by Utley, Todd
“I think I’ll go keep an eye on those two, I can’t believe you trust him with explosives!” She said as she left the room shaking her head pretending to be concerned. The truth was, she liked firecrackers almost as much as the boys.
Dodge knew they had an opportunity, so he motioned to Linsey and they headed for the basement. He had a nice firing range down there from several winters ago when he and his father sighted in guns for a competition that Alan was entering in the Spring. The longest point across the basement diagonally was 44 feet, it wasn’t much but plenty far enough for handguns. He had a homemade bullet trap on the far wall. In the front he had a replaceable ½ inch thick piece of plywood. Behind that he had mounted a sheet of ½ inch thick lexan plastic glass at a forty five degree angle towards the floor on a heavy steel frame with springs. Below this sitting on the floor was a series of 12” x 12” polyurethane rubber cubes that he and Alan made up. They became the final resting place for the expended rounds.
The bullets would enter in through the plywood and hit the angled plastic, then ricochet into the soft rubber cubes on the floor. It worked great for a homemade bullet trap and it allowed them to be inside instead of out in the freezing Indiana weather in January.
Alan had home loaded low grain rounds just for the purpose of indoor sighting Dodge still had several boxes of them and they would be perfect for teaching Linsey to fire the gun because they have less kick than a standard round.
The kids had begun setting off the fireworks and even had a radio playing pretty loudly out in the garage. He and Alan used to fire the guns down there all the time with no complaints from the neighbors. It was barely audible outside the house, but Dodge felt better having the cover of the fireworks, they didn’t want their watchers thinking they were preparing for a battle.
Dodge quickly checked the trap to make sure the rubber blocks were still good and they were ready. He tacked up a target on the plywood for Linsey to shoot at. He loaded the gun while Linsey watched and then unloaded it and gave it to her. She loaded it and chambered a round.
“Hold on” Dodge, said, He went over to the workbench and opened up a drawer and retrieved some ear plugs, they both put them in.
“Okay, let’s see what ya got girl. Oh wait.” He decided to move her closer for the first few shots, it was a huge target for him but not be for a beginner. He really didn’t want to be dodging bullets in the basement. He showed her how to hold it properly and the correct way to look through the sights.
“Now just hold your breath right before you squeeze.” She fired a round and then laughed.
“Wow, that feels so powerful!”
“Ah, I think she likes it!” He said with a chuckle.
He moved her back another ten feet. She fired another and laughed again.
“Wow, this is fun, I see why you guys like doing this.”
He was glad she was having fun and wasn’t terrified of it like some people were. She was doing good with the aim, and actually hit the target, not bad for her first time.
He moved her back all the way to the far corner now and she fired a few more rounds, she was out.
“Okay, reload,” he said, but this time the rounds are full grain, that means they’re going to kick harder so be ready for it, okay? And also aim just about two inches lower on the target to compensate at first.”
She nodded and began reloading. She inserted the clip and chambered a round. She raised the gun and unloaded the entire clip without stopping into the target. The rounds had noticeably more kick and he could see the recoil move her hands a lot more. As she lowered the gun she grinned at Dodge.
“Wow, what a rush, I could really feel the power in those!”
Who knew it? Linsey liked shooting guns! He was glad.
“Okay, let me show you how this is done,” he said as he quickly loaded his gun with a clip. He walked over to the trap and tacked up a fresh target that was much smaller than the one he had put up for Linsey. Hers looked pretty good though, it was a twenty four inch target and she had put almost all the rounds at least somewhere on the paper and a good number of them were from about 30 feet.
His much smaller target looked tiny to Linsey from back in the corner. As he walked back he said, “I guess we’ll see if I still got it.” He turned and faced the target with the gun, and immediately fired the entire clip. It felt great, he hadn’t fired a gun in more than six months. Since Alan became so ill he hadn’t been over so they hadn’t fired the guns. It felt good in his hand. He missed the feeling of raw power that it produced.
He and Linsey approached the target. All but two of the rounds struck the target near the center while the first two rounds were almost off of the target to the left, still very good from 40 feet.
“Wow, you’re still really good even after not practicing for a while,” said Linsey.
“Yeah I guess it sticks with you.”
They both walked back over to the workbench where Dodge showed Linsey how to disassemble the guns and clean them, check the firing pin, and reassemble. The sounds from upstairs had stopped. They must have run out of firecrackers.
They heard Sarah, Bobby, and Matt entering the kitchen.
“Well we better get back up there,” Dodge said.
“Where do you want me to keep this thing?” Linsey asked.
“Well you should really carry it with you, probably in your purse. Keep the clip in it but don’t chamber a round. That’s how a lot of people get hurt, they forget to put the safety on and it goes off when they reach for it and hit the trigger. It’s easy to do if you’re in a panic.
Of course if you think you’re entering a dangerous situation, you should chamber a round and remove the safety, there’s no time for that in the heat of the moment, you have to be ready.”
“Okay, I got it.” Linsey and Dodge both tucked their guns in the backs of their pants and put their shirts down over them.
