CH 179

A collapse of a humongous network often began from a tiny breach.

And Amy Borro was that tiny breach. 

The police chief kept a tight lid over the news that she had been detained overnight, and Spring Ivy Hospital likewise made their arrangements.

Logically, no one could have found out about it for some time after that. But what did happen was the exact opposite. Word leaked the very night, in fact.

It was the Yves family who set the word out, and ironically, the one who proposed this was Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan.

When listening to this proposal, Joe was sitting at the rest area in a detention centre on Tian Qin. Over there with Zhao Zemu, he had been through a day-long demonstration of ‘Silence Is Golden’ and was currently fuming with anger, contemplating whether to offer the other a second chance. 

Having had a restless night and stewed in anger, lil’ Young Master Joe’s head was a bit dull and he was unable to make sense of what Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan intended to do. “What?! Spread word of Amy Borro’s arrest?! Wouldn’t that be actively telling the Manson brothers, get ready, we’re out to get you!”

He finished his vivid exclamation and asked irately, “And once they do, what the hell are we still playing at! Gu, which nutjob came up with this lousy idea? Don’t tell me it was you.”

On the other end, Gu Yan said calmly, “I did have the same idea, but the one who proposed it was the dean. I don’t mind passing on your comment to him; after all, hardly anyone calls him a nutjob. You should be the first.”

“Uh, nonono, forget it.” Lil’ Young Master Joe balked, then mumbled, “But I really don’t get the way your brains work. What are you thinking, putting the news out…”

Gu Yan asked out of the blue, “Have you been to Azure Fishery before?”

“Duh, of course I’ve been there.”

It was a very remote planet almost entirely encased by water bodies, producing a staggering amount of seafood. Hailed as the fishing grounds of the alliance, it thereby earned a pretty nickname, Azure Fishery.

“Do you know of Azure Fishery’s dead zones?” 

Joe said, “Sure I do!”

Due to the planet’s gravitational field, magnetic field, and geographical environment, there were some peculiar areas of Azure Fishery where the dissolved oxygen content was close to zero, referred to as dead zones. Marine life forms that depend on oxygen for survival often ‘staged’ mass mortalities in these dead zones.

To preserve marine life, Azure Fishery’s government put an attraction into place—letting tourists fire oxygen bombs into the water.

When the oxygen bombs exploded in the water, all sorts of strange underwater creatures would flop up, creating a spectacular sight. 

This attraction was crudely termed ‘fried fish’ over the centuries, developing into a classic sightseeing activity and a marvel of Azure Fishery.

Gu Yan said, “Your Teacher Yan is rather interested in such mischief-making activities. However, he’s unable to spare time to visit Azure Fishery. So, I can only use Amy Borro to ‘fry’ the Manson brothers’ men, for him to get his kick.”

Joe, “…”

Someone was remarkably ready in dropping ‘your’ Teacher Yan—but besides that one guy, who else addressed the dean as that? 

After considering it, Joe felt that this was, in fact, feasible. He was about to flaunt his extensive network and remote working abilities only to find that his dear dad, Devore Yves, had taken the first step.

True to form, Old Fox had sent the word out with great finesse. The real was mixed with the fake, not only startling some pawns, but also the Manson brothers in person.

It was the effect that Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan wanted to achieve; the waters were too calm, so stir it up a bit and let those dormant beasts jump up themselves.

Pc ifrr atjc akfcas-obeg tbegr, j olrt abbx atf yjla. 

Ca olnf lc atf wbgclcu, vfcrf mibevr oliifv klat wblraegf mgfqa bnfg Mj Qjcu Glraglma, j vjgx rabgw ibbwlcu bc atf tbglhbc.

Tjc Velhtl’r rwjga vfnlmf rtbbx, jcv j cfk qert cbalolmjalbc qbqqfv bcab tlr rmgffc.

-Catching a pesky mouse…

Qtja fnfc? 

Ugbofrrbg Tjc’r vgbkrlcfrr tjv sfa ab vlrqfi; tf rdelcafv ja la obg j ktlif yfobgf qgbmfrrlcu la—atfgf kjr wbnfwfca bc atf mbecafg-mjqaegf qgbugjw atja Xe Tjc’r oglfcv tjv mbvfv.

Back when installing it for Mervyn White, Yan Suizhi switched on remote linkage. Therefore, if either of them received an irregular interference or message on their smart devices, they would both receive an alert.

Before, that friend had said that the interfering signal could be detected within three attempts. As it turned out, he was being modest. It only took one attempt for the system to catch hold of the other’s pigtails.

Up next was to wait for the analysis of the other party’s identity. 

His smart device buzzed again soon after with an incoming message.

[Landlord: Morning, I received another rubbish email. That program of yours is working.]

[Yan Suizhi: I saw. It was full of emotion.]

[Landlord: Oh, right, forgot you have it synced over. I’m off to sleep, then.] 

Once again, Mr Landlord Mervyn White, who had just been threatened with death, acted as though he had received a sales promo, not even giving it a second glance.

