Chapter 448
Chapter 448:
The engineers were huddled around the main control computer, furrowing their brows and scratching their heads at the lines of code on the screen. They looked nothing like a sharp, top-tier technical team — they looked like trapped animals stuck at a dead end. The lab was thick with stifling anxiety.
Belle’s smile froze solid. Her fingers tightened around the coffee cups. She stormed forward, suppressing her rage, and slammed both cups down hard on an empty workbench. The sharp noise made the engineers jump and spin around at once.
“What’s going on?” Her voice was ice. Her gaze fixed on Tom, the former team supervisor she had bribed heavily to defect, who was sweating profusely. “I told you to import the Carson Dynamics data. What are you all dawdling for p>
Tom’s back was soaked with cold sweat. He didn’t dare look up at her, his voice flustered and hoarse. “Ms. Belle… the data… we can’t open it p>
Belle’s brows knitted into a tight frown. “What do you mean you can’t open it? You have the core hard drive, and you’re telling me you can’t access it? Don’t make excuses p>
“It’s no excuse!” Tom cried, pointing shakily at the screen. “The hard drive is encrypted with military-grade encryption. We tried to crack it and triggered a self-destruct protocol immediately. If we force it any further, the core source code will be permanently erased — nothing will be left p>
Q𝗎𝘢𝗹i𝘵𝘆 𝗍rа𝘯𝘴𝘭𝘢𝗍і𝗈𝗇𝗌 оn
The words hit her like a thunderclap.
Belle froze for a second, then her rage spiraled completely out of control. She hurled one of the coffee cups onto the floor. The ceramic shattered, coffee splattering across the tiles in a mess that mirrored her unraveling composure.
“Useless!” she shrieked, trembling. “All of you are useless! Aren’t you supposed to be the core team? You can’t even get the encryption key? I’ve spent millions on you, and this is what you deliver p>
Tom hung his head, his voice low but cutting straight to the truth. “Isolde never trusted us. She kept the core encryption keys and underlying source code locked away. We only ever accessed peripheral programs. She was guarding against us from the very start p>
Belle staggered back against the workbench, her face draining to the color of chalk. The rage faded, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness. She had been played from the very beginning. Grayson’s unease the night before had already known it.
Just then, Grayson pushed the door open and stepped in. He glanced at the shattered ceramic on the floor and the cluster of panicked engineers, then raised an eyebrow.
“Looks like your elite team has run into a major problem,” he said, his tone laced with quiet sarcasm.
Belle forced down her panic, arranging her expression into something composed. “It’s just a minor technical glitch. It will be fixed quickly p>
Grayson walked to the computer and studied the garbled code on the screen. His gaze darkened.
“Isolde did this p>
Tom nodded quickly, his voice carrying a reluctant awe. “Yes, sir. Her skills… we can’t even begin to comprehend them p>
Grayson’s expression turned complicated and unreadable. He realized, with a cold clarity, that he had never truly understood the woman who had once cooked for him every single day. He turned away from the screen.