A Replacement Bride

Chapter 92

"Z?" Joaquin narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

Jordan purely thought Joaquin didn't know who Z was, so he briefed his boss at once. "Z is a dark horse that emerged out of nowhere three years ago. They not only won that year's hacking competition but also hacked into Misvalco, Yevera, Giarona, and a few other countries' security centers. Until now, no one has been able to crack the super trojan they set up. They're an absolute legend in the hacking world. But I have a feeling Miss Cornell's ability is no less than Z's and might even actually surpass Z." The man got more excited the further he explained but then got disappointed mid-speaking. "Too bad Miss Cornell doesn't want to join Area Seven or teach us, or Cechirus' hacking techniques will become the forefront of the world."

"Are you for real? Is she really that good?" Ben's excitement stirred from hearing Jordan's story.

He was honestly shocked by Katherine's ability. Up till now, he hadn't seen anything the young woman wasn't capable of.

"Of course." Jordan nodded with affirmation, then turned excitedly to Joaquin. "Boss, can we really not have her join the team?"

"No," Joaquin answered impassively. Seeing that it was getting late and that the issue had been resolved, he led Ben out of Area Seven under Jordan's longing stare.

"Say, Joaquin, how do you suppose Miss Cornell learned all of this? Just how is it that she's able to learn so many things? Of course, she's pretty young, isn't she?" Ben still couldn't help reeling in Katherine's ability after getting into the car outside Area Seven.

Joaquin quirked a brow in response, just as baffled as Ben was. Previously, he had dug into Katherine and found that she had a pretty clean background.

If there was anything unusual about her, it'd be the five years she spent in Fontan. Nothing about her from that period could be fished out. Then again, it was practically impossible for someone to master medical science and advanced hacking techniques within a mere five years.

Very quickly, Joaquin diverted his attention to Ben, taking a gander at the latter and noting plainly, "You seem pretty concerned about her."

Chills ran down Ben's spine in an instant, and he hurriedly denied it with a shaking head. "No, no. I'm just rambling out loud. Are we going home or Soulin? That reminds me. The address I gave that big shot is Soulin's. They said they'll deliver it via intra-city express."

"Intra-city express?" Joaquin repeated with furrowed brows.

"Yeah, intra—" It wasn't until Ben reiterated that he realized what it meant. "Holy sh*t! Intra-city express! Boss is in the same city as me?! They're also here in Hovington?!"

Joaquin's lips twitched, and he had the urge to roll his eyes at the sight of his friend's buffoonery. "To Soulin International then."

Ben nodded in acknowledgment and started the engine, leaving Area Seven.

It was still early when they arrived at Soulin International, and Ben took a couple of ganders toward Katherine's unit. But too bad for him, the young woman never came out.

When they arrived at Joaquin's apartment, they found a plastic bag hanging silently on the doorknob. The bag looked like just about any other random grocery bag.

Ben took the bag down and reached for its content while grumbling, "Just what meathead is so unethical to hang a plastic bag at your door?! This is—"

The second he saw what was written on it, his hand shuddered from overwhelming emotions, after which he nearly dropped it.

At that, he looked toward Joaquin while stammering, unable to form a proper word at all.

Ben's freak-out caught Joaquin's attention, and the latter turned to his friend. "What is it?"

Ben showed the vial to Joaquin. "T-This… This… This is the neurotoxin the… the b-big guy sent…" stammered the man, finally retrieving his voice.

Joaquin turned grave upon hearing Ben's words, and he grabbed the vial only to widen his eyes in disbelief when he saw the word 'Xyadin'. At that, he looked at the plastic bag.

As if any intra-city express service will ever package their customer's items like this! So there is only one possibility—the seller delivered it themselves.

At that, he hurriedly unlocked the door, entered a room with the item in his hand, and switched the computer on to retrieve the surveillance footage at the door.

However, there was nothing unusual in the footage. After a moment of silence, he compiled the surveillance data and sent them to Jordan with a message attached. 'Recover the data for me, stat."

Jordan got to work using the recovery program he wrote himself as soon as he got the data, but nothing showed still.

Meanwhile, Joaquin fell into deep thought as he looked at the ceramic vial.

Later, Ben went up to Joaquin while rubbing his hands after seeing the man come out of the room. "Joaquin, are you saying that big shot is in Hovington and even very likely in Soulin International? But you can't go up the floors if you're not a resident here, no?"

Joaquin nodded in affirmation. For some reason, Katherine's face flashed across his mind, but the next second, he thought it was ridiculous.

No way can it be Katherine!

"No way. They can't possibly be right here in Hovington, can they? This is a hell of a fate! I'll go and ask him now," said Ben with utter delight. The Red Web was no ordinary channel. Only a small group of people knew of its existence, and Ben had actually gotten the chance to join them by sheer luck.

On the other hand, the big shot held a super high membership tier in the Red Web and was even noted as the OG. It was evident that they were one of the creators of the Red Web.

Ben logged into the Red Web and found A Soulless Money Robot from his friend list. However, their profile picture was dimmed. Clearly, they weren't online. Just the thought of Boss being in the same city is giving me chills!

Though disappointed, he still left a text for Boss before logging out of the application.

Meanwhile, Joaquin was still waiting for Jordan to reply to him, but he didn't bother himself with Ben either.

Two hours later, Jordan's call finally came. "I'm an incompetent idiot, Mr. Levisay. I can't recover the footage. The person's highly skilled. I've tried all sorts of ways and even asked my senior and teacher to help me out. But none of us could crack it." The man's discouragement was practically oozing out of the phone.

"The person is highly skilled?" It was all Jordan took note of.

"Yes, very. Mr. Levisay," answered Jordan with discouragement before suggesting, "Why don't you ask Miss Cornell for help? With how skilled she is at computing, she might have a way to crack it."

After ending the call, Joaquin stared thoughtfully at the phone screen for a long while before pulling out Katherine's phone number and calling it.

Katherine happened to have just come out of the kitchen, and she was actually taken aback when she saw who was calling her. After some thought, she decided to answer it. "You need something from me, my dear fiancé?"

"I need your help in recovering a file. Do you have the time?" Joaquin's crisp voice traveled from the phone.

Katherine fell silent for a moment. Upon noticing the flashing profile picture on the computer, she pulled the chair out to sit down while asking casually, "Recover a file? I'm busy right now. Is it urgent?"

"Quite." Joaquin sounded absolutely sober.

"I'll send you a recovery tool. You do it yourself, alright? I don't have the time right now," replied Katherine upon hearing so as she clicked on the flashing profile picture. Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

"Alright," Joaquin answered without a second's hesitation.

After ending the call, she pulled out a recovery program she wrote herself and sent it to Joaquin.

Following that, she stared blankly at the computer screen for some time, constantly feeling that she had forgotten something important.