by Utley, Todd
“Awesome, talk tomorrow.”
He rolled over and went back to sleep, having more piece of mind.
The next morning was busy, Dodge called the local security company that John found and informed them that they had a security emergency and that they needed a team out there to the house right away. Dodge went to the basement with Linsey and turned on the radio. He told her about John’s message from very early that morning and how John filled him in on all the details first thing when he got up.
The hackers lair had been located but it was so large that it was more like a compound than anything else so they had already begun calling it just that, the compound. Unfortunately this probably also meant that they were dealing with a group of individuals and not just one or two hackers. It was a little unsettling now that this discovery had been made but they still had no idea what size of a group they were dealing with, that remained to be determined.
The current person suspected to be behind all of this was a man named Cyrus Slade. He explained the whole thing to her and she was just as amazed as he was that their plan to use the hackers bug to find their lair had worked so well.
“Why do bad guys always have creepy names?” Said Linsey as they went back up the stairs. It made Dodge laugh, but she was right, it was a good question that he couldn’t answer.
After breakfast, Dodge called Tim at ESS. He explained the break in and that he was having a new security system installed right away. He told Tim that the company was coming out today to survey the house and that he would not be in today. Tim understood and said for him not to worry there was nothing pressing at work today and that work could wait, the safety of his family was more important.
Shortly after calling Tim he received a message from the Black Ops team. It read: Blue devil replaced, taxi on duty. Dodge perceived that the man in the little blue car had been demoted. Undoubtedly he had been blamed for the security system going off and was relieved of his duties. Of course neither he nor John would have guessed that their little stunt with the security system got the poor guy killed. Now the car to watch for was apparently a taxi.
Spotting a tail in a taxi would not be quite so easy, there were thousands of them and they were everywhere. They made up over 25% of the cars on the road. The cost of owning a car had gone so high due to the EPA’s recent sanctions on manufacturers. Many people also liked getting the tax credit for not owning a car and so they used the discount to get 3% off sales tax on all their purchases.
Since the IRS was disbanded in 2020 for corruption, the federal government finally adopted the straight sales tax program. Many of the old IRS employees were hired by the EPA and now corruption was starting all over again within that agency. A world investigative news story was aired shortly after by a reputable group of troubleshooting reporters. Apparently, before the IRS was disbanded, they offered tax incentives to the auto makers that would agree to produce more electric taxies in an effort to promote the clean air act and the reduction of fossil fuels use acts.
Many of the corrupt IRS agents were hired by the EPA, and their motives were now becoming obvious to everyone. They cracked down on the automakers with ridiculous sanctions. As a result the cars became too expensive for the average family to afford. They offered even more federal incentives to auto makers for building more electric taxies. Most of the corrupt EPA officials bought large amounts of stock in the taxi companies and made out like bandits. Several of those involved in the higher levels of the scandal were indicted and were now cooling their heels in prison for their crimes.
It didn’t work entirely though, many people with families simply had to have their own cars, it was just too difficult to use taxies or busses all the time. Dodge knew the tail would be hard to pick out of the herd, the hackers picked a much better cover this time, pretty smart.
The security company John found was “High Voltage Security.” The vans showed up in front of the house promptly at 10:00 a.m. the exact time of their service appointment. They had all new electric vans with lettering on them that read.
“High Voltage Security Specialist.”
“We Secure It LIGHTNING FAST.”
The vans were black with blue graphics all over them that looked like bolts of lightning.
The Foreman came in and did some quick introductions and asked Dodge what area of the house he would like for them to start in. He said the upstairs would be just as good as any place so they started on the second story and began scanning for devices and potential entry points for would be intruders.
Meanwhile Dodge called Tim back at ESS.
“Hey Tim, I know that it goes against protocol, but I would really like to call my old friend John Calhoun over to be here today while these security guys are here. You know John is a security specialist of the highest caliber and I would really feel better if he were here to make sure these guys know what they’re doing.”
What Tim said next surprised Dodge.
“That’s a great idea. John is no longer our competition. You know I heard that he bought RockTight out just to fire his old boss. A couple of weeks later he sold it to the new owners for 90% of the purchase price and resigned as CEO. The only stipulation was that they couldn’t rehire fish lips. Crazy stuff huh?”
“Yeah crazy, I didn’t know that, but then I try to avoid John most of the time because I am supposed to, you know.” Tim reassured him that it was all right now and they could stop avoiding each other. Dodge thanked Tim and ended the call.
“What a huge relief.”
John had said something to him about selling the company, but he didn’t really think he would. He dialed up John.
“Hey you son of a gun, you didn’t tell me that you sold RockTight already?”
“Oh yeah man, remember, I said I might do that?”
“Yeah that’s great, I’m really glad, now we don’t have to stealth around as much at the club. I just spoke with Tim, he’s the one that told me, he said it was no conflict of interest for you and I to hang out. I’d like for you to be my consultant on this system install, can you come over?”