“Okay let’s move them upstairs, I’m going to carry mine daily but I’ll store it in the night stand at night and you should probably put yours in your purse up in the bedroom.”
They went upstairs only stopping briefly to talk to the kids and then on up to their room to stash the weapons. They made normal small talk in the bedroom and discussed going back down for a snack and some TV. They went back down to the kitchen and made a snack. Dodge came up behind Linsey and kissed her on the neck and then whispered in her ear, the heist is on, should be on the news at eleven. Linsey turned around and gave him a long kiss just as Bobby spotted them. He laughed.
“Oh yuck, I’m gonna barf!”
Matt was sitting at the table with Bobby setting up a board game for them to play and he laughed too.
“My parents do that in front of us too. Both boys laughed.
Sarah said, “Oh please grow up,” to the boys as she headed past with her snack and drink on the way to the TV room. Dodge and Linsey joined her for the last twenty minutes or so of her favorite show which was a bloopers reel of people and their pets doing ridiculous things.
It was really funny and they all had fun watching the show together. The news came on, and as usual, Sarah left the room out of shear boredom. Dodge and Linsey were especially interested to see if the heist went down and to see what the media had to say about it.
The main anchor came on.
“Breaking news tonight folks, we have a very unusual crime here in the down town area, and it’s sure to be a national news story as this is the first crime like this that we’ve ever seen. A group of angry thugs stormed the north side 116th street Lifecenter tonight demanding that everyone lie down on the floor and hand over their skyphones, jewelry, wallets, and purses.”
“One security guard attempted to thwart the attack, but was knocked through a plate glass window and out into the parking lot where two of the assailants continued to beat him until he was unconscious. A second guard fired two shots at the thieves during the episode but missed, the assailants returned fire hitting the guard in the leg and should
er. Doctors reported that he’s in serious but stable condition tonight at Wishard Medical Center, where he’s expected to make a full recovery.
The group seemed disorganized and made off with only the victim’s personal items, the cash register from the gift shop and about two thirds of a LifeTech uploading console. Dr. James Hullue, a spokesman for the Lifecenter had this to say.
“At this time we believe this to be a random act of thievery. These criminals didn’t appear to be after anything in particular and were likely just trying to get something of value to sell, in fact they left behind several pieces of the system. Without those items it simply will not function.”
“Another witness said he saw one man taking all of the beef jerky from the gift shop and stuffing it down his pants while muttering something about it being overpriced, behavior that would not be expected of pros. This is Brian Wilcox reporting live at the scene for news 21, back to you in the studio Alise.”
Dodge noted that they had several surveillance camera shots of the team and they really did look like thugs. Their Tattoos looked real, some had dew rags on their heads, others had hats, and most of them had sunglasses, and cut off shirt sleeves, it was great, nobody would ever suspect that they were actually a highly skilled Black Ops team.
The story ended and it became part of the everyday news, no big deal, it would soon be forgotten. John called a few minutes later.
“Hey Buddy, did you see the story?”
“Oh, yeah I did, it was crazy, our boys did a great job. Too bad some people got hurt.”
“Yeah, I know, the team leader called me right after and apologized for that. He said the one guard on duty that started to fight back was not supposed to be there today. The regular guard scheduled to work was sick and this guy got called in to cover for him. This guy is ex-marine, tough SOB, didn’t back down. But you saw how well our boys handled him. By the way, he didn’t miss with those two shots that he fired. He hit two of our guy’s dead aim in the chest from forty feet while moving. Our boys had on body armor so they got out with just a few bruised ribs but there is no doubt in my mind that he knows he hit them. This guy is good.”
“He might be the only one that thinks these guys were not just run of the mill thieves. They didn’t interview him because of his injuries so we’re lucky in that respect. Then again he might think that they died later after they made their getaway. Hopefully he won’t say anything and even if he does, people are’nt likely to listen to him.”
“So, did we get everything we needed?” Asked Dodge.
“Yes they took exactly what was on the shopping list. You and I will come up with the rest very easily and piece it together. I am having the heisted console shipped to the lab in Lapel, from now on let’s just call it the farm, okay?”
“Works for me, do you have anyone stationed out there to receive items?”
“Yes, one of the Ops team guys volunteered to stay there full time to keep an eye on things until we can get a full team in place. He can receive any items we have sent there. My Aunt is completely cleared out and already in her new house down south getting comfortable, she has no reason to return there.”
“The next step is to obtain the equipment we need to grow our clones. This equipment is extremely specialized but most of it can be obtained in ways that won’t be traceable.”
“I intercepted some communications between one of the clone growers and the manufacturer of the equipment. It seems they have a refurbishment program for the equipment. It’s sent back to the factory at the first sign of malfunction or one year of service, whichever comes first, for a complete rebuild.”
“I hi jacked their data stream and removed two serial numbers and work orders for two complete sets of the equipment. I altered the shipping manifest and rerouted the two units to a shell company in Ohio that I created, all fake.
