Mark was already panicking seriously. 'Why would this little brat delete a world-changing innovation? Urgh', Mark suddenly felt a headache coming in. He paced around his room in deep thought.
The mistake he made was promising John that he would bring in the complete version of the research, but right now, the only thing he could show off was just a twelve paged research.
For a minute, Mark regretted telling Sophia her research was not good enough. What was he thinking anyway? That was not how he was supposed to compliment a student. Right now he was paying for it. How cruel was fate?
Just then, his laptop began ringing, jolting Mark out of his thoughts. It was a zoom call from John, apparently, he wanted to ask him if he had obtained the rest of the juicy findings.
With a long sigh, he clicked the answer button and flashed a smile. "Hello Mr John, how are you doing?" John stared at Mark with a questionable expression.
"Have you gotten the rest of the documents?" He asked ignoring Mark's greeting. "Uhm, yes... no. I'm still working on it sir, please give me till Saturday".
"That's two days from now Mr Mark. Are you sure you have the research documents with you? If you cannot bring the rest of the documents, tell me now, let's close this now without dragging things further", John said expressionlessly.
"No, I have them. It's just that... I forgot my cloud account's password, I'm working on it I promise. Give me more time, please", Mark said, half pleadingly.
John straightened his back without removing his eye from Mark. "Alright, I'll give you till Saturday, but if I don't see that document first thing on Saturday morning, don't even bother calling me again", John said and ended the call.
"Damn it", Mark cursed in his breath. He began to think of a way to get that files from Sophia without making her wary. Something was telling him Sophia was lying. The way she said it in the lab, and by the look on her face, it appeared she never wanted Mark to see her research again, and that bothers him a lot.
'Please Sophia, do this for me. My future literally depends on your hands", Mark muttered to himself. He sat on the couch and dialled his son. He regularly calls his son every Thursday, even if his son wasn't too enthusiastic in speaking to him. Maybe he'll change someday.
Ten ringing beep later, the line connected. "Hi Jesse, how are y..." Mark was still talking when Jesse interrupted him suddenly. "Mr Mark, let me say this honestly. All these times you call me and pretend you are interested in my welfare, please stop. Stop pretending you are a good father, not after you abandoned us for over twenty years. You are not my father, and you will never be. PS, don't call this line again", then the call disconnected.
Mark held the phone in his ears in a daze without moving for a long time. He could not believe his son talked to him like that. This was the first time he called him by his name, and it felt very uncomfortable.
Mark attempted to call the line again, but it refused to ring. Jesse probable has blocked him. He dropped his phone and rubbed his forehead in distress. He felt his life was crashing down on him slowly.
Things cannot continue this way. He has to get out of this country, He has to quit this miserable job as a teacher and pursue his main dream. He would not accept this life anymore.
With a determined face, he sat straight and called a number on his phone. "Hello, this is Mark.... yeah, I want you to help me retrieve something."
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Sophia had barely woken up properly when her phone started ringing. It was an unknown number. Sophia rubbed her eyes and focused on her screen, and seeing the unknown number, she frowned. Who was calling her and hiding the number in the early hours of the morning?
Her first instinct was to reject the call. A moment's later, the unknown number called again. This time, she knew something was amiss. Sophia wanted to run to her mom and report it to her, but she felt that she should not bother her mom. She was still probably resting after the long flight.
With shaky hands, she picked up the call. Just as she was about to say "hello", the person on the other end quickly said with a deep voice: "Turn off your laptop".
Sophia was dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, who's this, and why should I turn off my laptop?" Sophia asked incredulously. "Do you want to be implicated?" The voice asked.
Sophia began to feel uneasy. Why would anyone even want to implicate her? "I'm sorry, mysterious person, but I have to end this call. I don't know who you are, so you cannot tell me what to do", Sophia said and her fingers approached the 'end call' button.
"I will not say much, but I want you to know that in less than thirty seconds, all of your data on your computer would be stolen and wiped off. You have thirty seconds to make a decision", the voice said flatly and disconnected the call.
Sophia stared at the call logs in a daze. Who would be trying to hack into her computer? From what she remembered, apart from her classmates, no one knew her that much. The only things on her laptop were the pictures of her family, some social media applications, her research documents, that's all.
Hold on a second, her research documents. She only knew one person that was interested in her research. Her eyes suddenly opened wide. "Teacher Mark!"
She immediately slammed the laptop lid down, causing her laptop to go on hibernate. It appeared she was not the only one attempting to illegally hack into another computer.
But why was her biology teacher so interested in her research that would warrant him going as far as hacking her computer?