“You bet buddy, I’ll be right over.”
“Okay, I’ll call you back from the kitchen in a minute so our little friends with the bugs can hear it. The security guys haven’t found that bug in the kitchen yet.”
“Okay.”
A moment later he called him back from the kitchen and invited him to come over.
Thirty minutes later John Calhoun zoomed up in front of the house in his 308 Ferrari. He liked to make a splash entrance for consulting work. Several of the security guys couldn’t resist going over to see the car up close. It was super rare and it was in perfect condition. They all spent a minute drooling over it and saying, “oh my god,” a few times.
Dodge introduced John to the crew, it wasn’t too difficult to get their attention when you show up in a 308, just man code pretty much, after all, you must be some kind of bad ass if you show up in a car like that, or at least that was the consensus.
John wasted no time in getting to the point after the introductions.
“Look guys, I’m not here to get in your way,” he said.
“I’ll observe only, unless I see something that I think must be addressed. Mr. Kerrington has asked me to consult on this install so I’m here for him. All orders will come from him, he’s the customer. Please go ahead and do your jobs as usual, I don’t want to get in your way.”
The foreman on the job spoke up.
“Hey guys this man right here is the best in the business, I’ve heard of him from several of our superiors and he has been in several of the trade magazines as the leading expert. If he says anything to you, LISTEN and LEARN” he turned to John and said
“Sir, if you see anything at all that we’re doing wrong, no matter how small, please by all means tell me, we want to do the best job possible for Mr. Kerrington.”
“Thank you Bob, I appreciate that.” The foreman turned to his crew.
“All right
guys let’s get it done.”
Back at the compound Cyrus had received word from his watchers and listeners that the Kerrington house would soon be as airtight as John’s house. This sent Cyrus into a fit of rage. He immediately called for Glitch to be sent to his office. As he was standing in front of Cyrus’s desk the two suited men quietly arrived behind him, he looked over his shoulders at them and smiled while shaking his head. Glitch was quite intelligent and had put security measures in place to preserve his own life should Slade ever turn on him, he wondered now if Slade was trying to fluster him for some reason.
Glitch was not the run of the mill flunky for Slade. Cyrus even feared Glitch a bit or maybe “concerned” about him, would be a better description. Fear wasn’t really in his range of emotions, if he even had them. Glitch looked over his shoulder again and then down at the plastic under his feet. He glared at Slade with his sunken in beady little eyes out from under his bushy eye brows.
“Mr. Slade, with all due respect, are you really planning to treat me as one of your stooge’s? You know full well that I don’t have a cranial charge implant in my head, you can’t kill me with a click of your mouse on your PC.” Slade slammed his hand down on the desk causing glitch to flinch.
“NOOOOO!” He blared, “I intend to treat you as the asset that you are. When you become useless then I’ll get rid of you by any suitable means!”
Glitch knew Slade couldn’t afford to kill him, he needed him, and besides, he had put several things in place that would sink Slade if he were not there to attend to them. Slade knew how crafty Glitch was when he offered him a partnership and he had a mutual respect for the intensity of his diabolical genius. He viewed him as near equal but still wanted to destroy him just to prove that he was the alpha dog.
“Glitch, I have a job for you” he said.
“The plastic is not for you my friend, but rather for the individual coming in to see me next. He’s a watcher that I am displeased with.” Glitch suspected that he was lying but accepted the answer just to move on.
“All right then, what is the task at hand?”
“I want the file from 726 sent to the cloning lab downstairs.” Glitch stared at him in disbelief.
“Sir you ordered me to destroy his Lifecorder and we did. We returned it to his residence with a hacked file section filled with unusable data. We burned the house to the ground with his body in it just as you requested! You deleted the file from the LifeTech database personally. How do you propose I give you his file Sir?”
“I was hoping in that corrupted, evil, hollowed out, pruned up skull of yours, you had concocted a reason to keep a back up copy of it”
“No Sir, I didn’t. May I ask why you would like his file?”
“Well, I was thinking we still have a clone of him down in the lab, and if we still had a copy of his file, I could load him up. I could torture him to see if he was lying about setting off that security system at the Kerrington’s. I smell a rat in all of this but I don’t know what it is. I was too quick to kill him without getting some answers first.”
“Sir, I do believe there may be something down in the lab that you should see, I believe you will be pleased,” said Glitch.
“Very well Glitch, I’ll meet you down there in thirty minutes.”
Back at the Kerrington’s the day was going quite well. The security team swept the house for security risk and much to their surprise and the “pretend” surprise of both Dodge and John, the team found several bugs. They got some pleasure out of hitting them with a hammer on the cement patio.
Prior to smashing them, John commented that it must have been one of ESS’s competitors that planted them in an effort to get trade secrets. They must have been hoping that Dodge would tell his wife details of his work in their private conversations. He said this by design to leave the listeners with the idea that ESS’s competitors would be blamed for the bugs, which was exactly what they intended to do.
