Chapter 170 - A Small Jealous Flame

Frost: You were right! The camp was fun even though it was nerve-wracking at first. I've never met so many friendly people or played games like that before…

Jedd77: Isn't that great? Did you meet anyone from your course?

Scarlet sighed and texted back that she was the only philosophy student in that group although she talked a lot about Joanna. The more Scarlet talked about it, the more Edward smiled on the other end of the conversation. Scarlet talked about how open the people were and how nobody judged the other person for being who they were. In particular, Scarlet had respect for one of the guys in the group who was openly gay and single.

The more Scarlet talked about the gay comrade she met, the more Edward's smile disappeared. He liked it when Scarlet talked about her day because Edward learned more about her that way. However, he found himself disliking it when Scarlet talked about other boys. Edward wasn't a fool, he knew what he felt for her but it didn't mean he couldn't get jealous.

Trying to switch the topic, Edward asked if Scarlet was ready for the second day of camp tomorrow. The camp will only become more intense with each day and according to Alicia who was a social butterfly. Scarlet looked at the time and almost screamed. She was used to staying up late after shoots and waking up late in the morning near noon because most of her work didn't take place until after lunch. School life was tough having to wake up early and all.

Frost: I'm so sorry! I'd gotten so used to staying up late and waking up late that I forgot... I have to go to sleep now, I'll find time to talk to you tomorrow!

Jedd77: Oh dear! It's best that you head to bed then. I'll be waiting to hear your updates ^^

Frost: Thank you and sorry about that!

-Frost logged out.-

Edward chuckled. Scarlet really wasn't very good at hiding things even when she was hiding behind a new name. He didn't know her personally in person but her personality wasn't too far off from what Elfie told him about her. Now that Scarlet was offline and probably heading to bed, he could call the hacker.

"What's up? Jasper and I are still working on it. That Pineapple CEO really is fishy. We're doing our best to track him down and find leads but everything is very contradicting. It would be good if we had someone else to help us sort it out. Scarlet is usually good at it but we decided against involving her further so this is going to take a while. Say, can't you reconsider? A month is really too short for us to get any solid leads without her..."

Edward thought about it. "I just spoke with Scarlet as Jedd. Today is her first day at the university so don't bother her. Have you heard from Danny and Wilmer's side?"

The hacker sighed. "Danny is keeping me at arm's length regarding the matter. He doesn't even see me now! How dare he throw me to Kiwi Cat Studio... I didn't even want the chat room to become a business, now I have to manage everything because of the stupid business plan! I hate Jasper sometimes and he isn't the one helping to trace information. Shouldn't managing the business and making money be his job? Why am I doing his work too?!"

Rolling his eyes, Edward ignored Elfie's ranting. This wasn't the first time Elfie complained about having to do actual work that got him paid the legal way. As a hacker working for the Interpol occasionally, Elfie never got used to the concept of doing work to pay the bills. Danny had controlled the money very strictly and all Elfie had to do was treat the jobs he was given like a game. It wasn't difficult to get Elfie interested in a case but it was difficult to get Elfie to cooperate with a team. The teen was great at what he did but could only be a soloist. Edward didn't like working with Elfie unless it was absolutely necessary because Elfie had a tendency to change plans without informing others about it. He suspected that Jasper isn't helping Elfie manage his chatroom business for the same reason seeing as Jasper and Elfie had been acquainted for a long time.

"Are you done?" Edward deadpanned. "Can we go back to talking about what you found? I'm calling you for an update report before I consider extending my services. Also, did you know that both Alex and Scarlet are attending my school? It's easier for me to keep tabs on the sisters even if we're not in the same course."

Getting into a serious mode, Elfie returned to the topic of his investigation. "I really will appreciate it if you can keep Scarlet beside you whenever you can. Alex isn't too much of a concern. She's a social butterfly and will make a lot of friends when school starts. Her social media updates hourly so if something happens to her, we will be ready. Scarlet doesn't keep her account active after the work hiatus announcement. I also don't know when she will be in communication with that Pineapple CEO. There was an agreement that he can be in contact with the sisters for business-related matters and I'm afraid that he will try to get to Scarlet using that excuse. Alex doesn't handle business matters for Golden Frost."

