His Devious Rule

---- Five years ago ----

Anya Owen was the best female student at the Information technology and network department at the Narnia university in the country. It was rare for a girl to take up that course in the country but she was a priceless talent in one particular field.

Hacking.

The talent she didn't even know she had. The talent which Alvin Matthews found in her, trained her, made her best. He enrolled her to get all the qualifications for ethical hacker and she passed each one.

When she was pregnant, all she knew was that she shouldn't burden her parents and give the best life to her baby. While nursing herself, studying for her final years, she found a platform to earn money with her talent.

She won numerous international awards for hacking complex systems and earned big sums. But she didn't know it was a talent hunt platform arranged by the government.

She was pregnant in the final year of her graduation and wasn't looking for a job. Yet she was chosen to work for the government administrative organization due to her impeccable talent.

Anya Owen, Information Security Officer, an ethical hacker who works to find loopholes and defects in the administrative database which stores critical data of the country, military, and the citizens, systems in which other officers do their work, government websites, application,s, and network.

Her job was simple 9 to 5 work like any white-collar employee, it holds no risk to her life or anybody. Upon all that, there were many other resources provided by the government for her.

It was the perfect and most secure job. She had maternity paid leave before joining the job. Hence Anya had no reason to turn down. All she wanted was to give a quality life to her baby.

For two years, her work went smoothly and she had the permission to get her toddler to work if she needed to. Until one day, she was summoned to her chief officers and put forward the proposal to be a spy. A spy to find out who was leaking critical information from the secretariat department or the people who work around the President.

Out of a hundred plus officers, they found Anya as most suitable. She was a young lady, looked innocent, attentive about her work, didn't dilly dally or waste time with anybody. She listens more and talks less.

That wasn't really her. She was attentive to her work because she shouldn't be disturbed while hacking. She never wasted time with anybody or dilly dally because she had her son, her life waiting for her to get home soon. She listened more and talked less with all those people because many pitied her for being a single mother, some tried to show fake concern, and some were interested in her life and her body, assuming she was desperate to get laid.

Anya turned down the senior officers instantly. She didn't want an adventure in her life with Zane by her side or handle another set of minds, judging her all day for everything she does.

But, her chief and another higher authority officer asked her to take time and decide. Her hard luck, during that time, there was a riot in the city to avoid the conference of the president. Those officers guilt-tripped her showing the deaths of people including children. Anya turned out to be innocent and accepted the proposal on the condition, she will have the choice to return to her work any time.

In the two years, she found two moles. A person from security, personal secretary of the previous president, and also the president who had made illegal wealth. They were all handled in secret without her name coming up.

Just when she thought she could go back to her work, they got a lead to the mole in the secretariat department. She wasn't able to track that person and ended up in a dire state of a different situation

--- Present: Over the call ----

The voice softened on the other end of the call but he tried to guilt-trip her, [Ms. Owen, how can you back out at this critical time?]

It didn't work on Anya. She countered instantly and confidently, "I have never signed myself for a risky job."

With that, she didn't forget to add, "I am not sorry to say that country comes first for you, not to me. If not here, I can live anywhere in the world." She respected her country, that doesn't mean she has to be patriotic and sacrifice herself and her family's livelihood. Especially with Zane, she would never take such a chance.

The moment Bernard gave her the hard disk to keep it safe, she knew the biggest danger she was in. The last two and half years were so smooth that she had no issues continuing the new job that wasn't related to her expertise. Today, she regretted agreeing with the organization's decision.

Hearing Anya stubborn and fierce, the chief officer knew she was fearing for her and her son's well-being. And when it comes to her son, he knew well, none could change her mind. He wasn't in the position to lose a talented officer either. So he compromised.

"Alright, Ms. Owen. I will respect your choice. I will speak with the Chief Justice." The man's voice relaxed as tricking her won't work anymore. "And keep you updated."

She was indirectly serving the Chief Justice whose words and decision stands above the President of Narnia. Anya sighed hearing the response. She never wanted to be in this situation.

Her voice calmed too, "Thank you, Chief Jason. I will wait for your call." Then she hung up the call. Deep breathing, she looked at the darkened starless sky that could lullaby her to sleep. But she couldn't sleep today as the danger was lurking just around the corner.

Due to Alvin's appearance, her mind reminisced. She had wished for a simple life. When she was in university, she thought she could live a lazy life for a few years and hang out a lot with Krystle, not with Krystle's other friends though. She had planned to join a company that hires ethical hackers. She never had plans to confess to Alvin either.

Yet here she was, completely messed up in complexity. Her work put her life and family in danger, Alvin was back into her life like a threat to her and her son.

She could only hope Alvin doesn't come back to her life again and she passes off the night and gets rid of this job. She wanted her simple, comfortable days with her son.

Was she wishing too much?