“One thing I want to know,” I say, turning to Hannah, “is why you decided to go all cosplay and put on the Storm Trooper get up.”
“Are you kidding me?” she says. “Tell me you didn’t want to?”
Everyone laughs.
It’s easier for me to laugh now too. They caught everyone. Everyone I wanted caught. Fenwick, his partner, the mayor, and especially Williams. Hector escaped, but somehow I think he was already living in a prison of his own making. I may never know why he helped me. I think perhaps he wasn’t helping me. He was helping his friend James. Sacrificing himself at the end, even though my dad was already gone.
The only person not here who should be is Peter. My mom wouldn’t talk to him in the van, couldn’t even look at him at the station, not until after his knee gave way and he collapsed. Then I caught the longing stare, her pain.
As I walk to the washroom I bend to tie my shoe, quietly sneaking the laptop from Harry’s side so as not to be too rude when checking email. Sitting on the toilet I boot it up. Of course I have a billion emails, mostly social media notifications. But there are a few strange ones. More than a few actually.
I’d like three pair of your emoticon earrings, <3 and Double Page Down. Can you do an A and an M. My initials. And did you know you can make a sword?! oxx:{}:::::::>
Okay, so that is cool, but it would take a lot of keyboards.
Another order is for a flex circuit necklace and resistor earrings. How much?
In fact there are some thirty requests. Even if I estimate, they amount to a few hundred bucks. Not much, but not bad for a day’s work, especially when the materials cost nothing.
And then, I have it. I throw open the door to the living area and jog out.
“I know what’s going to save Assured Destruction,” I say.
Most of my friends look from the washroom back to me with quizzical looks. “What? I do my best thinking in there,” I say.
“So what is it?” my mom asks.
“I’m a maker,” I reply.
I may be a burgeoning hacker, but I’m also a maker—perhaps even more so. I want to make, and the act of creation, the writing of code, this is what it’s all about for me. Then I show what creations of mine people have been selling on websites. Everyone has more ideas, but my mom starts opening her mouth in dramatic yawns, and my friends take the hint and leave, each giving me a great hug except Jonny. Jonny and I make out in front of my mother’s disapproving wide eyes. It’s embarrassing, sure, but this is overdue. That same lightness of being rushes through me, flushing the lethargy and fatigue for as long as we press together.
When the elevator doors shut on Jonny, I head to the washroom to brush my teeth, pretty certain I can fall asleep despite the energy from the kiss humming in my veins.
“Jan,” Mom calls from her seat. I stop and take a few steps back. Color flushes her cheeks and she’s not staring at me like a pirate anymore. She’s healthier. Not healthy, but better.
“Yep?”
She smiles. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I know,” I say, my voice breaking. “I’m proud of you too.”
She holds out her arms and I bend to reach around her. She clutches me with the fierce strength I remember. The same strength that kicked a criminal out of our house no matter how much she loved him. The same stubbornness that feels she has to do it again.
“I love you,” I say.
“I love you.”
Then she pauses and asks: “Do you miss your father?”
“I’m glad I know what happened,” I say.
“I’m sorry,” she replies.
“No.” I sit back down, letting her run fingers through my hair. “I think you needed to wait until I was ready.”
“I waited too long.”
“About a month,” I say.
“Even I didn’t know the full story, Jan. Not everything.” Tears shimmer in her eyes. I hug her again.
“I miss him sometimes,” she says. “I thought I didn’t, but he’d been a good husband. Until then.”
“He did the right thing,” I say.
“In the end. It was really brave.”
“So did Peter,” I reply.
She clenches her eyes shut. “Yes, he did. In the end.”
When I exit the bathroom after brushing my teeth, my mom’s gone. I know where she went. I’m so tired I want to crash, but there’s one more thing I have to do. I find a bottle of bleach under the kitchen sink.
I dye a white streak in my hair. It’s official. I’m no black hat. I’m not even gray. I’m through and through white hat. I’m my mother’s daughter, and I’m me. Jan Rose. Maker, white-hat hacker.
