Chapter 124 Pearl Harrison, Reporter By Day, Hacker By Night

Chapter 124 Pearl Harrison, Reporter By Day, Hacker By Night
It had been a long day, especially for Aaron Foster.

He hadn't died, but what he had gone through was, to him, worse than death.

After getting to his penthouse which hadn't been confiscated since it was rented, he rested his head against the couch and thought about what to do next.

From Greta's messages, people already knew what had happened to him, and he could already picture his enemies celebrating.

That darn Amber thought that man she was hooking up with loved her just because he spoiled her with a few things.

Tch.

Since he hadn't touched his phone the entire evening, he was yet to see the news plastering Ezekiel's face everywhere. If he had, he would've also known that he was also being dragged online for being backed by a potential murder suspect, making his situation even worse. 

After thinking for a while, he pulled out his phone to check the bounty again.

It was being updated every thirty minutes with the latest happenings on the dark web.

He browsed the site, searching for the person who managed the page. It didn't take him long to track down the man's social media account, where he found a story about the bounty on a very famous figure skyrocketing on the dark web.

The man had urged anyone interested to message him privately for more details about who the target was and how to access the site.

So Aaron did.

Then he was sent a much clearer picture of the bounty.

Before, Aaron had only recognised the man's back.

But now...

"Ezekiel Kent is currently in police custody for the suspected murder of a family of four. When the news broke, his bounty doubled, and now it's pushing 800 million. Do what you've got to do, brother. I won't judge."

That was the message attached beneath the photo.

Aaron shot to his feet, narrowing his eyes as he stared intensely at it.

What a coincidence.

Not only did this man have the face of the Ezekiel Kent he knew, but he also answered to the same name.

He had been completely mistaken to go to Amber for help if this really was the Ezekiel Kent he knew.

Not only was Ezekiel far out of her league, it was practically impossible to land him. Countless women had tried and failed miserably. She was obviously with a man who had his build and looked like him.

"But suspected of murdering a family of four?" he murmured, exiting the chat to search for the news himself.

Lo and behold.

It was exactly as he feared.

He hesitated.

This man was investing in his movie.

Was he really worth sacrificing?

Aaron shook the thought from his head almost immediately.

Ezekiel Kent had only allocated one hundred million toward the entire production of the movie and still stood to gain forty percent of its profits.

Now an opportunity worth eight times that amount had landed right in front of him, and he was hesitating?

Pushing the thought aside, he followed the instructions the social media handler had sent him to access the dark web.

Within minutes, he was in.

Alongside the constantly increasing bounty, the website displayed a live visualisation of what the cash would look like stacked in bundles of hundreds.

It was the biggest pile of money Aaron had ever seen.

He soon joined the conversation in the chatroom and quickly realised that a certain Mr. Forensic, whom everyone had been rooting for, had failed.

Curious, Aaron asked around.

Before long, he had the full story.

Nobody wanted to partner with him because they didn't want to split the bounty in the end, leaving him to work alone.

By the time Aaron went to bed that night, he wasn't nearly as hopeless as he had been throughout the day.

He now believed that all it would take to rebuild everything he had lost was the life of one man.

As he prepared for bed, a small notification flashed across his computer screen for barely three seconds.

‘’Your device has been hacked.’’

Before he could properly read it, the message disappeared on its own.

...

The following morning, Aaron woke to the news of the police publicly apologising to the three men they had arrested the previous day after an anonymous individual dropped off the real kidnapper in front of the precinct—along with the abducted woman.

Aaron was brushing his teeth when the broadcast switched to footage of the rescued woman.

She was still bound, visibly trembling at the sight of the crowd.

Aaron nearly swallowed his toothpaste seeing who it was.

An idea immediately formed.

If the real culprit had been caught, then the precinct would surely hold a press conference to apologise to the three accused men and clear their names after the damage caused by their rushed investigation.

He hurriedly got dressed, already piecing together a plan.

When he finished, he rummaged through his briefcase until he found an old pistol he had bought years ago.

He directed movies.

He knew how crime worked.

As long as he got rid of the weapon afterwards, nobody would ever be able to trace it back to him.

Then he'd walk away with more than eight hundred million.

Satisfied with the plan, he hailed a taxi to the precinct and blended in with the reporters to avoid drawing attention.

He had glued on a thick fake moustache and wore oversized glasses to disguise his features.

Without attracting suspicion, he tapped the nearest photographer on the shoulder and asked in a heavy fake accent, "How long before the inspector comes out to address us about the bad news?"

The photographer, a young man in his twenties, sighed and shook his head.

"They had to rush Amber Hargrove to the hospital. Can you believe it? The police stood there while the poor woman was kidnapped right outside the precinct, and then they kept the whole thing quiet. What would've happened if she hadn't made it back alive?"

Aaron slowly bobbed his head in agreement, before another thought suddenly crossed his mind.

He turned back to the photographer, who was now busy cleaning his camera.

"Amber Hargrove... isn't she the woman who has that bet with Aaron Foster? Don't you find it a little convenient that she gets kidnapped out of nowhere when she's practically a nobody? What if this is just a very successful stunt she came up with to gain public sympathy and sell tickets for her new movie?"

"Would you also say the family of four who lost their lives to this madman staged their own tragedy, only for it to somehow go wrong?’’ A female voice answered before the photographer could.

Aaron turned, momentarily caught off guard.

Standing there was a young, elegant woman wearing a figure-hugging red dress with short sleeves and a pair of high heels that perfectly accentuated her long legs.

She let out a light scoff before a pleasant smile spread across her face.

Then she stretched out a hand toward him.

"Pearl Harrison. I couldn't help overhear your question. As a reporter by day and a hacker by night, stories like these genuinely disturb me."