Red and Masako entered a vast room filled with machines, where dozens of workers were seated in front of their computers. The glow of the screens illuminated their faces, giving them an almost unreal appearance in the dim atmosphere.
Red scanned the room, analyzing every detail without seeming to.
The sound of keyboards echoed continuously—fast, almost nervous. None of the employees looked up upon their arrival. They all seemed absorbed in their tasks, as if their concentration was a matter of survival.
— A real-time surveillance and analysis center. Each terminal is connected to a different network. Communications, finances, movements… everything that can give us an advantage over Omen.
Red did not respond immediately. His gaze stopped on a particular screen, where lines of data were scrolling at an abnormal speed.
— You monitor the entire world… and yet you need me.
Masako slightly turned her head toward him, without smiling.
— Let's just say that some anomalies still escape our control… like your brothers and sisters, for example.
Red narrowed his eyes slightly.
— How long have you had this?
At the back of the room, a larger screen than the others displayed a frozen image: White's silhouette under an umbrella.
Masako walked up to an empty desk and powered on the machine, opening the files on the computer.
— At first, we believed Omen only existed from the year 2005 onward, since that's when you began building your reputation as an untraceable assassin…
A list of newspaper clippings, old reports, police investigations from all over the world, and blurry images scrolled across the screen, all seemingly connected.
— But after you left that organization and left traces of it during your escape… we discovered that it had existed far longer than we imagined.
Red slowly approached the screen, analyzing every visible piece of information as Masako continued.
— 1025… The oldest information we managed to find on Omen, thanks to you, dates back to the year 1025… No need to tell you how shocking that was for most people…
Behind them, a door slowly opened with a soft mechanical sound.
Zain entered the room, followed by Sato, who kept a close watch on him.
While everyone worked under constant tension, Zain walked forward slowly, almost absent, as if he didn't belong in the equation. But the moment he looked at the screens…
something changed in his expression.
— Um… are you alright, kid?
Sato's question, noticing he had stopped, reached the boy's ears, but it was not his priority at that moment.
A data stream caught his attention. One screen.
As he stared at it, a line of code shifted slightly within the program.
Without a word, he rushed to the computer on the desk and began a rapid manipulation.
— Hey…
Sato moved to stop him as he had already begun restructuring the system.
Unaware of what was happening, Masako continued showing Red the information.
— They have influenced many political events from the shadows without anyone noticing. At first, they only intervened when paid by major corporations, governors, or dictators… eliminating rivals, burning evidence, and making witnesses disappear.
— That was before you left the organization. But since your departure… it has become completely out of control. They are becoming less and less discreet in their operations… and it's also thanks to that that we managed to link them to their missing victims.
The file changed, revealing an image of a young Japanese man around 25–26 years old, with short hair, wearing a white suit and a black shirt, inside a crowded casino lit only by red and pink neon lights.
— Arata Kurogane… he is the only son of Akira Kurogane, head of the Kurogane family, one of the most influential families in Japan right now…
Red remained skeptical.
— That's all well and good… but what's the connection with Omen?
Masako told him to wait:
— I was just getting to that… Apparently, Arata accidentally obtained top-secret information without even realizing it… We believe this is the information Omen is trying to recover… All the missing people possessed similar information.
Red calmly asked what that information was, but Masako replied that she could not say, under orders from her superiors.
— But you must understand that if this information falls into their hands… it won't just be Japan that's in danger…
— So you want me to retrieve this kid… before White makes him disappear like the others?
— Yes… that's the goal. But gaining his trust won't be easy, believe me…
Meanwhile, Zain was typing on the keyboard at an incredible speed, his fingers moving across the keys with an almost unreal rhythm as lines of code raced across the screen. He was patching system vulnerabilities with extreme precision, as if he could directly see the errors.
Sato watched the scene, gradually realizing with a mix of shock and concern what he was actually doing.
— You… you're strengthening the network security… But how did you learn to do that?
As usual, Zain gave no answer. He simply pulled a black USB card from his pocket and plugged it into the monitor. The screen instantly reset.
Zain unplugged it as quickly as he had connected it, put it back in his pocket, and stood up as if nothing had happened.
But before he could take another step, Sato grabbed his hand.
Before Sato could ask anything else, Zain turned slightly toward him, looking worried, then placed a finger on his lips.
A clear gesture. A request for silence.
— But why?
The screen suddenly lit up again, and a sentence appeared in the search bar, making the situation immediately clear:
"THE HACKING CAN WORK BOTH WAYS"
Zain took advantage of Sato's distraction to pull his hand free and quickly walk toward Red without a word, under Sato's suspicious yet impressed gaze.