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“...What is it that you want? What do I need to hack?”
“Nothing in particular. However, I have one thing I ask all of my hackers. It’s a succeed-or-die mission. Is that fine?”
Eden frowned. He was offering her a choice now? She tried to think, but no matter what, the one thing Eden was most confident about was her hacking abilities.
Even if she had to do without Loir, she was among the best Dive Hackers. She worked alone until she found the creepy guy in his basement, but was doing fine on her own. He had allowed her to improve all of her skills, but that wasn’t all there was to Ghost’s abilities. She’d rather keep him out of all this. Eden thought he might be able to contact her once she returned online.
Moreover, she would probably be given the best equipment, unlike all the other times... No, whatever the mission was, she knew she could probably succeed without any big issues. She glanced down at Bullet, who was curled up in her arms, still looking afraid. Did she even really have a choice?
“...Fine. What’s your deal?”
The Italian smiled.
“It’s simple. Win a hack against Ghost.”
That was probably the last thing Eden had been expecting to hear. Beat Ghost? What was that even supposed to mean? How could she... How could she possibly be able to beat Ghost? Of all the things he could have asked, that was the only one she hadn’t thought of and certainly couldn’t do!
“Beat Ghost?” she repeated unconsciously, completely baffled.
Dante De Luca smiled, visibly very satisfied to see her so troubled. However, next to him, George had let his jaw drop, and he looked at his boss as if he had gone crazy. Then, he nervously chuckled.
“B-Boss, you can’t be serious! No one can beat Ghost!”
He looked down at Eden, checking her out from head to toe with a smirk.
“That woman can’t beat Ghost! We are talking about the best hacker in Chicago! You,” he said, calling out Eden. “Do you even know who Ghost is?”
Eden rolled her eyes.
“Every hacker knows who Ghost is...” she grumbled, a bit annoyed at this situation.
“Exactly! Ghost, the legendary hacker,” recited George, looking lost in his admiration. “Nothing is known about Ghost, nothing! The only thing is that he only connects on the Chicago server. That’s it. No one has ever been able to get any clue about their identity. Even the hours they are online is unknown, if they work with a partner or not...”
“Every hacker needs a partner,” retorted Eden.
Why was that kid pretending to know everything if he didn’t even know the basics? She sighed and made sure she was covered and, more importantly, that Bullet was held tightly in her arms.
“The very reason one role is called ‘the Dive Hacker’ is that you can’t ever dive alone,” she said. “Every hacker needs a partner to pull them back, but also coordinate. Ghost can’t be working alone...”
“Well, maybe he is good enough to not need one!” retorted George, a bit embarrassed. “No one has ever been able to find any trace of him communicating with anyone else! The only way to get in touch with Ghost is through a super encrypted script which, in itself, is even hard to find!”
That was one of Loir’s ideas and probably a bit of his paranoia at play too. He had hidden the access to their contact in such a way that only people who already had half-decent hackers could find them, which meant they could avoid all the automated ones or any newbie that might have been tempted to fool around. Moreover, it allowed them to secretly get some first-hand info on their buyer, usually Loir’s favorite part. He left himself little backdoors in the systems of anyone who were interested in working with them... and only God knew what he eventually did with them.
“Ghost is famous for so many brilliant hackings!” resumed George, getting excited all by himself. “He has the record of the top twenty-three hacks on the Chicago server! Twenty-three! He even beats his own records frequently. He demolished a Russian server three weeks ago, literally made it implode from the inside. He hacked the Chicago Online Exchange Market three times, five banks, and destroyed sixty different platforms last year. That guy appeared out of nowhere, and he never spends more than thirty minutes on each hack. Right on the clock!”
Dante glared at his subordinate, but Eden chuckled.
“Sounds like someone’s a fan,” she said.
However, George didn’t appreciate that tone and glared back at her.
“Well, that’s common knowledge for any proper hacker. Moreover, the boss is...”
As he said those words, his eyes unconsciously went to his boss, and the deadly glare of the Italian Tiger made those last few words stay stuck in his throat. The young man swallowed his saliva, looking down in a cold sweat. Eden wasn’t really impressed, or at least, there wasn’t anything she didn’t already know. Those men killed other people daily, but no matter what, the head of the organization ought to be the most fearsome of all...
“...Why do you want to beat Ghost?” she asked. “Why not simply recruit him to work for you?”
“We’ve done that. However, it seems that Ghost won’t take any master, only the highest offer on each run. I do not like to see some... opportunities leave my hands before I’ve played all my cards.”
