Sonia didn’t know what Toby was thinking, but she stared ahead in disbelief. “What? It’s not you?”
“No.”
Sonia gripped her phone tightly. So that means it’s Carl. But how did he manage to find out their true identities so quickly? Sonia then remembered what Toby told her about Carl. She scoffed at him then, thinking that she didn’t need to be careful around Carl. But now she knew Toby was right. Carl was… more than met the eye.
Toby was worried since Sonia didn’t say anything. “What happened, Sonia?”
Sonia snapped out of it and pinched her nose. “It’s nothing. Alright, then. Since it’s not you, I’ll hang up now.” She ended the call and put her phone down.
Toby frowned. He wanted to talk to her more, but she hung up on him all of a sudden. That annoyed him, so he glared at Tom. “And what do you want?”
“Nothing. I’ll be going then, President Fuller.” Tom adjusted his glasses. Toby waved him down, and Tom went away. But the moment he turned around, he rolled his eyes. Really? Venting it out on me just because Miss Reed hung up on you? How childish can you get? Man, if it isn’t for the shares, I would have quit a long time ago.
Meanwhile, at Paradigm Co., Charles knew something was up the moment Sonia tossed her phone away. “It’s not him?”
Sonia shook her head. “No. It’s Carl.”
Charles shot up. “H-How did you know it was him?” Did Toby find out about Carl being a hacker?
Sonia wondered what got into him, and she gave him a curious look. “Carl told me himself. He said he’d teach those guys a lesson, and Toby said the same thing. Since it’s not Toby, that means Carl’s the culprit.”
“I see.” Charles heaved a sigh of relief and sat back down. So he told her himself. Guess he isn’t keeping any secrets now, huh?
Sonia didn’t notice Charles’ weird behavior. She sipped some water and asked, “But this is really surprising. I didn’t know he did all this. Where did he even learn how to hack?” Only hackers could find out the real owner of those accounts. On top of that, he found out a whole bunch of them at once. That meant he was a skilled hacker.
“H-How should I know?” Charles picked his glass up and pretended to sip the water.
Sonia massaged her forehead. “I realized something. I don’t really know Carl. To be precise, I know the fifteen-year-old Carl, but not the adult Carl. He’s not the same guy I used to know anymore. He’s now much more… mysterious.”
“Hey. Everyone has their own secrets. It’s enough to know he won’t hurt you. You don’t have to overthink it.” Charles shrugged dismissively.
Thinking he had a point, Sonia put her glass down and replied, “You’re right. As long as he doesn’t do anything too crazy, I don’t really care about his secret.” Besides, he did it for me. Just then, her phone rang. It was from the police, so she quickly picked it up. “Hello?”
“Hello, Miss Reed. I trust you know about the information leak that’s been making its rounds online?” the officer asked.
Sonia nodded. “I do, yes.”
“Good. So you should know the hacker did it for you, right?” the officer asked again.
Sonia nodded. “Yes.”
“Since that’s the case, can you tell me everything you know about him?” The officer finally got to the meat of the topic.
Sonia looked at Charles. He immediately knew that she was asking his opinion, so he shook his head, telling her to keep it a secret. That coincided with Sonia’s idea, so she took a deep breath to calm herself down. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about the hacker,” she answered, trying her best to sound natural.
“You don’t know?” A frown creased the officer’s forehead.
“Yes. I don’t know who the hacker is. He helped me out twice, but he never showed his face. All I know is that he wears a fox mask.” Back when she was cyberbullied, a hacker helped her out. She didn’t see his face, but he left the mark of a fox behind.
A hacker wearing a fox mask was the one who kidnapped Tina. Back then, Titus even tried to argue with her, since he thought Sonia hired the hacker to kidnap Tina. Thanks to that, she was sure that Carl was Fox Eyes. He was sure nobody could trace it back to him even if they knew he wore a fox mask. In that case, Sonia thought it was fine to tell the cops about that. After all, it’d be too suspicious if she didn’t leak anything.
“A fox mask?” The officer jotted it down quickly. “Anything else, Miss Reed?”
“No. I don’t know the hacker. Just check my network if you think I’m lying,” Sonia answered. She wouldn’t know Carl was Fox Eyes if he didn’t tell her himself. That alone proved how skillful he was at hiding his trace, so Sonia bet there was barely anyone who knew he was a hacker. In other words, the cops wouldn’t be able to find him that easily.
“I see. We’ll look into this. Please contact us immediately if you recall any more clues about the hacker,” the officer said.
“I will.” And she ended the call. Sonia put her phone down, let out a long sigh, and looked at Charles. “So? Was it obvious?”
“Nope, not at all.” Charles gave her a thumbs up.
Sonia smiled. “Good to hear.” She tried her best to keep Carl’s other identity a secret, and it was great everything turned out well.
“But I have to tell him about this,” she mumbled and dialed his number. After all, the government wouldn’t allow a skillful hacker like him wandering around out there. They’d recruit him, and by force if necessary. Carl loves modeling. He won’t agree to it.
“No, don’t.” Charles quickly held her phone. “It wasn’t obvious that you were lying, but the cops aren’t stupid,” he said solemnly. “They won’t believe you one hundred percent. They could have asked the telco to eavesdrop on your calls.”
“Oh, right.” Sonia gasped, realizing she almost put Carl in deep trouble. “Good thing you reminded me, Charles.” She looked at him gratefully.
Charles waved and smiled. “No prob. Let me handle this. I’ll tell him about it myself.”
“Sure. Thanks.” Sonia nodded.
Charles stayed around for a while longer, but eventually left after he said goodbye.
Night eventually descended upon the city. In First World Hospital, the light on the ER sign that had been on for the most part of the day finally flickered off. A moment later, Tim went back to his office, exhausted.
A nurse came in with his dinner. “Your dinner, Dr. Lancaster.”
Tim had his eyes closed. “Put it right there.”
The nurse put his dinner down and was about to leave, but she remembered something, so she turned around. “Oh, right, Dr. Lancaster. When I came to your office to retrieve some documents earlier, your phone was ringing nonstop. It’s from someone called Angel.”
