The Breaking, page 14
part #2 of The Reckoning of Anecor Series
“Good. I’ll do the same. Let’s hope we can get messages through if we need to. Otherwise, just plan on meeting back here in three hours. I’ll stash the truck…” he looked around for a good place and spotted some fallen boulders a short distance away, “…over there, behind those rocks. We’ll have to cover the tire tracks from the truck, but we should be well enough hidden there.”
They all followed the direction of his gaze to the where they’d meet and responded in the affirmative. “Okay, I’d best get going so that we can all get off this road. Keep me posted.”
“Yep, will do, now get outta here, would ya? We got work to do,” Cassidi said with the flash of a smile that Remy actually returned.
“Watch your step,” Daniel called out as Remy turned the truck around, “especially when you come back out here.” Remy gave a wave in reply, and then he was off. The group of five watched as the truck rolled much more quickly back the way they’d come, kicking up dust in its wake.
“Okay…what do you say we get this party started?” Davi said as he turned his attention towards the only place the pair could have taken cover: the trees and rocky terrain at the base of the mountain’s incline. The opposite side of the road stretched into the valley bottom, with a river running through it, all the way to Montrose. No place for cover there. This might be easier than they’d feared.
All five of them crossed the short distance between the road and relative safety.
“Message us if you need us,” said Mel, “and good luck.”
“Same to you,” Rebecca replied.
And with that, Davi and Mel peeled off to the right to follow the path of the road, while the other three moved deeper into the trees.
CHAPTER 21
D
estin had picked up Troy at their predetermined meeting spot. When Troy left the house, only his mother was there. His dad was gone, as was often the case these days. With all of the extra measures in place because of Council’s secretly orchestrated attack, Troy’s dad’s extra duties kept him at work for long hours. That seemed to be the case for several of his friends’ parents as well. All of them were grateful for the freedom this provided as they became more heavily involved in Colossus. Troy’s mom, while home more regularly, seemed often not in the mood to be bothered with Troy’s actions. His parents, always close, were now obviously fractured, but Troy didn’t have time to be worried about that.
Now, all he was concerned about was surviving his time with Destin. She had been waiting for him on the transit platform, still in her work uniform, looking as surly as ever. She and her dad were still required to work. Council did not want Tier 6 citizens with too much free time on their hands for fear of an organized retaliation. So, they worked, though on a reduced schedule. Today had been Destin’s turn. Seeing Destin’s dirty grey uniform and her wary stance brought home to Troy the differences between the two of them Remy had spoken about. But her glare in his direction ensured that his opinion of her did not soften enough for him to let his guard down.
They had ridden transit across the city to her living sector, a place Troy had never given much thought to because it was worlds apart from his own. It was also a place he was only now able to enter because of his disabled tracker. As they crossed from the commerce region into Quadrant 4, the difference between his world and Destin’s became even more apparent.
Ramshackle houses in various states of disrepair and care lined narrow streets crowded with bone-tired workers making their way to homes with barely enough food to compensate for their hard labor. He braved a look in Destin’s direction, but she was staring out the window, a hardened look on her face. She would not look at him.
They were working at her place because she had a Colossus computer secreted away in a hiding place in her room, which also doubled as the living room. Her father now slept alone in the only bedroom of their small house. He’d offered Destin the room after her mother died, but she refused to take it.
When Troy and Destin arrived at the house, Destin’s dad was already at the nuclear waste plant for his shift. Their shifts often varied between daytime and overnight hours, with little predictability to their schedule. This, again, was by design. It kept the population off-balance and tired. And without a consistent group of coworkers, they were less likely to form into any sort of organized groups.
Tonight, he and Destin would be programming the key cards. Shockingly, and unfortunately, she’d agreed to work on that with him. If they got that done, they’d log onto the Colossus computer, and Destin would begin giving him lessons on breaching BRO security.
Despite her obvious resentment at having to work with Troy, Destin was attentive in learning how to program the key cards. She was a sponge. He had only had to show her what he did once, and the next one she’d done on her own flawlessly. He had never met anyone who absorbed information as rapidly as he did. It left him feeling both insecure at meeting his match and elated at the prospects of what they could accomplish if they combined forces. He also felt the beginning twinges of admiration at what she could do even in the circumstances she had to endure on a daily basis. He wondered if he would be as strong if he were in her position.
“Wow. You’re good, Destin,” Troy said as she completed her first key card.
“Of course, I am,” she replied in a tone of disgust. But Troy thought he caught just the barest hint of a smile before it sank back down into the more familiar scowl.
That gave him the courage to say, “I’ve just never met anyone before now who is as good as me at this stuff.” She didn’t respond, but their interactions grew a little less tense after that. Troy had to acknowledge that maybe Remy was right about Destin.
๛ ๛ ๛
With the two of them working, they did manage to get all of the key cards done in one sitting. They worked faster than either of them would have on their own, each instilling in the other a competitive reaction that wasn’t altogether unfriendly.
