that you like, but he maybe doesn’t reciprocate your feelings and you can’t date him anyway while he works at your company or you’ll get fired? Not exactly something Google could help answer.
Chapter Twenty-Three
First thing Monday morning, my phone buzzed with an international text from my hacker friend. Traced UltimateDDay’s IP to your company. BetaGank user login UltimateDDay changed from HashAsh four months ago. More to come.
HashAsh?
That was Asher’s college nickname.
He was the one who leaked the news to BetaGank? Why did he lie to me?
I hunted down Asher in the kitchen. Where all could see and hear, I simply lost it. “Asher, you fucking son of a bitch! You leaked my game info on BetaGank? You destroyed my reputation online and then you acted like we were buddies at work? Fuck you . . . you . . . fucking fuck!”
Onlookers stood up from their workstations to get a better view of the spectacle. A crowd of coffee drinkers had gathered around, like we were opponents sparring in a spectator sports arena. People had probably never seen anyone unleash fury to this level during working hours.
Color drained from Asher’s face, and he took on a chalky, sickly hue.
I shouted, “You’d better not get sick on my new Chucks!” His green pallor and sad, downcast eyes almost made me feel sorry for him, but I didn’t. This douchebag was my enemy. “You thought I wouldn’t be able to trace it back to you, is that it? Stupid, naïve Melody? Well, I did figure it out. If you’re going to troll online, at least be smart enough not to use a work IP address.”
Asher looked at the crowd of people around us and said to me in a hushed voice, “Melody, I need to talk to you in private.”
“Oh no, Asher, there’s no private anymore!” I looked around at the onlookers. “Get your popcorn ready, folks.” I turned back to Asher and poked his chest hard with my index finger. “NOTHING is private now. You made sure of that when you started posting shit about me online. Because of you, people are doxing me and sending my personal information around for everyone to see. Did you know that there’s a picture of my mom, dad, and me eating hot dogs from the Puyallup Fair floating in cyberspace now, thanks to you? And people are now making obscene comments about me and my affinity for hot dogs? I don’t even like hot dogs unless they’re on a stick and wrapped in cornbread. But whatever. Anything you want to say to me, you can say in front of our jury here of gaming peers.” I made a sweeping gesture toward the bystanders. Screw Asher and his request for privacy.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Um, okay. We can talk here then. Ian told me to leak the game info online. He might deny it now, but this was all his idea, not mine. But honestly, he didn’t mean for it to turn out the way it did. And I certainly didn’t. He wanted to create some buzz around the game and thought it would be interesting to give BetaGank exclusive access to insider information. But as you know, they kind of mocked the game and then things got waaaaay out of hand. Ian saw this as a marketing or PR strategy, to generate excitement around the game. It was never supposed to deliberately target you.” His shoulders slouched and he looked back down. If he vomited on his own shoes, I’d be happy with that.
Was he telling me the truth? It seemed plausible that Ian had orchestrated all this shit.
He bit his lip and looked back up. “And there’s more to the story. After GameCon, someone hacked into my BetaGank account and changed all the passwords. I didn’t get around to dealing with that because that’s the time when Ian gave me Girls of War and I got distracted. So if any doxing came from that account, I swear it wasn’t me. I’m not smart enough to do that sort of shit.”
“I believe that one,” I muttered.
“And I don’t have any smart-enough friends, either. All my bros are, like, cool.”
I exploded. “Well, screw you! And your bros!” Too bad Asher was way too tall to put into a choke hold.
Joe the PR guy broke through the crowd and motioned for Asher to follow him. He did the same for me. Damn, busted by the principal. Guess there would be no fight after