Chapter 19
August 22nd, 2012
0830 hours
“Tampa Bay Correctional Facility lays in ruins in an apparent bombing attack by ‘The Defenders of Freedom’. Authorities refuse to comment on the involvement of correctional officer Michael MacLeod. This is channel eight news coming to you live from ground zero.”
Ellie stood in a doorway, watching Chan hang his head as he heard the end of the report.
“I haven’t heard the term ‘ground zero’ being used this much since 2001,” Ellie paused, “MacLeod was one of you, wasn’t he?”
Chan nodded without looking up.
“A good man all around. Wife and kids, loved his job, loved his country even more. Now it’s all going to get pinned on him,” Chan paused, “They’re picking us off, one by one.”
“Won’t you just get new members?”
“Do you remember that terrorist scare back in January?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“That ‘terrorist’ organization was known as ‘Liberty’.”
“Yeah, I remember the police put on a big show when they took them down.”
“Supposedly, their leader was a man named Christian Lyndon. Christian wasn’t the leader of that group. He was an activist… a damn good one to boot. He was also one of my best friend. The actual leader of that group, was a man named Eric Chan. He was my brother. He thought he could make a difference. The government started framing them for terrorist attacks, much like they’re doing to us. While Christian was my best friend, he was more of a brother to Eric than I was. When he was arrested for being the leader, my brother lost it. He told me he couldn’t live with himself… He,” Henry paused, the words seeming to get stuck in his throat, “He told me all this, over the phone, while he was standing on the roof of a thirty story office building. He told me all this, seconds before he jumped. I couldn’t let my brother’s death mean nothing, so I started ‘The Defenders of Freedom’. I want to set the record straight. I want this country to once again stand for the ideals of freedom, liberty and everything that our forefathers wanted us to be.”
The silence that followed the story was palpable, minus the droning of the television in the background. Ellie was the one to break the silence.
“You want this to mean something, I can help. Ever felt like living up to your reputation and actually doing something illegal?”
“Nope, but we just might have to. What did you have in mind?”
Chapter 20
August 22nd, 2012
1014 hours
Henry and Ellie stood outside the house of Shelton Meester, a twenty year old man-child with an aptitude for hacking computer systems, his curly brown hair and boyish face solidifying his childish appearance, not to mention his immaturity accentuating it.
“Ellie, what are you doing here?” Shelton eyed her both nervously and ravenously. “I told you I retired from hacking.”
She scoffed. “Right, so I assume Centafix Industries hacked themselves and you just happened to stumble across their private records while you were torrenting porn.”
“Things happen, sometimes one says ‘Hot Girl on Girl Action’ and you end up clicking on ‘Extremely Sensitive Corporate Records’.”
“Cut the crap Shelton, I’m not NSA. Not anymore.”
Shelton tried to look surprised. “You were NSA? I had no idea!”
“I know you hacked my system. Among many others. You’re just lucky I thought you could be useful sometimes so I kept my mouth shut. But that’s all beside the point. We need your help. Think you could hack a satellite?” Shelton, who was sipping a cup of a mysterious green colored soda, choked on it and started coughing. When he recovered, he looked at Ellie incredulously.
“Are you serious!? Hacking one of those is like walking into a police station with a loaded gun!”
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To be continued...
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Eagle
Mystery / ThrillerA government/suspense/romance/thriller/a bunch of other stuff. Anybody that enjoys cliffhangers and edge of your seat action will enjoy this book.
