Red to Fade

by Red to Fade (epub)

  Dylan’s IT room looks like the cockpit of a jet airliner. He has standard servers, Clandarian servers and four huge flat-screen computer monitors. Dylan turns on all of the IT equipment. He’s got a lot of work to do; he has to get everything Connor needs.

  *

  Connor finally reaches home, which is at Sunrise Apartments, and heads straight for bed. He wants to get as much rest as he can before he carries out his mission.

  He’s waiting for Dylan’s call. As soon as he hears Dylan’s call he knows he has to get to work.

  *

  In Ryan Clarke’s house, Ryan picks up his house phone in the kitchen area and dials his partner’s phone number.

  *

  In Tom Rogan’s house, Tom’s wife Melissa hears the phone ringing. She answers the house phone and says, “Hello?”

  Ryan knows it’s Melissa, and he replies, “Hi Melissa, it’s Ryan here, how’s it going? Is Tom there?”

  Melissa answers, “He is, I’ll just get him for you now, Ryan.”

  Ryan replies, “Thanks, Melissa.”

  Ryan waits for Tom to pick up the phone. Melissa tells Tom that he is wanted on the phone by Ryan. Tom walks over, picks up the phone and says, “Hello?”

  Ryan replies, “Hi Tom, how’s it going?”

  Tom says, “I’m good, man, how are you?”

  Ryan says, “Yeah, I’m good, but I really need to speak to you about something in person.”

  Tom says, “You can’t talk over the phone?”

  Ryan replies, “No, man, I really need to talk to you in person. I think I’ve figured out why some agents have gone missing from our branch. I’m not going to talk about it over the phone; can you come over to my house?”

  Tom says, “Sure, man, I’ll be over there in fifteen minutes.”

  Ryan says, “OK then, I’ll see you in fifteen minutes. Talk to you soon.”

  Ryan hangs up his house phone. Tom then hangs up his phone. Tom tells his wife that he needs to go to Ryan’s house to talk about a case that they’re working on. Tom leaves his house and gets into his car and drives to Ryan’s house. Ryan has all of a sudden become lazy by not arranging to meet up in a safe place like the West Coast Leisure Centre. Ryan has decided to talk about Carlton’s discovery at his house. Ryan thinks that it’s all right to talk about Carlton’s discovery face-to-face in any place. Ryan has also decided that it’s safe enough to talk about the discovery as long as you don’t talk about it over the phone.

  *

  Ryan picks up the phone again and dials Carlton’s cell phone number. Carlton’s phone keeps on ringing and there is still no reply. Ryan hangs up, goes into his kitchen and sits down on a chair at the kitchen table and waits for Tom. Minutes later, Tom finally reaches Ryan’s house. Ryan lives in a private area. It’s quiet and he doesn’t have any neighbours. Tom knocks on Ryan’s door. Ryan answers.

  Tom says, “Hi Ryan, how’s it going?”

  Ryan replies, “Not too bad, man, come on in.”

  Shauna is Ryan’s wife. Shauna hears somebody come into the house from her and Ryan’s bedroom. She goes out to investigate. Ryan and Shauna’s bedroom is on the second floor of the house. She walks over to the top of the stairs.

  Tom sees her and says, “Hi Shauna, how are you doing?”

  Shauna replies, “Good, Tom, how are you?”

  Tom answers, “I’m good.”

  Shauna asks, “How’s Melissa keeping?”

  Tom says, “She’s keeping well.”

  Tom and Melissa are good friends with Ryan and Shauna.

  Shauna says, “I’m going to bed. Well, it was nice to see you.”

  Tom replies, “Yeah, it was nice to see you too.”

  Shauna says, “Goodnight guys.”

  Ryan answers, “Goodnight baby.”

  Shauna heads back to bed.

  Ryan says, “Come on, man, we’ll talk in the living room.”

  Ryan and Tom both walk into the living room.

  Ryan says to Tom, “Man, I’ve got some crazy-ass shit I have to tell you.”

  Ryan tells Tom everything. He talks about Joel’s mission; Carlton planting a camera in the main server room; agents going missing; the R-1 file; the DC file; everything.

