Chapter 05: Ms. Robot
[SIX MONTHS AGO]
"MORRIGAN!"
A woman clad in an off-white dress cried out her name and she felt an intense pain after the cold steel pierced her body. Staring at the ghostly silhouette of the lady was like a nightmare but at the same time, she felt her heart drawn to the image of her dreary blue eyes gazing with immense yearning.
Then she wakes up from her sleep, sweaty and invigorated like her body craved to move somewhere and reach the woman in her dreams. Jogging was her only way to discharge the sudden adrenaline. After tiring herself, she would go back to her slumber and have better rest without the sight of misery she felt whenever the memory of the woman runs back to haunt her again.
It wasn't a mystery. The face of the woman appearing in her sleep was someone real. And she first had a glance of her in a sports fair in high school where she participated for the first time in fencing.
At that time, everything felt surreal as she stood mesmerized by the golden-haired girl with ocean eyes glistening as the light hit the girl's face standing at the stage.
"Ms. Bridgette Henry from Royal Academy."
The commentator announced the participant in the spotlight and the teenager bowed gracefully to the judges and her opponent. When the referee began the duel, she was captivated by how refined each step, attack, and parry the lass did. It was a perfect win and she could not help but adore the elegance of a girl who was once only a dream.
After the event, she begged her parents to transfer her to a different school. Citing, it was to polish her fencing skill as Royal Academy was known to be the best in honing talented duelists. In secret, she hoped to meet the girl and ask the questions she longed to be untangled.
Do you dream about me too?
But it wasn't as simple as she hoped it would be. When she approached the girl in her dreams, the teenager gave her an icy cold stare from head to feet.
"What can I do for you, Miss—?"
"—Knight, Morrigan Knight," she answered in confidence, hiding the trembling hands on her back.
"What can I do for you, Miss Knight?" Bridgette repeated her question with arms folded.
"I want to join the fencing club," she announced but was met with laughter.
"I'm sorry but the fencing club is full."
"Full?"
"After Maude won the competition, a lot of students joined. And we accommodate them first," a girl with auburn hair bragged as she stood beside Ms. Henry.
"Maude?"
"Hey—we're the only ones who can call her that!" the girl continued to rant.
"Audrey—will you please stop! I can speak for myself!" Bridgette chided at the girl.
A silent "sorry" came out from the teenager named Audrey, who stepped back to give Bridgette space to speak. Then with a fierce glare, the leader walked up to her and gave her final decision.
"Why don't you go back to your previous school? The Guardians Academy has their fencing club, right?" Bridgette sneered.
A part of her wanted to confide and say "I came here for you. To be near you. To know you." But she concealed all those words and instead came up with better confidence.
"Royal Academy won the competition and proved to be the best. I want to sharpen my skills and be the best too."
"So what?! So you could teach your friends in Guardian Academy about us? Our weaknesses?" Ms. Henry accused her of being a "tattletale".
"I'm not like that. I have loyalty and integrity," she defended herself with pride.
"And you're also from the other school who competed at the tournament!" Bridgette derided her confidence, "I'm sorry, your intentions might be noble but I can't let you join the club, Ms. Knight."
Instead of losing hope, she felt more empowered to prove herself. Within the Royal Academy, two fencing clubs emerged. The red roses with Bridgette Henry as the head and white roses which she leads. It was like a "War of Roses" where two of them fight which club was the best and in the last competition, they emerged victorious.
A ringing sound seized her attention away from reminiscing. It came from the phone hidden underneath the floorboards of her apartment. After the ring ended, she waited for it to ring again for the fourth time which means it wasn't an accidental call. It came from a potential client.
After picking up the phone, she sprinted out of her room and marched down the basement where her laptop nestled on top of the messy table. With a secure line, she sent a message to the number that called her phone.
Lancelot: how can I be of service?
01022021: We want a DDoS attack on Castle.
C.A.S.T.L.E. or Computer Advance Security and Technology Logistics Enterprise. The anonymous client asked to attack one of the top cybersecurity companies that protect banks and other businesses which includes social media sites. If her theory was right, the DDoS attack would be used to weaken the security while another hacker steals information from their target.
Lancelot: 10 million euro.
01022021: …
It was a high price for an attack that could only last 24 hours max but the success of it could make her client a hundred times richer.
01022021: Fine. We'll deposit the money after the attack.
Lancelot: When?
01022021: We'll give you a week to prepare.
A short week to formulate an attack on the distinguished firewalls of the CASTLE would be tough but manageable. It would be one of her greatest challenges to break their security which other hackers failed to accomplish.
Lancelot: Let's talk about the plan after 3 days.
01022021: Good. Let's talk after 3 days.
After the last message, she closed the connection and walked towards her working station. An L-shaped table with a 49 inches Curved Gaming Monitor on top and two 27 inches wall-mounted displays above it.
On her left stood the customized CPU with the best setup for fast processing. With AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core, 32-Thread Unlocked processor and GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Master for the motherboard.
As any hacker's main weapon, computers had to be quick and sharp. And the castle of the queen was made formidable, she would be needing more than a sword to penetrate its walls.
She would make the Queen or CEO of the castle bow to her greatness, the prominent Ms. Bridgette "Maude" Henry.