The Silent Code

Chapter 4: The Shadows of Suspicion

"Damn it! I need coffee!"

​On the top floor of the Kaelen Security Headquarters, Geonino stood in front of a giant pane of glass displaying the city view. He wore an expensive suit with a gold emblem on his chest. The man brewed his black coffee, smirking faintly as he looked down at the lights of the lower district.

​As the newly appointed head of corporate security, Geonino felt like he was on top of the world. He used to be just a low-tier hacker working alongside Arsenio in dirty alleyways. But after leaking Arsenio's location to Enforcer Vance, his career trajectory skyrocketed.

​"Mr. Geonino, there's a minor data glitch on the main server connected to the gala building last night," a report from a young technician came through his desk speaker.

​Geonino turned lazily, stepping toward the giant monitor screen in the middle of his operations room. He stared at the rows of numbers and activity logs blinking slowly.

​"What kind of report is this? You're disturbing me over something this trivial?" Geonino asked in a bored, dismissive tone.

​The technician bowed his head nervously. "But sir, there was a slightly unusual access attempt at the server's backdoor. The signal was extremely faint and fast."

​Geonino chuckled softly, taking a relaxed sip of his coffee. He placed his ceramic cup on his spotless desk.

​"You're far too jumpy," Geonino said, patting the technician's shoulder. "That's just residual interference from last night's event. The catering supervisor reported an i***t waiter spilling wine on the terminal desk. The cable probably just short-circuited briefly."

​"But this signal has a double encryption pattern, sir," the technician whispered, attempting to explain again.

​Geonino waved his hand roughly, telling the technician to back off. He took over the keyboard and checked the signal path directly.

​"Listen here," Geonino said, staring at the screen. "I know every high-level hacker in this city. Not a single one of them is smart enough to hack our system without triggering the main alarm. Even Arsenio, who usually handled complex stuff like this, is already rotting away in a Sub-Level 4 sewer."

​Arsenio's name slipped out of his mouth so easily, without a shred of remorse. In Geonino's eyes, Arsenio was an overly idealistic fool. The man had refused to sell the secret data and chose instead to be tortured to death by Vance.

​"Are you certain Arsenio is truly dead, sir?" the technician asked hesitantly. "Enforcer Vance's squad never found his body in the water channel."

​Geonino laughed harder, the sound of his laughter echoing in the quiet room. "Vance crushed ten of his fingers and shot him in the head from point-blank range in a dark room. The wastewater in that channel contains acid. Even if he didn't die from the bullet, that water dissolved his flesh within three hours."

​He was one hundred percent certain that Arsenio was no longer in this world. To Geonino, Arsenio was merely a weak man who trembled easily at the sight of a weapon. A weakling like that could never survive in a place as cruel as Kaelen City.

​"Clear all those glitch logs and close the report ticket," Geonino ordered firmly. "Don't waste the security budget just to trace a shorted cable from a wine spill."

​"Very well, Mr. Geonino," the technician conceded, turning around to leave the security chief's office.

​Geonino stood in front of the giant glass pane once more, gazing far off toward the dark lower district. In his mind, he was already planning to purchase new assets with the massive bonus he would receive next week from the board of directors.

​However, on the monitor screen behind him, unnoticed by Geonino, the tiny signal point he had dismissed as a short circuit slowly began to duplicate itself. The signal path didn't disappear; instead, it spread silently into Geonino's personal account network.

​The smart system created by Arsenio worked like a parasite. Every time Geonino rejected a technical glitch report, the system actually gained broader access authority, as it was deemed an action approved by the security chief himself.

​Geonino reached into his suit pocket, pulling out a specialized mobile phone. He checked the balance in his offshore account, neatly stored in an international bank. Figures totaling billions of credits were displayed there, the fruits of his bribe money and his betrayal of Arsenio.

​"This money is proof that I'm far smarter than Arsenio," Geonino muttered to himself with a proud smile. "He died in the mud, while I enjoy a lavish life here."

​Suddenly, Geonino's mobile phone screen flickered once. A security system update notification appeared automatically. Geonino pressed the agree button without reading the update details. He assumed it was just a routine weekly protection sweep from the central server.

​Elsewhere, inside a dimly lit underground room, Arsenio watched the movement of Geonino's finger through his monitor screen. Arsenio rubbed his bent fingers calmly as he saw Geonino press that agree button.

​"Thank you for your personal authorization, Geonino," Arsenio stated softly in a cold voice.

​Back in the security office, Geonino walked toward his desk to pick up documents for the board of directors meeting scheduled for tomorrow. It was a crucial meeting attended by all major shareholders and top-tier contractors of Kaelen City.

​As the head of security, Geonino was tasked with ensuring there were no data leaks or disruptions during the meeting. He felt supremely confident that not a single person could breach his custom protection system.

​"Are all data channels secured for tomorrow's meeting?" Geonino asked his personal assistant, who had just entered carrying files.

​"All channels are locked down tight, sir. No hacker can break into the internal meeting network," the assistant answered with certainty.

​Geonino nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Tomorrow is a big day. The directors will see how magnificent the system I manage truly is. A weakling like Arsenio could never build a system this strong."

​He held the documents with immense pride, completely unaware that within the list of minor contractors permitted entry into tomorrow's meeting room, a single fake name had been inserted by Arsenio's system.

