Lulled by the silence of the night, the four women and their children were fast asleep. Xia Lei quietly moved his work station to the attached balcony.

Today’s extensive usage of the laptop had depleted it of power. Right now, it had to be connected to a charger in order to keep on working. In the past hours, Xia Lei had been using an ID- Bad Boy- to comment on a terrorist group’s public social media account. He claimed that he wished to wire them some donations to upgrade their weapons and ammunition. To prove his sincerity, he had even deliberately donated a few million USD to charity organizations and sent the group his acknowledgements.

The charity organizations had public accounts so it wasn’t difficult to track its transactions. To no one’s surprise, the terrorist group had sent someone to rectify this. One check alone was enough to show that ‘Bad Boy’ was not a flimsy scammer. Following that was a series of exchanges between their spokesperson, ‘Hangman’, and Xia Lei, ‘Bad Boy’.

Hangman: Why do you support us?

Bad Boy: Because we’re the same, we’re all victims of America. My family was killed by the bomb dropped by an American plane in the Gulf War.

Hangman: You’re Iraqi?

Bad Boy: It doesn’t matter where I’m from. The most important thing is that I’m willing to sponsor your group one billion USD.

Hangman: One billion USD? Are you sure?

Bad Boy: I swear to Allah, yes. I’ve thought about it for a long time. I’m cursed with a terminal illness and I’m dying soon. Money has no meaning to me anymore. I want you to avenge me.

Hangman: My brother. We will grant your wis.h.!.+ Pa.s.s me your number and I’ll tell you our account number via call.

Bad Boy: No. I have placed that sum in an offsh.o.r.e account. One billion USD is available for transfer at any given moment. I will send its details so you'll be able to cash out as soon as you log into the account. All you need to do is send me your phone number and I’ll message you.

Hangman hesitated for thirty seconds before sending out a line of numbers.

Meanwhile, in Langley, America.

An intelligence officer dashed for Williams’ office and rapped its door hard.

“Enter.” Williams’s voice rang out from behind.

The informant stumbled into the room frantically. “Sir, there’s trouble!”

“What’s the matter?”

“A ‘Bad Boy’ account has surfaced. The user is asking for contact details from a Syrian terrorist group, claiming that he wishes to donate one billion USD to them. I have records of their conversation.” The intelligence officer emptied a folder and displayed screenshots of a social media chatroom to Williams.

Williams only spared it a brief look. “One billion USD? Surely this must be a joke. Even if he was serious about it, it should be a physical transaction. Why would this be discussed on social media?”

The officer replied, “I think it’s fake but Bad Boy had donated a few million dollars to a few charity organizations separately. I ran a check and those transactions were genuine.”

Something s.h.i.+fted in Williams’ gaze. “Conduct a background check on the account user!”

The officer reported, “The team is already in the middle of it. So far, they hadn’t had much luck finding anything about Bad Boy’s ident.i.ty and monetary source.”

Williams returned his attention to the screenshots. He scowled. “Bad Boy says that he’d send the account details to them via SMS. Crackdown on his phone number and decrypt the terrorist group’s SMS storage. As soon as we obtain the account’s information, freeze it before the transaction takes place!”

The officer fumbled. “But we’re running out of time. We might need to use the Tens.h.i.+n system.”

Williams regarded the question with a mere nod.

The intelligence officer quickly turned around and left.

One minute later, three of the CIA’s best hackers entered a highly protected underground s.p.a.ce.

It was a sphere-shaped room. Its curved walls along with its narrow ceiling and floor were made of alloy, making it able to withstand the force of a nuclear bomb. In the centre of this spherical s.p.a.ce was a sphere-shaped instrument that had screens as its outer sh.e.l.l. Each screen had displayed vastly different content. One of them showed the surroundings of the White House, another showed the situation around the Pentagon. There were also footage of military zones, the CIA Langley headquarters, military ports, Area 51 and so on.

Almost all of America’s most important places and facilities were under its careful watch and protection.

This was the Tens.h.i.+n system.

The three hackers took their place in front of Tens.h.i.+n’s control panel. They swiftly entered its temporary pa.s.scode and initiated working mode.

Williams had even come to watch them. In the face of a situation like this, he couldn’t just sit idly by and wait for a response.

The CIA hackers were fast. Command lines and prompts flashed through the 3D projection atop the control panel along with its results relentlessly.

A beat later, an artificial female voice echoed from the sphere. “Target identified to be Omarben… Omarben’s telecom service provider found… Obtaining the provider’s authority to intercept text message content… Transmitting message content…”

Soon enough, the contents of an SMS was projected.

“The b.a.s.t.a.r.d must be delirious by the sum to actually send his phone number to Bad Boy.” The officer chuckled lowly. “Now we need to gain access into the encrypted message and locate the account. After that, we’ll attempt to track down Bad Boy. We have to arrest him.”

Williams fell silent. “Something’s not quite right about this. Everything is too simple and the sum sounds way too big.”

