The Mysterious Chat Room

Cathy snickered, not interested in speaking with "Poor-Taste-In-Wine" Nina anymore.

Boris said to Claude, "Are you able to find out what happened at the Gallianos' headquarters?"

Molly looked nervous. "Are you talking about that mafia family, the Gallianos? Boris, what do you have to do with them?"

"Don't worry, my dear Molly. It's just some business matters." Boris assured.

Claude said, "I got word that there is an uproar in the Gallianos' Boston HQ. They seem to be looking for someone."

Boris sighed. "It doesn't matter who they're looking for. This issue has already affected our port business. This is a notice I received today."

Boris handed Claude a notice.

The latter took it, and his expression changed. "Those bastards. The port dues, the stevedoring charges, the pilotage charges… They promised that the price would not change within three years. Why did they suddenly increase it?"

"There's also a storage problem. In the past, we could store goods for free for a month, but now this has been reduced to a week. This will be a huge challenge for our entire operation process," Boris replied helplessly.

The Gallianos had always owned the Boston Port. All the ships that passed through the port had obligatory business dealings with the Gallianos.

Boris' foreign trade company was at great risk because of the increase in the various fees in the port and the shortening of the storage period.

Claude frowned. "Damn it. Something huge must have happened at the Gallianos' headquarters. But nothing happened when Esther Galliano died two years ago. Why did something happen now? I might be able to get some useful information if I could interview Henry. Unfortunately, that guy isn't someone I can easily meet."

Nina drew her brows together in a frown, and a sudden glint of sadness flashed in her eyes. "I'm full," she said flatly. "I'm going back to bed."

With that, she left the table as everyone watched on in astonishment.

Molly guessed that her daughter was still not used to this family. She suddenly felt a little sad.

Boris wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring smile.

Back in her room, Nina sat on the balcony and looked into the distance. She held the black, old-fashioned phone in her hand and rubbed her thumb against the gadget for a while.

In the end, she didn't make the call and put it back into her backpack.

Next, Nina took the independent signal source out of her backpack, switched it on, and opened a laptop that was not much bigger than her palm.

She connected to the network. The network wasn't from the Milton residence but from the independent signal source from her backpack.

Nina skillfully entered a web address in a web page and entered a completely black page. The input box couldn't even be seen on the web page.

However, Nina moved her mouse, tapping on the keyboard as if typing something on the pitch-black page.

Soon, the page reloaded and entered a chat room. There were five black avatars on the right side of the chat room.

"Help me spread the word that the person the Gallianos are looking for has appeared at eastern New York. Three points." Nina typed in the chat box.

Someone replied quickly, "OK!"

The message was closely followed by another reply. "Oh my God! Three points!? Amongst the five of us, only you are willing to spend so much, Green Wolf."

Nina typed another message. "K, I have another mission. I'll offer you one point. Are you interested?"

The person known as "K" replied, "Tell me about it."

"I want inside information on the increased import and export costs in Boston Port. All of it."

The dialog box went silent for about three minutes, and no one replied. Nina lit a cigarette and held it in her mouth. She closed her eyes and took a deep puff, gently exhaling the lingering smoke.

She did not seem to feel anxious, nor was she worried that no one would reply to her message.