Jin Liwei appeared intrigued. “Your brother was able to openly attend social events? Didn’t others know his identity as the heir of the Vetrovs or was he in disguise?”
Iris stroked the sleeping Ice Cream beside her on the bed before glancing at Popcorn who was busy grooming himself in front of the wall-mounted fountain. “Those in the know, of course they knew about him.”
“And they still invited him?”
“Yes. Like I said, my brother was very charismatic—he’s still very charismatic even though most people find it extremely difficult to get along with him. They knew that my brother was a Vetrov, but they still wanted to associate with him. Inviting him to social events was one way to do that. Very few could resist Nikolai Vetrov, even knowing how dangerous and deadly he was.”
“The authorities didn’t do anything? They just let him appear in public just like that?”
“That’s the power of the Vetrovs. Yes, we were a notorious crime family, but you’ll find it interesting that we also knew how to make the law work for us. Most governments in the world, especially democracies, has to follow the rule of law before they can legally arrest and prosecute people. Committing crimes was as natural as breathing to the Vetrovs and the authorities knew that. But if there were no evidence or eyewitnesses, the authorities couldn’t arrest any of us. What evidence? What eyewitnesses? We would just make sure to erase everything.” She glanced at him. “Do you still need me to tell you what I mean when I say ‘erase’?”
He shook his head, a serious expression appearing on his face. “Don’t say ‘we’.”
“But I am…I was a part of them, a Vetrov.”
He chose not argue with her about that, telling her instead, “You’re a Jin now.”
She couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Yes, that’s true. I’m now an official member of your Jin family.”
“En. Don’t forget which family you belong now, Mrs. Jin. Your husband and children who are all Jins will be very sad if you do.”
She chuckled and pressed herself closer to him.
This short but sweet exchange between the husband and wife was a much-needed respite for the pregnant Iris from the heavy topic of their previous conversation. Her husband’s semi-serious and semi-teasing words managed to lighten her mood.
“Do you still want to talk about your brother and the Vetrovs?” Jin Liwei asked her.
Tilting her head to the side, she thought for a moment before nodding. “Just a little bit more. I think I need to get all this off my chest tonight or I won’t be able to return to sleep.”
“Alright, love. I’ll be right here listening.”
She gave him a soft smile before her expression became neutral. “Where was I again? Oh, right. Making sure to erase evidence and eyewitnesses was normal protocol for everyone in the organization.”
“You weren’t a member of the Vetrov organization.”
“…No, I wasn’t.”
“See? That’s why I told you earlier not to use ‘we’. You were born as a Vetrov back then but that was something out of your control. You did, however, made the choice not to join the organization no matter how much your family pressured you. You’re amazing, Evelina.”
“Ugh.” She dabbed the sudden moisture in her eyes with the back of her fingers. “Pregnancy hormones.”
“I know.” He leaned forward and kissed each of her damp eyelids.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed his sweet kisses. Sighing in satisfaction, she made herself more comfortable in his arms. “Continuing on what I was saying before, the Vetrovs had the wealth and influence acc.u.mulated throughout several generations to secretly nurture our own expert lawyers from different countries outside of the organization. On paper, those top lawyers had nothing to do with the Vetrovs except for the fact that we hired them defend our ‘rights’. But the truth was that they were unofficial members of the organization right from the start. The authorities weren’t stupid. Of course, they all knew about it but what could they do? They had no concrete evidence or eyewitnesses to validate their suspicions.”
“Ah.” Jin Liwei nodded, quickly understanding all the implications of what she said. “So that’s why your brother could openly show himself in public without worrying about the authorities.”
“Actually, that’s not accurate. My brother was—is a very meticulous man. He won’t parade himself in the open without preparing several escape plans just in case things go awry.”
She noticed him frowning. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t reply.
“Darling? Is something wrong?”
His attention finally snapped back. He cleared his throat and smiled. “Nothing. There’s nothing wrong.”
“Are you sure?”
“En. Don’t worry, love.”
She opened her mouth to ask more about it but got distracted when he grabbed the tablet and looked at the image search results for “Nikolai Vetrov” again.
“Is your brother’s photo in here?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Well, he did have photos floating on the web before but not anymore.”
“Were you the one who deleted them?”
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“Only some.” She shrugged. “My brother never forced me to help him with hacking. Even back then, he had talented hackers among his subordinates but not as skillful as me.”
“Of course.” He smiled.
Her pride as a legendary hacker reared its head again. Despite this, there was purity in her pride, not conceit. It was a simple knowledge of the level of her skills and confidence in her own capabilities as a world-class hacker.
She explained to Jin Liwei that her brother had his subordinates periodically remove photos of himself on the web. The organization also had people do the same thing with photos of the other Vetrovs. Nevertheless, some photos of the Vetrovs would still appear on the web now and then, especially the dark web and the intranet of various authorities from all over the world, no matter how many times they were deleted.
“But that shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Now we have Ketchup and Bacon who are both powerful AIs that could scour the web for these photos and automatically delete them.”
Her expression suddenly turned fierce. She even clenched her fists. “I may not be proud of being a Vetrov and may not have the same desire as my brother to avenge our annihilation, but there’s no way I’ll allow other people to feast upon our images like vultures scavenging for cadavers.”