​Arsenio didn't infiltrate the list as a dangerous hacker, but as a low-class HVAC technician who wouldn't draw anyone's glance. His profile was crafted to look awful, inexperienced, and utterly timid.

​Geonino's habit of constantly looking down on lower-class people was the biggest flaw Arsenio exploited. Geonino only focused on looking for threats from renowned hackers or armed forces, while ignoring the fact that the most lethal danger often came from the person considered most insignificant.

​As night grew deeper at the Security Headquarters, Geonino turned off the main lights in his office, preparing to head back to his luxury apartment. Before leaving, he paused briefly to look toward the main monitor displaying the city network graph.

​The graph ran smoothly in a solid green color, indicating no active threats were detected by the radar. Geonino smiled broadly, feeling that his power and position were now truly untouched by anyone.

​"You've lost, Arsenio. Even from inside your grave," Geonino stated in an arrogant tone before turning off the door switch and stepping out toward his private elevator.

​Inside his cold underground room, Arsenio observed the monitor screen displaying hidden camera footage from Geonino's office. He saw his former friend leave the room with a triumphant face.

​Arsenio leaned his back against the old wooden chair. He stared at the rows of Geonino's offshore bank account numbers, which were now fully linked to his hacking program. It would only take a single command key tomorrow to drain all the money from that betrayal down to the last cent.

​The young boy living with him walked over carrying a bowl of warm soup. The child looked at Arsenio's computer screen, filled with green and red lines.

​"Is that tall man on the screen named Geonino?" the boy asked, handing over the bowl of soup.

​Arsenio accepted the bowl, letting the hot steam touch his scar-filled face.

​"Yes, that's him," Arsenio replied flatly. "He feels completely safe over there because he thinks I'm dead."

​"When are you going to stop him?" the boy asked again with innocent eyes.

​Arsenio stared at the digital clock on the wall showing the time approaching morning. The execution time for his plan was drawing near.

​"Tomorrow afternoon," Arsenio replied softly. "In front of all his superiors and subordinates, I will take everything he owns until he has nothing left to brag about."

​The boy nodded in understanding, then sat in the corner of the room to clean old radio spare parts. The room fell quiet once more, filled only with the hum of Arsenio's rapidly spinning computer cooling fan.

​Arsenio sipped his soup slowly. Every lingering pain in his fingers served as a powerful reminder. He wouldn't rush. He would savor every single second of Geonino's downfall from the peak of his power.

​Tomorrow was the board of directors meeting. A grand stage polished by Geonino to show off his brilliance would be turned by Arsenio into the total destruction of his former best friend's career and life.

​Arsenio powered down his main monitor, letting the room sink into a quiet darkness. He closed his eyes briefly to gather his energy before tomorrow's grand performance began.

​"Sleep tight tonight, Geonino," Arsenio whispered into the cold dark night. "Because tomorrow, you'll wake up inside the most terrifying nightmare."

​Inside his luxury apartment on the upper level of the city, Geonino drank a glass of wine while stargazing. He felt immensely at ease, eagerly anticipating tomorrow to receive praise from the board of directors.

​Geonino's mobile phone vibrated once on the glass table. An automated message from the internal security system popped up on the screen.

​Geonino picked up his phone and read the message with a relaxed smile.

​"All systems running at one hundred percent normal, no threats detected," the automated message read.

​Geonino put his phone back down without a shred of suspicion. He never knew that the automated message had been recoded by Arsenio to conceal the storm heading his way.

​Morning arrived in Kaelen City. Sunlight pierced through the thick smog of the lower district, illuminating the majestic skyscrapers standing tall. Arsenio was already dressed in a dirty grey technician uniform, carrying an old tool bag on his shoulder.

​He stepped out of his hideout, blending in with thousands of underground workers filling the electric train heading toward the city center. His pale face and thin frame ensured not a single person on the train paid any attention to his presence.

​Inside his tool bag, it wasn't ordinary wrenches or screwdrivers he carried, but a triggering software ready to drain Geonino's accounts live in the middle of the meeting.

​Arsenio stared at his reflection in the dirty train window. The timid, weak man Geonino once knew had now transformed into an extraordinarily cold and lethal avenger.

​He arrived at the rear entrance of the Kaelen Security Headquarters. A few heavily armed guards checked his technician ID with a brief glance.

​"Get inside quickly, fix the AC duct in the floor fifty meeting room before the directors arrive!" one guard barked, waving a hand to send Arsenio through.

​Arsenio bowed his head extremely low, hiding a subtle smile from the guards' sight.

​"Yes, sir. I'll work very quickly," Arsenio answered in an intentionally fabricated, trembling voice.

​He stepped into the grand building, walking along the corridor. On the fiftieth floor, the board meeting worth trillions of credits was set to begin in a few minutes.

​Geonino stood beside the main podium in his finest attire, proudly smiling as he greeted high-ranking officials trickling into the meeting room seats.

​Arsenio walked slowly toward the very back row of the meeting room, placed his tool bag beneath the technician desk, and sat down as an insignificant, low-level worker.

​Geonino passed the back row without turning his head toward Arsenio even once. His gaze was fixed solely on the wealthy directors sitting in front.

​Arsenio reached into the pocket of his grey uniform, touching a small trigger button connected to Geonino's personal account network.

​"Let's start the show, Geonino," Arsenio muttered softly from behind his uniform collar.