Project Apollo

Chapter 5

Safe House #27

Southeast Washington, DC – 8PM

Mac Morrison sat, welded to his computer as he prowled the hacker networks to fetch his dose of evening news. Brushstrokes of reds and oranges painted the beautiful sunset across the sky out of his window. Having taken the advice of his doctor, Mac was getting more sunlight by setting his workstation near the large window of his apartment. The view overlooked Nationals Park, the city's Major League Baseball stadium. With six suspended monitors surrounding him like an IMAX movie screen, he couldn't see much of the view and despite his futile efforts, remained fully immersed in his virtual world.

Mac's last apartment matched his taste in clothes, the apartment was decorated in a modern swank. There were pastels and buffalo plaid throughout and always obscure music sounding through the speakers. Alt-J was the music of choice this morning as he surfed with one hand and sipped his coffee with the other.

Mac's eyes narrowed as they found a link from a hacker friend, Rogue7. Of course his friend wasn't a friend and had no idea of his origins. Rogue7 could be a teenager for all Mac knew – anonymity was a friendship requirement in the hacker world. All Mac was able to gather on him was that he didn't care about anything other than Dungeons and Dragons, Game of Thrones and World of Warcraft. Regardless, they corresponded back and forth and recently Mac used one of his de-encryption programs to help in cracking a terrorist cell communication.

Mac clicked on Rogue7's link and up popped a surveillance feed. Mac tried to decipher the scene. The feed showed someone in a large inflated suit working in a laboratory. Then the suit hid and a second person with a bloody knife came onto the screen. And so, Mac witnessed the heist of the NIH. The text chat appeared from Rogue7.

"Dude... that's the NIH?... crazy shit, huh?"

"Where did you find this?" Mac responded.

"I hacked it myself. I heard a rumor that something went down at the NIH today so I wanted to see for myself," Rogue7 answered.

"Who have you shared this with?" Mac's second inquiry was immediate.

"No one, other than you... yet"

"I will pay you $5,000 not to share this with anyone else. I will know if you do." Even through the short text, his deliberate tone was received.

"Let's round it up to $7,500..." Rogue7 replied.

"You have terrible math skills. Deal. I'll wire it later today." Mac had to keep the footage from leaking as long as he could. He x'ed out of the conversation and played the feed again. His eyes narrowed on the attacker. Mac brought up a program from another drive that zoomed in on the figure and ran multiple clearing filters over the intruder's face. The man's image became clear enough to confirm Mac's suspicion.

"Oh Shiii---"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Xander's dream materialized before him. He had grown familiar with the recurring dream that often haunted him. He sat in the same backseat of the same station wagon as always. He recognized the back of his parents' heads in front of him. His mother's brunette curls bounced down the back of her seat and dangled before him. As always, he reached his hand out and grazed her locks. He noticed his hand was smooth and hairless.

Oh yeah... I'm eight years old.

"Isn't that right, Xander?" As always he joined in mid conversation – unsure of the topic of discussion. Xander took this chance to tell them how much he missed them.