  Ryan has made the worst decision and biggest mistake of his life by talking about Carlton’s discovery in his house. Little does Ryan know he has a bug planted in his living room. The bug was planted by Joel’s crew under the coffee table so that they could hear everything Ryan talks about. Joel’s crew killed Carlton and took his cell phone. They killed Carlton because they found the camera in the main server room. One day Joel got one of his agents to scan for wire taps and hidden cameras with a bug detector device in the main server room. After the agent carried out the scan they found a wireless network camera and realised that the camera shouldn’t be there because there should only be one camera in the main server room.

  They ran configuration tests on the camera and found out that it had a wireless network link to Carlton’s computer in his office in the FBI building. When Carlton was not in his office some of Joel’s crew checked Carlton’s computer and saw the recorded meetings of Joel and his crew in the main server room that were stored on Carlton’s computer. Joel’s crew did some research on the computer and found out that the recorded meetings had also been stored on disks. They deleted the recorded meetings from Carlton’s computer and searched his office for the disks, but they couldn’t find them anywhere.

  On the night they killed Carlton they tortured him to find out where the disks were. After many hours of pure torture, Carlton told Joel’s crew where the disks were. Joel’s crew found the disks, then killed Carlton and made his body disappear. On the day that Joel’s crew found out that Carlton was recording meetings in the main server room, some of them had followed him.

  While they had been keeping Carlton under surveillance they had seen him talking to Ryan. They had also seen that Carlton’s cell phone had many missed calls from Ryan’s phone. They suspected that Carlton told Ryan about what they planned to do. That’s why Joel’s crew planted a bug in Ryan’s living room: so that they could find out what Ryan knows about their mission.

  Joel’s crew can hear Ryan saying everything about their mission.

  Tom says, “Why do these guys always meet up in the server room?”

  Ryan says, “It’s the most secure place; agents with main server room access codes are the only ones that can get into that room. It’s the only place where you can take a look at the R-1 file; plus you need more access codes to view the file. Joel and his crew are the only ones who have access codes to view the R-1 file.”

  *

  Some of Joel’s crew are parked in a van a few miles away from Ryan’s house. There are four guys in the van; two in the front and two in the back. Charles Richardson is one of the guys in the back of the van who’s listening to Ryan’s conversation. Richardson is Joel’s right-hand man and his second-in-command. Charles wants to be like Joel. Charles also joined the FBI to make money by any means possible.

  Charles uses his phone to contact Joel. Joel is in his apartment when he hears his cell phone ring.

  He answers and says, “Hello?”

  Charles says, “Joel, it’s me, Charles. From the bug we planted in Ryan’s house we can hear Ryan and Tom Rogan talking about our mission.”

  Joel says, “Fuck me, kill them both and make it look like they killed each other.”

  Charles answers, “Understood.”

  Charles hangs up his cell phone and puts it into his pocket. He opens up a silver briefcase. Inside are Glock silencers. These Glock silencers are untraceable, and are designed for murder. Their serial numbers are filed off.

  Alvarez asks Charles, “What did Joel say?”

  Charles answers, “Joel says we’ve got to kill them both and make it look like they killed each other.”

  Charles takes one of the Glock silencers and gives the other to Alvarez. Charles tells the two guys in the front that he a
nd Alvarez are going to kill Tom and Ryan. He tells the driver to drive closer to Ryan’s house at a crawling speed. The driver does so and eventually parks close to Ryan’s house. Both Charles and Alvarez exit the van and creep up to the house.

  Charles and Alvarez are at Ryan’s door.

  Charles whispers to Alvarez, “On my mark, three, two, one… Go!”

  Charles kicks Ryan’s door open. Both Alvarez and Charles charge into the living room.

  Ryan says in a shocked voice, “What the—?!”

  Charles and Alvarez open fire. Their silencers make a popping sound as they fire. Explosions of blood come from Tom and Ryan’s stomachs and chests as the small metallic missiles hit them.

  Tom yells out in pain, “Arrrggghhh!”

