New York. Lyndon Tower. 20/11/2012. 14:30.
Walking inside Lina's office, Nathaniel was not surprised to find her watching anime on her computer with her helmet on and her feet on the desk. As usual, her spatial awareness was so lousy that she did not realize he had walked into the office. As a new custom he started some time ago, he flipped one of her ears, startling her and almost making her fall off her chair.
"Sir, this is not what it looks like!" Lina hurriedly made her screen change to the usual Lyndon logo.
"So, you were not watching your favorite anime that I can't even pronounce on a company computer in your work time?" Nathaniel asked with seriousness.
"Yes I was, I'm sorry sir, it will not happen again." Lina said, hanging her head low. "If you want to put the blame on me it will be…" Lina started before Nathaniel raised his hand to stop her.
"You know that Amal still has a tracker device to look through your history? What will he tell me if he sees you watching anime instead of working?" Nathaniel mock sighed.
"Yeah I know and he knows I know. He realized that I was messing with him when I kept sending him onto a clown porn site. Since then, he hasn't looked at my history anymore." Lina laughed.
"Clown porn...? Don't tell me anything, I don't even want to know." Nathaniel shook his head, amused and disgusted in equal measures. "But still Lina, you are one of the more hard working employees in this whole tower. If you need to watch some anime to recharge your batteries, it's fine with me."
"Oh." Lina said happily surprised. "Thank you"
"Don't mention it. I'm here because I received your text saying that you successfully hacked into the system I gifted you. Can I see that computer?"
"Of course!" Lina shouted, opening one of her drawers and getting the laptop that Nathaniel had left under her bed some time ago.
Turning it on, Nathaniel quickly typed his password and looked at the log to verify Linda's claim. Entering that particular program was not very difficult for someone with good knowledge in programming but doing it without triggering the huge number of detection programs was immensely more difficult. Looking at the log, Nathaniel could see that Linda told him the truth, she had really done it.
"Very good Lina. I'm proud of you." Nathaniel complimented her, making her slightly blush.
"Thank you." Lina said almost bashfully but Nathaniel could see in her eyes that she wanted to say more than that but did not dare to.
"You have questions." Nathaniel said, it was a statement. "You should ask them. Don't worry, you can ask whatever you want, I will answer truthfully or not at all if I don't feel like it."
Thinking that it was a fair proposition, Linda began to think long and hard about what to ask until she settled on the thing that was the most important to her.
"Who are you?���
"Nathaniel Abraham Lyndon. Singer, Musician, Lyricist, Actor, Millionaire." Nathaniel shrugged, a hint of mirth in his eyes.
"Oh come on! I know that but we both know you are much more than that and despite looking through your life with a microscope, I could not find anything supporting my theory. This is so infuriating!"
"Tell me what you found then and I will see if you deserve the complete truth." Nathaniel offered.
"I know you were in that hotel when terrorists attacked it. The FBI tried to wipe your presence from the scene but like always, they left behind some bread crumbs. I know that you are not the type to hide under a bed while people are dying so you were surely doing something else in there. I know the spybot you used to infiltrate my computer when I hacked into yours was like nothing I have ever seen, even on the dark web. So it's probably gouvernemental in nature and coming from an intelligence agency CIA, NSA or DOD, you name it. It's not your everyday singer that has access to that kind of toy. Am I working for a spy, sir? Lina asked, looking at him intently.
"Hummm, not bad Lina. I'm giving you a B minus for your work. Impressive, but you could have done much better. To answer you, no, I'm not a spy but not that far off either. I do not work for any intelligence agency either, you can do better than that Lina. Don't disappoint me."
"If it's not them, it's surely the army or Minister of Defense."
"Higher than that Lina." Nathaniel smiled.
"There is nobody higher than them! They are the only one in the government with that kind of influence and means except…" She started to say before her eyes went wide.
"Now you got it." Nathaniel laughed.
"But that's impossible! You are sixteen, he probably doesn't even know that you exist!" She shouted.
"That was true until last week when I kind of sneaked into the White House and offered him my service. You heard about what happened with the cats right? That was a cover up to hide what I've done."
Hearing that, Lina kind of gaped at him, hesitating between calling some doctors to examine his head and believing him. She finally chose the second option even if it was a close call.
"Why are you telling me this!? If it's true, everything that you said is classified information, you could go to jail for that!"
"That's where you are wrong. You know, I don't work alone for the President, I created a team with me. A team that needs you Lina, would you join us?"
"Why me? There are a lot of people more experienced and more qualified than me!" She asked, her mouth still open, trying to get her head around what she was hearing.
"More qualified and experienced, yes but you have the potential to become one of the better hackers on this planet. The program that I gave you, the one you cracked building something from scratch in twenty hours was the new encryption program that will be used by the FBI in the coming month. It was developed by the NSA and you still cracked it in less than a day Lina. I need your talent."
"You orchestrated everything. Every talk, every assignment you gave me. That was all for you to test me, examining me, training me." Lina realized, thinking about every conversation they had together.
"Of course but can you blame me? I needed to know if I could trust you, if you had what it takes to do the job and you have it, Lina."
"What will be our job?" She finally asked.
"To resume, helping people."
"American people?"
"No, all people Lina." Nathaniel corrected her.
Thinking about it, it indeed sounded good. Maybe it was finally the chance that she had hoped for all her life. Making a difference, helping people and perhaps, evolving. She always wanted to become more than the shy, bashful and nerdy Lina and now, someone was offering her exactly that.
"Will there be girls in that team? I'm tired of working around so much testosterone." Lina said, making a head movement in the direction of the door, designating the IT department.
"Of course, you will not be the only girl in that team. I promise." Nathaniel said.
"Good. I'm in Sir." She said, trying to make a military salute.
"We have a lot of work to do." Nathaniel sighed, looking at her messy salute.