CHAPTER TWO

JASON

I just arrived at the Emzitech building. I had not been here for several days since I had to study for my final exams. I had to juggle between the business and my studies. I had my last exams for the year. i was quite sure I did well

with all of the exams, especially with favourite subjects, science and math. I had several math subjects during this last high school term. I took algebra, calculus, and business math.

I was quite proud of myself for finding the exams quite easy. My classmates found them all difficult. I had already been accepted at the Carnegie Mallon University. So I was expecting to just enjoy my summer and get used to being the CEO of Emzitech.

I was whistling my favourite tune as I entered the Emzitech building. The Emzitech building consisted of twenty eight floors. We have a total of two hundred eleven employees. We were just trying to make things run as smoothly as possible while trying to come up with be ideas, new softwear, new designs for our computers. We also have our own advertising company to make sure our products remain popular and deal with any scandal.

My father renovated the whole place last year. The exteriors of the building is made of glass. The flooring from top to bottom was covered with lush, comfortable carpet imported from Saudi Arabia. You would think the place was a high end hotel instead of an IT building.

Since I became the new CEO of Emzitech, I always tried to look my best by wearing elegant long sleeve business shirts whenever I go to the office. Today, I was wearing a crisp business maroon shirt with a cream business jacket to match. I hope I look cool.

"Good morning, Mr Ziegler," Alice, the sexy receptionist greeted me with a smile. She had been with my Dad's business for eight years. She was wearing a black business suit with a matching skirt that hug tightly on her hips.

I gave her a warm smile and greeted her, too. I think I prefer being called Mr Ziegler than Jason.

So I went in my Dad's private elevator to his office, which was now mine.

I have a new secretary, Stella. She was quite young, just twenty-three years old. She handed me the folders that needed my attention; new equipment we need to buy, computers we need to upgrade, new software we need to test, meetings for the week, labour concerns…the list goes on and on.

"Have you checked them out?"

"Yes, Mr Ziegler," she smiled. "I think you need to check the meetings agenda's first, just to make sure we have everything covered during the meetings. You know, so not to waste time."

I nodded. "Were you able to make the schedule for today?"

"Yes, Mr Ziegler." She gave me my schedule, along with the files. I went inside my office to sort it out.

Since I just started a few months ago, I was still trying to study the issues I need to resolve on my own and issues that I can just pass to my department heads. I told them that I just wanted to be updated on the issues of each department even though the department head can solve the issues on their own.

At this time, I was still learning what I need to prioritize. After he got out of the hospital, Dad tried to give me some pointers. But I was also thankful that he tried to give me as much freedom as possible in making my own decisions.

Time flew fast. In a short while, Stella came in to ask what I wanted for lunch. So I just told her to order Chinese food for me. I ate lunch while I was checking out the cash flow and the mid budget for the year. Stella takes her lunch at the cafeteria.

After lunch, I had to attend the meetings. The department heads just wanted my feedback and they were just trying to learn how I wanted to do things, the changes I wanted to implement.

By three p.m., I wanted to go home.

That was when I received this very intriguing call that changed my life…

It started when Stella knocked on my door and I told her to come in. She hesitatingly informed me, "Mr Ziegler, you might want to take this call."

I looked up from the budget summary I was inspecting. "What is it about?"

"I'm not sure, but it has something to do with a security concern."

I frowned. "What do you mean? How come you are not even sure if it's a security problem or not?"

She still looked so hesitant. "It sounded serious. The girl on the phone threatened to shut down all our systems before midnight today."

I stood up shocked. "What are you talking about? All our systems are secure. No one can shut them off! It must be a prank or something."

Stella solemnly told me, "she sounded serious."

"Have you alerted security?"

"Yes."

"So what happened?"

"I tried to turn her over to security, but she would just hung up and call again and again.

"Did you ask her what she wanted?"

"Yes.She said she will only talk to you"

I tried to process my thoughts. "When was the last she called."

"Less than five minutes ago."

"Okay. Connect her to me the next time she calls but tell Steve to listen in." Steve was head of security.

"Alright." She closed the door.

After a few minutes, Stella buzzed me using the intercom. "She's in line three."

"Who is this?" I got my laptop ready to jot down her name.

"Leila"

"Leila who?"

"Leila Evff

"Leila Evans."

I wrote down her name. "How can I help you today, Ms Evans?" I paused. "Just a minute. How old are you?"

"Thirteen." She was only thirteen and she was calling me up threatening to shut down all all our systems. What a laugh!

I repeated, "You told my secretary you wanted to speak to me. So now you have my attention. How can I help you Ms Evans?"

"I want you to offer me a scholarship." She said so softly, like she wasn't capable of hurting a fly.

"We do charity work. Did you mention what you wanted to my secretary, Stella?"

"No I didn't!" She was starting to sound nervous."You are the only person I want to talk to, no one else! Aside from the scholarship, there are other things I want you to do for me."

At that time, I was thinking of hanging up on her. But then, this might really be a serious matter. I decided to continue talking to her. "What other things?" She sounded like an innocent angel. Her voice was very deceiving.

"I want your parents to adopt me and I want you to marry me when I turn eighteen."

I orally lost it! "Are you out of your mind?" I shouted at her. "Why would they adopt you? Why would I marry you? You're too young to think of marriage. You're not even out of Kindergarden yet. Why would I marry a nutcase?" I should have hung up on her. But I don't know why I continued listening to her soft alluring voice.

My words didn't seem faze her. She continued talking softly in her gentle, child-like voice. "I just got my high school diploma three days ago. I want to be in the same university as you. I want you to be my classmate."

"No way!." She's really crazy! The more I talk to her, the crazier she becomes. I didn't believe for one minute she had already graduated from high school. She was a lot younger than me. My graduation would be two months from now. This conversation was going too far. Time to end it. "I'm sure you can get a scholarship if you fill our application form online. Just submit it with a copy of your transcription of records and diploma and wait for the results."

"There are already 33,254 candidates who applied for a scholarship in your company. Your company is only offering ten."

How did she know how many had already applied? "You can apply at other companies. I still have a lot to do, I…"

She interrupted me," if you don't do all my requests, I will shut down all your systems before eight p.m. tonight."

"Just try it. I doubt you can break through our firewall." I hung up disgusted. The world is full of crazy people.

I immediately called up Steve. "Were you able to trace the call?"

"It's in California," Steve informed me.

"Call the police."

"I think it's too early for that. It might just be a prank call."

"What if our system shuts down tonight?"

"Then that's when we call the police." Steve laughed. "Do you really believe a thirteen-year-old can hack all our computers and shut them all down?"

"Maybe." Then I told him. I would be as crazy as she is if I believe her. "Let's just wait and see."

I couldn't do any more work for that day. My mind kept returning to my conversation with Leila. I wondered if Leila was just a lunatic, or just a big fan of me, or just wanted some freebies because for several weeks now, the news were filled up with news about me being the youngest billionaire in the whole country. I decided to call it a day and just bring some of the folders home.