“Well, um…thanks. That went fast,” Troy said as they finished the last one. “Uh, do you want to hold on to these?” Troy added.
“No. You take ’em. This was supposed to be your thing, so you get to be responsible for making sure they get to Melody.” Destin’s voice sounded almost accusing, but Troy had the feeling that she was making her own gesture of goodwill.
Troy collected them all and put them in the protective case he’d brought along just for this purpose. Destin walked over to the shelves that lined the wall on one side of the room. The shelves held an assortment of items, all neatly arranged, along with some containers. Troy realized that this shelving unit took the place of closet, as there was none in the room. These were Destin’s personal items.
Feeling a little embarrassed, Troy shifted in his seat so that he was turned a little away from Destin, allowing her to discreetly remove the computer from whatever location she had it hidden. Troy did what he had felt uncomfortable doing before; he had a look around at the rest of what could be seen of the place Destin called home. It was small. It could use a number of repairs. But it was clean and organized. There was no clutter, in spite of the lack of space to store anything. It was then that Troy understood that there was likely little that the father and daughter had need of storing.
He felt the weight of Destin’s life as she sat down next to him. Composing his features, he turned back towards her to give her his attention as she opened the computer and turned it on.
Destin logged in and checked to ensure all encryption and discovery protections were on and functioning before continuing. When that was complete, she turned her focus back to Troy.
“Okay, I’ve been working on this for months now. It’s taken a lot of work to crack their security systems while also remaining undetected. I need you to pay attention and do only as I say. Do not try any other stunts because you think you know better than me how to do this. Trust me. You don’t. And I’ve likely already at least considered any method you could suggest. As long as I have your word on this, we can continue.”
“Uh…um, yes. Of course,” Troy responded, a little taken aback. “I trust your methods. After what I saw today with the key cards, I don’t question your skills.”
“I need your word.”
“You’ve got it. I will only do as you say.”
“Good. Let’s get started then.”
Troy was nervous about what they were about to do, afraid that somehow her methods would not work this time. It wasn’t that he didn’t really trust her skills even though he said he had. It was more the idea of the consequences if she was wrong. He’d have been equally as worried if they were using methods he’d discovered.
Once Destin began, Troy focused entirely on Destin’s words and the screen, not wanting to miss anything.
This was also a little exciting, he realized. New turf. Something he had not done before. It was a new technology challenge. As he sat there, the nervous feeling drained away, to be replaced by an attentive calm. He was entering a new world, and the journey was a new adventure. A far more exciting one than climbing up the side of a mountain in brush so dense it had to be hacked through. This adventure was much more to his liking.
Destin surprised him by saying, “You’re not so bad at this. Not quite as good as me, but not bad.”
A compliment from Destin. He was sure those weren’t easy to come by. He allowed himself a small feeling of victory.
They worked away for a few hours before Troy had sufficiently grasped the ins and outs of bypassing BRO’s security system for the layers Destin had mastered. She had yet to breach security for Level 3’s systems, which is what would be needed in order to access the data for the bodies. They didn’t even know for sure where those systems were located within BRO’s network.
It was possible the systems were not connected to rest of the BRO operation. It was possible that the data was stored only locally, on the computers that had to exist somewhere in the Level 3 High Security area. But it seemed highly unlikely. They needed too much of the data the scientists in the first two levels were gathering. It had to be somewhere. And if it existed, and they found it, then perhaps they could breach it.
From right there in Destin’s living room.
Destin told Troy that she didn’t think they would ever need to set foot inside BRO to breach their system, that, logically, it would be connected to the rest of the system. Troy agreed.
“So, do you think we should tackle this now?” Troy asked.
“Yes. I mean, that’s if you’re up for it. I know it must be past your bedtime and all, so if you don’t think you can manage…”
“I can manage. Don’t worry about me. I’m used to it.”
“Good to know,” Destin replied in a flat tone.
“Okaaay,” said Troy. Destin glanced at Troy, then back down at the computer, typing on the keypad.
“Okay. Let’s see what we can do.”
Troy bent over the computer with Destin. He watched what she was doing.
“This is as far as I’ve gotten. Any ideas?” she asked.
Troy moved his hands towards the keyboard and Destin slapped them away. “Tell me. Don’t show me. We make no more moves until we agree on what’s next.”
“Alright. Good idea. Based on what you just did, what I think might work is this—” Troy went on to describe his thoughts on what was next, and Destin interjected with slight modifications. A couple of moves met with dead ends, and one frighteningly close call where they thought they lost their security wall. Some frantic moves reassured them that they were safe. At least as far as they could tell.
As they gained a level of comfort with working together, they began to move faster and with greater assurance in the other’s skills, until…
“Whoa! Are we…?” Troy said as a screen opened with a list of files they hadn’t seen before.
“YES!” Destin exclaimed, before adding, “Maybe. But we gotta open a file first.”
