New beginning: Billionaire love story

Chapter 378 A Trap?

Claire leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples in frustration. They'd been at this for hours, staring at the grainy footage from the explosion.

"This is going nowhere," she muttered. Then, an idea hit her. She turned to Matthew, who was tapping away at his laptop. "Can you try to find some surveillance cameras from the road the car drove through? Maybe we'll have better luck."

Matthew nodded. "On it," he already pulled up maps and checked for any cameras that could've caught the car in question. Claire, meanwhile, squinted at the footage again, desperately trying to make out a license plate or any useful detail. But the cameras were ancient, barely functioning. The picture was so blurry it looked like something out of an old spy movie.

"Nope," she sighed, shaking her head. "Can't make out anything on this footage. Who the heck still used this kind of camera in this era?"

"It's probably the local camera that no one notices that it's still working. How come the restaurant you went there doesn't have a surveillance camera?"

Claire sighed. "Adrian booked the whole place don't ask me why, he just did. So basically, our dinner was really private with no one in sight."

Matthew glanced up from his screen. "Well, I'm not having any luck either. There's nothing on the road-either no cameras or they're facing the wrong direction."

They'd been at this for hours, and still nothing. Claire threw her hands up, exasperated. "Great. We're going in circles, It's like the universe doesn't want us to find this car."

Matthew chuckled. "You'll get there, Claire. You always do."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she reached for her mug of tea. "Yeah, well, it better happen soon because I'm running on fumes over here."

Just as she took a sip, her laptop chimed with a notification. Claire blinked at the screen, furrowing her brows. "Huh..."

Matthew perked up, noticing the change in her expression. "What's up?"

Claire stared at the message in disbelief. "I got an email."

Matthew raised his brows, finally glancing her way. "From whom? Anything important?"

well, someone I

"What do you mean? Like, spam

than that. It says, 'Claire Peterson, you managed to change your firewall within 24 hours, and because of that, I wasn't able to penetrate the system. So, I'm sending you this

mix of irritation and confusion. "The message goes on: 'That's why I presented you a show."

forward. "A show? What

from the screen, her expression confused. "And

forward, clearly intrigued. "What kind

photo. Hold on..." She clicked it, and up popped an image of the exact car they had been looking for-the same one from the footage. But this time, the license plate was

at the screen. "What the hell? Why would they send

break into Metacortex and Cryptonic. But why would they give me the license plate

ran a hand through his hair, utterly baffled. "That makes no sense. It's like

trouble of hacking me and then just... hand over this information? Something doesn't add up." She stared at the

after a moment of silence. "It might lead us somewhere

be a setup to throw us off or worse." Matthew shrugged, a small

Then,

plate number, and to her surprise, it didn't take long to find a location associated with the car. "Found it." Matthew

grinned. "I'm good at

grinned. "See? Maybe our mystery hacker is playing fair for

wasn't convinced. "Yeah, or maybe they're setting us up for

playful shrug. "I'm down for it. Let's go see

they were close to the car's location. Claire looked out the window, her

already," she said,

the steering wheel, scanning the empty landscape. "Yeah, I noticed that too. Weird spot

knew we'd come all the way out here just to find nothing." Matthew didn't look as convinced. "I dunno, I've got a

him a skeptical look. "We've been driving in circles, Matthew. This is a