#Chapter 30 : Behind The Websites, Behind The Screens
Third Person's POV
Beth couldn't feel any strength from her legs as she clutched Jack's arm. She couldn't help but lean more of her weight onto her snow-haired company. Jack immediately noticed her sudden weakened state and slipped his arm around her waist, balancing her. Beth responded with an arm hanging around his shoulders.
"Beth! Are you okay?" He asked her in panic. The man was more than worried and was going to help her up, but Beth regained her composure and shook her head.
"John! Wait!" The voice came from behind the man before them.
The said male turned around to reveal a dark brown-haired woman coming closer. Beth's stomach jumped and twisted as she noticed in mortification that the woman was also the exact similar as the one in the picture. Her pale skin and clear turquoise eyes painfully reminded her of the cheerful bubbly girl she knew as Anna.
The woman held the man's shoulder. Beth spotted rings glinting from each their ring fingers and had a feeling they were husband and wife. The woman's eyes traveled from the man and landed on Beth
"Mrs and Mr. Arendelle..." Jack said softly, recognizing the two people in front of him
The couple noticed him too. "Jackson Overland?"
"Yes ma'am, It's me."
Mrs. Arendelle curved a gracious smile and shook Jack's hand. "Good to see you here. Dear me, I apologize for my husband if he had interrupted you in any way. We're in hurry to see Mr. Winters..."
"You know him?" Beth choked. It couldn't be helped, too many things were happening since that morning. She tried to hold in her feelings, as she could still feel Mr. Arendelle's gaze that seemed to have never left her. "Why yes, we know him. He is, well was one of my best employees." The man offered the blond a hand to shake. "My name is John Arrendelle, and this is my wife Amy Arendelle. Who might you be young lady?"
Beth swallowed having to think about the whitening pallor on her dad's infinitely resting face, and briefly shook the man's hand. "Elisabeth Winters, his daughter."
The couple raised their brows hearing her words, and as much as they wanted to enthuse how they've met the daughter of their great employee, they knew it wasn't the best time.
"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry for your loss." Mrs. Arendelle woman comforted gently.
"It will be okay, thank you for your concern." Beth nodded. "Well, sorry but I have to excuse myself for now. Hope we will see each other again!"
Beth's attempted cheerful tone didn't match well with the dryness in her voice. The girl noticed it herself, and walked faster as to not give time for anyone to ask about it. Jack followed suit.
The two Arrendelles ventured on through the hallway. The man had his lip straight and brows in slight furrow.
Sensing his change of aura, his wife squeezed his hand. "Honey, what's wrong?"
The man was cut from his reverie and looked at his concerned wife, then curved a small smile for her. "Nothing dear."
Knowing her husband well, she wrapped an arm around him and lightly leaned her head towards him. "I know," she spoke softly, tone carrying melancholy. "I miss her too. Both of them."
She heard him take a deep, sorrowed breath, and they continued walking.
...
Beth's POV
A week passed since dad's death, and I thought I'd be over it. Everything healed with time, but I still felt hollow. One less person on the dining table, seeing mom heading for work all alone, no one hogging the couch in the morning, no little corny messages pinned to the refrigerator, no one ruffling my brothers' hair before we all go to college. I was reminded of my dad's absence in my life almost every hour. It was really only when somebody was gone for you to truly realize how big of a part they were in your life.
It's dark, it's sad, and we tried our best to pass it by and comfort ourselves that although we lost dad, we still had each other. But it wouldn't do. Nothing did. It made me upset that nothing made us better, and confused at how on earth we would ever let this go.
Why did dad leave us? What caused him to die? I hated that it was an accidental death. I hated that there was no one to take out this anger on. Even now, these swelling, boiling emotions in me hadn't found anywhere else to go, and it was as if everything was getting darker each day.
I still had the code I found in the mint bottle, but my mind refused to cooperate and I hadn't solved it so far. I hadn't even ate much and spent more time staring at my family photo with a pillow in arms than sleep.
