Chapter 114


    Busting the intruders


    I knew I should have spent that night being proud of myself, but I had spent it crying. I wanted to be


    loved, and I wanted to fight for this love, but not at the price of losing myself. I was afraid that one day I


    would wake up bitter and tired of waiting for something that would never happen. Perhaps I was the


    one being selfish; I wanted him to have feelings for me just because I was filled with feelings for him,


    but I grew up learning that I had the right to be loved without needing to beg for it. Right now, I felt as if


    I was on my knees, begging him, waiting like a dog for a bone. It was pathetic.


    I told Aren that I would wait until after Lan Jing’s birthday, but I couldn’t understand why that event had


    to determine our rtionship. Was he going to miraculously open his heart for me then? Would a witch


    cast a spell upon him, and he would realize that he loved me all along? I couldn’t deny that my heart


    fluttered every time I saw him, that every time he touched me I felt shivers, that I had my eyes only for


    him. It didn’t matter if he gave me nothing but physical pleasure while I was ready to give him my all.


    I felt as if I had to minimize our contact for a while. I crawled out of bed at six o’clock, tiptoed by his


    bedroom door, and sneaked out to work in the office at thepany. I had just finished correcting


    algorithms to track our preciousst night’s intruders when n and Norton showed up. “Mind telling


    me again, why are we working on Sunday?” n groaned, sitting by hisputer. “Because I don’t


    want those bastards to cover the tracks. I want their physical location, whatputers they used,


    everything,” I said decisively. “I don’t mind working on Sunday.” Norton shrugged.


    I gave him a crooked smile. “d to hear it. Can we get to work now?” n’s program was designed to


    analyze patterns and use them to trace someone more precisely than using an IP address. It was the


    only way to trace a hacker who frequently changed his IP while breaking into the system. It was like


    forcing a hacker to leave bread crumbs that would eventually lead us to the real ce he was


    connected to, but it could take time.


    “If we assume that those hackers could be anywhere in the world, it will probably take a month before


    we find their physical addresses, but we can also take a risk and select a specific


    area. Then we can either find them within hours… or run in circles and find nothing at all,” n


    exined.


    My instincts kept telling me that those who broke into Lan Diamond Corporation’s system were the so-


    called “specialists” that Max talked about. If that was the case, then we could narrow our search, but if I


    was wrong, then I could waste all our efforts. The problem was that we didn’t have a whole month to


    find those jerks.


    I made my decision. “Let’s limit our search to New York state.”


    We spent all day checking every single inte connection in the twenty-million poption. It was


    monotonous and exhausting work that required constant excluding of the patterns that weren’t exact


    matches so they wouldn’t litter our findings. We all jumped out of our seats as we discovered our first


    virtual bread crumbs in the New York City area.


    “Great job, guys!” I shouted, feeling amazingly relieved that my suspicions were correct.


    “Yeah!” n roared. “It won’t be long now!”


    Four hourster, we were circling in the same area with one other trail leading us to the east and the


    other in the opposite direction. Our intruders used many gates and filters that eventually spread our tiny


    bread crumbs all over the city. We ended up arming n’s software with tons of additional algorithms,


    turning our search into an automatic process. The amount of work drained uspletely, making


    Norton fall asleep under the desk; nnded on the sofa, and I eventually fell asleep sitting with my


    face sshed on the desktop. I woke up a few hourster, feeling a red shing light assaulting my


    eyes. It took me a minute to focus my sight on the screen, but when I did, I burst into a mad scream.


    “Jesus fucking Christ! Could you mind my eardrums?!” n growled as he returned to consciousness.ConTEent bel0ngs to N?v(e)lD/rama(.)Org .


    I pointed at the screen, grinning like an idiot. “Location found!” n jumped up, lurched onto the


    desktop, and then startedughing. “This is fucking amazing!” I got up from my seat and we both


    started happy-dancing all over the office. It took us another minute to realize that Norton was still


    sleeping soundly, unaffected by all of the noise. n crouched down next to him. “Hey! Sleeping


    Beauty, wake up! We’ve found those fuckers!” Norton yawned and slowly opened his sleepy eyes. “You


    don’t need to shout. I can hear you.”


    Once he finally crawled from under the desk, we could officially check the result of our chase. I clicked


    on the map; the location was in Manhattan, not too far away from the Lan Diamond Tower. All three


    attacks came from one ce, an office building on Broadway.


    “Do we know whatpanies have their offices there?” I asked, hoping to find anything that sounded


    familiar.


    Norton grabbed his tablet, and a few secondster, showed me the entire list ofpanies from that


    building. I read it carefully, but nothing caught my attention. However, I had little knowledge about


    Aren’spetitors, and there was only one person who could point out the possible suspects…


    Sighing heavily, I grabbed my phone to send a message to Aren, but then I noticed that he had tried to


    call me several times and sent me a few texts as well. In those messages, he wished me a good day,


    asked me if I had eaten, and warned me not to overwork myself. I smiled, wondering if he was still the


    arrogant Aren I met. Maybe he truly was trying, but it wasn’t enough to make me believe he could


    permanently change. I sent him brief information that we found the location of where the previous


    night’s attack came from. He didn’t reply. After a minute, I heard a knock on the door, making n,


    Norton, and me scream like little girls.


