Chapter 1

Albert O’Reilly excitedly clicked the

upload button and waited for the video
to load onto his YouTube account.
Suddenly, a warning flashed up on one
of his five $1000 curved screen 80k gaming
monitors.

“Wait what!? Shouted Albert. “B-but I've been

gaming on this PC since I bought it with no
problems. How could someone have hacked
into it?” “I better go tell Greg!” Albert
struggled to think what had happened, but
he could only think about one thing.
Someone must have hacked into his online
identity!

The next day he contacted a very good

detective that his friend Greg had very kindly
suggested; Greg was a faithful friend that
Albert had known since college. Albert and
the detective decided to meet tomorrow at
midnight, next to a well known pub called
The Vault. That night, Albert couldn't get to
sleep, and when he finally did, he dreamed of
his whole YouTube career crumbling to
pieces.

The next day at midnight he drove into town

to meet the detective. It was when he was
parking that he realised he didn’t even know
the detective's name! ”What have I got myself
into?” He wondered out loud. The detective
was certainly very secretive and professional;
His office was concealed cleverly in a dark
alley that any police officer would walk right
past.

However, even though from the outside it

looked very shabby, his actual office was
very professional. He had a nice computer
setup in one corner, complete with dual
monitors and a 4k webcam. In the centre of
the room he had a wide desk made of dark
oak wood. The detective introduced himself
as Henry Kingfisher. After the greetings, they
got to business.

They talked for what seemed like hours, but

what was actually only thirty minutes. Albert
was extremely on edge and fidgety. When
they were done Albert gave the detective his
address and drove home.
He was still very scared and worried but he
felt good to have let someone know about
his problem.
 Chapter 2

When he got home, Albert checked his

gaming room. He nervously entered his
password. This time he couldn't even get
past his lock screen.

He angrily pounded his 200$ L.E.D gaming

keyboard and went to play some Fortnite on
his Xbox instead. At least he could play
Fortnite, Albert thought. Even though Albert
normally liked to stream Fortnite on his
computer, he played a decent amount of
Xbox as well. He stayed up late gaming until
the batteries in his controller had run out
two times and he had got 10 victory royales.
Then he went full try hard in squads with no
teammates. He wasn't satisfied until he got
20 wins playing that. Then he remembered
that later he had a meeting with two other
Fortnite streamers; Lazer and GamerBoy.
 Chapter 3
Poor old Albert. He had to use his old
desktop that he used for admin and school
work before he became a YouTube star and
dropped out of college. Of course, that didn't
make the best impression on GamerBoy and
Lazer, but Albert quickly explained that his
usual account had been hacked. The
meeting went well after that and they
decided to record videos when or if Albert
recovered his account.

A few days later, Henry phoned Albert and

asked if he could come around after he
bought a new headset. Albert told him that
was okay and hung up. Later there was a
knock on Albert’s door. Albert opened the
door and was not surprised to find Henry at
the doorstep carrying a case full of stuff
that Albert thought only existed in detective
movies. Albert welcomed him in.
“Well Albert, this problem has been going on
for a few days now and I think that it’s time
to look for some clues” Henry said once they
were seated around Albert's kitchen table.
“Soooo, what exactly is searching for clues
exactly?” Replied Albert. “Well, first we will
dust your computer for fingerprints to see if
the hacker might actually have been here
personally,” the possibility that someone
could have actually been in his house
without his permission made Albert angry as
well as scared.

“If we don’t find any evidence that the

hacker was here, then we will start checking
the news to see if there have been any other
reports of hacking problems” continued
henry. Albert suddenly had an idea; “What if
you did the fingerprint stuff, and I checked
the news!” Albert said. “Okay, I mean, I am
pretty good at the hard stuff” Henry
boasted. “Hey! I was the one who came up
with the idea, and I'm the best at tech stuff!
Albert pointed out. “Okay okay!” Laughed
Henry. Albert smiled, and laughed for the
first time since the hacking accident.

