The Young Spy (Book One)

Chapter 19: A Tip

Swift, with a determined and demanding look, hands over the thumb drive to Carter. The latter shoves the USB into a port on his laptop, that, after waiting for several seconds, shows no other content besides the encrypted file Swift and Tom told stories about to Carter.

"List. Is this it?" He asks, then he attempts to access it normally, but it won't work after he repeatedly presses on it.

"It is, apparently," Swift says.

"Well, let's see if our friend Mr. Barlowe has really hit the jackpot," Using a brute force attack, Carter attempts to use trial and error to break into the file, and after several more seconds of waiting nervously yet patiently, the attack is not even successful. "Damn it. He did hit the jackpot." He turns a lot more impatient now, as it seems.

Walking out of the kitchen is Tom holding a cup of tea, "What's wrong?"

Carter makes another attempt to decrypt the file, but to no avail, to his frustration. "This file's heavily fortified. It's like it has its own firewall." He says like the file is now his nemesis.

"Can you crack it?" Swift asks.

"Can I crack it? Yes. Maybe. I don't know, it's a lot more secure than I thought. It might take a while." Carter starts to doubt himself.

"How big of a while are we talking about here?"

"Umm..." Carter forgets to answer Swift under his stress and focuses on the encrypted file, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Left by an awkward silence, Swift asks again. "Carter."

Carter looks up at the brown-haired boy, "Yeah?"

"How long?" Swift puts up a worried face.

"Uh...- Um," Carter accidentally stammers again. Before his conclusion, he makes a set of incomprehensible hand gestures, enough to imply to Swift that he's just as confused. "Three to four days."

"Three to four days?" Swift recites. He knows it isn't that long, but it's still shocking to know how long it'll take.

"I don't know! Seven day- a week, tops."

"Come on, man. I thought you were an analyst."

Carter takes offense at that. "Oh, I'm an analyst? Therefore am I supposed to know how to do everything right and quick?" While an argument ensues between Swift and Carter, Tom watches the two bicker while calmly sipping his tea. Once his mouth parts from the cup, Tom yawns.

"Okay, fine, sorry!"

Carter sighed, not believing that he just snapped. "I'm not the best at what I do."

"Yeah, you don't have to tell us," Swift says in sarcasm, which makes Carter look up incredulously again.

"If you know already, why don't you ask for another analyst from Allison?" He argues yet again. Swift's eyes roll before his phone goes off. Someone must've texted him. He takes out his phone to check.

"Speak of the she-devil?" Carter asks, wondering if it is who he thinks it is. They were literally just talking about her a moment ago. His guess, as Swift debunks first, is incorrect. It was Audrey who just texted him.

"Not a devil, but it's a she, alright." Swift smirks, his lips going up to the left. Carter scoffs knowing who it is Swift's talking about. The sheer glee on his smirk says it all. He definitely has something for that girl.

Found something.

Swift reads Audrey's text before it's followed by an image attachment below. He opens it, revealing a newspaper headline print. Judging by the desaturated colors and the imperfect quality of the headline image, which is a taken picture of a bank from the front with pages of money flying in the air in front of the bank, Swift knew instantly that it was from the early 2000s. His suspicion turns out correct when he reads the date of publication, which is the 24th of March in 2004. The headline reads: Bank Robbers Steals Millions in Heist, Sparking Intense Police Manhunt. The strange and sudden newspaper article catches Swift's attention.