บท 61: Secrets Beneath the Surface
Since it was early and a weekend, not many staff were in the lab.
The large office felt empty, with only Soren and an elderly janitor sweeping the floor.
"Good morning, Mr. Iverson," Soren greeted the janitor as he grabbed a coffee cup and headed toward the coffee machine.
Mr. Iverson smiled back at him, "Morning, Soren! Working overtime today?"
Soren nodded his head and pretending to be tired as he shrugged, "Yeah, I have to. The experiment's progress is too slow, and I haven't finished collecting all my data yet. Do you happen to have the key to Dr. Silas Stone's office? I left some important papers there yesterday."
Mr. Iverson bent over and leaned the vacuum against the wall while patting his pants pockets, "Let me see… Oh yes, I do have it."
He slowly pulled out a set of keys and fished out the right one, handing it to Soren with a smile.
"Thank you, Mr. Iverson! I'll be quick." Soren smiled back, his face looking completely natural.
He held the key tightly in his hand and jogged across the office to Dr. Silas Stone's fully transparent office.
Soren pressed the key card against the electronic lock.
After a few beeps, the door clicked open.
"Here, your key back! Thanks again!" Soren said cheerfully, running back to return the key to Mr. Iverson.
Mr. Iverson pocketed the key with his rough fingers, patting the pocket, "No problem at all. If that's everything, I'll be heading out. Don't forget to lock up when you leave."
Soren nodded enthusiastically, saying goodbye again before heading back to Dr. Silas Stone's office after the janitor left.
He needed to access information that was only available on Dr. Stone's computer, the head of the department.
Soren sat down at Dr. Stone's desk and turned on the computer.
The computer was secured with a strong password, but Soren spent some time and managed to hack into it.
Once he logged in, he used Dr. Stone's account to access S.T.A.R Labs' internal network and began searching the shared files.
He started by entering keywords like "Luthor Corp," "exploration satellite," and "rocket."
The search results were mostly routine documents—contracts with the government aerospace and financial departments and project proposals.
But strangely, there were very few files related to the actual rocket designs.
Feeling uneasy, Soren tried different keywords and searched the internal document center.
S.T.A.R Labs had experience designing rockets and spacecraft at several of its branches around the world, so finding the relevant files shouldn't have been difficult.
Typically, any staff with access could search and share documents easily.
But no matter how hard he looked, Soren couldn't find detailed information about LuthorCorp's space exploration satellite project.
Not even a blueprint.
Frowning, he changed the keyword to "Lex Luthor."
This time, a few more documents appeared. According to one file, Lex Luthor had been in contact with S.T.A.R Labs years ago, suggesting deeper research collaboration.
Following this trail, Soren found more files in the same folder.
What puzzled him was that all these files were locked with heavy encryption, so secure that even Dr. Stone's account didn't have permission to open them.
Soren's eyes scanned over the encrypted folders, and he tried to hack into them again.
The defense system of S.T.A.R Labs was far more advanced and complex compared to outdated government networks.
After failing on his first attempt, Soren triggered an automatic alert the second time he tried to access the database.
He quickly intercepted the alarm and erased any sign of Dr. Stone's account login.
It was clear that he wouldn't be able to crack these encrypted files right now.
Thinking for a moment, he pulled out an external hard drive from his bag and copied all the files in the folder.
He'd try to break the encryption later when he had more time.
By the time he finished, most of the day had passed.
Soren wiped the login history, shut down the computer, and grabbed his bag before leaving the office.
Outside, Lex Luthor's satellite launch event had already started on the plaza in front of S.T.A.R Labs.
Soren was curious to see how they planned to present a satellite and rocket without detailed designs to back them up.
Meanwhile, Clark was squeezed into the crowd of reporters, holding his voice recorder and camera, snapping photos of the event.
LuthorCorp had told the media that the press conference would start at 10 a.m., but now it was already half-past, and the stage was still empty.
Clark glanced around, confused.
Suddenly, he felt a small pressure on his side.
He turned around to find his colleague from the newspaper, Luis Lane, standing close behind him, poking his waist.
"Luis Lane? What are you doing here?" he asked, surprised.
"Shh!" Luis Lane put a finger to her lips and gave him a sharp look with her rare purple eyes, signaling him to keep quiet, "I snuck in. Perry didn't want me to cover this, but I found out something—now, hand me your press pass, quick."
"Uh, okay... but..." Clark hesitated, but eventually he pulled out the pass from his pocket.
Luis Lane snatched it and stuffed it into her briefcase without missing a beat.
"To write a good news story, you need a sharp sense for the scoop, you know that, Smallville boy?" Luis Lane raised an eyebrow at Clark and motioned for him to follow her as she led the way out of the crowd of reporters.
Clark who is tall and broad, trailed behind her, clumsily stepping on a few people's feet.
He purposely acted awkward, apologizing repeatedly, "Sorry, sorry, excuse me, sorry..."
Luis Lane couldn't help but laugh at his goofy behavior.
Shaking her head, she urged, "Come on, Smallville boy."
"I'm coming," Clark finally managed to squeeze out of the crowd and followed Luis Lane toward the S.T.A.R Labs building, "Luis Lane, where are you going? Only employees are allowed inside…"
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