C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 12

“You should be at the shop with the others, planning.” Kari grumbled as she worked, still trying to re-code the last few files on the system, glad for the N.O.A. virtual security network that she had backed up most of her department’s files onto. It had taken a couple of days to get back into it and the virtual avatar for the system had been making snide comments about the head of the company (which was probably why the other Department Heads hadn’t used it) but it had saved her months and months of work and allowed them to bring the system back up just this morning.

“I’m not leaving you unattended.” Ombre disagreed from her place on the sofa bed Kari had had installed behind the office door, where she was playing on an old handheld console to keep herself occupied. “And even if I would, Kaiba’s made it clear that I’m supposed to be your bodyguard. He’s paying me, remember? He seems to be worried about your safety.”

“He only loves me because I saved his hide.” Kari smirked slightly as she finished her program and compiled it, hoping to run it and check that it worked. “Without the N.O.A. backups, we would have lost everything and they were my idea. He wasn’t even aware it was in his system until I showed him. I do wonder why I couldn’t get the avatar working around him though.”

“Art of public demonstration, remember?” Ombre asked, “It’ll go right every time until you try and show someone. You go on about it often enough when you and Hermione are talking about school and presentations. You even prepare for it when you’re dealing with your boss.”

“Point.” Kari allowed, frowning slightly as the program refused to compile. “Damn it, where am I missing something?” She grumbled, turning her gaze back to the screen, “Are we all packed for tonight?”

Ombre nodded, then remembered that her hikari wasn’t really paying attention to her and spoke up, “Yes. I didn’t think Kaiba would let you go after all of this.”

“I think it’s just so he has an inside eye on what his competitors are up to.” Kari shrugged, still scowling at the screen, “If this VirtualNet thing works like they say it does, then Kaiba Corp could be in huge trouble and considering the hit we just took...”

Ombre sighed. Kari was right. The company was in huge trouble because they had had to shut down the worldwide duelling network for a couple of days. Stock prices had dropped, investors bailed and now with the rumours of a virtual system that didn’t rely on holographic projectors that were carried around by the Duellist using them, they were in even more trouble.

Not that she cared. The only difference it made to her was in how hard it meant her hikari was pushing herself. Kari was ridiculously loyal to the company, and the Kaiba brothers who ran it, and she was pretty certain she had had more sleep than her lighter self over the last three days.

She came around to look at the code on screen and frowned. She didn’t understand most of what Kari called ‘C++’ but she did remember enough of what she had read in the books Kari still had from her courses, to know something rather important.

“You do realise that code is gobbledygook, right?” Ombre asked, causing Kari to glare at her. “No, seriously. I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

“You can’t read code.” Kari pointed out, “So...”

“Kari.” Ombre’s sharp tone made her pull up short, “Stop, rub your eyes and look properly. You’re so ‘code blind’ you’re writing yourself in circles.”

Kari paused, took a deep breath and did as Ombre had suggested. Once she had she flinched. “Oh...oh wow. No wonder it wouldn’t compile.”

“I think it might be time for you to go home and sleep.” Ombre suggested, trying to pull Kari away from the computer.

“I don’t need sleep. I just need more coffee.” Kari tried.

“I...” Ombre let out an exasperated noise and threw her hands up, “That’s it. If you don’t leave with me, willingly, I’m going to get Kaiba to send you home.”

“I’m fine.” Kari objected, “I just...” She trailed off when Ombre glowered at her, “Haven’t slept in about thirty-something hours...”

“Then go home.” Kari started at the sound of a male voice in her doorway. She looked over to find Seto Kaiba was stood in the doorway to her office and didn’t look amused. “Sleep is an inefficient waste of time, but working on a lack of sleep is even worse because it forces you to redo work. Give me the files you’re working on then go home. I don’t expect to see you until after the DimSoft beta.”

“But sir...” Kari tried.

“Home. Ironhide. Now.” Kaiba growled at her.

“Yes, sir.” Kari sighed, copying her program onto a disc and passing it to her boss on the way out, feeling a bit dejected.

