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Chapter 7: Testing Boundaries

Author: Nanu20
last update publish date: 2026-03-26 21:39:35

By noon, Elliot had already broken three company protocols.

Not intentionally.

Well… maybe a little intentionally.

He leaned back in the expensive ergonomic chair at his workstation, spinning slightly as he studied the massive security map glowing across the three monitors in front of him.

The system was impressive.

Ridiculously impressive.

But the longer Elliot stared at it, the more tiny flaws he began to notice.

Little inefficiencies.

Redundant loops.

Unnecessary delays.

To anyone else, they might seem insignificant.

To Elliot, they were irritating.

“Why would anyone design it like this?” he muttered.

His fingers began tapping across the keyboard again.

Across the room, several engineers stiffened.

One of them whispered urgently to another.

“Is he editing the routing again?”

“Yeah.”

“Did Mr. Blackwood approve that?”

“I doubt it.”

Elliot didn’t notice the whispers.

Or maybe he did.

And simply didn’t care.

Lines of code scrolled rapidly across the screen as he adjusted several internal pathways.

“Much better,” Elliot said under his breath.

A voice suddenly spoke beside him.

“You’re not supposed to change that.”

Elliot looked up.

A young woman stood beside his desk holding a tablet. Her short dark hair framed a sharp, intelligent face, and her ID badge read:

Emily Carter — Senior Cybersecurity Analyst

Elliot blinked.

“Oh. Hi.”

She gestured toward the screen.

“You just rewrote an internal traffic protocol.”

Elliot glanced back at the monitor.

“…Did I?”

“Yes.”

She tapped a specific section of the system diagram.

“That protocol prevents internal breaches.”

Elliot studied the code for a moment.

Then he started typing again.

“Okay, but it was also creating a bottleneck.”

He added several new lines of code.

“There. Now it’s faster and still secure.”

Emily stared at the screen.

The system recalibrated itself.

Traffic rerouted smoothly through several smaller nodes Elliot had created.

Her eyes widened slightly.

“That’s… actually better.”

Elliot smiled proudly.

“Thank you.”

She crossed her arms.

“You still shouldn’t be modifying core systems without authorization.”

Elliot shrugged.

“I thought that was literally why I’m here.”

She hesitated.

“Well… yes. But there’s usually a process.”

Elliot leaned back in the chair again.

“Processes slow things down.”

Several engineers nearby exchanged nervous looks.

One of them whispered,

“He’s going to get us all fired.”

Another muttered,

“No… worse.”

Before Emily could respond, a sudden silence fell across the room.

The kind of silence that spreads quickly.

Like a ripple.

Elliot noticed it immediately.

He slowly turned his chair.

Timothy Blackwood stood behind him.

The billionaire must have entered the room quietly, but his presence had an immediate effect on everyone.

Employees straightened in their chairs.

Conversations stopped.

Even the soft tapping of keyboards slowed.

Elliot tilted his head slightly.

“Hey.”

Timothy’s grey eyes moved from Elliot to the screen.

“You modified internal security routing.”

Elliot shrugged.

“It needed fixing.”

“You were not instructed to alter that section.”

Elliot crossed his arms.

“Do you want it broken again?”

Several employees visibly stopped breathing.

Emily took a small step back.

Timothy studied Elliot for a long moment.

His gaze was sharp.

Assessing.

Elliot didn’t look away.

Finally Timothy spoke.

“Show me.”

Elliot rotated the monitor slightly.

“Alright.”

He pointed to a specific section of the security architecture.

“Your original design routes internal traffic through three primary firewall gates.”

Timothy nodded once.

“Correct.”

Elliot zoomed into the diagram.

“But that creates congestion during high traffic periods.”

He opened two code windows and began typing again.

“If someone managed to enter the network, hypothetically they could overload that pathway.”

Lines of code appeared rapidly.

Employees nearby slowly gathered closer.

Elliot continued explaining as he worked.

“So I broke the pathway into smaller distributed nodes.”

The system diagram shifted.

Traffic rerouted through multiple defensive layers instead of a single choke point.

Each node now had its own monitoring protocol.

Timothy watched the transformation silently.

Within minutes, the system stabilized again.

Stronger.

More efficient.

Elliot leaned back.

“There.”

The room remained silent.

One engineer whispered quietly,

“He just optimized the entire internal defense grid…”

Timothy looked at the screen.

Then he looked back at Elliot.

“You improved it.”

Elliot shrugged.

“Obviously.”

A quiet murmur spread through the room.

Timothy stepped closer to Elliot’s chair.

“You enjoy provoking people.”

Elliot smiled slightly.

“Only when they deserve it.”

The distance between them was suddenly very small.

Close enough that Elliot could see the faint steel color in Timothy’s eyes.

“Careful,” Timothy said calmly.

“You signed a contract.”

“Yeah.”

“You work for me.”

“Also true.”

“Then you follow my rules.”

Elliot leaned back in his chair.

“Your rules slow progress.”

Several employees quickly returned to pretending they were working.

No one wanted to be caught watching this.

For a moment, the tension in the room became almost unbearable.

Then Timothy spoke again.

Very quietly.

“Careful, Elliot.”

His voice remained calm.

But there was something dangerous beneath it.

“I don’t tolerate rebellion.”

The words settled heavily in the air.

Elliot stared at him for another second.

Then he slowly smiled.

“Good thing I’m not rebelling.”

Timothy raised an eyebrow.

Elliot turned back to the keyboard.

“I’m improving your system.”

He typed a few more commands casually.

Timothy remained standing behind him for several seconds.

Watching.

Observing.

Studying.

Then finally he spoke again.

“Conference room. Ten minutes.”

Elliot looked up.

“For what?”

“Security review meeting.”

Elliot frowned.

“I’m not part of that.”

“You are now.”

Timothy turned and walked away.

The moment he disappeared into the glass conference room, the entire office seemed to exhale at once.

Emily leaned toward Elliot.

“You realize most people don’t talk to him like that.”

Elliot looked at her.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re not afraid of him.”

Elliot shrugged.

“I’m already trapped working for him.”

He gestured around the room.

“What’s he going to do? Fire me?”

Emily stared at him like he had just said something unbelievably stupid.

“You really don’t understand who Timothy Blackwood is.”

Elliot glanced toward the glass conference room.

Inside, Timothy stood at the head of the table speaking to several executives.

Power radiated from him even through the glass.

Elliot watched quietly for a moment.

Then he turned back to the screen.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

“I’m starting to notice that.”

But deep down, Elliot couldn’t ignore a strange feeling.

Because when Timothy had been standing behind him earlier…

Watching him work…

It hadn’t felt like anger.

It had felt like something else entirely.

And Elliot wasn’t sure which was more dangerous.

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