Chapter 5 ~ Fuck All of You

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"One million dollars." A man in a black suit jacket shouted. Babylon Banking's executive board and a couple of important employees were sitting in the board room, being yelled at by the CEO, a tall man with a round face that was currently fire engine red as he tried to hold back his anger. It wasn't working well. "We've lost one million dollars in the last week and six percent of our clients have closed their accounts and moved elsewhere." The brown eyed man looked around the room, but all of his employees were staring anywhere else but at him.

It wasn't their fault, the CEO knew that, but surely something could be done to prevent this. People already didn't trust private banks, and these insane robberies were costing his business customers.

"S-sir, insurance will cover s-some of the money that was lost--"

"And what of all the customers who left?" He bellowed at the assistant, Mark who'd bravely spoken up. The CEO's assistant was relatively new and not used to his bosses bad temper. He audibly whimpered and shrank back in his seat. The other men in the room felt bad for the poor kid. He was fresh out of college, had taken this job as a way to pay the bills. He didn't deserve to be yelled at like this, but no one felt they had any right to say anything about the situation. "Sure, the money will be given back to us, but now no one trusts us," The CEO flopped back in his seat at the head of the table.

This was becoming stressful. This bank had been in his family for generations; all of the firstborn men of his family had been CEO of Babylon Banking and had contributed to its success. His own son was slowly working his way through the ranks. He wasn't just going to hand the position to him; no, Andrew believed that everyone had to work for their place.

"What if we had the marketing team start to work on some new ads that might get people to trust us, something to just put our name out there." Geoffrey, one of the six board of directors suggested.

Andrew sighed, running his hands over his face.

"That's not a horrible plan. It's not going to be completely effective, but couldn't really hurt. Mark," The CEO addressed the trembling man. "Make a note to up the marketing teams budget and have them come up with ten new ads to be released over the next three months."

Mark woke the sleeping tablet he'd been holding and began typing.

"What else, people, come on! We're literally losing money as we sit here,"

"We could update security so that the criminals can't do the same thing again?" A man in a blue suit suggested. He looked around the board room, knowing the CEO and his assistant were here, as well as the six board members, including himself. The DPO was present as well, since he was also their IT guy, but he was unsure about the presence of the dark haired boy next to the DPO.

"That goes without saying, Zayn," The CEO rolled his eyes. "We're obviously going to get a new...computer system thing that'll, you know, protect the bank and the money stuff." he frantically waved his hand around, trying to come up with the word. Everyone looked at him in confusion, not knowing what he was talking about. He looked exasperatedly at the DPO who was sitting across the table, chin resting on his folded hands, smirking at the room. "Luke, what is it we need to update?"

"Uh, the firewall system?" He drawled. "Anti-malware and antivirus programs, SSL encryptions..."

"Okay, enough. Firewall was what I was looking for." Andrew grumbled, upset with the boy for showing off. He didn't know what the other 3 things he'd mentioned were, so he went with the thing he'd at least heard of before. "Mark, take note that Luke is going to look into getting a new firewall system asap, and that marketing needs to include that in at least two of the ads."

Mark began typing again. The CEO knew if he didn't directly tell his assistant what to take note of, he'd have nothing at the end of the meeting. He probably should get rid of him, but there was something about the boy that Andrew liked, so he kept him around. He was learning, and as long as he didn't mess up too badly, he'd keep him on.

"What's an SSL encryption?" Zayn asked.

Luke sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"SSL encryption, or Transport Layer Security," He began, "Are cryptographic protocols designed to provide communications security over a computer network. It's used to secure credit card transactions, data transfer and logins, and--"

"English please, Lucas." Andrew growled. Luke saw all the blank looks on everyone's face and tried to hide his triumphant smirk. He liked knowing that no one else knew what he knew. It made what he was doing that much easier.

"It's something we use when customers log into our system on any of the ATM's, or when we log into the computer using a customer's information. It makes sure that the private information you input into the system is kept safe and untraceable. So you can't go back on the browser and get someone's info. It's the same thing they use when you input your credit card online if it's a public access computer, no one else can get that information." Luke smirked.

