“Mark, is everything okay?”
Rosalie watched him hunched over the keyboard, worry written across her face.
“It’s fine, Mom, you don’t need to worry.
The one who broke into our computer just now, Jarvis, is an AI program Tony Stark built.”
“He was probably just curious and traced my identity out of interest.
Nothing more sinister than that.”
Mark filled Rosalie in on who Jarvis was.
Rosalie went quiet for a moment, her expression complicated.
She never imagined that after all these years, she and Mark would end up crossing paths with Tony Stark again, in a manner like this.
There had been a time when she’d resented Tony for refusing to acknowledge Mark.
But that resentment had long since faded, replaced by something closer to gratitude, gratitude that he’d given her a son as brilliant and angelic as Mark.
Mark didn’t notice the shift in her expression.
He was too busy layering multiple security patches onto the computer, already turning something else over in his mind.
*Looks like I need to build myself something like Jarvis.*
When it came to network offense and defense, an AI simply had advantages no human could match.
Tony had built Jarvis back in high school, and after nearly a decade of steady refinement, the program had likely reached the level of a genuine weak AI by now.
By Mark’s estimate, Jarvis’s core code probably ran past a hundred terabytes at this point, backed by a server farm large enough to fill an entire building.
No wonder it had steamrolled him so effortlessly.
*Beep beep beep…*
Just then, the alarm on his computer blared again.
*What now, is Jarvis back?*
Mark startled, unsure who could possibly be tracking him this time.
He quickly wrote up a script and fired it out through every one of his relay IPs.
Once the data came back, the picture became clear.
Three top-tier hackers had seized control of three of his relay IPs and were working together to strip away the outer layers hiding his real address.
If they broke through every layer of disguise, his real IP would be exposed, and someone could show up at his door.
*Clack, clack, clack…*
Mark’s fingers blurred across the keyboard.
He gathered up a huge cache of decoys and misleading data and sent it flying back at them.
But even though these three hackers weren’t individually his equal, working together, they quickly cut through the noise and kept peeling back layer after layer of his proxy defenses.
*There aren’t more than a handful of hackers this skilled in the entire world, and now three of them are teaming up against me at once?
And they’re clearly operating as part of the same organization.*
Cold sweat beaded on Mark’s forehead.
The FBI?
The NSA?
Or…
SHIELD?*
Washington, SHIELD Headquarters.
Nick Fury, newly appointed director, stood with one hand on his hip in front of a massive display screen, his single eye fixed on the three hackers working furiously in front of him.
“Edgar, where do we stand?
Any closer to tracking down our mystery hacker?”
Fury asked, his voice low and even.
“Yes, Director.
He’s running low on relay nodes.
Once we strip away the last of his disguises, we’ll have his real IP.”
Edgar Thurman answered without looking up, hands flying across the keys.
Fury nodded, satisfied.
He had a sharp instinct that as the internet continued to spread, hackers would only become more valuable going forward.
The moment he’d caught wind of this mysterious hacker through the news, he’d wasted no time putting a team on tracing his identity.
His interest only sharpened once Edgar reported the hacker’s skill level actually exceeded his own.
Edgar had been personally trained by Howard Stark himself and now ran SHIELD’s secure communications division.
A hacker capable of outclassing him was exactly the kind of talent Fury wanted on his payroll, no exceptions.
*Once we’ve confirmed his identity, send Coulson to bring him in.*
Fury thought to himself.
*And if he says no, Coulson can walk him through exactly what the law has to say about it.*
*Beep beep beep…*
Just then, a sharp alarm cut through the room.
“That’s not good!
Director, someone’s breaking into the communications network right now…”
Edgar cried out in alarm.
He and the other two hackers abandoned their pursuit of Mark on the spot, scrambling to throw up defenses.
But the defenses they’d believed were airtight turned out to be paper thin.
Within five seconds, the screen in front of Fury went black, and every computer in the room crashed simultaneously.
“Check everything, now, did we lose any classified data?”
Fury demanded urgently.
“Director, they didn’t try to steal any files at all, but…
every lead we had on that hacker’s identity has been completely wiped.”
Edgar reported after a careful check.
“What?!”
Fury was floored.
Whoever had broken in had done it purely to cover for the mystery hacker.
“Is there any other way to pick the trail back up?”
Edgar tried a few things at the console before finally admitting defeat.
“No, sir.”
“Can you at least narrow down where this hacker is operating from?”
“All we can say for certain is that he’s somewhere in the Los Angeles area.”
“Then keep close watch on network activity across LA.
Next time he makes a move, we find out who he is.”
With no other options, Fury had no choice but to shelve the recruitment plan for now.
Back at Mark’s house.
*Huh?
Their tracking just stopped cold.*
Mark quickly noticed the three hackers had abandoned their pursuit entirely.
On top of that, a whole new layer of disguise had appeared around his real IP out of nowhere.
*Was that Jarvis, helping me out just now?*
It didn’t take him long to realize only Jarvis could have pulled that off in an instant.
Gratitude washed over him, but it also lit a fire under him to build an AI of his own as soon as possible.
Being ambushed by Jarvis and nearly getting his real identity exposed, all in the same day, that was not an experience Mark wanted to repeat.
He immediately pulled up his coding software, fingers flying across the keys as line after line of code filled the screen.
Three days later, that morning.
“Rosalie, time to wake up, sleep in any longer and the sun’s gonna roast you!”
A bright, cheerful little girl’s voice rang out in Rosalie’s bedroom.
“Mmm…”
Rosalie blinked her eyes open groggily and looked toward the monitor mounted on the opposite wall, where a six-year-old girl with golden hair and blue eyes, dressed in a red princess gown, looked back at her.
The girl’s face was flawless, delicate as an angel’s, without a single imperfection.