His only reaction was to roll over and go back to sleep.

Yan Suizhi clicked into the bouncing notification. Other than syncing over the contents of the email, it even constantly refreshed with details on the capture process.

05:03:34—Attempting to capture… 

05:04:11—Capture failed.

05:07:19—Clean up complete. Attempt 2. Capturing…

The hand that Gu Yan had around his body moved. He held his fingers and glanced at the screen of Yan Suizhi’s smart device. “Awake? What did you receive?”

Yan Suizhi, “A fried fish.” 

News like this was stimulating. Both gave up on sleeping.

The program kept making its presence felt. Whether success or failure, it would chime every time there was a new result.

But neither of them was annoyed by the noise.

At 6:21 a.m., Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan were having breakfast at the dining table. 

The program that was chiming for more than an hour finally emitted a special notification sound, like a row of fireworks being exploded all at once.

Yan Suizhi was so startled that he almost threw the glass cup in his hand.

Gu Yan also choked on his coffee.

“What is it?” Gu Yan asked, covering his coughs behind a clenched hand, frowning. 

Yan Suizhi looked at the screen.

06:21:44—Capture success. Analysing…

Yan Suizhi, “The signal’s been caught. The racket was probably in celebration of this.”

He looked at the coffee and milk spilled across the table, and he couldn’t help but add, “That friend of yours is really something, in every sense of it.” 

If this program could parse out the other party’s location or even the database that the email was sent from, then they could seize the opportunity to retrieve the original documents that they had sent, plugging the missing pieces that the landlord hadn’t saved.

And that would be a substantial lead in their possession.

The progress bar of the analysis swiftly swiped across the screen, followed by a pleasing notification.

Analysis complete. Results are being released… 

In the blink of an eye, the screen refreshed.

A pawn of the Manson brothers, a colleague who had saved many documents, and the ‘person’ who had tried to interfere with Yan Suizhi’s smart device and extort the landlord—was caught. The relevant information filled quite a few rows on the screen.

Most notable were the sentences tagged in bright red—

Source Attribute: Two-tier mode 

Source Area:

An electronic map was displayed below the line, with two location areas highlighted by a dot each.

The blue dot covered the signal source on the surface tier, while the red dot covered the true location of the signal source.

In other words, the party who had sent the malicious emails put a cover, someone else’s source area, over their own signal to avoid being tracked. Lest they were, they could still shift the blame onto someone else. 

They just didn’t expect that talents didn’t only exist in the genetic industry that the brothers had coveted for decades. It still included many who were active in other corners, doing some less-than-impressive work, enjoying their peaceful lives.

They might one day design a nifty little gizmo with hardly any thought, yet would be capable of poking a hole into webs woven by those such as the Mansons.

For example, Gu Yan’s friend.

It was the sort of thing that the power-hungry would never comprehend. 

On the electronic map, the areas highlighted by the dots shrank rapidly, to circle two locations in the end.

The location of the man they wanted to frame was a forested area in the southern hemisphere of De Carma, and in the middle of that sat a large materials building owned by Zhao Company.

Zhao Company, established by Zhao Zemu’s father.

Whereas the true location of the signal source was millions of miles away, but in close proximity to Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan. 

It was in the Fa Wang District in the eastern hemisphere, next to the commercial hub. There was a staggeringly long street that was widely known for its elegant surroundings and astronomical prices.

Some of the most prestigious companies were based there, and that red dot was pinned to one of the buildings. It had a simple and elegant sign.

—Southcross Law Firm.

Gu Yan stared at the map in silence for a moment, saying frostily, “No surprises there.” 

He slid his finger down the screen, revealing a fresh line of information.

Signal Source: 1192-1182-1

Gu Yan was extremely familiar with the first eight digits of the signal source, for the number to reach the photon computer in his office was almost exactly the same, the difference being that the last digit was a 2.

It wasn’t only his, but shared across all the photon computers in the senior lawyer offices on the second floor. 

So, what the digit 1 represented spoke for itself.

Southcross Law Firm’s ground floor was very spacious. It included the staff administration offices where Fitz worked, the high-level management offices where Adams worked, as well as the partner offices at the back, furnished with water curtains and fountains.

After everything, especially in the wake of the previous accident at Hanjin Garden Hotel, they could know without even needing to check that the partners at Southcross were sketchy.

Only… apart from them, was anyone else to look out for? Whose database were the documents that they were searching for really hidden in? 

It was impossible for them to tell.

“The number is shared,” Gu Yan said. “Everyone on the ground floor will have this signal source. However, there’s an advantage to this.”

Yan Suizhi asked, “What is the advantage?”

“Because the signal source is shared, in a sense, the databases of everyone on the ground floor are also connected.” 

That was information that Gu Yan had once learned when working on a case. Further, to understand the theory, he’d even asked that expert friend for details on how to access the connection.

“In other words, if we can control any photon computer on the ground floor, there is a way to connect to other databases through it and search for what we want?”

Gu Yan nodded. “Fitz has two photon computers for communal use in her office.”