Who are you

Situation Two

“Why did you ask us to meet up at a restaurant?” Julian asked Lotus the moment he got to the front of the restaurant Vincent asked him to meet Lotus. It was the first day of September, Julian Gary’s birthday. Unfortunately it was also his first day as a mentor to Lotus

“I have protocol against inviting strangers to my home. So, for the first ten days, I hope you will teach me well in this restaurant” Lotus explained

“Why a restaurant? Whatever happened to a library or anywhere else professional?” Julian insisted

“I’m sorry for any inconvenience Julian, but I have made up my mind. So, if you have any other objections to my arrangement, you can just quite as long as you remember the other end of our deal”

“Is that a threat or something?”

“I dare not. You are my cyber security mentor after all”

“I’m disappointed that a flower like you turns out to be a the thorniest rose in the world”

“Turns out you were expecting a lotus flower” Lotus replied mockingly. “So, if there is nothing else, our reservation is waiting” Lotus said and lead the way. A waitress met up with them as they entered. “Reservation under the name ‘Lotus’” Lotus inquired and the waitress lead them to a quite corner of the restaurant “We will take our orders later” she said and the waitress left. When the waitress was gone, Lotus gestured for Julian to start.

Julian brought out his laptop from his bag. After a few seconds, he started “I know you are aware that you can’t learn cyber security as a study in a month, so I will just teach you how to hack a system. But before I start I want to believe that you know how to code malware in ruby, password crackers in python and buffer overflows in C”

‘I understand that Ruby, Python and C are programming languages but I don’t know how to code malware neither do I know how to password crackers or buffer overflows”

“You really don’t know anything” Julian murmured. Lotus heard but pretended not to

“You said?” she asked knowing fully well that Julian was not happy with this arrangement

“Never mind. I will start with the basics” Julian said. He started by telling her that in early years Hacking was used for leaking information about systems and IT but in recent years thanks to a few villain actors in movies, hacking has earn itself a dark image. On a brighter side, big companies of nowadays employ hackers to test the strength and weakness of their own system. The positive trust the hackers build in their employees earns them a large salary. Julian also taught her the basics of some basic programming languages like C, C++, Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP, Bash scripting, Assembly language and a few others. Luckily for him, Lotus was a fast learner. When it was noon they took a break and Lotus treated him to lunch, of course he refused at first. Later, they decided that the first fifteen days will be theoretical while the rest will be practical which left them with a lot of free time. On different occasions that day, Julian tried to get Lotus phone number, email, f*******: username, IG handle or useful information that can help him track who she was but Lotus seems prepared and refused to fall for his tricks. When they were done around five P.M Lotus said there was someplace they need to go.

“why did you bring me to a bar?” Julian asked an hour later

“Just think of it as a compensation for making you teach me on your birthday” Lotus replied

“How did you know today was my birthday?”

‘It’s on the internet. The whole world know that today is Vincent Spencer’s most trusted person’s birthday” something suddenly clicked in on Lotus “By the way you wall paper appears to be a lotus flower” she said

“So?” Julian asked

“I was wondering if that was because of me” Lotus teased

Julian scoffed “You think so highly of yourself” He said with a smile

“I had no idea you could smile” Lotus teased again

“I had no idea you were be humorous too” Julian teased her in return t

“This bar belongs to me” Lotus told Julian “But, in case you want to ask for information about me from the workers, you will be disappointed because by this time yesterday this place belonged to someone else”

“My dad once owned a bar, I ran it on his behalf but I sold it off” Julian was suddenly demure

‘Why did you sell it?” Lotus asked

“Nothing interesting” Julian replied. It was quiet obvious that it was not nothing but if doesn’t want to talk, who cares?

The atmosphere was suddenly uninteresting, so before thing got too awkward Lotus presented a way out “So for your birthday I will treat you to my secret cocktail signature. No one else can make it” Lotus left and returned later with two glass of cocktail “Happy birthday” she said handing one over Julian. She raised her glass and said “A toast to you, Julian. Long life and prosperity”

“Cheers” they chorused and took a sip.

Julian eye widened as he took his first sip. His hands started to tremble and the glass dropped to the floor. The shattering of the glass caused him fear and pain with a tint of guilt “Who made this?” his voice was suddenly different. Julian Gary was gone but there was still a Julian Gary in front of Lotus

“I told you it’s my secret cocktail signature” Lotus replied slightly taken aback

“Impossible. No one else in his universe except me knows how to make a vodka based cocktail with a flavor from the scent of a Lotus flower” Julian didn’t Look angry but his voice was.

“Wh… what are you talking about?” Lotus stammered.

“I don’t believe in coincidence” Julian yelled at her and left the bar like a dead meat

*********************************

“Why d you bring me to a bar? I’m meant to be tutoring you to be the best writer in this Library”

“This bar was owned by my dad before he passed away”

“So?”

“As a compensation for making you tutor me on your birthday I will treat you to my secret cocktail signature I will treat you how to make it some other time”

“Wow! It taste nice. Vodka based with the scent of lotus flower”

“I developed this cocktail signature because I know you love lotus flower”

“Well I don’t remember telling you that”

“You don’t have to. I figured it out because the main characters in all you novels love Lotus flowers”

***********************************

“Claire!?” Julian screamed.