It was mid summer, the window was slightly open to allow for ventilation. The soft white curtains flapped gently in the breeze. The air-conditioner was whirring blowing air around the room in a desperate attempt to cool things down. The tiny apartment was quick to cool down. Abby sat at her desk in nothing but shorts and a bikini. She of course was in her favourite purple leather computer chair. She had her hair up in a loose ponytail and as always when she was streaming, she had on her purple sparkly masquerade mask. It hid her identity from her viewers.

She had just had a manicure and was painting her nails in a maroon colour as she was talking.

Her headset was pink with cat ears on top. She was answering comments from her viewers.

She giggled. "Aww...No. Guys you should know a girls best friend is her computer. I don't own any other platform or console for gaming." She winked. In her years as a streamer she learned that her primary audience are teenagers or purvey old men. They didn't care for how smart she was, only her looks. It didn't matter so much to her because they would never get to know her in real life.

If any of her viewers got too creepy she would dump all their personal information into the police database and have them arrested for any felony she wished.

Her favourite saying was 'girls gotta protect herself' which was ironic given she was a professional hacker. As she put the finishing touches to her right hand nails, she blew on them as she read out the next question. "OK...so I was asked what I think of the new PS5 console. Well I think if you are lucky enough to have one, good for you. From what I've read online it has good specs compared to its competitors."

She tapped on her desk with her newly painted nails and continued "You already know I'm neither a PS or Xbox fan so I can't comment further plus I haven't really tried one myself to give you guys a definite review. There are plenty of those online, so you don't need little old me to tell if it's good or not, right?" She was really good at flirting with her screen.

She looked at the time and wrapped up her stream. "OK guys, that's all I have time for today, as always leave your comments and if I like them I'll reply. "

She took her took her headphones off "Also don't forget if you have any questions ask me next time I'm on. Love you lots. Mwah!" She blew her viewers a kiss and closed her laptop and sighed. She took her mask off and looked at her painted nails. She was loving the colour. She smiled as she stood up. She went and retrieved a hand towel and wet it, She then used it to wipe the sweat from herself. As she walked across her living room to her treadmill, she picked her Bluetooth earpiece and shoved it in her ear.

She picked up the remote for her stereo and played some pop music in the background. She pushed a button on her earpiece as she started up her treadmill and started jogging. She gave a command to her phone. "Call Frank" She let go of the button and pumped her arms along in rhythm with her legs as she jogged. In her ear was the dial tone and then it was ringing. Frank picked up after three rings. "Hey Franky, what have got for me?" The man on the other end chuckled. "Hiya Bee, nice to hear from you too. On our sources there's a high paying contract going at the moment."

Abbie stopped jogging, and wiped sweat from around her face and neck. "Give me the deets." She stopped her treadmill and jumped off to fetch some water from her kitchenette.

As she grabbed a glass from a cupboard, Frank began to tell her about the job.

"The contract is asking for someone to attain inside information from a major tech giant, it could be dangerous." As she sloshed ice cubes into to her glass, Abby snorted and shook her head. "Franky, Franky, Franky, What do you take me for?"

The old man on the other end laughed again. "That's my girl, I've already emailed you the specifics." Then he hung up. Abby took out her earpiece and chugged some water.

She took the glass with her and sat back down at her desk. She cracked her knuckles.

"Now let's see...." She opened up her laptop again and opened her email.

She scrolled through the messages in her inbox. "Spam, spam, phishing....hmm...ah there you are..." She picked the glass of water without taking her eyes from the screen, clicked on the email from Frank and simultaneously took a sip of water.

‐--------------------‐---‐‐------------------

From: Frank

To: BeautifulB@Mail.com

Attachment: #fetchfile.pdf

Hey there Princess,

As promised, the details of your next chosen assignment;

___________________________

Abbie spoofed her IP address while she downloaded the pdf file.

She sipped from her glass again and tucked her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

Her computer pinged to show it had finished and saved the file onto the hardrive and she dropped one knee and pulled her laptop closer. She hummed and chewed her bottom lip.

The front page was entirely black with a red 'X' indicative of it being a file from the dark web.

Her eyes scrolled through the fluff at the beginning as she read it aloud. "Greetings hacker....

Blah blah....client wishes for you to retrieve information from the Latil conglomerate...ohhh I'll have to search for information on that company later...now where was I? ...schematics for the latest tablet design..." Abby cracked a smile. "I like a challenge, but first a shower..." She closed her laptop and finished her water. She was looking forward to this assignment and the pay wasn't half bad either. She had a lot of work to do first though, because this wouldn't be an easy hack.