getting her any closer to figuring out who Soul_Reaper really was. Nor his highest-ranking officers - if they were even called that. According to the forum details, though, a group of twelve had the highest level of access. They even had a special forum where they planned out the worst attacks. Dez could see the discussion about hacking into Deviant now. Sadly, it had all been posted the same morning it had happened, detailing their glee over seeing the company in a panic. But since her backup copy only updated once every twenty-four hours, she hadn't seen it until far too late.
The attack on Riley's home was listed there as well. So was the hacking of the Columbus Expo last year. It was proof that KoG was doing this intentionally, but they couldn't fucking use it! Her entire copy of this database was illegal, and if Jason requested a subpoena to use it, the Kings of Gaming would be told. They'd simply pack up, move to a new host, and keep going. That was the downside of the internet.
At some point, Psyc logged out, most likely to sleep. Dez kept going. There were millions of posts on this thing. Dozens of sub-forums with thousands of threads in each one. Nearly eight years of history was right here, and all of it was filled with hate. It was exhausting to read through, and mentally draining to try to keep up with, but she wasn't going to quit now.
Then, just around the time the sun came up, the whole thing reset with a new copy. Dez decided it was time to take a break. The dev team would start coming into work soon, and she needed a big hit of caffeine. Once she had a travel mug filled, she headed to her desk again, grabbed her pack of smokes, and then looked at the door.
Any other time, she would've just gone out there alone. Lately, she kept wondering if someone would be on the other side with a gun. Dez was just about to risk it when the door opened from the other side, making her flinch and yelp! Chance yanked the door all the way open and hurried in, making Dez sigh in relief.
"Jesus," she groaned. "You scared the shit out of me."
"Break time?" he asked. "Or are you going to bed?"
"Break time," she decided. "Care for a smoke?"
He reached back to push the door open again. "Tobacco, sure. Pot, not at this hour. And please tell me that's coffee and not whiskey?"
"It's coffee," she promised, offering him the mug.
Chance took the handle and followed her to her bench. There, they both sat. He stretched his legs out and leaned back, glancing at her once before dropping his arm across the top. There, it lay just behind her head, so she relaxed into it, feeling the subtle contact.
"I was thinking," she said. "You know how Braden hits on you?"
Chance lifted the cup and took a big drink of coffee before murmuring an affirmative noise.
"We need to explain to Rhaven that it's all in good fun. That it's not going to happen."
He passed her back the cup, then stole the pack of smokes from her hand. Pulling the lighter out of the box, he claimed two cigarettes, and lit them. Dez knew he was stalling, but the man had also just woken up, so she wasn't going to push. When he handed her a smoke, she smiled and then took a long drag. Chance matched her.
"I'll talk to her," he promised. "I'll also tell him to stop, because I don't want to ruin anyone's relationship."
"He likes it," Dez countered. "I just don't want to lose her. Rhaven's good. She's a little weak on her coding, but that's easy to fix. She's driven, she's committed, and she thinks outside the box. I just keep thinking that with everything going on, she might decide this job is more trouble than it's worth."
"How so?" he asked.
"She's been the target too many times," Dez said. "I don't know. Maybe she reminds me of myself before they broke me? I just..."
He nodded. "You see this aspiring star, and you want to keep her safe. You know that her being trans makes her a target. You, Dez, are feeling protective, and it looks good on you."
"Yeah," she agreed. "I kinda am."
"And it looks good on you," he said again. "You keep thinking of yourself as broken, but it's like you can't see how many of those people consider