“They’ll be shipped to this empty warehouse in Ohio where one of our ops team guys will be posing as the shipping and receiving clerk. As soon as the truck is gone he will load the equipment onto our truck and bring it to the farm.”
“The turnaround time for these standard refurbs is about six months. No one will know the equipment is missing for at least that amount of time and even if they did realize it they would likely never find it. When we’re done with it we’ll send it back as refurbished and they’ll never know the difference.”
“Who’s going to repair it? I mean, it’s broken right?” Asked Dodge.
“No” John replied.
“These two units are in good working order but they hit the one year limit so they’re going in for maintenance. They may need a little cleaning and maybe something replaced while we’re using them but it should be very routine stuff. That’s one reason why I got two of them. We only need one, the other is a back up for parts if needed.”
“All right, makes sense” said Dodge.
“So we get the thing delivered and all the pieces collected up, how are we going to get it put together?”
John thought for a moment.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t figured that part out yet.
“All right you and I will think about that some more. In the mean time maybe you can continue to iron out more details about the farm so that when I do get there I’ll have everything I need to set up the equipment.”
“I’m all over it man, don’t worry I’ll make sure everything you need is there. I should also tell you I’ve located a fantastic geneticist through our Black Ops team Captain. I like finding people this way because I know I can trust each one of these guys to give only high quality referrals.”
“This guy is out of work recently and he needs a job really bad. He got pretty excited when I told him about the project and that it involved bringing down some cyber criminals. He had prior experience with hackers stealing one of his best ideas and obtaining a patent before he could.”
“He would love to be part of a team credited with sending hackers off to prison. His name is Jason Bluffton and he will be arriving in two days. He will be setting up the tanks for the clone growth and collecting samples from you and that way, he can get started right away on growing our clones.”
“Oh, and Dodge, if you don’t mind I think we should get Linsey and the kid’s DNA to this guy as well, you know just as an insurance measure, it would be a good idea to get some clones growing for them too, after all, these guys have killed before, and they might cause a ‘so called’ accident at the clone warehouse where all of your clones are stored. I’m thinking we had better have backups don’t you?”
Dodge agreed, this way they would be safe no matter what the hackers pulled, one step ahead of them would be the smart place to be.
“Okay, sounds good, we’ll talk soon.”
As the call ended Dodge realized how deep they were into this mess. They had passed by the point of no return miles back, now they would have to forge ahead to get out of it alive.
Dodge went to the kitchen to get a late night snack, the stress of the situation was getting to him a bit and a good snack might calm his stomach and his nerves. The news was over and the kids already said good night and went up to bed. Linsey was at the kitchen table using her skyphone to pay some bills. She was telling Dodge how nice it was to pay off their credit cards and catch up all their bills and still have plenty left over with no worries.
He was glad to see her free of that stress. Linsey asked how the conversation went with John. As he toasted an English muffin he handily condensed the entire contents of their conversation into just about a two minute update. He had scanned the kitchen for bugs earlier that morning, it was clean, so they talked freely.
The muffin popped up and he slapped some peanut butter on it, grabbed his glass of milk and headed for the TV room, he wanted to catch the late edition news on the competing network to see if there was any additional coverage that the earlier team may have missed.
Sure enough the breaking news story of the night was their LifeTech heist. Pretty much the same
info, the same witnesses, and the same conclusions by authorities. Then the funny part, the newscast changed their focus to another story.
“And in an un-related story on the west coast today, another wealthy man, a very successful real estate broker, woke up this morning telling his wife that they had been robbed. Just like several other victims in recent months, the man said that when he went to bed two nights earlier he felt fine. When he awoke the following morning he seemed unable to control his actions. He got up, showered, dressed, kissed his wife goodbye, and then proceeded to visit his local bank branch where he wired his entire fortune, against his will, to an offshore bank account.”
“He proceeded to his office and worked his normal day returning home that night, seemingly fine. He ate dinner with his wife and kids, went to bed, and woke up the next morning going mad and telling everyone this outrageous story.”
“He was admitted to the mental ward at the bequest of his now financially ruined family. When the authorities checked his story, they found that he was telling the truth about the funds transfer, but also found that the funds were gone out of the receiving account. They promptly pressed charges of insurance fraud against the man.” Dodge turned off the TV in the middle of the story because he already knew the rest.
This piqued Dodge’s curiosity so he decided that maybe there were many more stories similar to this one out there that were not being broadcast on the local news. He went up to his office PC to check for similar stories. He opened a search window on the web and entered
“cyber crime news” as a search. Sure enough within minutes he had located numerous stories from around the world of people giving away their entire fortunes to unknown persons at the drop of a hat and then claiming later that they had no intentions of doing so. The older stories were much smaller amounts of money so they didn’t make the headlines as often.
All the stories seemed to have one common thread; it always started in the morning and ended the following morning. The time frame was always just one day. It was never two days or a week or just part of a day, no, always one full 24-hour period from dawn to dawn. There could only be one explanation. It had to be happening through the Lifecorder.