I felt terrible, furious, exhausted, empty, and hollow. I had classes today, but I didn't want to bother. Not only was I in emotional turmoil, but I was having cramps around the area below my chest, and I curled up on my bed, groaning in utter discomfort as I held my stomach. Just yesterday, my period began for the month, and it made everything worse.
Couldn't today be any more perfect?
With my stomach cramps subsided for now, I took the little note from my nightstand one more time. I rubbed my thumb over it, a piece of paper my dad touched with his own fingers, engraved with his own handwriting, a piece of himself. I read it over, held it to my chest, then closed my eyes, and breathed slowly. I've been doing this since just a few days ago, and it always made me feel somewhat better. The words in it played repeatedly like a poem in my head, a memorizing technique I used to remember JavaScript elements since I was young.
Suddenly, I heard a vase broke from downstairs
And at that moment, my brain felt light and glowing like a light bulb as I figured something out.
Launching myself from my bed, I went to my desk. I ripped out a page from my textbook with a ruler and began writing down the meaning behind the letter
Could this be...
A code...?
When I was still learning from my father, he loved teaching me about codes and was passionately well-versed in the programming field. I also remembered that one day he taught me about how to write our own secret messages, a made up language by us made of strings of binaries because, well, we're programming geeks. It's a way for us to communicate each other without anyone knowing what we're talking about. It was simple father-daughter fun. All you need was to write the original letter as the letter that came after it in the alphabet.
After half an hour translating the code, I got what it meant
.
Khsskd oqhmbd cnb:RDBQDS Qdzc hs
Little prince Doc:SECRET Read it
Khsskd oqhmbd vda:SNQ trd vdc: . rdzqbg: rdquzms_rzudmnsd_rzud_ehkd_rdbqdsRHFLZ
Little prince web:TOR use web: . Search: servantone_savenote_save_file_secretSIGMA
Khsskd oqhmbd vda:SNQ trd vdc: . rdzqbg: rdquzms_odqrnmzkvdarhsd_rzud_ehkd_uhcdnezbd
Little prince web:TOR use web: . Search: servantone_personalwebsite_save_file_videoface
Okdzrd nodm hs zmc cn mns rgnv zmxnmd zants sghr
Please open it and do not show anyone about this.
Ijef uijt qbqfs bxbz zfmm
Hide this paper away well
.
My hand which held the paper I wrote slightly trembled as I speed walked to dad's study. He always referred his laptop as 'Little Prince', coming from his wish to have a boy as his own child, of his own flesh and blood. That was never granted since mom had miscarriage twice
It was as if the letters on the paper I held was still in front of my eyes moving around and making everything else blurry
Gosh, my head...it hurts
"Beth!" Hiro showed up, must have heard the panicked footsteps from above his room. He saw me, my hair in a sloppy ponytail, my breathing short, my hands shaking. He furrowed his brows. "Are you...alright? Hey, I don't think I've sen you ate a couple of days. I was about to come to your room and drag your ass to the dining room." He inspected me closer, and his eyes widen. "God, you've gotten paler! Come on, you need food!"
He pulled the sleeve of my shirt and pulled me along. I wanted to protest, but the broken look he gave me stirred something inside, and just let him lead me towards the dining table
He sat m down on a chair and rushed to the kitchen. A while later, a nice, buttery smell wafted from the kitchen and he came back with a plate of creamy mushroom vermicelli and a glass of water on a tray
"HIRO WINTERS! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY VASE?!" mom yelled as soon as he put the tray in front of me.
Smiling sheepishly, he slid out and left to mom
I stared at the pasta in front of me. I loved the sweet, tangy smell, but it wasn't enough to convince my stomach to want to be filled. My own hands refused to move. However, I didn't want Hiro's cooking to go to waste, so with every urge, I finished the meal and gulp down the water
Standing up, I returned heading toward dad's study. Unlocking the door, I stepped inside and locked the door once more. Dad told me that his study was full of precious, confidential things and I should be careful at all times, even if the conditions didn't feel life threatening.
