Chapter 5 His Sister's Keeper

A black Bentley was parked outside Maybourn High. "Miss Felicia, why hasn't Miss Emberly come out yet?" the driver politely asked Felicia, who was already sitting in the backseat.

Travis was a senior student. He took after-school classes in the evenings, so he usually got home pretty late. The driver was only here to pick Emberly and Felicia up.

Felicia showed up early immediately after school was dismissed. They had been waiting for Emberly for over thirty minutes, but she didn't show up. None of them had her phone number or another way to contact her. Felicia's blood was already boiling.

"Since it's her first day at school, I think she's probably somewhere hanging out with her new friends. Or maybe she already took the bus home. You can never tell. Let's just go." On second thought, Felicia wanted to use Emberly's lateness as a way to score more points. The Hammonds were strict with rules set for their children. They would be mad if Emberly arrived home later than she should have.

"Okay." The driver started the car and drove off.

In the alley of Violet Street, Emberly finally found an Internet cafe that was open to minors after searching for a long time. She looked at the sign and walked in.

"Good day, I need a computer," Emberly said to the receptionist.

It was probably pretty common for under-aged folks—mostly high school students to frequent this Internet cafe, so the young boy who ran the place wasn't surprised at all. He didn't request to see any ID but just handed her a card without raising his head.

The place was rowdy at this time. Many students were there playing games, surfing the Internet, and smoking cigarettes. The air in here was smoky and reeked with sweat. Holding her breath, Emberly quickly found a seat in a corner and turned on the computer.

The first thing she did was search for Darian's name on Google. Details about his background and the Hammond Group popped up. The Hammond family was new money. Their fortune came mostly from the clothing industry. The company recently ventured into the new energy industry. In recent years, it had been seeking to cooperate with the Hawkins family, one of the most prominent families in the city.

Emberly rubbed her chin and browsed through some information about the Hammond Group. She stumbled on a link and clicked it.

It was the Science and Technology Website of Usnary. On the website were research results and analyses of many well-known scientists. Emberly read them carefully. After reading the latest updates, she could not help but sigh in her heart. There was indeed a huge gap between the technology in this era and that of the Star Age.

Just as she was about to leave the website, an ad popped up. It was a call to register for the next National Science and Technology Innovation Competition. Emberly was about to look away when she saw another line. "The winner of the competition will get one million dollars, courtesy of the Skasia Group along with the patent fees of the winning work."

No way! She couldn't let this pass her by. She had to sign up on the spot!

The competition was a big one. It was open to both the old and young. As a result, many professionals in the field of science would have to compete with children. There was still a whole month before the due date to hand in her work. Emberly sent in her application and had to wait for it to be reviewed.

There was nothing else she needed to do now. She turned off the computer and went to the front desk.

"I'm getting off."

The boy at the front desk still lowered his head, ignoring her words completely. His fingers were moving on the keyboard so fast. He suddenly cursed, "Fuck! Where is that damn bug?"

Emberly repeated her words, but she got no response again. She craned her head to look at the screen of the boy's laptop. It was filled with codes and more codes because he continued to type like there was no tomorrow. But three consecutive times, an error alert popped up on the screen.

"That code here is wrong." She pointed at a spot on the screen.

The boy finally raised his head. He looked like he was in his early twenties. His facial features were delicate and handsome. With a frown, he asked, "What did you say?"

"I said, that code is wrong. It should be..." She paused halfway. Seeing that the boy still looked stunned, Emberly took over his laptop. Her deft fingers began to tap the keyboard at an extremely fast speed. The boy's eyes widened as he looked at her.

"SUCCESSFUL!" A positive message appeared on the screen once Emberly finished typing and hit the Enter key. She then returned the laptop to him. "Can you attend to me now?"

"What the..." The boy's jaw dropped as he looked at his laptop screen. He had been struggling with the codes for three days. But Emberly just solve the problem in minutes.

He swallowed and said, "Miss... I mean, master! How did you do it? Can you teach me? Please!"

It didn't matter to him that the person he was addressing respectfully was just a young high school student.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this." Emberly paid for the service and turned around to leave.

The boy grabbed her jacket and said, "Wait a minute. If you agree to teach me, you can come and use any computer here anytime, for free. I can also pay for the lessons. Do we have a deal?"

"How much are we talking about?" Emberly asked, stopping in her tracks.

"You name it! I'm willing to pay any amount!" The boy was overexcited.

Emberly looked at him from head to toe. He seemed like a rich guy, so she thought it would be nice to make some cool cash by teaching him whenever she was free. "Okay, deal!"

"Great! How do I contact you?" he asked anxiously.

"Well, I... I don't have a phone yet. I'll come back in a few days."

"Okay. I'm Isaac Harvey. And you are?"

"Emberly Hammond."

