Part 17 Mess

Khushi looked at Arnav with the same shock who just turned her computer ON as she also saw the same words on her computer screen. That indicated, that their company's server was under DARK WEB mafia's control.

Arnav tapped the keyboard nervously but no use. The screen didn't change. Ranjith smirked, seeing his suffocation.

"ASR... what's this?" Aman also shouted.

"It shows DOTMADS" Priyanka said.

"Ransomware affected system only shows like this. Right?" Aman asked.

Arnav nodded yes.

"Whaaaat? Ransomware? What does that mean?" NK was shocked.

"It's a kind of VIRUS. Some Mafias using them to earn money from companies." Arnav said gritting his teeth.

"Can't we open our system?" Priyanka asked.

"No... all our files would be corrupted" Arnav sat with a thud.

"My God... how could we complete the project today? We have to submit it tomorrow" NK said.

"But, why the Mafia is targeting us? What will they get from doing this?" – Priyanka.

"Money... what else?" – Arnav.

"Will they demand?" – Priyanka.

Arnav nodded yes.

"Then, we have to approach them and talk to them without wasting time," Priyanka said nervously.

"We can't approach them... we can talk to them only IF they want to... they may be anywhere in the world. We can't find their details..." Arnav said.

"Then, how will we complete the project? We almost completed it. only ten percent of the work should be done. Can't we retrieve them?"

"To do that, we should open our system first. We can't do that we cleared the problem. The one who hacked it can only do that because it's a kind of VIRUS... our anti-virus applications are not enough to protect our computers"

"But, we can protect our systems with two strong anti-virus applications," Said Khushi who was silent till then.

All of them looked at her.

"Yeah, Quick Heal and Kaspersky. They protect but won't recover..." She added.

"We should have installed them cautiously" Priyanka squeezed her hands.

"What can we do now, Nannav?"

"We should take this issue to Bhashyam, sir," Aman said.

"Yes, we have to do it," NK said.

"But, he would also have known about it by now, right?" Priyanka asked.

"No... his system is a personal computer. It's not connected with our server" Said Arnav.

"Oh..."

"I don't know how to tell him this. He hopes to submit the project tomorrow. How could we disappoint him? Our company has never given an excuse for any of its projects so far. How could we make him do that now?" Arnav felt bad.

"What's our mistake, ASR? This is not in our hands. This happened because of a Mafias... don't feel bad"

"Being head of the team is not easy, Arnav. You should have learned to save your teammate's hard work before started leading them" Ranjith said sarcastically.

"Shut up, Ranjith. Don't you know the basics of courtesy? You first learn, when and what to talk" Priyanka said furiously.

"I will learn them relaxingly... but you guys can't be relaxed because this is about our company's goodwill and reputation. How are you going to overcome this?"

"Arnav, let's go and tell Bhashyam sir about it"

"Go... he will fire all of you"

"He doesn't have to do it. I will resign if he thinks I'm responsible for this mess" Arnav said furiously.

Khushi was shocked. She just did the project to IMPRESS Arnav. She didn't expect such a mess. She was hesitating to tell them about the project. She didn't know how would they react. What if Ranjith might create a problem again by finding another excuse. But, Ranjith was not a problem here but submitting the project. Why should she hesitate when she did no wrong? She decided to give the project to Arnav.

That was when Lavanya rushed inside.

"My computer shows something. Can anyone come to our section and check what's that?" She asked.

Khushi turned her computed screen towards her.

"Yeah... I'm also getting the same" Lavanya said, looking at her computer screen.

"Our company server is affected by Ransomware virus," NK said.

"Virus? But, our computers have anti-virus"

Priyanka explained the issue to Lavanya. So that, she would let the staff know the issue.

"If it is so, how will you guys complete your project?" Lavanya asked.

"We have no idea. We are stuck" NK said.

Lavanya looked at Khushi who was silent.

"Khushi, YOUR project also gone?" She asked.

All of them looked at her with confusion. What was Lavanya talking about? What was HER project?

Khushi nodded no slowly.

"Really?" Lavanya was excited.

Khushi smiled.

"That means you guys are STILL IN"

"What are you talking about, Lavanya?" NK asked.

"Khushi also did the same project... she almost would have completed it..."

Cutting her,

"I completed it last night"

"What are you saying, Khushi?" NK asked curiously.

"Actually, our head didn't want me to be part of it. So, I thought to... (she paused for a while not uttering, IMPRESS HIM and continued) finish it alone..."