“If Bad Boy is able to donate a few million dollars at a whim, he definitely has no issue with funding.” The officer further reasoned, “My a.n.a.lysis is that this might be his first exchange with a terrorist group, hence his lack of security.”

Williams sighed. “I hope it is.”

At this moment, one of the hackers said, “Sir, the SMS is tightly encrypted. Even Omarben is having a difficult time opening it.”

“Decode it!” Williams hissed.

The three excellent hackers returned to work.

At the same time, on the other side of the globe.

Clack clack clack… Clack clack clack…

On the balcony, Xia Lei’s fingers typed on the keyboard furiously as they birthed strings of commands one after another. The summer mosquitoes fluttered around him but none of them made a move to land on his skin. Below him on the ground level, a blaring ambulance had entered through the gates of the hospital. Yet, the piercing blares of its siren had no chance at interrupting him.

This was a war without smoke.

America’s Tens.h.i.+n system was very strong, able to take out Xiao Qian upon detection. Xia Lei had gained some experience from it but despite that, he still was a little shaky in this exchange. There were a few times where they were close to capturing him.

Thankfully, the nature of this exchange was different from his first. He had taken the initiative the first time around. This time, he merely needed to defend against Tens.h.i.+n’s attacks. The push and pull felt like a soccer match. Once one party had crossed the board, there would surely be loopholes in the back defence that could be countered!

When a weaker team goes against stronger teams in soccer, the defensive counterattack is a strategy they must adopt. Now, Xia Lei was China’s Suning team while the CIA was FC Barcelona.

Truthfully, he was not only doing defensive counterattacks. He had mediated a trap for the other party to crawl into. The SMS he sent to Omarben. The SMS alone had taken him three whole hours to code. With his hacking abilities, the fact that he had poured hours of work into the SMS had spoken volumes.

The ambulance below halted in front of the trauma unit, its driver finally switching off the siren. The doors burst open and out came four paramedics and a stretcher. The patient lying on top was covered in blood, looking like an absolute mess.

The four paramedics hurriedly wheeled the patient inside, allowing the driver to park the ambulance back to its spot. Tired by the event, the driver lit up a cigarette on the driver’s seat and glanced up. He could not see Xia Lei who was working on the balcony.

The CIA’s headquarters, Langley.

“Yes!” One of the hackers screamed in joy. “The Tens.h.i.+n system has unlocked his message!”

Just as his words fell, a few lines appeared in the 3D projection hovering above the control panel. There really was an offsh.o.r.e account registered at the Swiss Bank. True to Bad Boy’s words, the account PIN and transaction pa.s.scode was inside too.

“Contact the bank immediately to freeze this account. Have them send us the account holder’s information too!” Williams barked out orders. The outcome had brought him some relief.

“Wait…” One of the hackers suddenly pointed out, “There’s something wrong with the account!”

“What is it?” Williams and the intelligence officer questioned in unison.

The hacker paused to display his findings to the room.

There was only 0.5 USD in the account.

There was no one billion USD inside but 0.5 USD!

This was Bad Boy’s donation to the terrorist group.

Abruptly, the 3D projection began to warp. Even the monitor-filled outer sh.e.l.l was beginning to experience the same issue, especially Area 51’s screen. It went completely dark.

“This... “ Williams finally realized. “This is a trap!”

The hackers urgently responded to the situation, the feverish clicks and clacks of the keyboard filling the spherical s.p.a.ce with heavy suspense.

The intelligence officer was beginning to sweat, not daring to say another word.

Thirty seconds later, everything was back to normal.

Tens.h.i.+n’s computerized voice rang again. “System hibernation had lasted for 29 seconds… Recovery speed, 100%... No signs of attack detected…”

“What…” The intelligence officer finally spoke. “What the f.u.c.k just happened?”

Williams turned around, eyes threatening to burn holes in his skull. “Five hours! Find out who Bad Boy is within five hours. If you can’t do it, preparedto be punished!”

The officer was stunned into silence.

The Army Hospital, Jingdu, China.

“All done!” A smile finally appeared on Xia Lei’s face. Tapping his index finger on the ‘Enter’ key, another message was sent.

In a dingy tent on the desert borders of Syria and Iraq…

“He sent us another SMS with a new PIN and transaction pa.s.scode! Hahahahaha! I’m in!” A built bearded man with a turban screeched excitedly.

Bang bang bang!

Thud thud thud…

His people waiting outside the tent began to celebrate with firing blanks.

“0.5 USD?” The bearded men couldn’t believe his eyes. Chills began to trickle down his spine.

Bang bang bang!

Thud thud thud…

Gunshots rang out outside the tent once again, but this time it was accompanied by the sound of angry curses.

“Bad Booooooooyyyyyyyy!”

“We’re gonna f.u.c.k him up!”

“But who is he?”

No one knew who he was.

Bang bang bang!

Thud thud thud…