I seated myself before his huge, wooden desk, and turned on the table lamp. The room lightened up and all the books, few potted plants, shelves of folders, they were all there. Everything was just the same, like he never left. Like he never died.
I shuddered, leaning back against the cushions of my dad's leather chair. Turning on the laptop in front of me, I made sure the Wifi was connected, then clicked the browser. I was glad that it simply opened and I didn't have to unlock ports to pass through.
I switched the security data system so there be no data loss, and lastly make a new fake identity. Activating my father's Platinum VPN, I hovered the pointer to the search bar and typed the URL . The interface then blinked to a blank black for quite a longer time than I was comfortable with and I was getting anxious. If the URL I typed in was wrong, I'd be doomed went black for a long time, make me feel anxious. If I put a wrong URL I'd be doomed.
After almost three painful minutes of waiting, a few colors appeared before finally becoming it's proper layout. I opened a portal and typed servant_savenote_save_file_ In the URL, the HTML changing again into a messy string of alphabet and the website went black again, then flickered to another different design. The website had a black tone, with a grey header placed at the corner containing Times News Roman font input. The Hacking Group website.
I glanced at the HTML which hadn't changed. Strange, usually when you used onion, the HTML would break down into a line of random characters. I'd never seen this happen before. Amazing
Scrolling down, I was only seeing advertisement after advertisement at the side of the web, until my eyes caught on someone's bio-data, and an image of my father wearing a black jacket. The hood covered his face, but you could still see the outlines of his belly. The bits of information written beside it was nothing I'd ever known. If it weren't for the picture, I would have thought I was reading about an entirely different stranger.
Check the pic here : pin/174092341830690634/
The last statement tugged in my heart. He was right. No one would find him now. But it was not because he was good at hiding.
I scrolled down some more and my eyes nearly bulged out of m sockets as I saw the long list of people that had hired him and the amount of money they paid for him
There were more or less five other people with fake identities as well. There was on asking him to steal important documents, bugging someone's social media, but the one that really made me shiver was when he stole files from the C.I.A. Most of them wanted him to encrypt websites and computers. The deals were also fairly desirable. The cheapest he had done was 200.000 dollars with the highest being 50 million. He accepted payment only through coin
Check the pic here : pin/174092341830690633/
The ridiculous prices, the missions he completed, it all made m slam my back to the char. Releasing my glasses, I gave my head a small massage. I thought after I found out the message, everything will fall into place and click. Instead, there were only more puzzles and the big picture looked even more bleak than clear.
I couldn't believe it. All this time, aside from being a computer engineer in Arendelle Industries, he also took part time as a Black Hat Hacker.
My father was not just a man who have loved me and made me the happiest daughter there could be, but he was also my enemy. I was a White Hat Hacker who's goal was to exactly get rid of Black Hats like him.
I felt a shock of betrayal, and for it to be because of my dad? It was impossible to accept this twisted discovery. I scrolled down even more and only stopped once I reached the end. There was another button at the bottom and I moved my mouse toward it, then clicked.
There was another white box written with red font.
Check the pic here : pin/174092341830690630/
I opened it and found one single file inside, The extension wasn't shown, so I had to download it first to see what kind of file it was. After obtaining the file, I knew what it was.
Codes...lots of codes in HTML. Red, bold, and blacks of numbers and alphabets filled the paper, and it took me a few seconds to know that it was a code to command and move a program. The titles were variant, and there was a command to stop the program, disable a firewall, and break into a security system, along with many more.
I saved thee file in my flahdisk bracelet and erased the HTML from the URL to type a new one. This time I put in . The HTML changed once more into a mass of numbers and letters. What appeared was the same website, but what was inside was different. Instead of a bio-data of my father, it was something else.
