AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Indeed, the people Eden crossed paths with were all clones: white men with glasses in striped suits and colored neckties, walking with the same mannerisms. Eden was careful to step out of their paths.
“Those? Nah, they are not real people, merely automated little minions. The character design shows terrible taste, by the way. It has depressed corporate rat written all over it. Bruh.”
Eden kept walking, unsure where to look. There were no real walls and aside from the balcony rail to her left, everything on her right was merely large glass walls, with a door from time to time. From experience, she knew those doors were probably controlled too so she couldn’t get in like that. She ought to find an open one…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
She had to check two floors before she spotted one. Eden squeezed herself inside. It was an office, just an ordinary office with nothing that could have made anyone think a human with actual emotions lived in it. There were black boxes everywhere, with a code on each one and a unique desk with a white computer on it. Nothing else. No pen, no sticky notes; not an ounce of warmth could be felt in the room. Eden walked inside, glancing at the boxes on the shelves.
“Loir, where do I start?”
“Tell me the codes you see.”
Eden began spelling them out as fast as she could read them. Most were names without much meaning to her or a series of numbers. On one, though, she stopped.
“...Kitty?”
Eden ignored him and walked up to the box, tilting her head. It was a box that looked somewhat older than the others. Instead of being a simple black box, it was an old cardboard one, and it looked strangely full. Eden raised her hand and without thinking, slid her fingers over the three letters.
“Crazy one to Kitty, do you copy?”
“Loir, there’s... a box with the code PAN on it.”
“PAN? Like a frying pan?”
“What about it?” asked Dante.
Eden hesitated, then grabbed the box and took it out of its spot. Her heartbeat increased again on the monitor. She breathed louder and, with shaky hands, placed the box on the desk.
“Eden, what is it?”
“Pan was... one of my master’s code names. ...Whenever we were in the Core, he called himself Pan...”
“Pan, like the Greek God?”
Eden chuckled nervously.
“No... Pan, like Peter Pan.”
In the real world, Loir and Dante exchanged a glance. The crazy hacker looked rather serious for once, and he adjusted the mic on his helmet.
“You never mentioned this, Kitty. Your mentor was... Peter Pan?”
“Yes...”
On the screen, Eden looked like she could barely hear him. She was obviously fascinated by the box, her purple, cat-like fingers gliding over it, probably dying to open that thing. Loir sighed, scratching his bald head.
“Well that’s... intriguing.”
“Eden mentioned she’s looking for her former mentor,” said Dante, turning back to Loir.
“Well, Kitty isn’t the only one!” scoffed Loir. “Peter Pan is among the pantheon of hacking legends. He was there even before we were born, and he holds the record of oldest hacker known to still be working against the Core... It’s been a while since he’s been spotted though. Now he’s getting closer to being something of an urban legend.”
“Is he in hiding?”
“Yes, probably from the whole world too! He is the only known hacker who actually managed to hack the entire Chicago Core. Not just Dive inside, but to actually shake the system so much that it had to restart.”
“I... I have never heard of him,” said Dante, frowning and now genuinely interested.