Epilogue
Over the next couple of days, my mom doesn’t spend as much time at Assured Destruction as she said she would. When she learned I was out of school for the month and had plans of starting my own business, she grinned and handed me the keys, wishing me a happy birthday. Where she does spend her time is at the hospital for the two days Peter needs to recover from knee surgery and then more helping him at home.
It’s okay. I have a lot of orders to fill, and every customer that drops off old gear is giving me a treasure trove of ideas. Hacking really is all about perspective.
Ellie drops by with Xing, and I smile as they unfold his wheelchair and he pulls himself into it. While he’s here I’ve given him my bed. It’s only a few weeks. It’s not only his wheelchair that makes him a great fit, though. Together we design an iPhone app that uses Google Translate and some open-source voice recognition software to help us hold a conversation. Even Jonny’s Super fireball activated! joke gets old after the third time. Using the app is a bit like a broken telephone game, the mistakes are hilarious. And my mom likes Xing because he prefers anchovies over pineapple.
That evening I receive an email.
Find My iPhone, it says. The message is from $3(r37L1|||<@gmail.com so I trust it completely. LOL.
I really don’t need any more mysteries, though, so I ignore it for a while. But later that night I remember that there’s an app called Find My iPhone, which allows you to track lost devices. I translate the email address having recognized the geeky hackerspeak. Secretlink, it says, and I know it’s from Hector. I run to borrow my mom’s phone and log in to track the location of my device.
At first when the little iPhone icon on the map pops up over the mansion, I wonder why it wasn’t bagged as evidence. But then I realize the icon isn’t right on top of the mansion. It’s behind and to the left of it. I realize what it marks. Zooming in, I understand. It’s a headstone on my father’s grave.
They exhume my dad’s body on a Tuesday, but we aren’t offered the remains for another three weeks. The day before the funeral, we drive Xing back to airport, struggling to keep his last few hours in Ottawa upbeat. On one of the deepest, darkest days of winter we bury my father in his family graveyard. His brother attends. And a lot of baggage is unpacked that day. It’s weird because I thought I’d been done mourning him, but I cry and cry into Jonny’s shoulder.
As we leave, it’s Peter who helps push my mom through the slushy patches and we retreat back to Assured Destruction for a muted dinner. While we’re there, the phone rings.
“Looking for Janus Rose,” the woman says.
“Annie?” I ask.
“Oh, yes, this is Annie.”
“Sorry …” I say, realizing I’ve missed weeks of my community service shifts. After the events at the mansion, I half expected the cops to give me a free ride.
“So when’s geek-goddess coming in?” Annie asks. “Junker misses you.”
I’ll bet he does.
“You know what,” I say, surprising even myself. “Can I come in tomorrow night?”
Annie chuckles and it’
s a wonderful sound.
“You can come in every night,” she says. “First and second seating.” And then she hangs up.
As I put the phone down, I’m not really disappointed I didn’t receive a call from the chief of police or receive a key to the city or something. Annie’s Kitchen is what I need. I think I need the reminder that there’s such a fine line between home and homeless. And between black, gray, and white.
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I hope you enjoyed the Assured Destruction Series. If you did, please be sure to let others know wherever you purchase or review books.
To learn more about the series or to connect with other readers and the author, join us on Facebook!
Don’t miss the graphic novel origin stories for each of the Shadownet characters: Frannie, Tule, Paradise57, Heckleena, Gumps, JanusFlyTrap, and Hairy!
About the Author
Michael F. Stewart is the author of the Assured Destruction Series. He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia and New Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. He has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s award winning Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights published by Rubicon Publishing as well as early readers with Pearson are all forthcoming in 2014 and 2015.
For adults, Michael has written THE SAND DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS—a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next. This series has already been optioned for film and television.
Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he runs free writing workshops for teens and adults. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he runs free writing workshops for teens and adults. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.
Acknowledgments - Book One
Where to start? This project is huge, spilling far beyond the edges of these pages. With the blogging, the art, the cover, the tweets and Facebooking, the editing, and all of the incredible support, I’m bound to miss someone.
