CHAPTER SIX
FIERCE COMPETITION
Jace leaned in closer to the computer screen, squinting his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the plans for his company’s top-secret project still in development, now being unveiled by his biggest competitor.
The conference room was packed with reporters, all clamoring to get a closer look at the schematics displayed on the screen. Jace watched from his office, his eyes glued to the livestream, a vein throbbing on his forehead.
The host of the conference, a man in a suit that looked two sizes too small, grinned from ear to ear. “Well, we have a team of the most brilliant minds in the industry, working around the clock to create the next big thing. And let me tell you, this is no ordinary game-changer.”
He could feel his blood pressure rising as he tried to figure out how this could have happened. He knew he had to act fast, but where to start?
He looked around his office, hoping for inspiration, but all he could see were the framed motivational posters on the wall. “Hang in there,” one of them said, accompanied by a photo of a kitten hanging from a branch.
As he pondered his next move, his phone rang. It was Damien, his head engineer. “Jace, you need to see this,” he said, his voice urgent. “I think I’ve found something.”
He turned off the live stream and stood up from his desk, his mind racing. The whispers in the office had grown to a low roar, and he could feel the weight of everyone’s eyes on him.
He took a deep breath and walked out of his office, determined to get to the bottom of this. But as he made his way through the sea of cubicles, he couldn’t help but feel like he was in a scene from a spy movie.
Everywhere he looked, he saw people whispering and staring at him. He tried to keep his cool, but he could feel the sweat beading on his forehead.
Finally, he reached Damien’s office. “What did you find?” he asked, breathlessly. “I was going through the project files, trying to see if I could find any clues about the leak,” Damien explained. “And then I found it.”
“What did you find?” Jace repeated, growing more impatient by the second. Damien turned his computer screen towards Jace, revealing a file labeled “Project_Backup.” “I made this backup copy of the project files just in case anything ever went wrong,” Damien explained. “And I found some strange activity in the logs that led me to this.”
Jace’s eyes widened as he realized the implications. “So the leak came from within our company?”
“it seems that way,” Damien confirmed, nodding gravely. “But we still need to figure out who did it.”
Jace turned to Damien, a determined look on his face. “I need you to run a search on our network logs. We need to find out who leaked those plans to our competitors.”
Damien furrowed his brow, a look of concentration on his face. “I’m on it, boss. Wait…what’s this? It looks like someone with clearance to access the project files logged in from an outside IP address a week after the parade.”
Jace hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Of course, I should have known better than to trust Frank with sensitive information. Damien looked at him in disbelief. “You gave Frank access to the project files?” Jace nodded “ It was the only way to pacify him.”
“why did Frank do this? Why would he sabotage his own company?” Jace said staring at the space behind Damien’s monitor.
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