  Both Tom and Ryan hit the floor and die instantly. Shauna hears noises, so she goes to the top of the stairs to investigate.

  She speaks in an angry voice. “What the hell is going on down there?”

  Charles and Alvarez go out to the hallway to see who it is. They see Shauna. They both turn their guns on Shauna and open fire. The weapon rounds fired from their guns create tiny explosions of blood from Shauna’s chest. Shauna falls from the top to the bottom of the stairs. Her head hits the wall at the bottom. She was dead even before she fell down the stairs. She lies there in her white nightdress, soaked in her own blood.

  Although Shauna didn’t know about Joel’s plans, Joel’s crew aren’t taking any chances; they will kill all witnesses. Tom and Ryan are also lying on the wooden floor in pools of their own blood. Charles screws off the silencer and plants his gun in Tom’s hand. Charles tells Alvarez to screw off the silencer of his gun and plant his gun in Ryan’s hand. Charles wants this murder scene to look as if Ryan or Tom killed Shauna and then Ryan and Tom killed each other. Charles removes the bug that was planted in the living room. Both Charles and Alvarez are wearing gloves so that they won’t leave any fingerprints behind. Charles and Alvarez exit Ryan’s house and get back into the van.

  Charles tells the driver with a loud and nervous voice, “Drive now!”

  The driver drives off fast. He drives back to the FBI building. Once he reaches the FBI building all of the guys get out of the van and go to their cars and drive home.

  *

  Many hours later, the time is now 7.30am. It’s a hot, sunny morning in LA. Connor is sleeping in his apartment. His cell phone starts to ring. The ringing of his phone wakes Connor up. He answers the phone.

  Connor says with a tired voice, “Hello?”

  Dylan says, “I have everything.”

  Connor says, “I’m on my way over to your house right now.”

  Dylan says in a quiet, sad voice, “Connor, did you hear the news?”

  Connor replies, “No, I haven’t, no.”

  There is a short silence before Dylan answers.

  Dylan says, “Tom, Ryan and his wife are dead.”

  Connor replies with a shocked voice, “What?!”

  Dylan says, “Turn on the news.”

  Connor reaches over to the bedside table for the remote control of his TV. He turns on the TV and presses the channel number for LA News. A news reporter is on the TV, sitting at a desk.

  The news reporter says, “Two FBI agents and the wife of one of them were found dead by a friend of two of the victims at 7am this morning. Carla Rogers, who is a friend of Shauna Clarke, was going to meet up with Shauna to go for a Sunday walk. Shauna and Carla go for a walk on a Sunday on a regular basis. Carla went to ring the doorbell of the Clarkes’ residence at 7am this morning. When Carla approached the door of the Clarke residence she noticed that it had been broken into. Carla went inside and found the three victims dead with multiple gunshot wounds. The police are carrying out an investigation.”

  Connor uses the remote control to put the TV on mute.

  He speaks to Dylan on the phone with a shocked and sad voice. “Aww man, I can’t believe this happened.”

  Dylan answers, “I have to tell you something else as well: I got a phone call from a friend of mine, Travis, who works in the cyber division of the FBI. He told me that last night Carol Smith, who also works in the cyber division, was found dead in her home with her head blown off. Apparently the cops are calling it a suicide. Do you think Joel might have something to do with this?”

  Carlton told Carol about Joel and the R-1 file. Carol Smith was the woman who helped Carlton get an access code for the door of the main server room by getting past highly advanced security software encryption and creating the access code for the door of the main server room in the memory bank operating system from her computer in the cyber division. The name of the main server room door memory bank operating system is ‘Gridlock’.

  Carol also turned off the power in the FBI security personnel room when Carlton was installing his wireless camera in the main server room. After Carlton installed the camera Carol erased Carlton’s door access code from Gridlock. From time to time Joel has been monitoring Gridlock from his computer, from which he has seen that an access code for the main server room door has been created and deleted on Carol’s computer in her office. Whenever an access code for the main server room door is created or deleted a time record is stored in the history settings of Gridlock. Also, whenever an access code for the main server room door is created or deleted, the location of the computer responsible is stored. Carol performed programming tests to see if she could download the R-1 file remotely. She was unable to do so, and warned Carlton not to download the R-1 file because after she performed programming tests, she figured out that the R-1 file is connected to an alert system. Carol told Carlton that whoever downloads the R-1 file will set off the alert system, and that whoever is in charge of the alert system will be informed straight away that the file is being downloaded.