“Ironhide...” She paused halfway down the corridor at the sound of Kaiba’s call, “Good work.”

There was a moment where Kari didn’t know how to respond, then she smiled back over her shoulder, “Thank you, Kaiba-Sacho.”

C.N. April2014: Digital Distraction Part 7

She ended up working late into the night, phoning up and apologising to Ombre somewhere around six in the evening to tell her that she wouldn’t be back to the flat, which she rented from the company, before ten or eleven o’clock tonight. When Ombre asked if she had eaten and she gave a vague answer, the spirit of the Orb made her promise to talk to security and said that she would see her later.

When Kari caught herself beginning to doze, having not slept properly thanks to the jet lag, she darted off for coffee while a program rendered out a short 3d animation for her to present as finished and ready to be added in the next Duel Disk update, to the boss in the morning.

She had only just reached the floor’s break room and started the coffee machine off to make a fresh pot when she felt magic swirling in her office, shortly followed by the fire alarms going off and the sprinkler systems kicking in.

Kari swore as she darted back to the room she had temporarily been assigned to grab her bag and work out if she could recover the work she had been doing only to find Ombre was there with two carrier bags of takeaway in her hands, there was a guy unconscious behind her door and the sprinkler systems had taken care of whatever fire had been there.

Thankfully Ombre had cast a shield spell that seemed to be directing the water away from the computer. Kari was relieved to see the magic hadn’t caused the system to short out and it was still merrily rendering away.

“What happened?” Kari asked as she took in the scene, well aware security would be here any moment and finding herself relieved when she could pass through the barrier covering her computer, allowing her to cover it with her rain coat instead.

“I came in with dinner for you and found some prats messing with your computer.” Ombre shrugged, letting the barrier go once the Kari had ensured the safety of the computer. “That prat,” She pointed to the guy who was led behind the door, “Got hit by the door on my way in and my magic took care of him.”

“Messing around with my computer?” Kari asked with a frown as she hid the rendering program and tried to open up the menu, only find the rendering program was hiding errors that had popped up left right and centre and a swirling purple vortex on screen that looked like it was sucking in files. Kari cursed and yanked the network cable out of the back of her computer, trying to sever the connection to the rest of the Kaiba Corp network before darting to the nearest water shielded computer and checking it, only to find it was doing the same thing.

“Kari?” Ombre asked, confused as Kari checked one more computer before pulling her company phone out of her pocket and dialling swiftly.

“Make sure that guy doesn’t get away.” Kari grimaced as she waited for someone to pick up, “We’ve been hacked.”

Ombre shot off back to Kari’s office as Kari started talking to someone in what could have been ancient Greek for all she knew about it, but involved shutting down the network of computers within the company and getting the damn sprinkler system shut off. The sprinkler system shut off before she could get there and she arrived to find a couple members of the security team were already trying to wake up the man to find out what had happened.

Amusingly, the guards seemed to assume she was her light to start with, giving her the same respect they would have given any department head right up until Kari re-entered the room. At which point they seemed to get very confused, decide that Ombre was another intruder and tried to hold her for questioning too, despite Kari vouching for her.

It wasn’t until Kaiba and Mokuba entered the room, one looking highly pissed off and the other curious and irritable, and the elder Kaiba brother told the members of the security team that they were to sit down and shut up because apparently a girl with no training could do their jobs better than they could.

They didn’t seem to take that very well, especially when Kaiba told Ombre that he expected her in the following day to continue guarding his new head of department until he could be certain something like this wouldn’t happen again. However they were swiftly distracted when Ombre lift the spell she had been using to keep the intruder sedated and his first reaction to waking up was to attempt to attack Kari, who he had mistaken for Ombre.

The security guards pounced on him before he could lay a hand on her and Kaiba sent Kari and Ombre home after getting details from both of them about what had happened. Kari was willing to leave. Though she didn’t believe that her boss was still like the horror stories, she wanted no part in questioning the man.