The Consulting Hacker

Not Giving Anything Away

Chapter Nine

"So, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" John was back in Cate's hospital room, three days since his first visit with Sherlock. Cate lay on the bed, looking at John unblinkingly.

"Let me guess the bad news first, I'm guessing that I have to stay in hospital for another two weeks." John chuckled.

"You never fail to surprise me, but it's actually only one week. You were close though. Do you want to have go at guessing the good news too?"

"Nah, come on. Enlighten me."

"Well, due to you having to stay for another week, I have decided to allow you to have your laptop charger." John took the charger out from his pocket and waved it in Cate's face.

"Really?! Yes, thank-you. I've been dying of boredom because my laptop ran out of battery two days ago and I needed it urgently."

"I see you didn't take my advice on taking it easy on the technology."

"But I also tried to have a civil conversation with my nurses and doctor but they were so mundane. It's driving me insane. Any updates on the hacking case or even the 'spontaneous' fire case?"

"Well, there's been a slight improvement on the hacking scandal but not that much. There have been rumours of someone trying to stop the hackers from hacking into people's databases, but that was a couple days ago. There's been another case of a fire death yesterday, police are still checking to see if it's related in any way to the previous cases. I bet they are."

"I agree. Any leads?"

"No, none at all."

"I suspect that they're going to contact Sherlock soon."

"Probably. Want to guess when they're going to get him to help?" John asked with a smirk.

"This one is going to require some thinking. I think after another death by fire, my other guess is sometime before I'm out of the hospital. Actually, thinking about it now, it seems more probable that it will be before I'm out of the hospital. Why do all the good things happen when I am utterly useless?" Cate sighed dramatically.

"Don't worry. Don't forget that you're coming out of the hospital in exactly a week."

"Oh joy! A week isn't that long at all." Cate gave him a sarcastic smile. John gave a smile and placed her laptop charger onto the table beside Cate's bed.

"Well, I'm off to work. See you around, kiddo."

"By 'around', do you mean cooped up in this hell-hole?"

"Heh, I guess so. Bye." John opened the door but before he could physically get out of the room, Cate spoke.

"What did you want to say, John?"

"Wha-, it's nothing. Don't worry."

"Come on, just say it. It's not likely that I will attack you, I mean, I am kind of held back by these tubes," Cate gestured to the tubes surrounding her, "It's been on your mind since you stepped into this room, you're still thinking about it. You might as well just say it." John hesitated, then closed the door and turned around, facing Cate once again.

"Why all those cards?"

"By cards, do you mean my IDs?" John nodded, "Well you see John, I'm sorry I can't tell you the full reason, but I can tell you one thing. I'm wanted by someone, I can't tell you who, all I can say is that, he tried to force me to do something that I didn't know was bad until it was almost too late. Luckily, I realised what an idiot I was and stopped immediately. And he has been after me ever since." Cate gave John a half-hearted smile.