  Joel’s crew killed Carol and made Carol’s murder look like a suicide. Dylan used hacker codes to create a ghost location of his computer before he created an access code for Connor. The ghost location of Dylan’s computer is in Sydney, Australia. Now when somebody looks at the history settings of Gridlock they will think that a main server room door access code was created from a computer in Sydney, Australia.

  Connor says, “It’s very possible he might have something to do with it. We’ve got to figure out a way to nail these motherfuckers. I’ll be over at your place shortly, OK?”

  Dylan says, “OK, man, I’ll see you then.”

  Connor hangs up the phone and gets dressed. He wears his white t-shirt, his gun holster with the silver 15-shooter handgun and some handgun magazine clips inside, a green jacket, blue combat trousers and black boots. Connor walks over to his desk. He picks up a small USB drive, his FBI badge and ID, a passport and a small notepad and pen from his desk and places them in the inside pockets of his jacket.

  Connor also picks up his cell phone and wallet from the desk and places them in his inside pockets. He then exits his apartment and the apartment building and goes to the car park where his car is waiting. He gets inside his car, drives and makes a quick pit stop at his bank. Connor parks in the car park behind the Alliance bank, walks over to the bank and goes inside.

  He walks over to the bank teller and tells her he would like to take out $9,500 from his bank account. Connor gives the bank teller his card. The bank teller does her usual routine when taking out money from a client’s bank account; then gives Connor his money. Connor puts his money in his inside pocket and thanks the bank teller. The bank teller tells Connor to have a nice day.

  Connor then walks out of the bank and walks over to his car, then drives to Dylan’s house. The reason why Connor took out $9,500 from his bank account is because he doesn’t want to use any of his cards to take out money from an ATM. Connor thinks that if he downloads the R-1 file and goes to the Glass Tomb, agents will try to track him down.

  A method used by FBI agents to track someone would be to track their phone and bank records. If Connor were asked to track someone down he would try to do so using their b
ank and phone records. Connor knows that if he doesn’t use his phone or any of his bank cards FBI agents won’t be able to track him. Connor finally arrives at Dylan’s house and parks his car nearby.

  Connor exits the car and walks up to Dylan’s doorstep. He rings the doorbell. Dylan opens the door and shows Connor his cell phone. What’s shown on Dylan’s phone is the access code for the main server room door and the password and username to log in to the computer in the main server room.

  Dylan says to Connor, “Here are the codes you need.”

  Connor types the codes into his cell phone.

  “Also, I have the main server room camera monitor and the IT department camera monitors that are in the FBI personnel security room running pre-recorded footage of an empty room and empty hallways in a loop.” Dylan hacked into the FBI security personnel server to grant Connor’s requests.

  The camera monitors of the FBI security personnel room are connected to the server. Now when the FBI security personnel guards look at the camera monitors they won’t see anyone go in and out of the main server room or see someone walking around the IT department floor.

  “The IT department guys don’t start work until 9am so the IT department will be empty until then. I tried to hack into the main server room to see if I could download the R-1 file from the Red 1 folder, but I couldn’t do it; the Red 1 folder has far too much encryption. It would take me years to decrypt it. The only way to open the Red 1 folder and download the R-1 file is to use the computer in the main server room manually. You can’t access the Red 1 folder remotely.”

  Connor says, “It’s fine, you’ve done enough. I can’t believe they killed Ryan, Shauna and Tom.”

  Dylan says, “Yeah, I know. We have to stop them doing what they’re going to do.”

  Connor asks, “Do you have the Clandar earpiece mics?”

  Dylan reaches into his pocket and gives Connor a Clandar earpiece mic. Connor puts it into his pocket. Dylan will keep the other earpiece mic so that they can communicate with each other.