Chapter 256 - 20 Year Feud

Elfie worked overtime and was given orders from above not to include Edward in any follow-up information. He didn't know what went on between Edward and the higher-ups but the hacker had a feeling he would be in big trouble if he spilled any confidential information about the case to Edward or Jasper. Stranger still, Edward wasn't contacting him at all. He only asked for the exclusive pictures, thanked Elfie and ghosted.

After working with Elfie for so long, it was difficult for the hacker to not discuss work with the spy. In times like this, he could really use Edward's brain to analyse the mountain of information together. Edward's eyes were fresher and his brain faster than Elfie's and he wasn't as rigid in thinking like the Interpol and their stifling SOPs. The hacker found himself missing his friend but he tried his best to chin up. They were now very close to nailing Anastasia, they already had crippling evidence about Leah to use.

"It's ok, you can do this," Elfie told himself and settled down with his third cup of coffee for the night. Danny was working with Wilmer to increase security around Kiwi Cat after Jasper turned Julian down. They were now waiting for Lucy to publish her exclusive interview that Orita arranged. This should help to redirect Julian and Anastasia's aim. Julian will use the company to continue pressuring Kiwi Cat into submission while Anastasia would start to move silently to get to the girls. The Interpol anticipated the pincer strategy and were on standby to start a crackdown on the suspicious list of names Edward managed to obtain for Elfie before he was told to leave the mission.

Edward was right about Julian using his company's intranet and Wi-fi with his private phone. After getting the phone number from Edward, Elfie confirmed its IP address by hacking the cellular network providers to search for a matching device. Once he had the location on lock, the hacker didn't need to spend too much time disabling the firewall at the CEO's home. In less than ten minutes, Elfie was already sieving through everything Julian owned on his personal phone and computer.

With the virus planted in the phone, Elfie was now able to multiply the program into all the other devices using the shared network. He wondered why Julian didn't invest in better security but remembered that not everyone was very IT savvy. Even politicians didn't invest enough in a hacker-proof system which was why it was so easy for scandals to leak. Only important people like the president who had a team managing his interest was at a lower risk of cyberattacks. No matter how much money Julian had, his mistake was not spending it on capable talent to safeguard his online secrets.

Once Elfie got into the phone, he was able to retrieve the contact list to forward to the Interpol's intelligence department for further investigation while backing out all the conversation records for evidence of their illegal business. After that, the hacker quickly sieved through the personal computer that had been left on and running. After running a discreet check on the laptop, Elfie hacked the device to turn on the front camera which wasn't blocked. He grinned at the small victory.

Using the camera to determine when Julian wasn't working on his laptop, Elfie slowly but surely manipulated the computer to make a transfer of everything out into Elfie's storage system. It was a slow and painful process that took a whole night but Julian wasn't very bright when it came to technology. The man left his laptop running and unattended to go for a shower without logging out. Who was Elfie to deny such a golden opportunity to plant a program into that computer?

Quickly, Elfie copied over the program he created and waited for it to be latched onto some background running app. To buy time to pour out the massive gold mine of damning information, the hacker also installed a fake windows update to keep the laptop running for a long time before it shut down. Of course, Julian wouldn't know that and knowing that some window update patches were bigger than others, Julian would most likely not pay attention to it and head to bed with the laptop running, assuming that it would shut down by itself once it was complete.

True to what he expected, Julian didn't really bother about waiting for the fake window update to be completed to turn the power off. Elfie was excited. It would be his win by the end of the download. The Interpol was going to be able to start working on solid leads for the first time in nearly two decades. It's not every day that the Interpol does some major crackdown on powerful mafia families. However, Elfie strongly believed that the time had finally come.

It was five in the morning and Elfie was snoozing on the chair when his alarm rang. It was a sign that the download was finally complete.

Bleary-eyed, the hacker looked at his screen for two minutes before the words were finally clear enough for him to read. Apart from the download completion, Elfie saw something in his private network's inbox. This was his usual communication channel with Danny and the Interpol or his clients. Who could it be this time and what did they want? He was busy!

As it turned out, the mail was from the Interpol and not even Danny had an opinion about the orders received. Elfie couldn't believe his eyes. He had sent the data over less than an hour ago and now the higher-ups want to kick him out? What was going on? Was this what happened to Edward too?

Furious and unable to accept the suddenness of this order, Elfie rang Danny. He didn't particularly care about the time he was calling, this was unfair! After all the work that they did, the Interpol is simply going to take their labour and pass it off as their own credit? Where was the justice in this world?! Unacceptable!

"What is it?" Danny groaned. "It's five in the morning."

"Dad! You can't just let them do this to me, I've worked very hard on this case with Edward, we should be the ones in charge. Why is the Interpol benching us? My access has been banned completely from their side, I can't get through to the classified section!"

Danny didn't need all his brain cells to function in order to figure out what happened and what his son was referring to. The informant sighed.

"It's not just you and Edward. We're keeping an eye on Jasper too. You're only children, let us a.d.u.l.ts handle the rest now, you've done enough. Don't put yourselves in any more danger, this is an a.d.u.l.t's game with guns and weapons. Also, the Interpol may have banned you from working on this case in particular but it doesn't mean you cannot do anything more. The most important thing now is to protect the Wilde family, especially the girls. Wilmer has constantly been a target for the last six years and we had some close calls. These people are part of the mafia. They're not beneath using underhand methods to get rid of competition, we didn't tell Orita about it but in those six years, Wilmer had two close death encounters. The assassination attempt almost succeeded twice but you can imagine how many more we've thwarted. If you and Edward have time to be angry about this, use that energy to protect what Wilmer and I have been working hard to protect."

Elfie felt frustrated by how the Interpol and Danny were so quick to shut him out but he knew that his adoptive father spoke the truth. They were only children. From behind the scenes, they could do many things but when it came to blazing in with big guns and watching people lay down their lives in a crossfire, Elfie didn't want to bring Scarlet or Alex into it. He had seen enough in the Syrian war with Edward gunning down enemies from the rear while he encrypted intercepted communications.

"I understand," he sniffed, tears running down hot and fast. "If... if something goes wrong, please don't stop me. I'm going to use all of my ability to assist Edward in this case. This time, I don't need you to cover up for me, I will take full responsibility. Scarlet and Alex are my friends, I cannot stop and do nothing. Julian and Lucian are planning to make big moves, try and keep tabs on Leah. They're going to make use of her and dispose of her once their transfer is complete."

Danny was wide awake now. His son might be talented and smart but he was still rather awkward about social matters. Yet, as an adoptive father who had been the worst parent any child could ask for, he felt slightly proud that Elfie was finally making progress at learning how to trust others and befriending people.

"Don't overdo it," was what he told Elfie before ending the call. Seeing as it was rather pointless to go back to sleep, Danny decided to start his day early and talk to the important decision-makers in the Interpol.

They had the upper hand now, these boys and girls worked hard. After so many failed infiltration, the fact that a bunch of kids managed to accomplish what professionals had failed to do made him feel both worried and proud. He swore on his son's name that they would not fail them. After coming this far, the last step was up to the a.d.u.l.ts to end the twenty-year-long feud.