After saying that, she left. Isaac stared at her back until she disappeared. He then took out his phone and made a call. "Damien! Guess what? The Emette case has been solved! But... I wasn't the one that solved it. I kid you not. Just now, I met a genius! She hacked into the system in less than two minutes. Holy shit! I feel like it's all a dream. Anyway, I talked to her. If we can get her on our side, there's no way the YN would defeat us."

"Quit playing, Isaac. Are you trying to say that there's someone that good in Bluabert?"

Isaac replied excitedly, "It's true! She gave me her words that she would come back."

Although Isaac was usually frivolous, he was a reliable guy in his profession.

"Okay, I'll come to Bluabert tomorrow." Damien Mendez decided to come to see the so-called genius in person.

Meanwhile, Emberly couldn't stop thinking about Isaac. His name sounded rather familiar. And then, it struck her! That name had appeared once in a newspaper she read while in prison during her first life. It was said that a hacker named Isaac Harvey hacked into a top company's website and stole confidential information, causing the company to run at a huge loss. He was caught and sentenced to prison.

Emberly felt it was rather odd that in this life, she met this Isaac guy when he was just a rookie hacker. He was only working in an Internet cafe and struggling to do basic codes.

She wanted to mind just her own business. But since she had already agreed to teach him, she was going to keep her word. Who he was before or what he was up to later had nothing to do with her.

In the Star Age, humans had already invented the Smartbrain, making all the instructions and operations on computers simple and easy. As a top-level scientist from the Star Age, Emberly was one of the best in computer skills. She could find just about anything on the Internet.

Never would anyone imagine that a young and seemingly harmless girl like her could stir up trouble in this world. However, she couldn't afford to be arrogant. She knew that showing her uniqueness before she had the power to protect herself would be a stupid move. As a result, she decided to tread carefully until her arsenal was filled.

Back in the Hammond residence, Emberly was still not back home. It was already nine o'clock.

"Where the hell did she go? She's a real wild child. She must have lived a wayward life in the countryside. Instead of returning straight home, she wandered to God knows where. That girl must be disciplined!" Sylvia was pacing about the living room in fury.

"Mom, please calm down. Have a seat. Perhaps she went to one of her new classmates' homes."

Felicia held her mother's hand and pulled her to the sofa. She seemed to be defending Emberly, but she was actually adding fuel to the burning fire.

Travis frowned and was a little worried. Emberly was new to Bluabert. Could it be that she got lost on her way home?

It was so late. It wasn't safe for a young girl to be out at this hour.

Thinking of this, he stood up and said, "Mom, I'll go out to look for Emberly. You guys should wait at home." He turned around and made way for the door, oblivious to the instant gloom on Felicia's face.

"You don't have to. I'm back!" Emberly came in through the front door before Travis could get to it.

"Emberly, do you have any idea what the time is?" Sylvia sprang to her feet and looked at her sullenly. Felicia was snickering beside her.

"I lost track of time because I went to the library after school. Is anything the matter?" Emberly's eyebrows arched in confusion.

"You went to the library? Today was your first day at school! Don't lie to me. Where exactly did you go?"

It didn't make sense to Sylvia that a country bumpkin would be so interested in books. Her instincts told her that Emberly was telling lies.

Emberly stared her dead in the eyes and replied, "I have a lot to learn, but I don't have a laptop or a mobile phone. So, I could just go to the library to read some books."

Travis looked at his mother in disbelief. Why didn't she give Emberly a phone?

Sylvia was also stunned. She didn't think of this at all. Even the clothes in Emberly's wardrobe used to be Felicia's. Although they were new, she didn't put in much effort to get the other necessities.

At the thought of this, she felt a little guilty.

"Well, you have to understand that I'm only looking out for you. You aren't familiar with the environment here since you just arrived. More so, it's unwise for a young girl to be out so late in the night. I'm sorry for not getting you a phone. I'll do that first thing tomorrow morning. The most important thing for you to do now is to keep up and adapt to your new life, okay? This family is well-known in this city. Next month, your father will introduce you to everyone. Stay out of trouble so you won't bring shame to us." Sylvia softened her tone.

Felicia gritted her teeth. She felt Emberly was being let off the hook easily.

Emberly badly wanted to sneer at her mother. Once again, Sylvia avoid the most important thing and was concerned about the family's reputation. A caring mother was supposed to ask after her daughter's well-being. But Sylvia did no such thing.

"Okay, Mom. I'll keep that in mind." Emberly didn't want to argue with her.

Sylvia waved her hand and said, "Go and freshen up. If you want to eat anything, Dorota can cook it for you. Otherwise, you can just go to bed." With these words, Sylvia went upstairs.

Emberly was just about to go to her bedroom when Travis grabbed her hand and said hesitantly, "We... We are siblings. If you have any problem at school or at home, you can always come to me."

"That's so sweet of you, Travis. Thank you." Emberly smiled at him and went to her room.

A spark of resentment flickered in Felicia's eyes as she stared at Emberly's back. She cursed in her mind. Damn it! Even Travis was being so good to Emberly now. Was this because they were real siblings? So annoying!