by RWK Clark
But she couldn’t jump the gun. The bottom line was she needed to be sure, and while she was indeed certain, she wanted a completely deciphered video signal feed. In her estimate, she was only hours away from having just that. She was wound up.
Once she completed this task Josh would accompany her upstairs to Wells office and let them know before they went forward with anything. They had a working fake signal to hack into the alien system with to distract it. She had put together a fake video feed made up of satellite images of each city. Now all she needed to do was be sure they would work by actually studying what the Oppressors’ videos looked like. She knew she had jumped the gun a bit by developing the false footage without knowing what she was simulating, but the fact was she had to do something while Josh got rid of the bugs with his code writing. If she needed to tweak it, she would. No problem.
She pounded away at the keyboard before her, and with each passing stroke she grew closer and closer to the completion of her goal. She was sure she would have this deciphered and viewable by evening. It was now one o’clock in the afternoon.
Josh had gone down to eat. She had been too eager to eat, and therefore opted to stay on task. She was glad, because things were looking brighter and brighter with each passing second. Josh would bring her food, anyway. Lately he had sort of been riding her case, telling her she was looking too thin. She knew it. She had always been small, and her once well-fitted jeans bagged on her bony frame. It really didn’t matter. She was powerless to change it right now.
True to form, Josh opened the office door only moments later carrying a Styrofoam container of grease addled pizza and a tall cup of ice cold soda. He had forbidden her to drink tea. She needed calories, for crying out loud.
He sat at his desk and began to spread out her meal for her. She barely glanced away from the screen to watch, but she knew he would make her take a short break, if only long enough to eat what he had brought. She focused on finishing this leg of deciphering so she could fill her belly and get back to work.
In only minutes she forced herself from the computer and turned to him smiling. She had not yet told him that she thought this was the video feed. She hadn’t felt sure enough. The fact was, she wasn’t finished, but she was sure. They needed the entire thing if they wanted to fake a replacement feed properly, of course, but she knew it was safe to tell him.
“Thank you for the pizza and pop, Josh. What did you eat?” She found she was suddenly ravenous, even for the greasy-sponge pizza on the desk. She reached for a slice eagerly and took a large bite before looking to him for his response.
He observed pizza sauce on her chin and smiled. “The same, but I had three pieces. You have sauce on your chin.” He chuckled.
“I know, I can feel it. I’m not even going to wipe it off until I’m done; I’ll just do it again. I’m starved!” She took another huge bite.
He nodded. “You certainly are chipper, aren’t you? It’s good to see you smiling. You’ve been so focused on work, well, both of us have, that it seems we never laugh.”
“I feel like I have something to laugh about.”
His eyes widened slightly. “Really? What’s that?”
“This is the Oppressor’s video feed, Josh,” she replied with a sauce-covered smile.
“You’ve got it?” He held his breath.
She nodded. “Yep.”
“What’s next?” He wanted to know everything. The look in his eyes gave his excitement away.
She chewed the pizza in her mouth, and reaching for a napkin, wiped her face before continuing. “I need to completely decipher it so we have access to all footage they possess. I need to compare the videos to what I have created, then make any necessary changes to ours that are needed to make it appear as much like theirs as possible. Once those two jobs are done, we head upstairs with our work. Voila!”
She halfway expected him to jump up and down, but instead he let out a gust of air and sat back heavily in his chair. “I knew you could do it. I knew it, Kam. I just knew it.”
“I always knew it. Time running out is a lot of pressure, and that made me wonder more than once. But I’m guessing I’ll be done by this evening at the very latest. I’m three-quarters of the way done now. I’m excited to see what they have on us. I’m even more excited to perfect the fakes and snowball these jerks.” She tore back into her pizza hungrily.
His grin spread from ear to ear. “You eat. Enjoy. You certainly deserve it. Get us out of this and I’ll celebrate with you for the rest of my life!”
The smile ran away from her face. Did he just say what she thought he said? Did he just sort of… propose? Not one to make assumptions or jump the gun, she smiled again and continued chewing the bite that sat in her mouth.
“Sounds like fun.”
She finished the food, guzzled half her Pepsi, and excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she returned Josh was studying the code on his computer. He was trying to be still so she could concentrate.
“Back to work for me,” she said. He nodded and smiled in response before turning back to his screen.
For the next five hours Kamryn plugged away at the deciphering process. This was definitely video, at least two months-worth, if not more. They had only been herding for just under two months, so she assumed anything over that would consist of any monitoring of the human race they had been doing.
At five-seventeen she finished. Josh was asleep on the couch, and she would not yet wake him. She wanted a sneak-peek before anyone else, after all, she deserved it. She hacked in, disguising herself carefully, and stole the entirety of the files, taking the next hour to download them, and that was using high-speed. Thank the Lord above they had not attacked back in the days when they were using dial-up here on Earth. What a disaster that would have been!
Just under an hour later Kamryn began viewing what turned out to be surprisingly poor surveillance videos of planet Earth. They were grainy, and they were not in color. It would be almost too easy to fake what she had made to meet their needs; all too easy.
