACKUP OVERRIDE DISABLED.

The servers began to flash red. The room’s lights flickered and dimmed.

Abrill gasped. “What’s happening?”

Victor rushed forward. “What did you do?”

Dante sat up straight, his confident smirk evaporating. His eyes darted across the rapidly cascading error logs.

“This... this can’t be right,” he murmured. “This isn’t possible.”

Greg leaned in, eyes wide. “The system’s crashing. And the backup...it’s—”

“It’s gone,” Abrill whispered, staring at the screen. “It’s all gone.”