Nicole returned to her room after a lively dinner.
Samuel’s enthusiasm was overwhelming for her. Fortunately, the few of them rarely came home. Gloria
wanted to know how they were doing these days, as she was preparing what they would need to take
to school later.
After taking a shower, Nicole locked the door and turned on her notebook to check the job’s progress.
The monitoring code was working properly. Just as she was about to close the notebook lid, she
suddenly noticed a program, which she did not code, running in the lower-left corner of the screen. The
little program was emitting a faint glow. Nicole’s keen eye immediately recognized what it was: a
location-tracking malware.
“Trying to track me down? Not so easy!” Nicole scoffed, her fingers flying over the keyboard, quickly
closing all channels, and shutting down this specially built notebook computer.
She had many enemies. It would be too dangerous if her location was exposed. But what she did not
know was that as quick as her action was, the tracking malware had still lit up on the map for a split
second.
Max immediately located her coordinates and quickly reported to Jared.
“Mr. Johnston, Lucifer’s action was fast. Our location-tracking program was removed.” Jared’s
expression darkened.
“It was removed so easily?”
It was a top deciphering program he had bought with top dollar. He had even manually modified it to
make it even more stealthy, but Lucifer’s hacking skills had cracked it before he knew it.
“Yes, but the program has still displayed its coordinates for 0.1 seconds.” Max was almost cheering
with joy, as days of monitoring finally came to fruition.
“Really?” Jared’s eyes lit up. He also had amazing hacking skills, and 0.1 seconds was all he needed.
“I have got the precise coordinates, but it is bizarre.” Max zoomed in the map, and found the signal
coordinates were set at San Joto.
“Where?” Jared frowned.
“The Riddle family house.” Max still felt surprised, even though he had checked and confirmed it
repeatedly.
“In the Riddle family house?” Jared was in disbelief.
“How is this possible?” Lucifer, the famous hacker, had been hiding in the Riddle family home not far
away from him? How was this possible?
His company abroad had nothing to do with Johnston Group, nor did it have any dealings with the
Riddle Corporation. The Riddle family had no reason to sabotage his business.
He lost $100 million when his company’s system was paralyzed the last time. $100 million might be a
drop of the ocean for him, but it was a great humiliation. So, he wanted to track down Lucifer at all
costs.
Nevertheless, never had he expected this person, who he had thought was somewhere far away, to be
this close to him; it was in the Riddle family home.
“Could it be that the tracking system has malfunctioned?” Jared was a little incredulous.
“Mr. Johnston, your skills are also one of the best in the world. It is impossible that the tracking program
you have modified will malfunction.” Max was telling the truth.
He sighed quietly, knowing that even Jared, who had always been confident, had started to doubt
himself. This just showed how huge the impact it was on him.
Seeing Jared’s silence, Max could only continue.
“Mr. Johnston, I will check out the Riddle family first, no matter what.”
Jared snapped back and looked at Max with sullen eyes.
“Okay, at least find out if someone from Riddle Corporation is behind this.”
Mr. Riddle Sr. had a deep friendship with his grandfather, and over the years, Riddle Corporation had
made a lot of money with its relationship with Johnson Group. He was not going to spare them if it was
Riddle Corporation that backstabbed him.
Nicole lay on the bed, feeling uneasy when she thought about the tracking malware. It was
sophisticated malware. She had just discovered that there were a few lines of code that were very
different and could trace her coordinates to 0.01-second accuracy. In other words, even if she sent out
0.01 seconds of coordinate information, the other side could still receive it.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong with the job itself. It was too
easy to get the job, not to mention its high reward and easy task. She had not met such a generous
client in so many years. Thinking about it, she started to realize that someone must have deliberately
set a trap to fish her IP address. If this was the case, she could no longer live in the Riddle family
home. Otherwise, it would bring danger to her family. She had to leave the Riddle family home and go
to a crowded place.
The next day, Nicole got up and went for a run, her mind preoccupied with the problem. When she
came back and after a shower, she found Daniel, Gloria, and her brothers already sitting at the table.
Sean got up early and went to work every day, so it was rare to see him during breakfast.
Surprisingly, Steve, who had his own house outside, had returned. He was reading a financial
newspaper when she came downstairs. He looked up and said good morning to her gently, “Hey,
Nicole. Long time no see.”
He let out an exaggerated smile.
“Good morning, Steve,” Nicole responded with a smile but secretly sneered. Apparently, they had just
met two days ago. Coming to the table, she still sat down next to Stanley, as usual.
Stanley was not in his school uniform but a white blouse, looking gentle as sheep and approachable.
Sitting across from him was Norah, who saw that Nicole and Stanley were getting along well.
As the food was served, Nicole held up a glass of milk and smiled inadvertently at Stanley.
” Stanley, are you staying in the school hostel just like Spencer and Samuel?” Stanley nodded, not
knowing why she asked.
“Yeah, it is busier during the third year in college. So, I stay on campus.”
“Are you bragging or what, Stanley? Third year in college is no way near as busy as in twelfth grade.”
Spencer could not help but complain. Samuel echoed.
“Absolutely. We are forced to stay on campus while you are there by choice.” Stanley looked helpless.
“I can’t help it. The school has a library. It is more convenient for me.” Everyone in the family knew that
Stanley enjoyed studying in the library, where he often spent an entire day there.
“Since you all are all living on campus, could I apply for boarding as well?” Nicole took
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