The most current ones, the ones from present day, were no different. She could see that surveillance had not even begun until the ships arrived, so using satellite images from the darker evening hours had been the right choice. She could even identify most of the locations by site. This was looking better all the time.
She made herself pull away from the computer and turned her chair to look at the sleeping Josh. She smiled as she watched him breathe, his chest moving up and down. Suddenly she was filled with desire. What the heck? They could spare a little bit of time for the best thing in life.
She rose and walked to the door, locking it quietly as to not rouse him. She then removed her clothes and soft-stepped her way to him. She straddled his motionless form eagerly, and gently lowered her body down, sitting directly on him.
He stirred immediately, his eyes opening and struggling to focus. It didn’t take him long. She began to unbutton his shirt, not taking her eyes from his. She could feel him growing progressively rock-hard beneath her. Wow, was she turned on! She leaned down and kissed him passionately, and he returned the favor, his hands tangling in her hair, his hips arching with excitement. She ground herself harder against him.
He then began to struggle to get his jeans off. Those things had to go now! She got off of him and knelt next to the couch so she could kiss him as he got naked. She then licked one of his nipples, even nipping at it a bit. He groaned and tried to sit up but she acted fast, pushing him back down and straddling him once again. She would be in charge.
She directed him inside of her, and with a downward thrust of her hips took him fiercely. He complied, a pleased sigh, escaping him. She rode him hard, burying her face in his shoulder, then turning to seek out his eyes and mouth. He had a far-away look in his eyes. He was going to cum soon, and so was she.
Their movements grew increasingly more heated with each stroke. His hands ran feverishly up and down her back before grabbing tight to her
butt cheeks and forcing her hips down hard on him. The action sent her over the edge, and she came with such force her toes curled. She sat up, grinding herself against him until she rode the wave of her own orgasm to full completion. She collapsed on top of him, her face once again buried in his shoulder.
“Wow, lady!” Josh finally spoke. “I take it you are done with the video!” This made her laugh hard. “You bet your ass, mister, and it’s all good.”
“I want to see. Let’s go.”
They rose, cleaned up, and dressed. Once at the computer she pulled up her downloaded files. They watched intently, discussing each and every video and individual shot. Josh was amazed at the shabbiness of the videos as well.
“I can’t believe these guys have such a crappy camera system. That is what it is. Their computers are amazing. They must not watch T.V. or movies on their planet.” He shook his head with disgust.
She was smiling and nodding. “That’s my deduction, as well.”
They watched until they didn’t need to anymore. Kamryn spoke up, saying, “Give me an hour to apply some filtering to our fake files to make them appear lower-quality. Easy-breezy. Then we will call Wells.”
Chapter 17
Peter Wells sat at his desk, staring at a painting on the far wall. He didn’t see it. The painting was the last thing on his mind. He was thinking about the entirety of his life.
How could a man with his education and military background feel so weak? He not only felt weak, he knew he was on the verge of pulling his own plug. Time was getting away from them all, and he wanted nothing to do with spending the rest of his life without his wife.
Week 7 was well under way, and he had not been able to get ahold of her at all.
The thought of what she may be going through made him ill. His stomach burned from the stress his imagination was giving him. He would rather die himself than arrive on some far-away planet only to discover she had not passed the testing. But if he did himself off he would never know. Did he really want her to face the future alone if she had passed? He was so confused, so torn.
He had allowed fleeting thoughts of suicide to pass through his mind before. He always quashed them; it was his belief that everyone experienced these thoughts, and carrying it out had simply never been an option.
Now it was more of an option than living. Almost.
His intercom buzzed, rudely jerking him out of his daze.
“Mr. Wells?” Sharon’s voice echoed to him through the mechanism.
He sat forward. “Yes, Sharon.”
“Mr. Nichols and Ms. Reynolds are here to see you.”
“Show them in, please.” He straightened his shirt, feeling for a tie that wasn’t there. He then ran his fingers through his hair before weaving his fingers together in front of him. Couldn’t look weak to the masses.
Josh and Kamryn entered his office, both smiling.
“Hello, Mr. Wells,” Kamryn said. “How are you?”
Peter cleared his throat. “As good as can be expected. What’s happening with the project?”
“That’s why we’re here.” They both sat in the same chairs as always. “I have good news.”
His face relaxed and his eyes widened. “Let’s hear it.”
Josh sat back in his chair, allowing for Kamryn alone to have the floor. “I have isolated and deciphered their video feed, sir.”
At first it appeared that Wells was at a loss for words. After a moment of processing what she said, he finally spoke. “Tell me.”
Kamryn proceeded to lay it all on the line. Not only had she isolated the video feed, she and Josh had viewed much of it as well. She explained about the poor quality of the video, and told him that she suspected their cameras were poor. She then told him she had doctored the fake video feed she had prepared to appear nearly identical in quality.
“It’s all ready. All you need to do is move forward.”
Wells didn’t miss a beat. He grabbed the handset to his phone and punched in the necessary numbers. “Johnson, we’re ready.”
