New York. 11/11/2012. 18:30.
Lina Campbell was enjoying her sunday calmly looking at her favorite anime on her computer. Her feet on her desk and wearing jeans shorts and a white top, she was the very definition of a casual sunday.
After what happened with the society who had messed with the Lyndon network, Lina had worked around the clock to make sure that their internet security was flawless. She had taken the responsibility that her employer put on her very seriously. That was the first time that her superior trusted her enough to put her in charge and she wanted to prove herself.
She had worked so much that she had pulled all nighters three days this week until Nathaniel appeared in her office and sent her back to her home with interdiction to work all weekend. Since then, she managed to watch the episode of her favorite anime that she had missed.
That's when her phone rang once, signaling a new text. Picking up her phone and looking at the sender ID, she abruptly took her feet off of her desk and straightened herself. The text was coming from her boss, Nathaniel. What was even more puzzling than him texting her on a late Sunday afternoon was the text itself.
'Look under your bed on the right end side. Work on that, no need to come to work tomorrow. Follow the instructions and have fun Lina.'
Reading the text for the tenth time, the content finally registered itself on her mind and she dropped down onto the floor. Sliding herself under her bed and going to the place pointed out by her boss, she found what he was talking about. There was a little hatch in the wood covering under the bed. Opening the hatch and putting her hand in it, she felt something there. Taking it in her hand and getting out of bed, she realized it was a chrome laptop.
She recognized it immediately as it was a high end laptop and it cost too much for her to even consider buying it. Powering it up, a text appeared on the screen.
'Do not connect this laptop to the internet. Try to break into the encryption, good hunt hacker.'
The text faded and a window opened, requesting an ID and password to enter and access the files in them. Smiling, Lina hurried to take one of her flash drives containing many of her hacking programs. Plugging the flash drive into the laptop and opening an executive command, her programs started launching one after another. A frown appeared on her face when they all failed to even open a registry file on the laptop.
Not deterred by difficulty and feeling challenged for the first time in a while, she started getting serious, forgetting her anime which was still playing in the background as the sun outside was setting.
*****
"For how long will you be in Washington sweetie?" Karine asked, Mary not far from her and listened intently.
They had just told Mary what Nathaniel wanted to do with his life. At first she had objected quite passionately but in the end she understood why Karine had accepted their son's wishes. As much as they wanted Nathaniel to live a good and free life, it was not worth it if he ended up miserable. After everything they had learned about the incredible thing that happened to their son, she knew if someone could do it, it would be him.
"For the week, no longer than that and possibly less than that. I have already noticed the school and I have classmates taking notes for me in class so I'm good to go."
"I can give you the company jet if you want sweetie." Mary offered.
"Thank you but not needed, I think I can handle a commercial flight in business mom." He answered laughing.
"Why do you need to go to Washington again?" Mary asked anxiously.
"Mom we talked about this." Nathaniel sighed. "If I'm going to do this, I can't do it as a vigilante. People will depend on me, I can't offer them a life in prison as a reward. Beside the CIA which is a big NO, I narrowed down a list of people who would be interested to have a highly trained black ops team to use in places other forces can't. Many of them are in DC."
"I still think it's a bad idea. What if they expose us? You will be found out and our entire family will be under a lot of pressure without even mentioning our company." Mary said.
"Mom, please. I know what I'm doing. I did a lot of work lately to narrow down that list of people and these people work in the military or intelligence. They are not the type to call Fox News and tell that Nathaniel Lyndon is a spy and if they do, It will be right up there with the Queen of England involved in drug trafficking. No argument from me, it would become a really good meme on the internet."
"Be serious sweetie." Karine said, frowning.
"Alright alright. Yes there is risk involved but I did my best to prepare for it. I would not go if I thought I couldn't make it." He reassured them.
"Just stay safe and do nothing crazy alright, please?" Karine asked.
"Of course mom, you know me, I will never do anything out of line." Nathaniel smiled.