CHAPTER 43: LAUNCH DAY: FINAL

Sentinel had just proven itself above anything available currently in the market and it has gotten some investors excited in getting a piece of this innovative pie.

At this point, the launch presentation was all but over.

But just as previously, there were still some who doubted whether all this was just a farce and one of them raised a pen, pulling Lillian’s attention.

Her eyes landed on the journalist as he stood, pen in one hand and a notepad in the other.

He looked to be in his mid-thirties, blazer with a magazine logo on the lapel. Pinned on the chest area of his blazer was his badge.

"Yes?" Lillian asked, in a calm tone.

"Evan Brooks from TechVerse Weekly." He spoke with the ease of someone who’d done this more times than he could count.

"What we just saw was... impressive, no doubt. But how can we be sure this wasn’t a controlled demonstration? Maybe pre-scripted stunt to paint Sentinel as some miracle software after staging its own failure?"

A wave of murmurs rose again in the crowd, some nodding in agreement. Although they had seen the code transforming, there was basically no proof that the attack ever happened besides a boot up that froze for a couple of minutes.

For all they knew, this could all just be a stunt meant to paint their product in a bright light.

Lillian’s expression remained unchanged as she listened to the murmurs of the crowd. Her fist clenched slightly around the remote in hand, not because she had no reply, but just as an action to help herself calm down.

"I understand your skepticism, Mr. Brooks," she replied with a small nod. "In fact, we anticipated that exact question."

She pressed another button on her remote.

"I believe you’re all familiar with digital signatures," she said as the screen looked a single line of code.

She then turned to the two white-hat hackers from Northbridge Solutions and gave a subtle nod.

"Would you kindly do the honors?" she asked.

The men nodded and proceeded to copy the code on screen to their PCs and started running the code through their database.

Their actions were displayed for all to see on the monitor behind Lillian.

"Would you mind telling us what you’re doing?" Lillian asked.

Though she and most who sat in the room currently, were aware of what was happening, this was still being livestreamed.

"We’re now running a cross-reference scan," the older hacker of the two explained without breaking his focus on the ongoing scanning. "What you’re seeing is a database of breach reports compiled over the last four years—many of which have been independently verified by federal cybercrime units."

The younger one chimed in, "Hackers have a habit of leaving a specific trace when they’re done. A group like the Vigilants don’t always do it, but once in a while, they do it to taunt the organizations they’re hacking into."

The room quieted again, a suspenseful silence overtaking the earlier murmurs of doubt.

After a few seconds, their screens changed as a result appeared.... well, several, in fact.

Each one was accompanied by a logo of an organization that had been breached before: Atlas Bank, CalTech Secure, Helios Aerospace, VaultLine etc.

Next to each name was a highlighted line of code, identical to the one currently displayed on the screen.

"There," the older hacker pointed out, "these are lists of hackings that contain exactly the same digital signature as the one on the screen."

"And for the sake of transparency," Lillian added, turning back to the crowd, "you’ll find copies of this data will be made publicly available on our official website after the event. You are free to verify with any of the organizations shown."

She then turned back to Evan and finally answered her question with a small smile, "so no, this is not a farce or an actual, Sentinel was attacked and it adapted."

With that, most of the doubts they had slowly faded and the investors allowed themselves to feel that hunger again.

Their hunger for the piece of golden pie was renewed. Getting his question answered, Evan just calmly sat back down, jotting something down on his notepad before he stood back up.

Instead of another question, Evan set his notepad down and started slowly clapping. Even he had to admit, this software was nothing short of genius.

Following his lead, the room erupted into applause. If there was one thing they all agreed on, it was that Sentinel was really of the future.

As the clapping continued, Lillian stepped back from the podium, letting herself a moment breathe.

Her chest rose and fell slowly, her expression still calm, but her heart was filled with pride.

She had done it, they had done it.

Aria stood backstage with a proud smile on her face. Lillian really had done it, she had just overcome her fear and had done so spectacularly.

Lillian then walked down the stage to meet Aria who suddenly enveloped her in a tight hug.... almost a bit too tight because Lillian soon tapped on her arm.

"Can’t.....breathe," she let out

Aria immediately loosened her grip, chuckling softly as she pulled back.

"Sorry," she said, brushing a loose strand of hair from Lillian’s face, "you did great up there, I’m so proud of you."

Lillian let out a breathy laugh, her composure softening now that she was done with the launch. "You have no idea how close I was to throwing up."

"But you didn’t and we’ll be celebrating that tonight," Aria stated, "let your marketing team do the rest".

Before Lillian even had the chance to protest, Aria started pulling her towards the backdoor.

Ethan watched all this with a light chuckle, he had no idea what Lillian’s past was but he wouldn’t go digging into it.

He’d wait for her to tell him, if she ever decided to.

Ethan didn’t mind his COO being pulled away after the launch—her part was already done, and the team she’d assembled could handle the rest.

_______

Ethan’s and Lillian’s mood were not shared by everyone watching the stream.

Nathaniel, who had been completely confident he’d won, now sat stiffly in his chair, his wine glass clenched unbelievably tight in his hand.

Just as expected the glass soon snapped into multiple pieces, cutting him in the process.

But even though his hand was bleeding, Nathaniel’s focus was still on the screen before him.

Blood dripped from it, staining the expensive carpet beneath him but not even a glance was spared to it.

The sudden change in the pressure of the room was a telling of how angry he currently was.

The bodyguards, as they were trained, didn’t even flinch at the oppressive aura. Instead, Marcus just tapped a button by him before returning his hands to the front.

Soon enough, there was a knock on the door. The second bodyguard walked to open it as a young woman in a black uniform stepped in.

Unlike the bodyguards, she wasn’t trained or used to aura like this, so the moment she walked in, it descended on her like some sort of gravity well.

Her knees almost buckled beneath her, but she managed to keep herself standing, after all, the Langley’s hated incompetence.

Her eyes remained downcast as she spotted the blood and shards of glass on the floor, and without anyone’s command, she moved to clean up the mess.

The silver tray in her gloved hands clinked softly as she knelt to collect the broken glass, careful not to let a single shard cut her.

She then walked to a cupboard before coming back with a clean silk handkerchief, a bottle of disinfectant and a tweezer before heading back to her previous location.

Nathaniel didn’t acknowledge her presence but he did rest the wounded hand on his arm rest, allowing her easy access to it.

Carefully kneeling by his side, she started with practiced precision. She first used the tweezer to remove a fine sliver of glass still embedded in his palm causing blood to well up again, but Nathaniel didn’t flinch.

He just continued staring at the now-muted screen.

She then applied the disinfectant, it was clearly the type that stung painfully but again, he showed no sign of pain.

The silence in the room was suffocating and Nathaniel’s anger was clearly evident, even if not on his face.

When she finally wrapped his hand with the silk cloth, tying it off neatly, she placed the tweezers and bottle back onto the tray and rose without a sound.

She gave a small, perfectly-executed bow and began to step back.

Then she turned to walk back out with the same guard closing the door behind her.

Nathaniel then turned to Marcus and stated in a dangerously low tone, "tell Dmitri to get back in here."

At first, he only wanted Sentinel’s code but now? Now, OmniTech Corp had made an enemy of Nathaniel Langley with this embarrassment.