Chapter 4
After they had finished comparing their
computer setups and tech gear, they got to
work. While Albert checked all the top news
websites, Henry got to work on the dusting
process. He slowly and carefully searched
the gaming room for any unusual prints.
First he checked the doorknob, then the
desk, then the LED gaming keyboards and
gaming computer mouses, and finally the
gaming monitors and gaming PCs.
Unfortunately, Henry didn't find anything
suspicious. Albert wasn't having too much
luck either, so when Henry came into the
kitchen and found Albert still scouring BC
and CN he smacked his face with his palm.
“Haven't you at least tried some of the least
popular websites? Henry asked in
annoyance. “Ahhhhh, should I be doing that
then? Said Albert. “Yes, you dummy! Shouted
Henry. “Okay, okay! Replied Albert, “jeez, man!
“I’ll start with the top rated websites, then
work my way down” Albert finished.
 Chapter 5

Two hours later, Albert finally had a

breakthrough. After scouring all the news
websites he could think of, he found one
called juicy news 24/7. He almost skipped
that one because the name was so silly, but
decided to check it out anyway. That turned
out to be a good decision because after 4
minutes of pure torture having to watch the
longest fabric softener ad in the world,
Albert was able to watch a short video
describing an online incident in a nearby
town. The annoying newsreader guy said
that a 19 year old boy at college couldn't log
into his school laptop. Apparently no other
students had this problem.
Excited to have finally discovered something,
Albert raced into his living room and found
Henry in an intense Fortnite battle. He was
playing duos with one of Albert’s friends;
Greg. he was shouting into his headset and
mashing the controller buttons so hard that
Albert got worried they would pop off. When
the battle was over, Henry emoted to
celebrate his victory royale. “Get wasted you
noobs!” He shouted into the headset. Albert
couldn't contain himself anymore and burst
out laughing. “I never knew you were such a
sweat! Albert shouted. Henry quickly said
goodbye to Greg and turned to Albert. “Well, I
do play at home a bit, and my username is
“TH@SWEATYhNry99” if you want to friend
me” he said. “For sure dude! Albert replied.

“But enough of Fortnite, because I made a

big breakthrough! “Awesome!” Replied Henry,
looking a bit disappointed that he had to
leave the Xbox. Albert led Henry into the
living room and showed him the video again.
Henry agreed that what Albert had
discovered was quite major. After discussing
when they should next try and meet, Henry
left and Albert went back to his Xbox. There
he discovered that Henry had left a note
taped to the controller. It read: think you
could play fortnite tonight? I have been
practising my build edits and would like to
see if we could get some wins playing duos.
Thanks, Henry. He had signed off. Albert
suddenly remembered Henry's username
and typed it into the friend request box. A
minute later, a pop up appeared in the top
left corner of the screen: TH@SWEATYhNry99
has accepted your invitation to play! Albert
and Henry managed to pull off 3 Victory
Royales out of ten games. It was around 10
o’clock when Albert finally retreated to his
bedroom.

The next day, When Albert turned on his

Xbox, he found he had a new message from
Henry. He checked his Xbox inbox and read
the message: Hi Albert, I don't know if you are
available, but I thought that it might be a
good idea to investigate the college and ask
around? Albert didn’t really feel like walking
around a college for ages, so he just replied:
Sorry Henry, but I don’t really feel like doing
any investigating today. Instead he loaded
up Fortnite and got ready to play some
solos. When he loaded into the Fortnite
lobby he practised his building and editing.
When he was on the battle bus he placed a
marker at a building just outside corny
complex. He jumped off the bus and
skydived towards his marker. When he
landed, he got some basic weapons and
then headed into the centre of corny to get
some eliminations. Albert preferred
eliminations more than Victory Royales. This
gave him an edge because the more players
he eliminates, the quicker Albert gets into
the final 20. While he was looking around for
players, Albert noticed a very sweaty battle
going on up ahead. Albert rushed in and
started building up, but then out of nowhere
a default skin popped up through his ramp!
Albert quickly and skillfully switched to his
gold pump shotgun that he had found in a
cosmic chest and shot his attacker -90 HP.
Albert was just reloading when he saw a
yellow bolt zooming towards him, coming
from the direction of Albert’s attacker. Albert
tried to dodge the flying bullet but it caught
him on the shoulder of his character.
Suddenly, the screen changed to a screen
that any Fortnite player would know and
loathe, The elimination screen. Albert stared
at the screen and tried to contemplate what
the heck just happened to him. Had Albert
really been full shield, full health and had
just shot the other guy, when he had been
killed one shot with a stupid grey pistol!?
After thinking about it, he decided to report
the other player. Apparently the attackers
username was #HAHAHA_ur_BAD. Albert
thought this guy was definitely a
professional hacker.