"Did you finish it?" Aman asked unbelievably.

Khushi nodded yes.

"Really, Khushi?" Priyanka asked.

"Mmm"

"But the program capacity is so high. You could not store it in a Pen drive" Arnav said.

Khushi removed the hard disk from her bag and showed it to him. All of them were stuck for a few seconds not knowing how to react to it.

Ranjith suffocated because he was the one behind the Ransomware mess. He did that to show them that they could not win all the time. Yet, they won by an unexpected twist brought by Khushi. He didn't expect Khushi could complete the project. He would not have spent one lakh to HACK the server through his friend who was in Nigeria.

Priyanka rushed to Khushi and hugged her tight.

"Thank you so much, Khushi... you are a genius... you are brilliant..." She pecked her forehead strongly, making her suffocate.

NK rushed to her and tried to hug Khushi who was taken aback, widening her eyes. He stopped and said,

"Wow... Khushi, I don't know how to thank you... flatter you... celebrate you... you are amazing..."

Clutching her hand, he shook her hand fast.

"Hey, are you going to separate her hand from her body?" Priyanka laughed.

"Thank you so much, Khushi," NK said.

Khushi suffocated to standing their-overjoy. She looked at the most important person who was looking at her with a smile in his eyes.

They looked at Ranjith who said,

"Wow... what a drama...!"

All of them frowned.

"After corrupting our company system, how beautifully you are giving your project...! What a new way of taking the CREDIT...!"

"Ranjith, mind your tongue... why should she do corrupt the system?" Lavanya sneered.

"What else? To become a NEXT team head..."

"She is not so CHEAP to do such a nasty thing," Lavanya said.

"Why not? She is an IIT Topper, an expert in Computers... she should have corrupted the system to get our CEO's attention and at the same time, our team head's heart will also melt for her... what else she needs?"

"I will RESIGN if you prove it's me who corrupted the system," Khushi said daringly.

All of them looked at her stunningly.

"It's not necessary for me to play such a cheap game to become the team head. I can do it with my programming skills. If this kind of cheap moves can make the person the head of the team, SOMEONE would have been the head of the team by now, instead of Arnav" She said, heated up.

"Then, prove you didn't do it," Ranjith said.

"Why should I prove? It's you who accused me... then, you should prove it. or else, I will file a defamation suit against you for blaming me"

"Whaaat? Will you file a case against me? How dare you?"

"Then, what do you think of me? Will you say anything about me and will I be quiet listening to you?"

Taking the hard disk, Khushi came to Arnav's table and kept it in front of him.

"If YOU(stressing) trust me, take it... or else, break it," she said angrily, looking at Ranjith.

"Take it, Arnav, hiding in someone's shadow is not new to you... take it and get the credit" Ranjith laughed and all of them looked at him loathly.

"ASR, just leave him and go"

"Yes, Nannav, forget that idiot"

"Hey, mind your tongue"

"You try to do that, first" NK snapped him back.

They saw Bhashyam rushing to their section.

"Arnav, what's all this?" he asked panicking.

"Is our server hacked?"

They didn't know how Bhashyam got to know about the issue because his computer was not connected to the office server.

"How do you know, sir?" Arnav asked.

"I got a call from a foreign number a few minutes ago. They are demanding ten lakhs to release our server"

Ranjith was shocked. He didn't know his friend would ask for money from Bhashyam to release the server. It was unexpected to him. He asked him to hold the server for JUST two days until the last submission date of the project.

"Yes, sir, our company server is affected by Ransomware"

"But why?"

"We don't know Sir..." Arnav said feeling bad.

"Why did they corrupt our system leaving a lot of multinational companies behind? Could not they have earned money in crores if they did this to the multinational companies...? Why our company?" Bhashyam asked.

"This makes sense..." Aman said.

Arnav became thoughtful.

"I'm ready to give them money but they want it in cryptocurrency. How could I make it possible in the short period?" Bhashyam said wearily.

"Yes, sir... it's because it doesn't need any personal information. We can make transactions without letting the opposite person know about us." Aman said.

"Sir, from which country did you get the call?" Arnav asked.

Ranjith became horrified because they knew he had a friend in Nigeria and he was an expert in computers.

"Yeah, I checked the country CODE number. The call was from Nigeria" Bhashyam said and everyone automatically looked at Ranjith.

To be continued...