After rain comes the clear sky (Kaoearth)

59. Hack

“Why didn’t Lung Tom and P’ Kao take us with them? We know the culprits better, don’t we? We could have given a better statement to the police than them” Prem paced back and forth in the room in anger.

He was frustrated by the fact that Tom and Kao had asked him to go back home, calling him a kid.

Prem glared at Fluke who was sitting in front of him like a statue. He couldn’t comprehend how Fluke was able to remain calm and unaffected by the whole incident.

Little did he know that there was a storm brewing inside his friend’s head as he spoke.

Fluke wasn’t taking in any of Prem’s yelling. He was lost and numb. The extruding pain that claimed his heart and soul made him feel suffocated.

He was mad. Not at anyone else, but at himself. For being a complete fool. For letting others use him. For being the cause of pain for his dear ones.

At the thought of Earth and his condition, Fluke finally snapped out of his turmoil. He looked up and saw Prem looking at him with his hands folded over his chest.

“Why on earth were you silent, Fluke?” Prem yelled. “Are you just going to sit here and let adults handle everything?” he was fuming mad.

“No.” a simple word came out of Fluke’s lips that had curled up into a creepy smile. He knew what to do. He knew ‘exactly’ what to do.

He got up from the couch and headed to the ‘gaming corner’ (as he calls it.) Gaming corner was the area in the upper deck of his room which was equipped with computers and other gaming devices he liked. The corner was decorated with neon lights adding to the vibe of the gaming experience.

Fluke settled on the comfortable gamer’s chair, switching on his computer.

“What the hell are you doing, Fluke? Don’t tell me you are in a mood to play games now.” Prem who had followed Fluke to the gaming corner was baffled to see Fluke turning on the computer.

Fluke turned to look at Prem with a smirk. “We are indeed going to play a ‘game’.” He turned to the computer screen that had now booted up.

His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in some things that looked like codes to Prem.

“If I hadn’t known you for this long, I would have thought that you were hacking.” Prem scoffed. He had seen Earth do something similar. But the person in front of him was not Earth but Fluke.

“You aren’t hopeless after all,” Fluke commented not looking away from the screen that was changing rapidly.

“What? You are hacking into someone’s system?” Prem was shocked. He never knew Fluke was gifted in hacking like Earth.

Fluke hummed in response, his face deadpan.

“Who are you hacking?” Prem leaned closer to Fluke to get a better look at the screen. He couldn’t understand anything on screen. The running codes didn’t make any sense to him.

“Now, I am hacking into our school’s system. We need to get the whole CCTV footage of today to know what happened”

“Won’t the police be retrieving that for investigation?” Prem asked scratching his head in confusion.

Fluke’s fingers on the keyboard paused. He nibbled on his lips deep in thought.

“Fluke?” Prem patted Fluke’s shoulders.

“P’ JJ was there.” Fluke finally spoke.

“Who?” Prem frowned.

“P’ JJ. He was among the students who ran away when we entered the room.” Fluke felt his heart being pierced as he took the other party’s name. “He is one of the accomplices. I am sure”

Prem’s eyes widened in shock. “Then, the school board definitely won’t cooperate with the police in the investigation.” He slumped onto the bean bag in the corner, pulling back his hair. “They will definitely destroy the evidence before police can get to them.”

JJ was the son of the shareholder of the school. His parents held the leading positions on the board of directors of the school. There was no way the school would let anything happen to JJ because of Earth, who was just a student of the school.

“Yes. I am sure that his family has connections with the police as well.” Fluke resumed typing on the keyboard.

The bold letters ‘ACCESS GRANTED’ appeared on the screen.

Fluke smirked. He directly went to the security system and retrieved the whole day’s worth of CCTV footage. He transferred it to his system.

“Why are you transferring it without watching it?” Prem saw the words ‘DATA TRANSFERRING’ with the percentage. He was confused about why the whole day’s footage was needed.

“We will watch it, Prem. But it is time-consuming. There are high chances that those people might destroy the footage that might end up as evidence against JJ and his friends.” Fluke glanced at the screen that now showed ‘DATA TRANSFER COMPLETE’.

“But-” Prem wanted to argue, but he paused upon seeing the screen. The screen was displaying the screen of the security office system via a shared screen. The security personnel were indeed deleting the footage like Fluke predicted.

“See?” Fluke eyed Prem. “Now let’s watch the footage.” Fluke played the footage of the camera that was placed outside the cheerleading club room.

He fast-forwarded the video to the time around which the club’s meeting was over. The footage showed Earth walking out of the room and getting stopped by a boy.

“Do you know that boy?” Fluke asked pointing at the boy who was talking to Earth in the footage.

“No idea, dude,” Prem said in a grave tone. He was someone who was friends with almost every guy in the school. Yet, he couldn’t identify the student. “I wish they had audio as well. We could hear what that guy said to Earth.”

“Maybe, he was telling Earth that I asked him to go to C-block, like P’ Mon and her friend said.” Fluke speculated.

They watched as Earth headed to the C-block.

“I think you are right.” Prem stared at the screen unblinkingly, afraid of losing any detail. “But, what I don’t understand is, why someone would lie to him that you were waiting there and ask him to go there?”

“I really have no clue, Bub.” Fluke sighed. “It might have been the part of the plan.”

“Part of the plan? What do you mean?”

“They might have wanted to lure him over to the trap. I don’t think there would be any other way other than using my name as all the staff would have already left by then, to make Earth go over willingly.” There was an undertone of coldness in Fluke’s voice.

“But, why would they do that? As far as I remember, we have never offended P’ JJ or his friends. Especially Earth. He never even interacted with them. It can’t be because of Fame, can it?” Prem eyed Fluke.

“I don’t think so.” Fluke’s gaze met with Prem’s. “Don’t forget how attractive Earth looks while he does cheerlead. I assume that it might have lured some horny hyenas in.”