Chapter 142
As he spoke, Alexander approached the workstation and pressed the main power switch. Every piece of equipment in front of them lit up simultaneously, breathing lights flickering in rhythmic patterns—the whole setup looked incredibly high-tech.
"Plus, all the hardware here is military-grade. Processing speed's more than enough for whatever you need to do."
"And the files you asked for? I already had them transferred into the mainframe's sandbox system."
After hearing Alexander's explanation, Charlotte nodded, then without another word, pulled out the chair and sat down.
Her slender fingers settled lightly on the mechanical keyboard—one with no character markings whatsoever. The next moment, they began dancing across the keys at lightning speed.
The crisp clacking echoed through the quiet basement, merging into a dense drumbeat that pattered like rainfall.
"Whoever this is, they're clever. When they pulled out of the Langley Group's system, they released a worm virus to erase their tracks. Left behind over five hundred fake IP addresses as decoys too."
Charlotte's eyes stayed locked on the screen as she spoke rapid-fire.
But then her gaze sharpened, and she let out a cold laugh.
"Too bad for them—no matter how good the disguise, any data exchange creates traffic fluctuations."
"You really thought disguising your probe as native garbage collection code would fool anyone? How naive."
Suddenly, the data stream on the screen froze. Several lines of red code were isolated and pulled out separately.
"Got it." Charlotte's eyes turned razor-sharp. "The original backdoor program may have had its main body deleted, but the cache still has the target connection's port number preserved."
The moment those words left her lips, Charlotte quickly wrote a reverse-tracking script and injected it into that port.
Before long, a world map appeared on screen, a red dot materializing over Imperial City, shooting across the Pacific, landing on a small island.
But in the very next instant, the dot started jumping wildly. Within mere seconds, it bounced around the globe over a hundred times.
Seeing this, Charlotte snorted coldly.
"Multiple proxy hops, huh?"
"Each hop's set up with timed disconnects and anti-tracking mechanisms. Detects reverse tracking and auto-destructs."
"Want me to mobilize our overseas tech teams to help?" Alexander stood behind her, watching the screen as he asked.
"No need. Too many people will just trigger his alert system." Charlotte shook her head, her hands never stopping. "Since he likes playing hopscotch, I'll just break his game. Let's see him jump then."
With that, Charlotte opened a hidden command window and entered an extremely complex string of instructions.
This was a forceful penetration algorithm she'd developed back in her days as a top-tier hacker—it exploited underlying vulnerabilities in node servers to violently seize control.
Gradually, the red dot's jumping slowed. One by one, the proxy servers that had been used as cover lost their effectiveness under Charlotte's forceful penetration.
Five minutes later, the dot was pinned to coordinates on the Novaria West Coast.
Seeing this, Charlotte's lips curved slightly.
"Gotcha."
She hit Enter. The map disappeared, replaced by the backend interface of a server located in some remote North Novaria town.
Charlotte stared at it for a moment, then without hesitation, hacked directly into the server's database.
Dense data immediately flooded the screen.
She narrowed her eyes, her fingers flying across the keyboard.
Soon, an encrypted user profile was extracted.
Charlotte forcibly decrypted the file. Before long, a document and a photo appeared before her.
The photo showed a man around forty-something with a full beard and sinister eyes.
Particularly striking was the obvious scar running down his right cheek, giving him an air of menace.
"Richard Clark, codename 'Viper.'" Charlotte scanned the information, eyes narrowing. "Former mercenary, dishonorably discharged for violating military code. Later made a name for himself on the dark web—mainly takes contracts for cross-border smuggling, money laundering, and various shady cyber operations."
"This guy's no joke." Alexander stared at the file, his expression grave. "Records show he's well-known in North Novaria's underworld. Deep connections too—long-term partnerships with several major international crime syndicates."
"Sure, the Langley Group's a major player in Imperial City, but their reach doesn't extend all the way to the West Coast."
"Someone like this wouldn't just randomly target the Langley family without reason."
Hearing Alexander's analysis, Charlotte nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. And people like him usually charge astronomical fees."
"I'm betting whoever hired him isn't simple."
"Which is why I need to find them."
As soon as those words left her mouth, she started typing again.
Watching her completely absorbed expression, a flash of concern crossed Alexander's eyes.
He glanced at his watch, then spoke up.
"It's already noon. Let me grab you something to eat."
"Finding out what happened to Ms. Langley is important, but you need to take care of yourself too."
Charlotte didn't respond to Alexander's words—her attention remained fixed intently on the screen.
Seeing all her focus was on this, Alexander sighed helplessly. After one more glance at her, he turned and left.
The moment Alexander's footsteps faded, Charlotte moved her mouse, preparing to dig deeper into Viper's communication records and financial transactions. Suddenly, all six monitors on the workstation flickered simultaneously. A black dialog box popped up dead center on the main screen.
At the same time, her phone buzzed. An unknown number composed of garbled characters appeared on the screen.
Catching sight of it from the corner of her eye, Charlotte's movements paused.
As if understanding what was happening, she narrowed her eyes slightly, then took a deep breath. She picked up the phone and pressed Accept.
"Ms. Johnson, you work fast. Found me already."
On the other end was a mechanical voice processed through a voice changer—impossible to tell gender or emotion.
"Where's my mother?!" Charlotte's eyes turned cold instantly as she cut straight to the point.
Hearing her words, the person on the other end let out a grating, mechanical laugh.
"Relax, she's perfectly safe right now."
"As long as you do what you're told, she won't be in any danger."