Is this destiny?

~ Croatia ~

Marija and Nick are sitting next to each other, both focused on the screens in front of them.

"Are you sure that your code is working?" Marija asked Nick.

"It's working." He said irritably. She asked him this ten times already.

"How do you know?"

"It's a self-replicating virus that alters random pieces of code on a kernel level. Every time a block executes, something will be altered. The more they use the system, the more damage my virus makes."

"How come there are no changes?" Marija asked while staring at the live feed from the military satellite which is pointing at the properties of the Cliffside Villa and the Beach House.

Currently, they are only seeing dense foliage. And based on the people coming and going, there must be more than that. Also, why would Sarah and Aiden go to the lengths of blocking the signal in the area of a plain forest?

Marija and Nick know that a device like a signal blocker must work all the time, so if that gets corrupted, they should see what is on the properties, and not only the forest.

"Patience." Nick grumbled. "The virus works in small increments. If I made anything bigger, they would notice when I sent it instead of the SOS signal. Of course, this will work if our assumption is correct that they have a custom security system in place."

"Did you forget who Sarah is? Even Smithsonite corp. and Long Industries have high-end security and we had to be careful when messing it up without leaving traces. Do you think that characters like Sigma and Omega will have anything less? Besides, Orion Enterprise is a company that provides custom security systems, that is why White corp. was the toughest nut to crack. I am confident that if your virus works, they will lose even access to hot water because everything is connected."

Nick was annoyed that Marija is doubting the quality of his virus, but he didn't want to talk about it. "Are you sure that Sarah will come out?"

Marija nodded confidently. "I carefully selected locations which should be sabotaged, and which ones should be attacked. There are four locations heavily depending on electronics. Sarah is known for her software and hardware skills and she will definitely go to one of those. Considering that Sarah enjoys sharing her knowledge, they definitely have a number of people with skills similar to Sarah's. That is where this internet mess comes into play. She will use helpers to clean up the internet, and go on-site personally…"

Nick had to agree with Marija. Sarah would never put her friends in danger. Sarah is awesome like that.

Nick admired Marija's analysis. This whole plan is more than just people and coordination. Marija created the plan while thinking about Sarah's personality. Marija is scary.

"Bingo!" Marija exclaimed when the images on her screen changed. "Look, you can see people… and they have a training ground."

Nick stared at the screen with eyes open wide, hoping to get a glimpse of Sarah. Of course, the people look tiny, like ants, but he is confident that he would recognize her.

After a few seconds, Nick frowned. "There are still parts that are not visible."

"Yeah. It seems that they have several signal blockers on each property, and whatever went down was something that synchronizes them for greater coverage. But this is enough. We know that it's working. I will alert the attack teams to head in."

Nick panicked when he heard 'attack teams'. He put his hand over Marija's to prevent her from reaching for one of the burner phones in front of her. "Make sure Sarah is not hurt."

Marija rolled her eyes. "She will be fine."

Nick's grip tightened. "I don't believe you."

"The time to think about the whole trust issue was before you decided to join this little operation." Marija sneered. She saw that Nick will not let her make the call, so she had to explain: "These are only scouts with a goal to get in with cameras and give us a better look of what is on those properties."

"Why does it matter? We only want Sarah."

Nick's grip loosened and Marija used this chance to swat Nick's hand away and grab the burner phone. "YOU only want Sarah. I want to know what they are hiding."

Nick made a face. "You want to rob them?"

"That depends on what they are hiding. Why are you so nosy? Your goal is Sarah, and that is what you will get. Leave the rest to me…"

Nick watched Marija make the call and he gritted his teeth. The fact that Marija didn't tell him all the details of this elaborate plan is driving him nuts. He exhaled and chanted silently to calm down because Marija is right. His goal is Sarah and he should not care about anything else. But there is one thing…

"I don't want Aiden to be hurt."

Marija's eyes widened in surprise. "Since when you care about him?"

"I want him to see me with Sarah by my side. Only then I will be satisfied."

"Male ego." Marija snorted.

Nick grabbed Marija's hand. "Promise…"

"Fine. I will see what I can do, but I can't promise anything. The men are already on the field..."

…

~ Los Angeles, the Cliffside Villa ~

Emma, Bridgette, and Victoria are in the kids' room with babies and toddlers (and nannies). Bridgette wanted to help with the situation, but JoAnna told her to stay with Emma (who is six months pregnant), assuring her that they have everything under control.

The playroom is massive with a lot of toys, a soft play area, and there are sofas for kids to climb on and grownups to sit and observe.

With so many people gathering and tackling issues, they moved from the study room to the underground planning room which can accommodate twenty people at the conference table and the room next-door is used as a computer-central from where Masika, Nala, Haru, Ron, Zula, and Oni are working on cleaning up the internet.

"Biddy could have helped." Sophia said to JoAnna on their way to the planning room.

"I don't trust Victoria. There is something about her that I don't like."

JoAnna met Victoria and they spoke several times during events that Jeff and Gabriel attended. Victoria was always polite, but JoAnna never liked Victoria.

Sophia understood. "If Bridgette joined, then Victoria would come as well."

JoAnna touched her nose, indicating to Sophia that she is correct. "It makes sense that she came because if Steve is in danger, Gabriel is as well, but…"

"Your instinct is tingling." Sophia ended JoAnna's sentence. "No need to explain. Your instinct was never wrong. Even if she is not dangerous, something is off about her."

"I think that we should call Penny here as well. We can make it a playdate. Penny is familiar with two-faced people from high society so she can help us keep an eye on Victoria."

Sophia agreed. "You can never be too careful."

As soon as they entered the planning room, Felix approached them.

"Don't spend too much time on your feet…" Felix urged Sophia while gesturing toward the sofa in the back of the room.

Sophia's expression softened when she saw how concerned Felix is. "Val was born two months ago. I am fine to stand and move around."

"Oh, I know that you can move... but I would prefer that you keep your energy for something else…" He gave her a playful wink.

JoAnna burst into a laugh. "It seems that I need to prepare pregnancy tests to confirm your baby number four."

Sophia's eyes widened. "No. Please don't jinx me."

"There is nothing for me to jinx. Felix is known to be immune to contraception." JoAnna said through giggles.

"What are you grinning? Go back to what you were doing…" Sophia said to Felix and slapped his buttock lightly.

"I'm glad to see that your bond is strong after three kids." JoAnna told Sophia when Felix went back to his laptop.

Sophia looked at Felix dreamily. "Strong is the word. Since my bleeding after the delivery stopped, we are having sexatons every night."

JoAnna reminded herself not to tease Sophia about a fourth child. And did Sophia say SEXATONS? Is that even a word?

---

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