Hollywood Zenith



" I really need to sleep or I am going to fucking die!" Drac crawls on the floor, experiencing sore muscles. Arthur went rough on the team, and by the end of it, only Jane and Steve were left standing.

" Don't mop on the floor and sit down. The food is getting cold!" Jane called him while setting the dinner table. Everyone was already on the table waiting for him.

" Yeah...coming...old man, do you have to do us dirty in every session?" He forced himself and slowly sat down; even his buttocks hurt like hell. Seeing him jump, trying to adjust to his seat, made a few of them chuckle.

The room was pretty small, which amplified their unkempt eating sounds. If someone else was here, they would label their animals seeing human food for the first time; Adrian was almost at that threshold. He could say something, but there were better things to talk about.

" I want to report something." Adrian's voice stopped others' banter.

"It's not much but I got a name, partial if you want the specifics."

" How?" Jane asked. She knew they were still constantly being attacked; it was hard to imagine he could freely probe the web, given the circumstances.

  " It's possible because of our collective ego as hackers. We can't resist to leave footprints to validate our existence. I dig through the worms' code in safe server and there were some peculiar signatures."

" Peculiar? In what way?" Steve asked.

" Because I know this person is serving thirty year sentence and there is no way he could do such a thing from jail. As far as I know it's a maximum security prison. He was the reason I started doing hacking."

" You know a lot about him." Jane was curious. Adrian was considered a once-in-generation hacker; he was definitely top ten in the world in terms of skill; for him to praise someone else so openly was a huge deal.

" His name is Kevin Poulcheta. I don't know how he is connected but I can never be wrong about his coding structure."

" We should look into it." Cho suggested, and everyone nodded, signifying they were thinking the same thing.

They also knew what it meant; if the hacker was Kevin, whoever was behind it was powerful enough to break him out of jail without ringing any alarms. There was also some chance Kevin might not even know who he was working for and was being held hostage halfway across the world!

" We should also discuss what we are going to do about the other problem, the potential suspect." Steve said.

" For now, I have placed few of my people to monitor Mason's every movement. But what should we do next?" Jane asked.

Arthur thought for a few seconds before pulling out his cell phone. He debated whether to ask Samuel while hovering his fingers over his number, but he pushed his contact to the end and dialed another number.

" Hello? It's rare to get a call from you Mr. Arthur."

" Mr. Zero, We needed some information. Do you know an individual by the name of Kevin Poulcheta?" Arthur directly asked and put his phone on speaker.

Zero flinched hearing the name, but thankfully, nobody was in his room to see it.

" I am aware of his existence. As far as I know he is locked in Supermax prison, near Florence, Colorado."

" I am afraid it's not true. I don't know how but the cyberattack we just withstool was likely from this individual." Jane said.

" You are on speaker phone." Arthur promptly added.

" Interesting... I will look into it and give you the report. But you have to remember there are many importionator if you in the business of hacking." Zero tried to give them another angle.

" I studied his every code since I was a child. I am fairly certain it was his handwork." Adrian added.

" You are?"

" Homeless hacker.."

" Right, yes. It nice to finally talk to you Mr. Adrian. I am aware about your intimate connection with Mr. Kevin." 

" How did you-"

" I am in the business of information handling and I am fairly thorough when it comes to who young master have connections with. Please don't take it personally."

" Then you must know he is not that kind of person anymore! After his incarceration he promised me he would never delve into the dark side of hacking." Adrian said with a sense of urgency.

" People change, Mr Adrian. If he somehow manage to escape and was responsible of this attack I don't think he changed enough, don't you agree?" His question was met with silence.

"* Sigh* Alright, for the sake of your constant help, I will give him a reasonable doubt before moving forward."

" Thank you." Adrian didn't know who he was talking to but seeing everyone respected him and his knowledge about his connection with Kevin, he knew Zero was not an easy individual. Only a handful of people knew about his and Kevin's correspondence because it was way before Adrian got famous. 

" If there is nothing else-" Zero was about to hang up, but Arthur stopped him.

" There is one more thing. Steve and Jane think that police department is hiding a witness against young master's case."

" Yes, I am aware."

" you are?" Steve didn't know how he knew about it. He thought only people inside this room knew about Mason's recent plans.

" I have eyes and ears everywhere. I have been monitoring the department's movements since I got here. It's not strange that I come to find about a little witness." Everyone was impressed by his work ethic, but it still begs the question of why he didn't inform them.

" I know you must be wondering why I didn't inform the team? The answer is simple, I don't know how Mason got hold of the witness. All we could figure out was two strange men came and hand delivered this supposed witness to Mason's office directly."

" Two men?"

" Yes, we are still determining their source but so far I have nothing. It is puzzling but I am chasing every end." Zero reassured them.

" Shouldn't we tell the boss?" Steve asked. How much they were keeping from him was getting out of hand.

" No, we must keep young master away for his own good. We should cooperate on this mission and get a hold of that witness.

" Why?"

" Because he already knows about the ledgers." The room went completely silent for a few seconds.