Chapter 6 - The Trojan Horse
The public humiliation drove Richard to sheer desperation.
With Thorne Global preparing for the massive international launch of my structural software—now rebranded as Apex Core—Richard knew that if my software succeeded, his obsolete firm would be instantly wiped off the map.
It was late Tuesday night, three days before the launch. I was alone in the server room, running a final diagnostic on the code. I had written every line of this program myself. I knew its architecture better than my own heartbeat.
Suddenly, a red anomaly flagged on my secondary monitor.
Unauthorized access protocol. Line 4088.
Someone was trying to inject a dormant malware worm into the update patch. If this went live on Friday, it would corrupt the databases of every Thorne Global client worldwide, causing billions in damages and ruining my reputation permanently.
I didn't panic. I traced the IP origin. It was coming from inside the building.
I pulled up the internal security feeds. On the 14th floor, a junior developer named Greg was sitting at his desk, sweating profusely, typing furiously. Greg had previously interned at Sterling Architecture.
Richard had bought a rat.
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Instead of shutting Greg out, I opened a backdoor I had built into the system years ago—a ghost protocol. I allowed Greg's malware to upload, but I quarantined it in a sandbox server that mirrored the real one. Greg thought he had succeeded. He packed his bag and practically ran out of the building.
I smiled in the glowing blue light of the server room. Richard wanted to play corporate espionage? I was going to let him dig his own grave, and I was going to broadcast the funeral.
