Chapter 397

Back in Borealia, Juniper checked on her ten pathetic little plants. On her way out, she passed Harold’s lab and, on the principle of ‘since I’m already here,’ decided to prepare for the next day’s lesson.
“Ms. Payne Harold’s assistant said, trailing behind her and eyeing her cautiously.
“Is there something else?” Juniper asked, putting on gloves to mix a solution. “I don’t need help here. You can go do your own thing.”
“Yes,” the assistant replied meekly but didn’t leave. Instead, he mirrored her every move. When Juniper went left, he went left. When she went right, he went right. At one point, Juniper suddenly changed direction, and the assistant, unable to stop in time, slammed his face into a wall. His nose immediately started bleeding.
Ouch. This hurt! He just couldn’t find an opportunity to get close.
“Is something wrong with you?” Juniper stopped, handing him a tissue with a look of annoyance.
“Nothing,” the assistant mumbled, clutching his nose with a long face.
Juniper pulled off her gloves and turned to leave. What a weirdo, she thought, just as neurotic as his boss. As she was walking, a document on a desk caught her eye. The words “DNA ANALYSIS” were particularly prominent.
Curious, Juniper walked over and glanced at it. Her eyes widened. She had seen something she shouldn’t have. Harold was not the biological son of the Houston family! If she remembered correctly, Harold’s father was a famous philanthropist in Australis. And hadn’t her brother been buried by a charity?
With that thought, Juniper quickened her pace and dialed Binary Oracle. “Have you found the grave?”
“We found it,” her subordinate replied promptly. “Boss, I sent the photo to your WhatsApp.”
Juniper opened the image and frowned. The grave was in a scenic spot, nestled between a mountain and a body of water, and was exquisitely maintained. Flowers and plants grew all around it. More importantly, it was clear that someone visited the grave often.
Who would visit an orphan’s grave? What kind of charity would go to such lengths?
“Have you found out which charity it was?” Juniper’s expression grew serious.
“Not yet,” the subordinate said cautiously. “It seems like someone deliberately erased all the records. We only found out about the rescue and burial by interviewing residents near the coast.”
“Send all the files to my email,” Juniper said, walking faster. “I’ll look into it myself.” “Yes, Boss.”
Not daring to delay, the subordinate sent all the relevant data within half a minute.
“Oh, and boss” the subordinate added, remembering something else. “Cybernetic Shadows is still attacking our system. They’re up to Something in Australis don’t know if they’re trying to cause trouble ahead of the hacker competition or what.”
“Fucking idiots!” Juniper was already in a bad mood, and hearing the name “Cybernetic Shadows” only made it worse.
“They have money to burn? Let them waste it,” she said coldly. “Just don’t let any of them in.”
…
Back at Cloudscape Community, Juniper went straight to the study and opened the laptop. Using the information from Binary Oracle, her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Australis. Philanthropist. Fifteen years ago.
As she processed the information,
her typing speed increased. Lines of
code scrolled rapidly across the
screen as relevant data was slowly extracted fen minutes later, a list of all charitable organizations and philanthropists in Australis appeared.
Juniper stopped, resting her chin on her hand as she stared at the list.