He hung up as quickly as he dialed. “Can you show me? Can you access it from my terminal?”
“I didn’t save it to the cloud,” she explained. “I wanted to keep things as safe as possible. We will need to either go to my terminal, or it will need to be installed up here.”
Once again, he picked up his phone and dialed. “Hi, Ted. I need you and a couple of boys to go to Josh Nichols office. Get Ms. Reynolds computer terminal,” he paused and looked at Kamryn. “Which desk is yours?”
“The one with all the paperwork on it right now,” she replied.
He continued talking to Ted the maintenance man. “It’s the desk with all the paperwork. Bring her system up to my office stat and get the thing up and running. We need this done yesterday.” He hung up. “Johnson is contacting President Mason and the others. I’m guessing they will all be here shortly.”
As if on cue there was a sharp rap on his office door, and Johnson immediately entered. “I have them on their way.” He looked at Josh. “Fill me in.”
Kamryn spoke instead, explaining everything just as she had to Wells.
Matthew Johnson responded, “I want you to know that the President told me via telephone that the leader contacted him one hour ago. They will begin herding government workers and authorities tomorrow.”
The room went silent. Suddenly, Josh burst out, “That’s at least one week early! What the heck!”
“Yes, that’s correct, but these characters haven’t had a perfect track record when it comes to honesty, now have they?” Johnson continued, “We will gather forces and implement the plan while underground. We will take care of the technical side of things from here due to the high level of security. Forces will be kept in an undisclosed place until we have the video, the false signal, and all other aspects in place. Then we will attack. You two will stay here. It is vital that we resist if we want this to work.”
The room fell silent. After only a few minutes the office door opened and President Mason and his three men entered the room, all three looking drastically as though they had seen better days.
“Give it to us,” was the first thing out of his mouth.
Kamryn began filling them in, and by the time she was nearly finished, Ted and one of his guys were announced by Sharon through the intercom. In another twenty minutes Kam was logging on and getting things up and running.
Together the group viewed the Oppressors’ video feed in small, sporadic chunks. Then Kamryn proceeded to show them what she had prepared, showing them a small portion for each oppressed city. When she was done with that she proceeded to show them the bare bones of uploading the false signal that would interfere with all their ships’ programming and other capabilities.
“This will open the door for our attack,” she concluded.
Mason spoke first. “We are sure this is going to work?”
“Nothing in this life is sure, President,” Kamryn said. “But I’m betting my life on it, literally.”
The men all nodded together, as if on cue.
She continued, “I’ve only shown you the uploading process in case something happens to me. I already have all the necessary doors open. If for some reason I am captured in tomorrow’s herding you will still be able to execute the plan.”
“Smart. Very smart,” said Mason. They all returned to the circular formation which had become the norm for these meetings. “What’s next, as far as you are concerned, Ms. Reynolds?”
Kamryn took only a minute to think before responding. “I will assume that herding us will begin at eight in the morning, just like all the other phases. It will be imperative that we all remain under lock and key, as well as your forces. I would take care of that immediately.”
Carson Wood, the Secretary of Defense, spoke up. “The troops are all aware of the plan we have put together. The key now is to get them underground as soon as possible.”
Josh said, “Think about it, gentlemen. The Oppressors ar
e surely aware that the troops are our fighters. The President is surrounded by them by the hundreds when they meet; you have told us this yourselves. I would be willing to bet they will want to herd the fighting men first and foremost.”
This was obviously something the men in charge had not considered, but almost immediately Henry Whitaker nodded. “And I would be willing to bet you are absolutely right.”
Once again silence fell on the room. When words were finally spoken they came from President Mason. “When I spoke to Mr. Superior earlier he said they still had to clean up a bit from the current phase. It is nine-thirty at night here, and I spoke to him at seven. I don’t think it will be first thing in the morning, so we are going to violently press forward with our plan.” He turned to Josh. “I want you two to get some sleep tonight. We will need you on your toes. Make sure you are up and at ‘em by five in the morning.”
Josh and Kamryn both nodded vigorously. He answered, “Not a problem, sir.”
Mason then focused his attention on the other men. “The fact of the matter which is most important to face is that we don’t know which of us are going to be captured or make it. We must proceed as if each and every one of us will live to see another day. This mindset will be imperative to our success as a nation, as a planet. Agreed?” Nods all around. “Good. Then plant those thoughts. Josh, if you two have anything you want to do, get moving. Leave the computer up here. We need to have access. Kamryn, do you have back-up of the files?”
She smiled shyly, almost as if she had been caught doing something wrong. “Absolutely.”
“Good girl, good girl. Keep them safe. We will see you two in this office at 0500 hours.” Mason dropped his hands into his lap, gesturing that he was finished.
Josh and Kamryn both stood. “Thank you,” Josh said. “See you then.”
In the elevator both of them were silent. While it was sinking in that the Oppressors had once again lied, neither of them felt that hope was entirely lost, and these were the thoughts they both were pondering. The fact was, they had done it. Together they had managed to come up with a solid plan to overthrow the enemy. It was magic, and it served to alleviate both of their fears by leaps and bounds.