Despite her confidence in her brother-in-law, Iris still made Jin Chonglin swear to keep the existence of both Ketchup and Bacon a top secret. Although the continued confusion made Jin Chonglin’s mind whirl, he still agreed and swore on the spot to not tell anyone about his incredible cat AI niece and nephew.
His IQ might not be as high as his older brother Jin Liwei but he was still smart enough to figure out on his own about the implications of having not one but two revolutionary AI beings. Humans weren’t all the same. There were some people in the world who were greedy enough to do just about anything, including cold-blooded brutality and even murder, just to possess this kind of ground-breaking technology.
Upon realizing this, a chill went up his spine. His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as he stared at Ketchup and Bacon with great worry.
“D-damn!” He turned to Iris while pointing at the two AI cats on the dashboard monitor. “Are you crazy?! Why would you show them to me?! This kind of technology is something great nations and powerful international organizations will fight over! What if they’re discovered?! What if someone kidnaps me and tortures the information out of me?! I’m telling you now, Long Xiulan! I hate pain! I’m not strong enough to keep such a dangerous secret under great duress!”
Iris sighed. “Exposing Ketchup and Bacon’s existence to you tonight was an accident. We weren’t planning on letting you or the others outside our household know about them. Ever. Your brother and I will compensate you and provide you with better security. Don’t worry about it.”
But Jin Chonglin continued to worry. It wasn’t just worry but also fear that started to overwhelm him. “Better security? Is that enough?! What if some powerful greedy bastard hires the triad or mafia or someone dangerous like that?!”
“Brother Chonglin, let’s talk about this another time.” Iris sighed once again, her head starting to throb at her brother-in-law’s complaints. “I have other far more important thing to worry about than your situation right now. My husband is being targeted by an obsessed woman. As Jin Liwei’s wife, I need to make sure that he’s safe from any danger.”
Jin Chonglin remembered the current situation, so although he still wanted to talk about the AI cats and the danger of knowing about their existence might bring him, he restrained himself. For now, at least.
“Fine.”
Iris was relieved but didn’t relax as she received a notification on her laptop. She once again became absorbed with her computer. Bacon also left to assist Shadow Winds for tonight’s mission. Ketchup’s image remained on the dashboard monitor, her cute and fluffy self chasing a virtual butterfly, but her uncharacteristic silence signified that she was also busy providing much-needed support to her father at the hotel.
“Boss, we’re here,” Dom announced.
Iris looked up even as her fingers continued their swift typing on the keyboard. Indeed, they could see the five-star hotel towering up ahead. The driver then parked in front of a nearby retail boutique that was closed for the night.
“What’s the plan, boss?” Dom asked.
Before Iris could reply, Jin Chonglin scowled at Dom. “What do you mean what’s the plan? There’s no plan! She’s pregnant so we should stay here in the vehicle where it’s safe since you don’t want to go home. Let Big Bro and his bodyguards deal with Rose Young. Oh, we should also contact the police. Yes, that’s what we should do. Let the experts do their thing. That’s the plan that we should follow!”
“No, we can’t call the police. Absolutely not!”
Jin Chonglin’s eyes almost popped out of his head as he looked at her in disbelief. “Why not?! Don’t be ridiculous! Calling the police is what a responsible citizen should do in this kind of situation.”
She ignored him, focusing instead on doing what she could with her laptop. Yes, Jin Chonglin was right. Calling the police was indeed the normal thing to do but that only applied to truly normal people and situations.
Her older brother was coming to assist her husband tonight with his group Shadow Winds. Call the police? Never! If the police were called, they might arrest Lu Zihao and everyone from Shadow Winds instead of Rose Young. What a joke! As if Iris would allow something like that to happen.
Jin Chonglin fished out his phone, about to call the police on his own, but Iris caught him in time and chopped his arm with a knife-hand strike.
“Ouch! Long Xiulan, what the fuck?!!! That hurts!!!”
Following her example, the loyal Dom also moved quickly and snatched the fallen phone from the floor so that Jin Chonglin couldn’t reach it anymore.
“You two! Why aren’t you letting me call the police?! You’re all crazy!!!”
“Prince Lin Lin, please trust us. Calling the police will bring more trouble.” Dom might not be privy to the full extent of Lu Zihao’s shady businesses but he wasn’t stupid and could tell that something wasn’t fully legal about Mr. Yummylicious. Despite this, he had no problems with Lu Zihao as long as the man remained true to Iris—Dom’s boss, idol and best friend.