Chapter 6
Once Albert had reported the player, he
spectated the hacker for a while, hoping they
would get banned. Unfortunately, the hacker
didn’t get banned and managed to win using
his hacks. Once Albert decided to have a
break, he went into his kitchen to make some
lunch. After Albert had prepared a
scrumptious peanut butter sandwich to eat,
he went back into the living room and turned
on his phone. He entered the passcode
(which Albert changes regularly now) and
texted Henry a short message: Hey dude,
hope ur doing well, i just got eliminated by
some sketchy hacker, by the name of:
#HAHAHA_ur_BAD. Hope we can talk later.

Albert pocketed his phone and finished off

his peanut butter sandwich. Albert
eventually got bored of playing solos and
when he found out that all his friends were
offline, Albert turned off the xbox and
decided to go out for a bit of a walk and look
at the tech stores near him. Albert thought
that he might look at getting a bit of an
upgrade for his gaming setup, to equip when
he and Henry finally managed to sort out
this problem.

Chapter 7

While Albert was looking around at Gaming

chairs at JB HI-FI, he had a horrible thought.
He was thinking about what his next video
should be when he remembered that he
hadn’t uploaded a gaming video for about
two weeks! He had read in a book called:
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO YOUTUBE.
That it took only a few weeks for a youtuber
not to publish anything to lose their whole
fanbase. He checked his phone to see if
subscriber numbers were dropping. They
weren’t but people were still subscribing and
unsubscribing, but Albert reminded himself
that was normal. Every week people found
new gamers that they preferred because
they played video games that the person
liked. But he still had to keep uploading. He
jumped in his car and headed home. On the
way he decided in the meantime while his PC
was not able to be used, he would stream
Fortnite to his laptop and screen record.
Once Albert arrived home, he immediately
got himself set up. His laptop was on the
coffee table in front of the couch, and he
connected his spare gaming headset to the
laptop. He even managed to connect his
other HD webcam to his laptop, so his fans
could see his reactions in HD instead of the
grainy footage that you get from a built-in
webcam, as well as hear his voice.

Once Albert had everything set up, he

recorded a short video of himself explaining
why he was sitting in his living room instead
of his L.E.D lit gaming room. A lot of people
commented on that video saying that they
felt really sorry for him and that in his next
YouTube stream they would donate V-bucks
to Albert. Then Albert recorded a one hour
live stream to upload to get his view
numbers up again.

In the next few days Albert recorded a lot

more youtube videos and by the weekend his
live streams were popping up in every
gamers recommendation column. On
Sunday Albert decided to give Henry a call,
remembering that they haven't
communicated in a while.

Chapter 8

As soon as Albert dialed Henry and put the

phone up to his ear, Henry picked up. “Oh, hi
Hen-” but Henry cut Albert off immediately.
“Albert, finally!” “I’ve been trying to contact
you for ages!” said Henry. “Oh, sorry… must
not have had my phone on me right then
haha...!” Replied Albert nervously
(remembering that he had deliberately
ignored his phone because he had been
playing Roblox on his Xbox). “You know the
text you sent me?” continued Henry. “Well, I
did some research around the gaming
community and found out that there have
been multiple bannings of a suspected
hacker by name of; #HAHAHA_ur_BAD!” “And,
even more exciting is that the hacker has
been taken in for questioning in a police
station near us!” Said Henry excitedly. “Wow,
slow down Henry!” Replied Albert. “Are you
talking about the hacker who may have
hacked into my 10’000 dollar gaming setup?”
Said Albert excitedly. “I guess, yeah!” Replied
Henry. “Okay, meet you there at 3 O’clock!”
Finished Albert, hanging up. Albert glanced
at the clock, which read 1:59. Albert jumped in
his G.T.R. and sped off to the police station.
 Chapter 9

