CHAPTER 288: CHAPTER 288

The Ghost wasn’t just a myth in their world. He was a legend. The one who trained Lovi in the earliest days of his hacking life, before he became the man behind the mask. But Lovi hadn’t seen him in years. Not since that night in Morocco when they parted ways. No contact. No digital footprint. No updates. The Ghost disappeared as he lived without a sound.

But even so... no. This wasn’t the Ghost. He was sure of it.

"Could it be a student of his? Someone else he trained?" Lovi whispered to himself, pacing faster now, anxiety lacing his breath. "Or... has he returned? Is this a message?"

But who would The Ghost be working for now?

"Damn it!" he snapped, kicking the edge of his swivel chair and sending it spinning lightly across the room.

He stopped near the window, arms folded across his chest, staring into the rainy skyline outside. The city lights blurred in the glass, like the mess in his mind.

His phone buzzed softly on the desk behind him. He didn’t even flinch.

All this... this chaos... and at the center of it all was Cora.

The woman who suddenly became more than just a client. More than just a mission. He wanted to help her. He wanted to stand beside her, and have her for himself. But how could he, when he couldn’t even find the ghost behind the screen?

He turned sharply and began pacing again.

He had one lead only one. Mr. B was in the country. That was it. No face. No footprint. No voice sample. No trace.

He gritted his teeth.

If only he could provide something anything to Cora, then maybe she’d trust him more, lean on him more, maybe even see that he was capable of handling things far greater than what she imagined.

Then the thought came. A twisted one. A dangerous one.

"Should I just lie?"

His steps stopped.

His heart, for a second, did too.

What if he made up an identity for Mr. B? What if he fabricated a solid enough backstory just to win her over? Just to make her lean on him? No one would know. Not yet, anyway. He could buy himself time. Buy her confidence. Buy her closeness.

And when the truth finally came?He would already be so deeply involved... she might not even care.

The idea tempted him, but even as the thought curled in his chest, something in him stirred. A warning. A flicker of conscience.

He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and whispered to himself, "No. Not yet."

But the temptation didn’t leave.

Not completely.

At that moment, Lovi sit back and leaned back into his chair, his eyes narrowed and fixed on the glowing lines of code on the screen, but his mind was clearly far from the digital maze in front of him. He sighed, long and deep, then whispered to himself, "Well... I’m not going to lie. Not yet."

He rubbed his hands together slowly, then ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Lying now would just mess everything up. I need something solid first. Something real." His voice was low, thoughtful. His eyes wandered across the room, but his mind was already diving deep into strategy mode.

He knew what he had to do.

"I need to dig in," he muttered again, this time with more resolve. "I need more evidence... more information. Something concrete. Anything that can help me see the full picture."

He stood up from his chair with a jolt and started pacing the floor like a man consumed. The walls of his workspace were covered in photos, sticky notes, and strings connecting names some old, some recently added. His eyes danced around the cluttered space, stopping briefly at one of Cora’s photos. His jaw tightened. "She’s the center of all this," he said again, tapping the picture lightly. "Which means everyone close to her is a potential key."

He reached for his tablet, scrolling quickly through files, names, and encrypted messages. "Every person tied to her... I have to check all of them. No one’s off limits now."

Then suddenly, like a switch went off in his brain, he froze mid-step.

"Wait."

His eyebrows pulled together. "That picture..."

He darted back to his system and pulled up the archived conversation threads. There it was, the picture that had been shared between Samuel and Robert. He zoomed in on it, studying the details again as if it might speak to him differently this time. His eyes darkened slightly.

"That’s right," he muttered. "If anyone has the kind of financial muscle to do something like this..."

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. The name was already loud in his thoughts.

"Robert."

He whispered the name like it was an answer he’d been avoiding, and yet somehow knew all along. "Could it be... that Robert bought the shares? And now he’s just playing it cool—trying to cover his tracks? Is he hiding something? Or maybe..."

Lovi’s lips pressed together, and he slowly sank back into his chair again, the weight of his suspicions heavy in his chest. He shook his head slightly, trying to stay objective, but his gut wouldn’t let it go.

"He might be interested in something else entirely," Lovi said, voice almost dry. "Something bigger."

His fingers tapped lightly on the desk, restless and itching to act. His instincts had been sharpened over the years, and this time, they were screaming at him not to ignore this.

At that moment, Lovi sat frozen in his seat, his fingers drumming anxiously on the armrest as his mind ran wild. He had been pacing for over an hour now, yet no new ideas had come to him. The room was dimly lit, his screens flickering with lines of code and half-finished surveillance scans. The soft hum of his server tower in the corner was the only sound accompanying his frustration. His brain had been chasing Robert’s name in loops, but nothing concrete had landed.

He had been trying so hard to figure out how to get close to Robert how to get past that thick shell of quiet power and charm the man always kept around him. Something about Robert just didn’t sit right. The money, the timing, the boldness of buying shares under everyone’s noses... It was too clean, too perfect.

But then, like a spark catching flame, a memory slammed back into Lovi’s thoughts.

His eyes widened.

"Hold on a damn minute..." he whispered under his breath, slowly sitting forward.

"Didn’t I...?"

He snapped his fingers and rolled his chair over to a smaller monitor, pulling up an old digital file. A few clicks and encrypted unlocks later, there it was Cora’s background file. He had done a quick trace on her family tree back when he first got involved in this mess. At the time, he didn’t think much of it, but now... now, he felt something strange crawling through his gut.

"Yes... yes, she has an uncle..." he muttered, eyes scanning fast. "And that uncle has a son... wait a damn second."