Jin Chonglin kicked the back of the seat in front of him in frustration. He didn’t understand why they were stopping him from contacting the authorities. However, he couldn’t do anything because both Dom and the driver only listened to Iris, not him.
Then they heard Iris exclaim something in a different language. Jin Chonglin wasn’t sure what language she was speaking but Dom kindly informed him that she was cursing in Russian. Dom was apparently learning Russian with Jin Liwei since the past few weeks.
“What’s wrong?” Jin Chonglin asked Iris.
She didn’t reply, too focused with her laptop.
The white cat on the dashboard monitor stopped chasing virtual butterflies and her green eyes started glowing brightly again.
“Mommy, it’s the poopoo-head Eagle again! He’s interfering with our mission at the hotel! Mreow!”
Iris frowned but otherwise became even more focused in hacking.
“Uh-oh! Emergency, emergency! Mommy, this is an emergency! Jin Corporation’s security system is under attack! Ketchup’s preliminary analysis indicates that there might be several different hackers involved in the current attack at Jin Corporation but all of their patterns follow Eagle’s distinctive style! Bacon, hurry up! Ketchup needs your help ASAP! Mreow!”
“Bacon is on it,” the no-nonsense Bacon replied.
Iris clicked her tongue, wishing that she was in her own computer room. The laptop that she was using right now was something that she assembled and customized herself. It was therefore several leagues more powerful than the average computers available in the market. Even so, it was still just a laptop and ergonomically terrible compared to her personalized set-up at home that looked like a spaceship’s cockpit.
It only took a few seconds for her to make a decision.
“Bacon, return to Shadow Winds and assist your Uncle Zihao’s hacker team with tonight’s mission at the hotel. Ketchup will work with me to defend Jin Corporation.”
“Understood, Mother. Please be careful and don’t exhaust yourself or Bacon will destroy this continent.”
“Aye aye, Mommy! Meow!”
Although Iris was worried about Jin Liwei’s safety tonight, she trusted her husband and older brother enough to handle Rose Young’s plot until she could assist them later after dealing with Jin Corporation’s current attackers. She also felt more reassured with Bacon assisting the two men.
Her two AI cat children were the products of her creation, their hacking skills based on her own abilities. Although both Ketchup and Bacon moved independently from her, she could still lead them like natural extensions of her body since they operated in the powerful virtual system that she created herself.
Jin Corporation was the fruit of Grandpa Lu and the late Grandfather Jin’s blood, sweat and tears throughout many decades. Iris might not have met Grandfather Jin but she respected him very much just based on the stories that Grandpa Lu would tell her during their business lessons and also because the man was her husband’s grandfather.
Now that Jin Corporation was under a vicious attack, there was no way that Iris would just allow the enemy hackers to do whatever they wanted. It was a company that hundreds of thousands of employees internationally were depending on for their livelihood.
Let a huge business empire like Jin Corporation collapse in one night?
Not on her watch!
Tonight, the hacker world’s rising star Drakon once again bared its fangs after a few months of inactivity.
But something was different this time around.
Emanating from the fierce Drakon was a familiar forbidding aura that many veteran elite hackers would recognize as that belonging to the legendary figure in the hacker world back then before the person disappeared without a trace a few years ago.
###
In a large, dim room somewhere, the sounds of rapid keys and mice clicking could be heard, punctuated by sudden curses and exclamations in a foreign language that many people considered to be romantic. The atmosphere in this room, however, was anything but romantic.
There were several people busy typing away in front of computers. Most of them were using laptops but a few had more robust desktop computer set-ups.
The room might be luxurious but their current condition didn’t look comfortable at all with the mismatched computer equipment, makeshift chairs and tables, dirty fast food takeout containers, empty cup noodles, and other messy things scattered almost everywhere. Nonetheless, everyone appeared used to this kind of unorganized working conditions.
“We failed so many times to breach Jin Corporation’s new security system but thankfully Master El Payaso gave us useful advice. We’re almost there! Hang in there, brothers! We can do this!”
“Yeah! Let’s go!”
Then several danger alerts popped on their screens.
“Fuck! Someone skilled appeared! Who’s this fucking bastard?!”
