74 Threat

After being picked up, Arius and his new puppy were directly driven to Pierre's condo. It was a peaceful ride, though Arius wouldn't have noticed either way, since his attention was explicitly given to the puppy, blocking out everything around him. The chauffeur couldn't help glancing back through the rearview mirror at this sight.

Arius didn't seem to have looked up once from the puppy in his embrace as he made his way through the building. It could have been said that he relied completely on muscle memory, if he hadn't been following one of the staff Pierre  prepared.

Only once he was in front of Pierre did he glance up, but only momentarily. It really hurt the young man's ego, but the staff member was relieved to see some sort of response.

"Phil!" Pierre called out.

"Hm?" Arius hummed in response.

Pierre sighed before signaling the staff to leave, and only after they were alone did he speak again. "You need to look at this." He brought out a laptop.

"What is it?" Arius still didn't bother looking up as he sat down and held the puppy's cute face in his hands.

"Look up." Pierre felt a headache coming on.

Arius quickly took a glance and then went back to looking at the puppy.

"Phil!" Pierre desperately tried to gain his attention. It only got worse though, as he watched Arius pull out his phone and dial a number.

The conversation went something like- "I need the highest quality dog food you can find, urgently." And with continuations like- "Don't worry, you'll love her."

Drastic measures had to be taken at this moment, and Pierre decided to put everything on the line. He walked over and snatched the puppy.

"Be gentle with my daughter!" Arius didn't expect this sudden theft. He started at Pierre with furrowed eyebrows while ending the call.

"You can have it back once you figure out the solution to the hacker!" Pierre had never seen 'Jarres' like this, so telling him what to do felt unfamiliar, but oh so satisfying.

"Whatever." Arius grumbled as he took the laptop. Arius had a server that practically had details of everything he had done over the years, things like new identities and his research. It was unbelievable that he wasn't more worried about it being hacked.

It didn't just contain things that could lead to his immortality being exposed, but things about the Haima plant and so much more.

The longer Arius gazed at the screen, the more confused he was. He went through file after file, and looked at so much code he lost track of time. He couldn't understand it, the hacker's skills were top notch, and by looking at what they did, it would have been a piece of cake for them to erase all traces of them being there.

Arius directly began tracing the hacker, and as he did, he realized they really didn't bother hiding their identity. He lifted his hands and looked at the laptop with conflicting emotions.

"Go through the files and see if they left anything inconsistent with what we already had. Extra data or sentences perhaps."

"Why?" Pierre could tell by now the Arius didn't find anything conclusive.

"I feel like this wasn't anything you're thinking, but more like a message. A warning perhaps." Arius smirked suddenly, the thought of a good game on the rise made him giddy. Too bad though, he probably had to fix those holes he found, how troublesome.

"A warning?" Pierre held the puppy in his lap, but she was quickly taken away by Arius once again.

"Take it as a threat." Arius looked at Pierre with a calm gaze.

"What?" Pierre scrutinized. "What did you find?"

"I don't know how exactly, but they must have found out that I know a little bit more about them than I should " Arius took a moment to think before deeply inhaling. "Weird!"

Pierre was completely bewildered by the reaction. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! If it's the what I'm thinking of, I have yet to seriously look into them."

"Just... take care of it, okay?"

"I'm just wondering how they linked me to the server." Arius shrugged.