    “Jesus! Are you trying to scare the shit out of us?!” I yelled as I opened the door and saw Aren standing


    in the corridor. “It’s 4 AM! I was convinced that we were the only ones in thepany!”


    Aren chuckled and stepped inside our office. “It’s mypany, remember? Besides, do you think that I


    will let my wife work while I stay at home?”


    I cleared my throat. “I saw that you called and messaged me… why didn’t you just drop by our


    office since you were already here?”


    He smiled wryly. “After you decided to sneak you in the morning, I decided to give you some space…”


    n and Norton stared at us curiously, as if they were only missing a box of popcorn to enjoy watching


    my conversation with Aren. I smiled awkwardly at them before shifting my attention to my husband.


    “Can I talk to you in your office?” I suggested, feeling that a further discussion in front of n and


    Norton would not lead to anything good.


    Aren’s eyes widened. “Of course,” he said, and gestured at me to walk out first. I told my wonder-boys


    to go home and get some sleep while I took the list ofpanies and went to Aren’s office. Once he


    closed the door behind us, I became nervous. It reminded me of when we had sex there. Suddenly, my


    mind sent me all kinds of lewd images of us together on his sofa, on his desk… I took a deep breath.


    “Focus, Cora. You need to focus,” I muttered under my breath.


    Aren smiled at me and walked to his three-piece suite, inviting me to sit down.”So, who wanted to steal


    our data?” he asked, sitting in the armchair.


    I chuckled nervously. “We don’t know who, but we know what the hackers’ location was during the


    attack.” I showed Aren the map with the spot marked with a red cross and then handed him a list of


    companies from the building. “So you can’t point out exactly who did it?” he asked, his smile fading.


    “Well… there is a chance to do that. We can confirm the wave pattern and even point to the specific


    computer that was used, but we need to walk to that building with our equipment and stand less than


    ten feet from the spot. Then we can suck in the information. It’s like marking the finish line. Then we


    can use that in court because this proof cannot be faked,” I imed confidently. Aren nodded and then


    raised his eyebrows questioningly. “And without walking into the building?”


    S


    I shook my head. “Without it, all we have is that the signal came from that building. I believe that Jack


    would call it circumstantial evidence-not enough to sentence anyone.” Aren sighed. “I understand. I


    also believe that time is crucial here to get them, right?” I smiled hesitantly. “The trick is that they don’t


    know that they got caught, but if they knew, they would try to get rid of their stuff, destroying the


    evidence.’


    A sour smile formed on Aren’s lips. “The problem is, I need to leave tomorrow. I was in aa, and


    there’s another problem with our ships in Europe. I can’t deal with it right now.”


    My heart suddenly filled with a sense of longing at the mere thought that he would be gone.” How


    long?” I muttered.


    “About a week. We will need to cancel our interviews. I wille back to New York just so we can go to


    China together,” he said.


    Why did it feel like a stab in the heart? Inside my mind, I had already marked our trip to China as likely


    being our final days together. I even decided to avoid him in the meantime! But now, everything inside


    me screamed, “Don’t let him go!”


    Busting te truders


    “OK,” I breathed out. “Then you are leaving…?” “My flight is at nine o’clock; in less than five hours that


    is.” He looked at me with eyes that seemed to be as sad as mine.


    I stretched my lips into a thin smile, struggling to change the subject. “So… do you see anypany


    that is Lan Diamond Corporation’spetition, or its owner wants you dead?” Iughed awkwardly.


    Aren scrolled the list and smirked. “It’s an old list.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why is that?” He


    pointed at one of thepanies. “Thatpany changed its name a year ago. It is no longer called


    Mondo Dei Sogni… Its current name is Blue Dreand.” “What?!” I burst out. Arenughed. “It


    wouldn’t surprise me if they were the ones who tried to steal our data, but I’m not sure what I have ever


    done to the owner. I don’t think that I even know the guy.” “Then… we need to go to that building! We


    need to confirm that -” “Absolutely not!” Aren frowned. “I cannot be there, and I won’t allow you to go


    there alone!” “But it might be our only chance, and I believe that we can find so many answers —” “No.”


    Aren stood up and locked his ck irises on me. “Promise me that you will not go there”


    – he leaned over me, his forehead touching mine-“please.” I could sense that he was greatly worried,


    but I wasn’t a child, and I felt that going into that building could solve a lot of our problems. “I promise…


    I will not go there alone. Besides, I’m a celebrity right now. I cannot go anywhere without being


    recognized.” Iughed.


    “Thank you.” He leaned over me and kissed my cheek. Well, I lied only partially: I was going to take


    someone with me, and I was going in disguise…