[Excerpt] Breach

Breach.

 Head Designer Elizabeth Turnée pushed open the door to the server room to be greeted by a mass ofcongratulatory cheering. Having only been quickly messaged about a "major Network event," she wasclueless as to the reason she had been called all the way to HQ at such a late hour. She had told herdaughter, who was dawdling on the computer, not to let anyone in the house and there was still somelasagna left in the fridge if you need anything to eat, I'll have my cellphone on me. She blinked in cervineastonishment as she was patted and hugged warmly, lauded for a success of which she was unaware.

"Congratulations!" said intern Avery Hall, for maybe the third time. He hadn't been sure he'd beenheard the first two, so he was making sure she heard this time as he took her hand and shook it firmly.

"Uhm," said Elizabeth, disoriented. She was struggling to feel like she was being heard, too, under thenoise that was all directed at her. "What happened?"

"We've hit over ten thousand users in-Network!" Avery told her, absolutely glowing. "What amilestone!"

"Ten thousand?"

"Ten thousand," came the confirmation.

Elizabeth pushed at her scalp in amazement. "The highest we've ever had at once is five. How are theservers handling this?"

"Who knows?" That was the server operator, who happened to be within earshot. "But they're runningjust fine. Better than usual, even. We haven't got a lag report all night."

"What are they all doing?" Elizabeth asked quietly, of no one in particular. Avery heard her.

"What's who doing?" he asked, curious.

"The users." She turned to look at him, brow furrowed. "Why are there so many?"

"We've got record attendance and you're wondering why?"

"Well, yes. There might be a good reason." She edged through the crowd to get to one of the servercomputers. Codes and commands were tumbling down its screen like digital jumbled streaks of areversed waterfall. Nothing unusual. "I want to know what it is."

"That's the server," said the server operator, who had followed her along with Hall.

"I know what this is," sighed Elizabeth, exasperated. "I mean the reason so many users are online."

"Here's what I know," the server operator, whose name was Ivonne, offered. "It's just like any other bigevent you've set up before. Users get excited for these things, they all get online at once." 

Elizabeth's throat was dry. "Big event?" 

"Sure," Ivonne soothed. "You had one planned for tonight, remember?" 

"No," Elizabeth breathed, "I don't." 

Ivonne was quiet. Avery spoke up after a moment's hesitation. "...You sure?" 

He was too quiet, and Elizabeth turned to shout at everyone else in the room to be quiet. The room fellsilent and she returned her attention to him. "What?" she asked, curtly. 

"I, uh, I asked if you were sure." 

She glared at him for a moment, then turned to the crowd. "Katherine, access the user files and checkfor hackers. Ivonne, look for any traces of malicious software. And I'll need you to send an alert throughthe chats on every line. World, general, local, whisper. Sign it with my username. Tell everyone to getoffline. Their files could all get corrupted." 

The room was suddenly much more busy and purposeful than it had been, and the employees had allreturned to their desks and had gotten to work. Briefly. Then a new phrase filled the air. 

"I can't get online." 

"The server's locked me out, did you send us the right password this morning?" 

"The database says I don't have the clearance for this!" 

"Elizabeth, I can't get in." 

That was Ivonne. Elizabeth leaned over her chair and peered at the codestream, which was nowshooting up the screen much faster than before. It was blinking red. "What do you mean, you can't getin?" 

Ivonne put in the password to show her. The password was rejected, and the server text began to movefaster and blinked with even more fervor. "I can't change anything, put in any codes. I can't send thatmessage. I can't even access the game from the executable, it says the server is down. But you can seethat it obviously isn't." She gestured helplessly at the screen. 

Elizabeth's hands clenched on the back of the chair until her knuckles turned white. "Get Val on thephone. Now." She turned to address the room. "Someone get Professor Alexander on the phone! Weneed to get to our users!" 

An errant thought suddenly tumbled out of her brain to wedge itself in both her heart and stomach. Shehad to blink before she was able to realize it fully. Sam. 

That was her daughter, who played the game regularly, who had been on the computer when Elizabethleft home. 

She scrambled for her own phone and called her daughter's cell. There was no reply. She called thehome phone. The only one to answer was the processed voice of the answering machine. 

Elizabeth Turnée began to choke on her own fear without truly realizing why.