It didn’t make sense. Why would the kingpin of a global cyber mafia chase after a petty scammer? Albert wasn’t sure, but he had his own reasons for being on the scammer’s tail. The bastard had hacked into his grandmother’s bank account, stealing $10,000 of her retirement savings. If it hadn’t been for Albert's quick thinking—a lucky hunch, really—the scammer might've cleaned her out completely.
After noticing a remote "tech support" connection on his grandma's desktop that just so happened to log into her bank account, Albert had logged into her online banking portal in time to interrupt the theft. He rerouted the remaining funds to his own account for safekeeping, then set up surveillance, quietly tracking the scammer through forums, spoofed emails, and compromised VPN logs. It had been weeks of sleepless nights and packet captures, but now, here he was—tailing a digital predator who was himself being stalked by an even bigger one.
He didn’t know what NullSpectre wanted. Maybe he saw the scammer as a rival. Maybe he wanted to recruit him. Either way, Albert had intercepted a message that gave him chills.
In a forum thread deep within an encrypted, invite-only dark web board that he had somehow managed to gain access into, an eerily weird message caught his eye:
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[NullSpectre]: Meet scheduled. Welcoming new blood. Bring silence and shadows.
There was no username listed for who was being welcomed, but Albert had a gut feeling it was his scammer—the same one who stole from his grandmother. He had no idea what silence and shadows were supposed to represent; it was probably hacker lingo for some dangerous items that they wouldn't want outsiders to know about on the off-chance they happened to gain access. Like he had done just now.
Either way, he wanted to focus on the sniveling scammer, but this new development was too huge to ignore. If he could unmask NullSpectre, it would fast-track his cybersecurity career. He imagined interviews with major firms, scholarships, maybe even government offers. He just had to prove who was behind the keyboard.
So, he laid a trap. A simple script, wrapped in a file that looked like sensitive intel, dangled in front of NullSpectre like bait. If opened, it would ping Albert’s custom alert system, log IP details, grab OS metadata—nothing harmful, just revealing. It was risky, but he was confident.
Until the alarm blared. A sound not unlike a Cold War air-raid siren echoed through his room.
He froze.
NullSpectre had taken the bait.
Eyes wide, hands trembling, Albert launched the capture tool. A new file appeared on his desktop:identity_trace_payload.zip
He opened it. Inside, one image.
His heart stopped.
It was a photo—a face, pixelated but unmistakable.
His father.
Superintendent Henry Vale. Head of the state’s Cybercrime Division. Decorated officer. Man of the law.
Albert felt the ground shift beneath him.
Was this a trap? A fake? A taunt?
Or had his father been hiding something his whole life?
He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
The man tasked with dismantling cybercrime...
...was leading the world’s biggest criminal network?
Everything shattered.