Chapter 104

Connor couldn’t care less what anyone else thought. Right now, he only wanted to know what Lydia was thinking.
By the time he caught up with her, Lydia was already sitting at the little coffee table, hugging Mikey’s laptop, her eyes glued to the screen. Her fingers flew across the keyboard so fast it almost made him dizzy just watching. The screen was full of streaming lines of code, so dense Chris could only stare in total confusion.
Mikey couldn’t hide his shock. He never would have believed Lydia was hiding this kind of talent.
Connor felt a little left out when Lydia didn’t even notice he was there. She must have always known who he was. That would explain how calm she’d been when they met earlier. He’d nearly lost his mind searching for her these past few days, and she just pretended she was just some stranger.
About five minutes later, Lydia handed the laptop back to Mikey and said, “Everything’s in this folder. You’ll find the footage of Neil and Chris’ competition, plus everything that happened afterward.”
Mikey’s jaw dropped. “How did you pull that off?” On the way over, he’d told his people to check the security cameras at the scene, but they said the system was down and would take a while to fix. Lydia had recovered it all in just five minutes.
Lydia blinked at him. “It wasn’t hard. There’s also evidence in there about Neil’s father. Stuff on his corruption and all those nasty comments he made as Country D’s ambassador. You’ll probably need that.”
Last night, Lydia had spent maybe ten minutes looking up Neil and his dad. She’d found plenty of dirt-enough to get their whole family sent back home to face the consequences. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ
Chris looked like he’d just seen a magic trick. “Wait, Lydia, are you… are you some kind of hacking genius?” He’d never heard of anyone this good in the entire hacker community.
Lydia just shrugged, totally used to this kind of reaction. “It’s nothing, really. There are lots of people better than me.”
Mikey shot her a look of sincere admiration. “Miss Norwood, you’re too modest. This was a huge help.”
Connor stood nearby, his suspicions now completely confirmed. Austin had said he couldn’t crack Lydia’s platform info and had called her a tech expert. Everything matched up perfectly. She really was chief Lydia.
Trying to keep his excitement in
check, Connor put on a cold face et and told Mikey and Chris Are you
two done? If you are, move aside. Lydia needs to check me over.”
“What?” Chris looked up at him like he’d just seen a ghost.
Was Connorr out of his mind?
Mikey raised his eyebrows, just as confused, wondering what Connor was trying to pull.
“Why are you just standing there? Move already.” Connor glared at Chris, looking
like he wanted to drag him away from Lydia himself.
Chris could only stand there, completely at a loss.
Mikey stood up with a half smile. “Well then, Miss Norwood, please take another look at Connor.”
Connor didn’t waste a second. He sat down right where Mikey had been and shot mus a pointed look. “Go find something else to do. Don’t hang around here.” fo
Chris was left standing there, totally confused.