So I’ll bend a knee in no particular order. To my wife and family for the freedom to do what I do. Thank you. To Kendra Brown, Alexandra Williams and the Writer’s Workshop for your beta reads. To Catherine Adams of Inkslinger Editing, please, keep on slinging. You’re amazing. To Michele Mortimer for your editing, agenting and for believing in this project. To Don Dimanlig for your art, artistry and inspiring graphics. To Janak Alford of PrototypeD for everything technical and for making the Assured Destruction storyworld come to life. And to Julie Giles of Green Hat Digital for getting the word out. Thank you all.
And back to my wife, Andrea. I dedicate this book to you.
Acknowledgments - Book Two
This could get long. I have had a lot of help!
In particular for this book, special thanks to my editor Catherine Adams of Inkslinger Editing. You make not just my writing stronger, but me a better writer. To Jackson Radish, you are opening my eyes to whole new worlds and showed me how to improve Script Kiddie by subverting expectations. For help with technology, thank you Emm Roy for keeping me honest and humble. To beta readers Faith Thomson and Simone Lilly-Egerter—great notes and great people. To Streetlight Graphics for their wonderful formatting and attention to detail. To Don Dimanlig for your art, artistry and inspiring graphics—the cover of book 2 is off the hook.
To the Inkbots: We will conquer. You are all awesome and I so appreciate being a member of the group.
To my wife and family for the freedom to do what I do. Thank you. To Kendra Brown, Alexandra Williams and the Writer’s Workshop for your support. To Michele Mortimer for your believing in this project. To Janak Alford of PrototypeD for everything technical and for making the Assured Destruction storyworld come to life. And to Julie Giles of Green Hat Digital for supporting me when I had no right to expect it.
Thank you all.
And back to my wife, Andrea. I dedicate this book to you.
Acknowledgments - Book Three
To my Kickstarters! Matthew Johnston, James Moss, Craig Hackl, Elin Barnes, Elisabeth Morningstar, Mark Fazzari, Dregam, Nathan Bruno, Lauren Castellari, EMaree, Anthony Gascon, Jim and Katie Stewart, Mike Kalar, Sonya Di Rienzo, Jack Branswell, Sacha Raposo, Doug Moore, Ekster, Shen Goh, David Boyd, Mark and Jen Stewart, Karen and Aaron Skelton, Daniel Belanger, Kazap & Pubsoft, Marisa Victor, Jim Donovan, Bryan Delaney, Theo Yates, J.R. Murdock, Laura Lam, Arthur Slade, Matthew Murray, Andrea Stewart, Nicole Sojkowski, Jennifer Rockwell Ganoung, Angela Korra’ti, Vonny McKay, Katie Wanta, Kate Shaw, Kristene Perron, Scott Roche, and Scott Ford. Man was it a good feeling to hit 100% of my goal and so quickly, but blowing past 200%? I never expected that. I couldn’t have done this without your pledges and sharing. Writing may be solitary, but publishing is not! A shout out to author Scott Roche for showing me that.
I can’t begin to thank all of the reviewers and bloggers who have read this series and taken the time to write their thoughts down and even recommend the book to others. This ecosystems of ours is a wonderful community and an honor to be a part of. Thanks to Giselle of Xpresso Book Tours for kicking off With Zombies in style.
To Catherine Adams of Inkslinger Editing—you’re a big part of this book and the whole series. Brent Taylor of Teen Eyes Editorial, I so appreciate your keen eye for detail. And to beta reader, Brad Biggs II, thank you for the support and enthusiasm.
Glendon of Streetlight Graphics for your ongoing formatting expertise!
Don Dimanlig, you’ve outdone yourself with every subsequent cover and while under a great deal of pressure from many sources. Thank you.
To Jim Donovan of Undertow Entertainment who sees so much in the screen potential of this series, thank you. Every writer needs champions, I’m glad to have you as mine as I am yours.
To the Inkbots: We will conquer! My Kickstarter campaign would not have worked without you. You are all awesome and I so appreciate being a member of the group.
But I wouldn’t have made it this far without everyone who came before. Editors, beta readers, reviewers, bloggers, friends. Thank you, everyone.
To my daughters, it’s scary but two of you are now old enough to start reading my books (well, some of them!). You also help me more than you know with your endless chatter, but most of all, your love.
As always, Andrea—first reader and critic—love of my life, I dedicate this book to you.
Assured Destruction: The Complete Series Page 49