TAC Boot Camp

by Richard Pinkerton

CHAPTER 19:

  Mav Hatches a Plan

  Oh, how Wal envied Rex. He wished it could be him Vanessa wrapped her arms around when she needed comfort. He even wished it had been he who had the presence of mind to race in and deal with Mr Danté. How wonderful if it could have been he who walked Vanessa all the way home.

  He felt no bitterness towards Rex. How could he? Rex was a great guy and really when it came down to it, he and Vanessa were perfect together. Who could possibly argue that they weren’t made for each other? At first Wal had hoped that Vanessa would monopolise all Rex’s time, thus perhaps allowing Wal to have success in charming the other beauties with whom they hung out. Now all he could do was wish that he could share the affections of the “goddess”. What did Vanessa require Wal to do before she would “come out of the closet” and announce to all her true feelings for him? Obviously, she wanted him to do something, as she had hinted at it. Even if he did the right thing and she did start giving him the attention he so rightfully deserved, he’d still have to share her time with Rex, there was no doubts about that. Still, Wal felt he could handle that. It was worth it, even if it was just to get five minutes alone with the “goddess”.

  Wal sat on the park bench, ten minutes from where he lived, pondering over his troubles. The play area behind him was silent. No kids on the slides, the swing or the seesaw. That was good, because he didn’t want to be disturbed. He just wanted to think. However, his thoughts were distracted when aother guy from school came ambling along the road, unaware of Wal sitting there.

  ‘The golden opportunity,’ Wal thought. Craig Hansen was his name. Sworn enemy of Wayne Clooney, although Clooney had a lot of those. This one, however, had riled Wayne up so much, he had put a hit out on him. Wal considered just doing the job right now and getting it over with, however, he had no problems with Craig. Not only that, but he could get in serious trouble if he did, especially if there were witnesses. This wouldn’t just be some fight instigated by the contenders, both determined to beat the crap out of the other and both getting in the shit for it. This was one guy viciously assaulting another for no apparent reason.

  No. Wal couldn’t do it. Besides, it would be one job. What would be next? Beat up a teacher? Clooney would continue to blackmail him and Wal would forever be running around obeying his every command. The problem remained though, how did Wal overcome this problem without risking getting his two friends in trouble as well? That was the real dilemma.

  It wasn’t until the following day at school that he decided to share his problem with Mav and Pete. After all, they were the ones Clooney was threatening to expose.

  ‘Aghhhh, no!’ Pete said the following lunch time, after hearing Wal’s dilemma. They sat out the back of D Block, so none of their other friends were around. ‘You’re kidding. That guy really has photographs of us at the game? We’re screwed.’

  ‘No, you’re not, because I won’t nark on you guys.’

  ‘But how are you going to refuse to work for Clooney without him giving us away? You know he will. He’s that type of scuzzball.’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m gonna have to come up with some plan. Have to find some dirt on him that I can threaten to use against him.’

  ‘He’s pretty clean. Stays out of trouble.’

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ Mav said. ‘It may be pretty farfetched and it certainly has a huge chance of failing, but it would be cool if we could pull it off.’

  ‘What?’ Wal’s spirit leapt. Mav was a smart guy and if anyone could come up with a good scheme, it would be him. It was one of the reasons he’d decided to confide in him.

  ‘I think we need the help of Rabbit Matthews.’

  ‘What, the computer geek?’ Wal scoffed. ‘How’s he gonna help?’

  ‘Well he may not be able to. But from what I hear he’s a bit of a hacker and if he can do what I’m hoping he might be able to do, then we may be in with a chance at turning this whole situation around.’

  ‘Come on, Maverick, spit it out, what’s the plan?’

  ‘Let’s just talk to Rabbit first.’

  Abbot Matthews, or Rabbit as he was generally referred to, due to his bucked teeth and geeky personality, was not difficult to find as he either hung out in the computer lab or in the library. On this occasion, he was in the library studying an electronics book.

  ‘Yo, Rabbit.’ Wal sat down opposite him, with Mav and Pete taking a seat either side.

  Rabbit jerked his head up, his eyes wide. ‘Oh… Wal…’ His hand quivered as he adjusted his glasses. ‘I… I was just studying.’

  ‘Yeah, so I see,’ Wal said gruffly. ‘I hear you’re a good computer hacker.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, I’m pretty good.’ Rabbit’s eyes darted from left to right. ‘Did I do something to offend you, Wal? I’m sorry if I did.’

  ‘Geeze, Matthews, no need to get all paranoid. I’m here to ask a favour.’

  ‘Oh, right, ok, anything you like, Wal, I’ll be glad to help.’

  Mav took over. ‘Are you able to get access to other people’s computers?’

  ‘Piece of cake,’ Rabbit said, his nervousness disappearing now that Mav was asking the questions. ‘As long as they have a connection and it’s on at the same time as I want to get access to their computer.’