It was a video, the play button ready to reveal on the middle. In the corner of the video there's a caption
Check the pic here : pin/174092341830690629/
Reading it over, I felt oncoming tears and choked to make it go away. Dad always called me 'Diamond' back in her college days in Japan. He thougHt it suited me very well based on my beauty both inside and out and my dedication for all the things I love to do.
I clicked the video and there was a small darkness before fading into my father's face. It was slightly glitching here and there, but looking at his face right now, with the same loving eyes, I felt a little more at peace after all these days. He was adjusting the camera so the screen kinda wobbled, but afterwards it stopped along with the glitching.
He was in this very study. It was dark, the only source of light being from the screen and the small crack of light from the door. The curtains were shut tightly, not letting in any sunlight. I remembered that he used to be a little chubby back in the day so seeing him now with his whole cheeks, his glasses, and his favorite T-shirt sent an aching wave of nostalgia. His laptop was right beside him so I was guessing he's using the camera from his computer. He was smiling toward me.
His office is dark, as the only source of lights is from the screen or from the small gap in the door. The curtains shut tightly, leaving no trails of sun. His chubby face were accessorized with a glasses as his favorite T-shirt cling in his filled full body. He seems use his computer since the laptop right beside him. He smiled to the camera.
'Hey darlin'! So, uh, I'm not there anymore huh? Well, no matter what, I'm right here. I'm just a thought away, so just think of me when you miss me. Now, that aside, someone's gonna track me down if this isn't fast enough. I just want to tell you that everything happens for a reason. I..actually never wanted this as much as you do, but I didn't have a choice. It was either me or you, your brothers, and your mother. I love you all so much, so I'm willing to do this for you all.
'I've probably done a terrible mistake. I didn't think that playing these sick games, would have me turning out to be a burden. I'm a terrible father, and I know that you're upset with me right now, but I will always love you with all my heart.
My heart quenched, my throat hurt, my vision blurred. No, dad, I love you too.
'Now, I want you to take all my secret data and delete it. Not my account though, I'm afraid they're still onto me. On the bottom section of the bookcase, you can find this big, dark green book. Pull it back and a secret door will open. Inside, you'll find a lot of CDs. Listen to them one by one as I tell you everything. Once again, I love you my dearest diamond. Great job finding this video and I'm so proud of you, I always have. Always be strong, I'm here in spirit. Goodbye.'
The video cut off from there, it had ended. I leaned back, a single tear sliding down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away, new determination lighting up my eyes and running through my blood.
'There's no time for tears. I have to move fast.'
I opened the first page to look for his secret data. Copying them all and downloading the video, I erased everything and logged out. I switched back to the original security system and saved the VPN. I turned off the laptop and walked toward the bookcase. I crouched down to look for the exact book with the flashlight of my phone.
After I found it, I pulled it backwards as instructed. When I pulled it halfway, nothing happened. So I heaved it all the way back, and a click noise sounded. I stepped back from the bookcase as it smoothly slid to the side, revealing a room full of old monitors and CPU's. There were boxes full of paperwork, and books. I looked for the one with CDs and found it sitting not too far around the corner.
I went out and locked my dad's study, bringing the box and laptop with me to my room. I didn't make a sound
Making sure my own room was locked, I put the box down on the floor and plugged the charger in for the laptop. The CDs were written in numbers from 1 to 25, and a single amber colored storage DVD. There were also a number of photos inside and a few letters, papers, and proposals. A small flashdisk was there too
I unfold the cover of the first CD and inserted it in the DVD port of the laptop. Plugging in and adjusting my headphones, I was ready to hear what my father had to tell me.
hello dear Hackers! I've been off for soo long, I'm sorry. I just come back with new updates! It's so bad that I can't posted the picture here :( so I send the website instead! the story is getting higher, and I really want to know what you think about this story and chapter!
loves and hugs...X)