29
Age twenty-one
Living within the walls of a library has taught me many things.
Knowledge cannot be taken away.
Knowledge will always remain the most powerful tool.
For the past eleven years, I have been hiding, sneaking into libraries, sitting and reading through everything, making use of a card I stole from a kid so I could use the computers. I mastered the artificial intelligence humankind has made.
I hacked into smaller places, seeing the kind of information not many others were able to gather. Then I stumbled upon Peccator, a search engine that allows me to find information on people. I can be anonymous and still get blackmail material.
And so I took advantage of it.
I blackmailed people, took their money, then expanded into gathering blackmail material for others.
I didn’t care. No one cared about me. Not a single one.
Until I stumble upon the heir of the Vino Corporation.
Remo Cainn.
And then I decided I wanted his help, knowing a deep secret of his that was about to be revealed to him after ‘someone’—me—decided to threaten to leak that the Cainns had another child, a daughter they didn’t want.
Power hungry people do that.
I wait outside his fight, watching from the shadows as his assistant walks over to him and tells him. I watch him punch the wall, knowing he is about to hit rock bottom, and then I step in.
“All I ask is for you to support me while I destroy the very people who hid your sister. Your parents. I can get rid of them, or I can help you find your sister,” I tell him.
He falters, his eyes turning towards me, trying to look at my face but unable to, due to the fact that it’s nighttime and I have a hood over my face.
Remo will help me become more powerful, give me his resources while I find his sister for him. Remo Cainn, the soon-to-be CEO of Vino Cooperation and the famous wine company, Giorgio Vino, will help me stay anonymous and enjoy my life while he covers for me as I do for him.
I researched enough.
I know enough.
This step will force Remo to take over his grandfather’s dying company and flip it around, since he needs the money and resources to find his sister, whom his parents very strategically hid from him and the world.
I know they’ve moved her again by now, but I will track her down.
“Take it as an offer from a new friend of yours. They are Mr and Mrs Cainn, so they will have more than enough resources to hide her very well, and I can be of help. All I ask for in return is one favour in the future when the time comes. How does that sound, Remo Cainn?”
I can tell he doesn’t believe me by the way he narrows his eyes.
“And what do you possess that I can’t buy with my money?” he asks, wary.
And then I show him, lowering my hood.
The bruises covering my face, the scar, the eyes that people scatter away from in fear.
“Skill. I understand computers. I understand the very language that can destroy humanity, a skill that is too good to be left on the streets like this. Artificial intelligence. Pro tip, it’s good for when you need blackmail material. Just saying.” I shrug.
I see the moment he decides. His eyes change.
The moment my life changes.
Remo and I build up our lives for the next decade.
Me gaining power and knowledge no one else has ever had over the elite, and Remo using it for his blackmail and finding his sister.
Both of us swore to achieve what we wanted from this partnership.
Remo wanted his sister back home, and me? I wanted freedom.
And I am granted my wish.
I only twist the fate of those in power, watching them clash together.
I keep my morals close to myself, to my heart, and don’t let them go astray.
Never.
Never will I let someone take control over me again. Especially someone who finds it fun to bully those weaker than them.