Val sat in a large chair in a dark room filled with computer screens and hard drives. The low hum of the processors in the background ring in his ears. The computer screens in front of Val all had the same message plastered on them.


[File Upload Complete]

Then a pair of red boxes flashed on every screen.

[TIER 3 RISK DETECTED!]

[Run Program: Shiva.exe Y/N]

Val couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that things had come to this. His security was almost fool proof, yet right now the entire network he had built was experiencing a meltdown. This virus would infect every file, corrupt every program and make the system inoperable. It was quite possible the most impressive thing he had ever seen, and for that reason, Val swelled with pride because he was the man who had written it.

If he let his virus run, the Court of Miami would lose decades of progress; bank account numbers, contact information, records, fake identities, the cumulative wealth of the Court could be wiped out with a key stroke. Shiva would move from this server to server corrupting every line of code. There was no fixing what he was about to do. The Prince would want him captured and brought back to repair the damage, when Val couldn’t do that, he would be killed. Despite the risk, this was his way out. Leona, Rafael, Dominic, they had all used him, forced him to build this for them. Years of work for a Prince that saw him only as a tool. “Fuck all of you.” Val pressed the Y key.

A few seconds later windows begin to open all over the screen.

[NETWORK BREACH]
[CONTAINMENT IN PROGRESS]
[EMAIL ALERT IN PROGRESS!]
[SYSTEM BACKUP IN PROGRESS]
[CONTAINMENT FAILURE]
[SENDING FAILURE]
[SYSTEM BACKUP FAILURE]

A few seconds later every monitor goes black.

Then computer seems to start just like normal. All the icons appear on their respective screens just like normal. Yet on each monitor where the clock should have been, a small percentage was slowly increasing.

[0.01%]
[0.02%]

As Val stands up from the desk and looks at the servers around him. One by one they were having their information randomized. Files were being reorganized; account numbers were being erased and replaced with random numbers. Certain programs that Val had written were being deleted entirely. It would take all night for the virus to run its course, there were terabytes of information to corrupt. Once the other administrators came in tomorrow night the damage would be done. Even if Dominic showed up tonight, there would be little for him to salvage.

With Shiva ravaging the network, Val collected his bag. He had packed before coming into the office. He strolls through the office space laughing a little bit to himself. He had just destroyed years of his life and he had nothing to show for it. If he had taken the money, they could find him. They could trace him. Val quickens his pace at the thought of this. These dogs would hunt him, he had seen it happen before. It would be harder without resources though. He could make it a lot further before they found him.

“Time to get the hell out of Miami.”