  ‘Can you track down particular computers?’

  ‘Yeah, if I know the Internet provider and have some idea on the name of the account. Should be easy enough to narrow down the IP if you don’t know it.’

  ‘What do you think of Wayne Clooney?’

  ‘He’s a jerk.’

  ‘Glad you think that. Want to teach the guy a lesson?’

  ‘Why, what’s he done?’

  ‘He’s trying to blackmail our friend Wal. Make him beat up people for him.’

  Rabbit stared. ‘That stinks.’

  ‘He has some photographs of us that we want deleted from his computer.’

  Wal smiled and leaned back in his chair. So that was the plan.

  ‘I can do that,’ said Rabbit. ‘As long as his computer’s online. I can search it for all graphics and delete the ones you want.’

  ‘Awesome. When can we do it?’

  ‘We can do it tonight if you want.’

  ‘Great. Can we come over to your place after school?’

  Rabbit turned his head to Wal, his anxiety returning. ‘I guess so.’

  Wal grunted. ‘Geeze, Rabbit, I’m not going to hassle you. If you do this for us, I won’t forget it.’

  ‘Ok.’ Rabbit smiled. ‘I’ll give it ago.’

  ‘Hey, wait a minute,’ Pete said. ‘What if he has pictures printed out already? How are we going to get rid of those?’

  ‘Good point,’ Mav said. ‘We have to get him to bring them out so we can destroy them.’

  ‘But what if he has others stored away somewhere else?’ Pete asked. ‘Like on his phone still?’

  ‘No problem, I can commandeer his phone and see.’ Wal smirked.

  ‘There’s still risk,’ Mav said. ‘And I said this is not a foolproof plan. But it seems like our best bet.’

  ‘Any chance is good with me,’ Wal said. ‘But it won’t stop him from reporting us anyway. The school will soon find out that we skipped classes that day and it will be very incriminating.’

  ‘At least the incrimination will go both ways,’ Mav said. ‘Clooney will have to admit to being at the game as well.’

  ‘No, he can just use the excuse he heard us planning it. He supposedly had permission to be home that day, because he was supposedly sick.’

  ‘Well then, it’s simple,’ Mav said. ‘We have to draw out any hard copies first.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I think I have an idea. Operation “Turn the Tables around on Wayne Clooney” starts this afternoon. Wal, I want you to go and see Wayne after classes have finished for the day. Tell him that you refuse to do his bidding for him and that he can go ahead and report you to Mr Harris…’

  Wal managed to track down Wayne Cl
ooney after the last period of the day. He was getting things from his locker in B Block and preparing to leave for home. ‘Hey Clooney, get over here, you Wally.’

  Wayne, delivered him a dirty look and stepped up. ‘I wouldn’t speak to me like that if I were you. Not if you don’t want certain pictures getting into the hands of Mr Harris.’

  Wal noticed his cell phone sitting in his shirt pocket and could see it would be easy enough to just grab and check.

  ‘I’ll tell you what, Clooney. Why don’t you just take those photographs to Mr Harris. Go on, see if I care.’

  ‘What about your mates? You’ll care when they get into the shit.’

  ‘Oh, they’re fine with it. Go ahead. You can forget about me doing jobs for you. I think you’re bluffing. I don’t think you will.’

  ‘Well then, you’re wrong, Ullman. I fully intend to take those photographs and show them to Mr Harris. I’ll say that an anonymous friend took them.’

  ‘We’ll see about that.’ Wal reached out grabbed his phone and shoved him before he could protest. The force of the shove sent Wayne scuttling across the floor and crashing with a thud. Wal checked the phone for photographs, but the folders were empty. Even if he had them on his computer at home, they were no longer on his phone.

  ‘Give me my damn phone back!’ Wayne growled, still sitting on the floor.

  Wal tossed it to him, but the throw went awry and as hard as Wayne tried he wasn’t able to reach it before it hit the ground with a clutter. If the phone was damaged, Wal didn’t care. He quickly rifled through Wayne’s locker as he rose to his feet, clutching his cell phone.

  ‘Hey, get out of there!’

  ‘Shut up, Clooney!’ Wal hurled sheets of paper and exercise books out of the locker one at a time and confident there was nothing there, reached for Wayne’s bag, which sat on the floor.

  ‘Hey, no way, that’s my bag!’ Wayne attempted to grab his bag, but Wal yanked it free and sent him sprawling with another vicious shove. He opened the bag and searched inside. He found exactly what he was looking for, pulled out the photographs, folded them up and shoved them into his trouser pockets.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Wayne retorted. ‘I’ll just print out some more at home tonight.’

  ‘Go ahead. Like I said, I don’t really care.’ Wal smirked and barged out of the locker block.