Chapter 17 Dodge called Tim at ESS to tell him the news of the discovered bugs and that everyone agreed it certainly must be one of ESS’s competitors behind the whole thing. Tim was outraged and insisted that ESS would pay for the new security system and insisted on speaking with the installing supervisor so Dodge put Bob on the phone.
Tim instructed the supervisor to install the absolute best system possible, and that the cost was of no concern, ESS would be picking up the tab including the monthly monitoring fees. He insisted that work continue non-stop until it was complete. When the supervisor got off the phone he gave the news to everyone and informed his team that they would be working overtime tonight. He told Dodge and Linsey that his boss insisted they put the Kerrington’s up in the Presidential for the night, the most prestigious and expensive hotel in the city.
He said that the install and tune teams would be working on the house all night and would call in a second and third shift to complete the job. There would be too much noise and disruption for the family to get any rest if they stayed there. John thought it was a great idea and he volunteered to stay all night with the install teams to make sure the shifts changed smoothly without losing any details of how everything should be done. The supervisor called in for a security escort to accompany them to the Presidential for their overnight stay. He also called the president of the company and explained the situation to him. The president reserved the Pent House at the Presidential for Dodge and his family, he said it was on the house, he wanted them to be as comfortable as possible.
They all packed overnight bags including their swim suits, Dodge told the kids that the hotel had at least three pools and one of them was on the roof, they were very excited. That night they had the most fun of their lives. They got the royal treatment at the Presidential; they had a private movie theatre, a bowling alley, a pool, and room service in their private dining room on top of that. They did it all, the kids finally turned in out of sheer exhaustion at 2:00 a.m.
Dodge and Linsey ordered a bottle of wine, and not the cheap stuff either. They polished it off in about an hour while they talked on the beautiful rooftop deck. It was a clear night and even in the city they could see plenty of the stars, the view of the city was breath taking from atop the luxurious fifty story hotel. They felt victorious and they retired to the master bedroom feeling romantic but they both fell asleep before they could even get started.
John Calhoun experienced one of the most challenging nights of his life. He took several naps and drank a ton of coffee and by 9:00 a.m. the next morning it was done. They made such a racket that the police came out and a news crew showed up, the same news crew that came out two days earlier, when the alarm was tripped. It was a slow news day the first time when they came out, but still they only aired a basic story about the crime rate increasing in upscale neighborhoods. Now they thought there might be a follow up story so they showed up again.
John called Tim at ESS and got permission to release a statement to the news crew. It was 5:00 a.m. when John went out onto the front lawn to speak with them. He answered a few questions and then decided to break it to the news crew that the security company had put the Kerrington’s up in the Presidential for the night, that’s just how good they were. John knew that this would put Dodge on Television and thought it would be really hilarious.
As the Kerrington’s emerged from the hotel at 10:00 a.m. the next morning they were running on way too little sleep. They were surprised that they were surrounded immediately by a barrage of reporters with cameras and microphones. Dodge looked at Linsey just before the reporters attacked them with questions.
“Let’s just get to the limo!” They made it to the limo quickly with only a few reporters trying to block them. Dodge answered the barrage of questions with several “no comment” statements as they were making a run for it.
When they got home, the install crew was carrying out the last of their bags and tools, and the vans were leaving one by one every few minutes. John was out in the front yard drinking coffee and talking to Bob
, the original supervisor that he had met the day before. He stayed pretty late the night before and wanted to come back by to make sure everything got finished up correctly and to talk with John about any concerns.
Dodge joined them and shook Bob’s hand as he thanked him for getting it all done in record time. He asked him to thank the president of the company for putting their family up in the Presidential. The remaining crew wrapped it up and left promptly. John and Dodge went inside and sat around the table with the family to chat for a few minutes and they all had a good laugh about John’s prank on them.
“Hope you don’t mind Dodge but I took the liberty of parking the 308 in your garage next to the Goat.”
“Oh well I can’t blame you for wanting to get that beauty off the street overnight.”
“Well anyway, the system is up and running and now you have your privacy back again. I’m going home and get a much needed shower and some sleep.”
“All right, I’ll walk you out.”
Dodge and John went out to the garage.
“Hey you gonna tell the kids what’s going on?” Asked John.
“I don’t know, do you think I should?”
“You might think about it. In light of the recent events I think we could all be in danger, especially if this Cyrus guy is behind it all as we suspect.”
“Yeah maybe you’re right. I’ll run it by Linsey and see what she thinks.”
“Okay man, I’ll talk to you just as soon as I get some shut eye.”
He fired up the 308 and backed it out. He took off fast down the drive. The adrenaline rush would keep him awake behind the wheel.
That night the Kerrington’s gathered around the TV for the six o’clock news, they prepared for the big moment with cokes and pop corn. They knew it was their one moment of fame, they would be on the news for sure. Just as expected, they were the second story of the night.
In the foreground there were several reporters and in the background was the front entrance of the Presidential. The reporter began.