Edward understood his friend's concern. CEO Zhu was a very suspicious person and if anything, both his search results and Elfie's findings were pointing towards the same direction. Despite that, they were still unable to uncover more details simply because their hands were tied. Elfie was restricted by time and responsibilities with the unexpected business boom. Edward wasn't on probation. He stuck his nose too deeply into a case about three months ago and his father benched him from all Interpol access rights. He couldn't do any spy missions and it was the absolute worst.

"I can't help out this time even if I want to," Edward admitted. "My passports and identity cards have been taken back and my bank is frozen. You're the only one capable of finding out anything at all so if you're stuck then we're doomed."

The hacker didn't like the sound of it. He was neck-deep in this thing called work and he hated every moment of it. Yet, he couldn't leave it to anyone else because nobody knew what he wanted to do for the chatroom. Some of the E.C. Class members working or Jasper volunteered to help and Elfie was thankful that he didn't have to handle the administrative work and deal with customer emails. Elfie was eternally grateful to Samuel for making his life a lot easier by sending daily summarised reports. He was also grateful that Jasper sometimes told Ronald and Vicky to help him out with some debugging and user testing. Yet, Elfie couldn't spend enough time to spare working on doing background checks on all of Pineapple Group.

"Say, can you help me sift through the massive data that I can secure access for? Pineapple Group is too big for me to investigate everything alone... I'm begging you now, you're the only person I can count on! I know that there will be a lead to Anastasia somewhere in the millions of files but I don't have the spare time or energy to do it."

Edward considered it. Classes were boring and Edward was going to start climbing walls if life was going to continue being this boring. Aside from being able to talk to Scarlet whenever she could find the time, Edward had no other highlights for his day.

"How can I do that?"

Elfie deadpanned. "Are you serious? You're a spy. Isn't going through the information and collecting them your speciality? I can't tell what all those financial figures or blueprint or emails mean. I only know how to bypass firewalls and jam networks to gain access into places I'm not meant to."

The spy rolled his eyes. "I mean how can I access them after you hack into the system? Also, where will you be starting? Pineapple Group is a huge company with worldwide influence. They span across several industries and have a very complex company structure. When you say something fishy it could mean anything from frauds and embezzlement to illegal research and development. How do we know which one leads to Anastasia?"

Elfie wasn't sympathetic. "That's for you to find out. You're a spy, aren't you? Then again you're still very young and rather inexperienced so this might be hard for you. How about letting your father know so that he can help assign someone more suitable for the task?"

Hearing the taunt, Edward had to collect himself and remind himself not to fall for such an obvious trick. "If you think my father will lend his men for you then be my guest. Just be prepared for Danny to come after you in person when he finds out. I'm also sure that Wilmer won't let you off the hook when he knows that his daughters were involved."

The spy smirked when the hacker spewed vulgarities in his native tongue. Knowing that he now had the upper hand in their negotiation, Edward waited for Elfie to throw in a more appealing offer. 

"Ok, I will make you one last deal. If you help me find Anastasia's tail and protect Scarlet, I will make sure nobody dates her before you can ask her out. I know you like Scarlet. I see your chat logs. I won't tell Orita or Wilmer and I can get Alex to be cupid. Alex can help to distract Claire as well and I know you can take care of the other bodyguards following Scarlet when you bring her out on dates."

Edward swallowed when he heard it and a furious blush coloured his face to the name of his secret crush. "Y-You! If you tell anyone about this before I ask Scarlet out, you're a dead person."

Elfie laughed. "I take the secrets to my grave but even as a ghost I will throw flower petals over the both of you. Scarlet is a good girl and you are a reliable boy. I'm happy for both of you if you can win her heart. At the same time as Scarlet's friend, I must threaten to rip your balls off if you hurt her. Unlike Alex, Scarlet suffered too much when she was young. She pulls everyone in the class together and heals our wounds but nobody is able to heal her scars. Be careful of what you do and say around her, you study psychology so you know what PTSD is."

Hearing that, Edward nodded and bit his lip. "I will. Thank you for telling me. Once you've copied the files out, let me know how to access them. It's better to hurry because EZ Express is on the move."

Elfie agreed and they ended the call. For a long time, Edward stared at the phone in his hand. Elfie's words echoed in his head. Scarlet had a painful past that nobody knew much about and she had PTSD. The spy was pained knowing that the person he couldn't reach out to Scarlet. She was so close to him now but somehow after learning that, she felt very far away to reach. If only he was one of the freshmen in her camp, it would have been easier to get close to her. Even if he wasn't gay, he was willing to swap bodies with Ryan just to be a little closer to her.