Shadows Between Us (Stella and Sebastian) novel Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Gavin stood there, phone still in hand, his mouth agape. Behind him, the entire Cybersecurity Division was silent. Not a sound could be heard.

“Who are you?” Gavin blurted out the question in disbelief.

Meanwhile, in the hospital room, everyone was shocked. If they hadn’t witnessed it themselves, nobody would have believed that the hacker who hacked into the Cybersecurity Division like it was child’s play was a girl.

Sebastian, meanwhile, was idly rolling his prayer beads between his fingers, his gaze mysterious and impossible to read. Charles looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself. Sebastian shot him a lazy, half-lidded glance.

Charles caught the signal and instantly gave up on contacting the Dorestan. He decided to watch and see what happened

next.

Stella scoffed, her voice casual and a bit contemptuous, “You mean to tell me you still haven’t cracked his firewall?”

She glanced over her slim, custom-built laptop, her ridiculously long lashes shadowing eyes that were icy with impatience. ‘Could they be any more useless?’ she thought, barely hiding her annoyance.

“Holy shit!” someone in the Cybersecurity Division suddenly blurted out.

Just now, right under their noses, she hacked into an international satellite in less than three seconds. ‘Does she get how close we are to causing an international disaster here?’ that person thought.

“Right now, besides Cosmos Syndicate, four other international hacker groups are lying in wait online. Haliville is only the appetizer. If we don’t teach them a lesson now, it will come back to bite us,” Stella said.

Behind her black mask, Stella’s voice was icy as she drummed her fingers on the desk. Instantly, the LED screen on the front wall of the Cybersecurity Division split in half, and a world map popped up for everyone to see.

On that map, a swarm of red dots lit up all around Clusia, closing in like a siege. Everyone watching felt a chill run down their spine.

“Do you even realize you broke international law?” Gavin said, feeling awkward and at a loss for words.

This was the first case he’d gotten since landing in Haliville. He didn’t expect it to turn into such a nightmare.

Stella scoffed, her gaze downcast and full of disdain. Outside, the crowd was still shouting and banging on the door. There was a dangerous glint in Stella’s eyes, something dark simmering beneath the surface.

Big Ben piped up and shouted, “Warning! Warning! The system detects your emotional levels hitting the danger zone.”

A big hand with slender fingers landed on Stella’s head. The fingertips still carried a faint trace of sandalwood, a mark left by years of prayer beads. Even through her baseball cap, Stella stiffened, caught off guard. Stella instinctively looked up, locking eyes with Sebastian.

Charles and Nathan exchanged a glance. ‘Isn’t Sebastian supposed to hate physical contact?’ they both thought.

Sebastian’s eyes blazed with anger, and he said, “That guy called me a lame loser.”

John and Jake exchanged glances, wondering if they’d heard right. ‘Why does Mr. Gray sound so salty all of a sudden?’ they thought.

If Sebastian wanted to, with just a click of his mouse, he could drag that guy out from the ends of the earth and tear him apart. There was no need for all this talk.

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Stella fixed her gaze on him, eyes still cold but now flashing with something ruthless. “You’re not,” she said, her tone sharp and unwavering. She hadn’t forgotten Lucas was still in the room and her mood sank further.

“Mr. Gray, you’re not,” she said again, her voice steady and reassuring. But someone had to pay for the mess today, and that

hacker was so dead.

Anyone could see that Stella had instantly pulled back all that killer vibe. When she looked up again, she was back to her

usual chill, unbothered self.

“Gavin, right?” she said, with a cocky, almost feral smirk, her eyes cold and wild.

Gavin opened his mouth, but was so stunned by Stella’s sudden change in attitude that he was left speechless.

“Since you can’t handle it, it’s my turn now,” Stella said. With that Stella dropped out of the Cybersecurity Division’s system without a second thought.

Outside, the crowd, furious at the thought of Sebastian being inside, brandished folding chairs, ready to shatter the glass and charge into the room.

Suddenly, every overhead light in the corridor blew out in a shower of sparks. People screamed and hit the floor, clutching their heads, hearts racing with terror.

All across Haliville, every hospital corridor and patient room screen flickered, just like the hacker attack earlier, but this time, the spotlight was on Stella.

Even with the black mask and baseball cap, it was obvious she was a young girl, her eyes cold and fierce, with a dangerous edge.

She didn’t say a word, but her fingers flew across the keyboard. At that very moment, intrusion warnings lit up at satellite stations all over the globe. The sheer scale of it sent shockwaves worldwide.

At the same time, in an apartment somewhere in Monterra, the masked man was kicking back with his eyes closed, soaking in some chill classical tunes. He didn’t notice a thing as his computer’s webcam started moving on its own, tilting at a creepy angle.

The red indicator on his webcam flipped to green without a sound. Suddenly, Clusia’s national anthem thundered from the high-end speakers behind him. The masked man shot upright, panic flooding his wide eyes, his breakdown unmistakable on

screen.

As a hacker, he instantly realized someone had tracked him down through the network itself. ‘No way! This can’t be real. Since when did Clusia have hackers like this?’ he thought.

The masked man kept telling himself it was just a coincidence and was about to shut off the speakers, but in the next moment, mixed with the symphony, a voice sliced through the air. It sounded cold, sharp, and absolutely terrifying.

The voice said: [You are dead meat!]

“Shit! Do you dare to face me head-on?” the masked man yelled, his face contorted with fury as he slammed his fists on the desk, throwing down the gauntlet from across the screen.

The moment the word “Sure” appeared, the screen split in two. The masked man glared from the left, while on the right, a slim figure in a black mask and baseball cap came into view, her presence sharp and intimidating.

“You hacked my computer?” the masked man asked, and his eyes narrowed, full of malice and disdain.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Stella spat, not bothering to hide her contempt. Behind the mask, her reply was cold and cocky, with that unmistakable hacker swagger. Thanks to the voice changer, the masked man could only tell that she was a woman, nothing more.

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“A woman? You’re a woman?” the masked man asked in disbelief. He’d been hunted down by a woman, and not just any woman, but one from Clusia, the last place he’d ever respect. Under his mask, his face contorted in ugly disbelief and fury.

From under the shadow of her black baseball cap, Stella answered with a low, scornful laugh, cool and dismissive, matching his contempt beat for beat.

“Are you laughing at me?” the masked man asked as he shoved his face right up to the webcam, tilting his head, trying to size her up through the screen.

“You think you can tear into my country and get away with it? I’ll hit back just as hard,” Stella snapped.

Stella sat there, head dipped in that signature lazy way, a bloodthirsty glint flickering at the corner of her eyes. The fighter in her was wide awake, cold and reckless, her whole vibe screaming danger.

She looked every bit the empress on her throne as if the whole world was hers to trample underfoot.

The masked man was about to say something, but Stella raised her hand in a lazy, dismissive wave, shutting him up before he could get a word out.

He followed her gesture and watched in horror as his computer screen, which had been idle, suddenly sprang to life. Streams from YouTube, TikTok, and other top global platforms popped up, and his hacker account auto-logged in.

The global livestream had already started before he realized what was happening. The masked man felt a cold sweat breaking out down his spine.

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