Chapter 28: Messing With The Wrong Kid

Midnight at the Grand Hotel.

Mason Sterling paced around his suite, holding a glass of scotch. His wrist was wrapped in a bandage—a reminder of Jackson’s grip earlier today.

"I want him to bleed," Mason snarled at the three men sitting in front of laptops. These were black-hat hackers he had hired from the Dark Web for a fortune.

"Don't worry, Boss," the lead hacker smirked. "Sterling Group's security is tough, but we have a backdoor code. Tonight, we will wipe out their financial database. Jackson will wake up to a bankrupt company."

"Do it," Mason finished his drink. "Make him suffer."

The hackers started typing furiously.

---

At the Sterling Villa.

The house was sleeping. Or so it seemed.

In the nursery, under a blanket fortress, a small screen glowed in the dark.

Alex wasn't sleeping. He was bored. He was optimizing his firewall algorithm while sipping a carton of strawberry milk.

Suddenly, a red warning popped up on his screen.

[ALERT: Unauthoried Intrusion Detected]
[Target: Sterling Group Mainframe / Financial Sector]

Alex blinked. He licked a drop of milk from his lip and sat up.

"Someone is trying to break into Daddy's house?" Alex mumbled. He looked at the code streaming in. It was aggressive, fast, and messy.

"Sloppy," Alex critiqued, shaking his head. "They didn't even hide their IP routing. Amateurs."

He put down his milk. His chubby fingers hovered over the keyboard.

"Let's play."

---

Back at the Hotel.

"We are in!" The lead hacker cheered. "Bypassing the first firewall... wait."

The screen suddenly froze. The progress bar stopped at 99%.

"What's wrong?" Mason asked impatiently.

"It... it stopped. There is a secondary firewall," the hacker frowned. "It's strange. The code looks different. It's not the standard corporate encryption. It looks... playful?"

On their screens, a pop-up window appeared. It wasn't an error message.

It was a cartoon of a sleeping baby dragon.

[ MESSAGE: Are you lost, little mousies? ]

Mason’s face twisted. "What the hell is this? A prank?"

"Someone is blocking us manually!" The hacker started typing faster, sweating. "He is rewriting our script in real-time! This guy is a monster!"

At the Villa, Alex yawned. "Too slow."

He tapped a few keys. "Counter-attack: Protocol P."

---

At the Hotel, chaos erupted.

"Boss! Our laptops are overheating!"
"The virus is coming back to us! It's eating our hard drives!"

All three laptop screens suddenly turned bright pink.

A giant image appeared on every screen: A toddler wearing sunglasses, giving the middle finger. (Pixelated, of course).

And then, music started playing at maximum volume.

“Baby Shark, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo...”

"Turn it off!" Mason covered his ears, screaming. "Stop that infernal song!"

"We can't! The system is locked!"

Fizzz...

Smoke started rising from the keyboards. The hackers' expensive equipment was fried.

Mason stared at the smoking laptops, trembling with rage. "Who did this? Who is their security chief?"

On the blackened screen, one last line of white text appeared before the computers died completely:

[ DONT MESS WITH MY DADDY. - THE KID ]

Mason smashed his glass against the wall.

"The Kid..." he whispered, his eyes widening. "Jackson has a secret weapon. A top-tier hacker named 'The Kid'?"

He didn't know how right, yet how wrong he was.

---

The next morning.

Jackson arrived at the office prepared for a crisis. He knew Mason would try something dirty.

"Luke, report. Any cyber attacks last night?" Jackson asked as he entered his office.

Luke looked confused. "Well, yes. But also no."

"Explain."

"The IT department said there was a massive attack around 1 AM. Someone tried to delete our accounts," Luke handed over a report. "But someone stopped them. And then... fried their servers."

Jackson looked at the log. He saw the signature logo: The Pacifier.

He couldn't help it. A burst of laughter escaped his lips.

He picked up his phone and dialed home.

"Hello?" A sleepy, childish voice answered.

"Good morning, 'Chief Security Officer'," Jackson said warmly.

"Morning, Daddy," Alex yawned. "Did the bad guys cry?"

"I think they cried a lot," Jackson grinned. "You saved the company, son. Mason has no idea what hit him."

"He is stupid," Alex said matter-of-factly. "He tried to use a Brute Force attack on a dynamic shield. Basic mistake."

Jackson’s heart swelled with pride. This boy—this five-year-old genius—was his flesh and blood.

"Alex, listen to me," Jackson's voice turned serious. "Don't let anyone know it was you. Mason is dangerous. If he knows 'The Kid' is a child, he might come for you."

"I know," Alex replied coolly. "My location is encrypted through ten different countries. He thinks I'm in Russia."

"Good boy. I'll bring you the latest limited edition Lego set tonight."

"Deal."

Jackson hung up. He swiveled his chair to look out the window.

Mason thought he was fighting a man.
But he was fighting a Sterling Family dynasty.

And he was going to lose. Badly.