“You can have the honors.”
“You just wanting to blame me if something goes wrong?”
“Uh. No, just trying to be nice.”
“Kidding, nerd. Just kidding.”
“Oh. Okay.” Troy gave a delayed, uneasy chuckle. And Destin jabbed his ribs lightly with her elbow. She clicked on a file.
“I’d say we’re in,” said Destin.
“It sure looks like it,” Troy agreed. “What do we do now?”
“What do you want to do? No one knows we’re in. They can’t trace us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Our system is designed specifically to prevent detection. It’s better even than the one we just cracked into. Unbreakable, actually. Unless they’ve got someone smarter than me. And now you.”
Troy’s laughter was anything but uneasy this time. “Well, there’s no way that’s true. Before you, my dad was the smartest person I knew when it came to technology, and I’m better ’n him. A lot better.”
“Okay, then, so what’re we gonna do? We can’t just close out of here without doing something.”
“We have to figure out what these files are first, don’t you think?” Troy said, stalling for time because making changes to the files was daunting. He was not as confident about the system’s security. Even though he was completely confident in Destin’s skills, he just wasn’t completely willing to go so far as to say that no one could crack her code.
“Of course. But I can tell you right now from all the data I’ve been looking at, these have to do with the viruses. See this right here? It’s the name they’ve given the virus. That’s no different from the other areas of BRO. So, I think maybe this number here is something with the dosage because it’s different for each data set.”
“They don’t provide names. We can’t tell who’s who. It’s all just numbers.”
“That’s because they don’t see them as people. Better that they don’t, then they don’t have to have any conscience about it.”
“I wonder if we could figure it out,” Troy mused.
“Do you really want to? I mean, does it matter who? It’s all bad. Or would you just prefer to save the worthy people of Tier 3?” Destin said in a voice dripping with disgust. Her mask went on immediately.
“No. Of course not. Though I could probably think of a couple of people I might not care to help…” Troy added, only half kidding. “They’re in Tier 3, by the way.”
This time, Destin was the one laughing.
“Well, we can’t change everything, but I say we lower the dosages of several of the people here. Randomly. I think they’d be less likely to notice if we just did a random few throughout. At least this time.”
“Noooow your talkin’!” replied Destin. “I agree. We should lower the number. Not sure what the letter means. Maybe it has something to do with the formula they’re using.”
“Hey, wait. We just opened up the first thing we saw. How do we know these are new victims?”
“Good point. No sense in changing anything that’s already happened. Can you see anything that might tell us?” Destin was looking through the information contained on the file.
“This looks like it might be a date. Maybe. It’s formatted a little differently. Let’s see if we can open something else, now that we’re in, and compare them.”
They looked for similar files in the system, and it didn’t take long to find them.
“It looks like they’ve put their victims into batches, so that helps. Must be based on when they are dispensing the doses,” said Destin.
“I think you’re right. Let’s open two and compare the information for what I think is the date.”
They opened up two different files to discover that it appeared Troy was right. They also noted that the date was embedded in the batch name.
“Well, that makes this easier,” Troy noted upon making the correlation.
“Sure does. Now all we have to do is find one that hasn’t happened yet.”
“Not as easy as you’d think since they’re arranged by the batch name and not the date…wait, here, I think this looks like one!” Sure enough, they’d found one with numbers that would correspond to a date that had yet to happen. If they were correct in their interpretation of the numbers, this batch would be sent out the following week.
“I really wish we could see who was on here,” Troy said again.
“Why?”
“If we knew, we could see if what we did worked. If those people didn’t get sick, then we changed the right thing.”
“Good point, nerd.”
“Why are you calling me that?” Troy asked as she called him nerd for the second time. “What is it, even?”
“I’m calling you that because you are one. It’s an old word my mom taught me when she found out how good I was at computers. It meant super smart, but in a way where you don’t really fit in with others. It wasn’t totally a nice thing to say. But I liked it when my mom said it. Made me feel like something more than a Tier 6 slave,” Destin shut up quickly as it dawned on her that she’d become a little too unguarded with this kid. That could be dangerous.
But Troy didn’t seem to notice the shut-down. He was too moved by her revelation.
“Well, then, call me nerd all you want. I like it, too. And I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said. He wanted to say more but wasn’t sure if he should. He risked it anyway. “And you are smarter than what Council has assigned your family to. It’s a stupid system. The sooner we break it down, the better.”
“So, let’s get to work on changing some numbers, then,” Destin replied, relaxing a little more again. But not completely. She’d have to be careful, she realized. It was too easy to relate to this kid, and she wasn’t used to relating to many people. She never really could.
For as far back as she could remember, she didn’t get other people and they didn’t get her. She had been an only child, but she wondered what it would have been like to grow up with a kid brother like Troy. Probably would have killed him, she thought, as they began the work of making changes to the BRO numbers in the Level 3 system.