Albert arrived at the police station just

before Henry. When Henry arrived, he got
out of his rusty old 1982 beetle and whistled
at Alberts car. “Sheesh, that’s one hot ride
you got there man!” He said to Albert. “Yeah,
yeah okay, now let's get in there” said Albert,
playing it cool. In a few seconds what was a
quiet police station was now turned into a
hive of activity as Albert and Henry burst
through the heavy glass door. They stopped
in their tracks when they saw a police officer
in full uniform glaring at them. They
collapsed on a soft blue sofa situated in the
corner of the room and caught their
breaths. “What do you want?” The police
officer said in a gruff voice. “We need to talk
to the hacker” Said Henry firmly. “Sorry sir
but I can't just let normal citizens like you go
in and talk to dangerous criminals” replied
the officer. Albert rolled his eyes in
exasperation. “But I have my ID card!”
Replied Henry desperately. “Okay then fine,
but be careful, and I will send someone in
with you” said the police officer gruffly. “Yeah,
we’ll be fine.” said Albert quickly.
They rushed to the interrogation room and
knocked on the door. There was no reply so
they went in carefully. Albert’s heart was
beating as he rounded the door and faced
the hacker. His face was covered in the
shadows but Albert could tell that he was
smiling. Albert couldn't contain his anger
and grabbed a coffee cup from the table. He
launched it at the smiling menace and gave
out a gasp, because instead of hitting soft
bouncy skin it bounced off an empty metal
arm and hot water splashed across a now
beeping…

Robot?
 bUT WAIT, there’s more!

FIND OUT MORE IN: Cyber deTECHtives! book

two: the real hacker!

Read on for a sneak peak!

Albert sat in bed, leaning against his Dark

oak headboard. He checked his bedside
clock, which had a digital display reading
1:27 AM. For the millionth time, Albert
replayed the scene at the police station in
his head. The loud beeping, the sound of the
coffee cup smashing against the floor, it all
just seemed to unreal to believe. After the
incident, Albert raced straight home and
turned on his Xbox. Albert had been playing
Mad City on Roblox ever since. After a while,
Albert realized that he hadn't uploaded a
new YouTube video for a whole week, and
decided to record a new Youtube video.
Albert decided to record the new chapter
(season 1 chapter 3) of Fortnite, because
Albert hadn’t even bought the battle pass
yet or even watched the trailer. After
deciding to make a first impressions video of
the new chapter, Albert headed to his
gaming room. It was when he sat down in his
exclusive Hyperx gaming chair that he
remembered that he couldn't use his Gaming
P.C. Albert angrily muttered some
inappropriate swear words under his breath
and headed into his living room. Ever since
his gaming P.C had been hacked into, Albert
had set up a sort of temporary recording
studio in his living room, so that Albert could
still upload good quality Fortnite videos
from his brand new Xbox series X. His setup
looked something like this: a 4K webcam
connected to a 2 year old laptop that was
streaming from his Xbox and a $150 HyperX
gaming headset. Although it wasn't really
practical, it worked for Albert. His couch
wasn't as comfortable as his $300 Gaming
Chair, but he didn’t mind. He set up his
laptop on the glass coffee table, and woke
up his Xbox from sleeping mode. After
Albert’s Xbox had updated Fortnite, and he
had written out his plan for the video, he
started recording. The plot for the new
chapter was that the new map was
underneath the original map. After Albert
had finished talking to the new character
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, he bought the
Battle Pass and (Litrally) jumped (Off the
Battle Bus) right into his first game. After 1
hour of running around, experimenting
with new weapons and winning, Albert
ended the recording and took a little break
to go outside to his indoor life sized Football
pitch. He had thirty minutes break, then went
back inside and started editing his video.
After another 10 minutes of editing plus
uploading, (Editing only took 5 minutes
because Albert was using such a high tech
editing software that his videos edit
themselves) Albert watched his video to see
how it turned out. Everything was looking
good, graphics getting up to 4K on newer
monitors, voice could be heard easily, little
title card saying “CHECK YOUR EMAILS”....
“WAIT A MINUTE, BUT CAN I JUST TAKE A
SECOND TO ASK WHAT THE *&%#^(& HECK
IS GOING ON!?” shouted Albert. First his
computer, and now this? It was all way too
much. Albert took a few deep breaths and
then took a screenshot of the title card,
thinking that he could show it to his
detective friend; Henry Kingfisher. It was at
this moment that the first few comments
started coming through. “Nice job, and
GREAT EDITING too!” said Fortnite Fan. “looks
like you just got yourself a new subscriber!”
commented Sweaty Hands 4 the win. Albert
was extremely confused. How could nobody
else have noticed the little 5 second title
card….