Chapter 28 Operations That Could Be Included in Textbooks

Chapter 28 Operations That Could Be Included in Textbooks

At a computer in the Department of Defense duty room, the sound of rapid keyboard clicking filled the air.

Christopher lounged lazily, feet propped up on the desk, left hand holding a can of beer, right hand moving nimbly across the keyboard.

"Evelyn." He snorted coldly, smugly hitting the enter key.

Hacking into a high school student's phone account was as easy as eating or drinking for him.

A blue countdown bar in the center of the screen was rapidly shrinking—just one more minute to wait.

"Heh." Christopher sneered, letting go and leaning back completely in his chair, gulping down his beer.

The cold liquid slid down his throat. He squinted, imagining the panicked look on that high school student's face when she discovered her phone had been hacked.

Then she'd regret all those cocky moves she'd made.

But a minute later, the expected completion sound never came. Instead, the blue light in his peripheral vision disappeared.

Christopher froze, sitting up straight to look at the screen.

After stuttering a few times, the screen suddenly went completely black.

The next second, code cascaded down the screen like a waterfall.

Christopher shot up from his chair. The beer bottle in his hand got knocked over, spilling beer all over the desk. But he couldn't be bothered to wipe it up, frantically pounding at the keyboard.

Not only had he failed to hack into her phone, but she had somehow used the opportunity to hack back into his system.

But this was a Department of Defense computer! It contained countless classified documents, source code for major projects... If this leaked, the consequences would be unthinkable.

The Defense Department's network had its own firewall, and Christopher's counterattack wasn't slow—logically, he should be able to intercept it quickly. But Christopher was practically wearing out his keyboard, yet the screen showed no change at all, still rapidly scrolling with those invasive codes.

Sweat beaded on Christopher's forehead, and his hands began to tremble involuntarily.

Other colleagues on duty noticed his behavior and quickly gathered around, every face deadly serious.

The attacker's path was unpredictable and changing, yet seemed to deliberately leave Christopher enough space to fight back. Each time his countermeasure program caught up, the opponent would casually speed up and slip away, as if deliberately toying with him.

Like a cat playing with a mouse.

"Damn it!" Seeing the opponent about to break into the computer, Christopher cursed and lunged at the computer tower, actually pulling the power cord.

The screen instantly went black, and the room fell so silent you couldn't hear a sound.

Christopher sat slumped in his chair, gasping for breath, his back already soaked with sweat, his face showing the fear of someone who'd just narrowly escaped disaster.

His colleagues also breathed a sigh of relief, then exchanged glances and suddenly burst out laughing.

"Christopher, you actually pulled the power cord?"

"I've been at the Defense Department for over ten years, and this is the first time I've seen someone fighting a hacker resort to pulling the power cord."

"Genius, truly our Defense Department's top-tier genius hacker. This move could go in the textbooks."

"But seriously, what kind of expert could make you, Christopher, surrender?"

"Our Defense Department is really done for now. Can't solve a problem so the director personally asks a high school student for help and gets rejected, genius hacker fights someone and ends up pulling the power cord. I feel like I can't see a future anymore."

"Maybe take off your sunglasses and look again?"

"Shut up!" Christopher snapped in embarrassment, but looking at the messy desk in front of him, he couldn't say another word.

From the IP address, the person trying to hack into the Defense Department computer was in California.

Could it be that high school student, Evelyn?

Was it accidental or deliberate that she broke through the firewall but always left him one step to fight back?

Just because he tried to hack her phone?

Christopher still thought it was impossible—maybe the two incidents were just a coincidence, and the computer hacker was someone else.

But if it wasn't Evelyn, California was clearly full of hidden talents.

"Smack!" Christopher slapped both hands on the desk, making his decision. "I'm going to California myself."

...

In the Grants' garage, Evelyn held the broken computer Gabriel had salvaged, but her eyes were on her phone screen.

Gabriel came in and saw this scene, couldn't help but pat her head: "Why are you multitasking?"

On Evelyn's phone was a classic old movie. Gabriel had already seen it and wasn't interested in watching it with her, so he leaned toward the computer instead.

The screen showed a dense string of code. He recognized every letter, but put together they were completely foreign. Though Evelyn's eyes were on her phone, her hands were still moving flexibly across the keyboard, not looking like random typing at all.

"What does all this mean?" Gabriel no longer looked down on his sister who used to always fail her classes, and asked humbly.

Evelyn was very patient, explaining line by line, though each sentence still made Gabriel feel like he was hearing a fairy tale.

Not bothering to dig into where his sister had learned all this, Gabriel struggled to piece together a message: "So you're saying... you're hacking into a Defense Department computer?"

"Just now I was, but now I'm doing cleanup work to prevent them from tracking me back." Evelyn closed the computer and rolled her neck. "Now it's done."

Gabriel's mouth fell open. After a long while, he finally heard his own voice: "Why?"

Hacking a Defense Department computer—you could get thrown in jail for that. And if they thought you were a spy, that would be even more trouble!

Evelyn saw through his thoughts and patiently explained the whole story, including how the Defense Department director had asked her to help solve a problem.

"I guess he was mad I didn't agree, so he tried to hack my phone. I happened to be free, so I just messed with him a bit. But I didn't expect the guy to be such a coward—we barely got started and he got so scared he pulled the power cord." Evelyn muttered, her tone somewhat regretful.

Gabriel broke out in a cold sweat listening, but then felt endless admiration for Evelyn rising in his heart. On one hand, he was afraid of getting in trouble—especially offending those big shots at the Defense Department who were so far above him—but on the other hand, he felt fired up by what his sister had done.

But thinking about how they tried to hack his sister's phone just because she didn't agree to their request, he instantly became furious.

"That's too much. Who do they think they are at the Defense Department, hacking people's phones whenever they want? We could totally sue them."

Evelyn nodded in agreement: "Couldn't even hack properly and had to pull the power cord. Tsk."

For the first time, the siblings were completely in sync, taking turns mocking that rude guy from the Defense Department. Kyle and Rose both turned to look at them with smiles.

After venting, Gabriel became a bit worried and asked Evelyn: "Have you thought about what to do next?"

The other side probably wouldn't let this go.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, speaking casually, "Give them a taste of their own medicine."