"Thank you. So we'll do the firewall thing for now," Andrew dismissed the rest of the information because he didn't understand it.

"Sir, you don't think we should maybe look into more protective measures--"

"I said that was all we'd look into, Geoffrey." Andrew spat, pushing his chair back and standing. He slammed his palms on the table, causing Mark to flinch and almost throw his tablet over his shoulder. "If we go updating everything, it's going to cause problems. We'll do this slowly. Lucas, work with marketing so they understand what you're doing to the system. Send us out an email when you figure out what program we're going to use, preferably in the next few days."

Luke scoffed. It wasn't like he could just walk to The Firewall Store and pick out what protection he thinks would help them the most.

"It's going to take a little bit more than a few days," He began. "And my name is Luke, not Lucas."

One of the other board members bit his lip. He knew that when Luke and the CEO started arguing, nothing good happened.

"I think you can manage over the weekend to come up with something, yeah?" Andrew began, like he was talking to a child. "I'm sure you've got nothing better to do, so I expect new program information to be on my desk by Monday morning." It was currently Thursday, Andrew thought that was more than enough time.

"Sure, next Monday sounds good. That'll give me a week and a half to do some research so I don't just pick the first shitty program I come across." Luke clasped his hands together and smiled fakely at the man across the table.

He scowled at the insolent little boy.

"Listen here, Lucas--"

"My name isn't Lucas!" he barked, standing up quickly. Ashton, who'd been sitting next to him tried to tug his hand and make him sit again, but Luke brushed him away.

"I'll call you what I want, Lucas, I--"

"If you wanted to call me Lucas, you should have named me Lucas, father!"

Zayn shook his head. They always did this. And that's why they always say not to work with family.

"Why don't we take a break?" Zayn suggested. He'd known the Hemmings family for a while. Neither of the men were going to give up, and they'd get nothing accomplished if they kept yelling. All it would do would was scare Mark more and exasperate the board. "Then we can all come back here and calmly discuss what our next steps should be." He eyed the silent, black haired boy next to the DPO. "Everyone who's actually necessary to the meeting can meet back in here at 10:15."

The boy scowled, crossing his arms.

"Now was that necessary?" Geoffrey, who'd been sitting next to him asked. A couple other board members got up to stretch and get more coffee--heaven knew they'd need it if Luke and his dad were going to keep being pissy at each other.

"We needed a break." Geoff rolled his eyes and gave him a pointed look. "What? You and I both know that little mute freak has no business being here, he's not useful." He said, maybe a bit too loudly, because said "mute freak" stood up suddenly, his chair rolling across the room and crashing into the wall behind him. He scrunched his nose before briskly walking out of the room, slamming the door.

"What the fuck, Zayn? Why did you have to say that?"

"Language, Lucas,"

"No, fuck you." Luke interrupted, pointing at his father. "Fuck all of you! Ashton has never done anything to any of you, there's no reason to treat him the way that you do. He's as important to this company as I am. He might not talk as much as you think a person should, but that doesn't mean he's any less important. He has good ideas, just like me and you, and he also has feelings."

The room was silent, Zayn wouldn't make eye contact with Luke and he scoffed.

"I'm out of here. I'll let you know when I decide to pick a firewall program. Might be a while, as now my weekend is booked."

"Lucas--" He didn't wait for his father to yell at him, instead scurried from the room, looking down both ends of the hall to find where Ashton had run off to.

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(just a disclaimer, anything that sounds super smart in this chapter, all the tech nonsense luke was spouting i got from google. i don't know anything about any of this, I had to do a LOT of research for this book lol so sorry if a lot of this sounds stupid, but i'm trying my best :/ )

Anyway, I've been waiting mmm since the moment I started this book to write this chapter. What did you thiiiiiink? Also, who's ready for some cute Lashton fluff next chapter? I'm so excitedddddd for it.

~ashtonfortherwin