Wipeout: Wipeout Book 1

by Richards, ES

  Addison and Charles both turned to Samuel, knowing the question was directed at him. Telling people the truth didn’t get any easier and Samuel was really hoping Jessie was the last person he would need to explain it to. He owed it to her though. She was his sister and what he said to her could quite seriously change her life over the next few weeks.

  “We don’t know for sure yet,” he said. “But if I had to put my money on it, I’d say it’s gone. I don’t see us getting anything back from Trident. They’ve taken the site down. Sure, the initial statement blames ransomware, but it doesn’t make much sense to hold money as the ransom for more money. I think Trident is broke, which means roughly a third of the States are broke as well. This is bad, Jessie. What is local news over there saying about it?”

  Jessie swallowed. If her brother thought this was bad, then it was probably worse. Samuel always tried to find a positive spin on things, he might not seem like it from the proper gentleman persona he carried, but inside he was a real softie. He wanted the best for everyone, and he wanted people to be happy, if there was a way of sugar-coating bad news or avoiding it completely, Samuel would do it. To see him completely ignore all of those traits and just get straight to the point was sobering. It made Jessie realize just how much trouble they were all in.

  “No one really understands it to be honest, Sam. It’s one thing saying all the money is gone, but another putting that into perspective. Like, how many things are going to change? Some people are trying to get off of the island, but mostly people are just confused and scared. We obviously fall into the latter category.”

  “Oh Jessica,” Charles couldn’t help the concern and compassion he felt for his daughter, worrying about what was going to happen to her. “I hope you’re okay.”

  “I wish you’d never gone to that stupid island,” Addison muttered under her breath with a shake of her head.

  “Thanks mom,” Jessie replied sarcastically. “Art and the boys are fine by the way, thanks for asking.”

  Addison tutted at the remark.

  “It’d be nice if you could come and visit your grandchildren sometime,” Jessie continued. “I want my kids to have a relationship with you.”

  “If you wanted us to have a relationship with your children, you wouldn’t have moved them nearly five thousand miles away.”

  “When are you going to understand that I didn’t move out here to spite you? I love you and all but funnily enough you’re not always my number one priority.”

  “I’m not saying that, Jessica. I’m just saying that it’d be nice if –”

  “Well just don’t, mom,” Jessie cut off her mother. “Just give it a rest, will you?”

  The tension in the drawing room of the Freeport house was palpable, Samuel pursing his lips to keep quiet and Charles squeezed his wife’s hand tighter and tighter in an attempt to calm the unrest between her and Jessie. Almost every conversation between them seemed to dissolve into this nowadays, the two of them unable to put aside their differences and just focus on being a mother and daughter again.

  “So, what’s the deal, Sam?” Jessie turned her attention away from her mother and back to the matter at hand. “What’s going to happen next?”

  Welcoming the attention to some extent so the argument between his mother and sister could end, Samuel shuffled around in his seat slightly and cleared his throat. “I’m not completely sure,” he replied. “I think you might have it pretty bad out there. I think it’s between eighty and ninety per cent of all Hawaii’s food is imported by plane or by boat. Nothing is flying out of JFK and I doubt it will be for a while. These effects won’t be instantaneous, but how many shipments of supplies do you think the islands get each week? Pretty soon I reckon you’ll have to change the way you’re living out there, become more self-sufficient.”

  “You mean like live off the land and stuff? Just eat fish and coconuts?”

  Samuel laughed. “Sort of. I don’t know how quickly these changes will all happen – I’m in the same boat as everyone else really, just because I work for Trident doesn’t mean I have any further information. I think the best advice I can give you is to just play it safe. We don’t know how long this will last and everyone needs to be playing the long game,” Samuel looked at his parents for a second and then back at the laptop screen. “If all the money really is gone, this could take months or years to come back from.”

  The video call between the three of them and Jessie ended soon after Samuel’s bombshell. There wasn’t much else to say. They were all still only clutching at straws when it came to both the truth of what had happened and how it was going to change their lives in the coming days, weeks, or indeed, as Samuel had suggested, months or years.

  The unpleasant sensation of not knowing hung over the Westchester household like a dark storm cloud, just waiting to break and make their lives even more difficult. The question now seemed to be not if it would break, but when.

  Chapter 11

  “I’m sorry about your mother earlier,” Charles remarked to his son half an hour or so after the call when Addison went upstairs to look for a new shirt for Samuel. “I don’t know how to manage her and Jessica these days. I feel like every time they talk they just end up arguing. It’s awful.”

  “Don’t worry about it, dad. I know it can’t be easy. They’re both as stubborn as each other at times.”

  “You can say that again,” Charles laughed, enjoying the company of his son despite the circumstances. “I just wish they’d put everything behind them so we can move on. I’d love nothing more than to head out to Hawaii for a long vacation and spend some time with her. It kills me not being able to see her sons grow up or watch her learning how to be a mother.”

  “Have you told her all this? I know you say you miss her and all that, but have you really told her how much?”

  “Well no,” Charles faltered, “not exactly.”

  “Then do it, dad,” Samuel prompted his father. “Before it’s too late. I’m not saying we might never see Jessie again, but it could be a seriously long time before air travel is up and running again. You don’t want to lose your daughter. At a time like this, our family needs to stick together.”

  “You’re right,” Charles sighed. “Oh, you’re so right, my boy.” Sitting back in his chair, he ran a hand through his thin and graying hair. “I can’t believe all of this has happened. It’s strange; it feels like everything is still functioning like normal, but then I know how much things are falling apart behind the scenes. What was it like in the city? Were you at Trident when it happened?”

  “Not exactly,” Samuel replied. He told his father about everything that had happened to him. From the moment he left the office for his lunch to trying to get back inside and then later, struggling to escape. He nervously talked through the moment when he found a man standing in the window of the building, threatening to jump and then broke eye contact with his father when he had to admit that he hadn’t been able to save him. That Hauser had died.

  “You can’t blame yourself for that,” Charles comforted his son. “When a man is in a position like that, there is almost nothing that can be done to change the person’s mind. You did everything that you could and I’m sure you were a welcome message of solace at the end of that man’s life. You did a good thing, son.”

  “Thanks dad,” Samuel smiled at his father, grateful for the words of support despite still wishing he could’ve done more. “It’s just hard to get my head around, you know? That guy worked in the same building as me for God knows how many years and I never even knew his name. Why was I the one with him in those final moments? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Life rarely does, Samuel. We’ve just got to learn to roll with the punches and keep our heads above water. Something tells me there’s going to be a lot of swimming against the current over the next few days.”

  “I bet,” Samuel sighed. “I hope Jessie is going to be okay. What did that stat say, Hawaii has over eighty per cent of i
ts goods imported from the US?”

  Charles nodded. After speaking to his daughter, they hadn’t been able to resist doing a bit of research online. The figures that were reported were quite frightening, not only in the sense that the majority of food in Hawaii was imported, but also in terms of power too. Apparently, they were the highest petroleum using state in the US, but almost all of it was imported from the mainland. That meant that very soon the entire island could be left without electricity, forced to ration their usage and rely on only the small wind farms and solar panels that were dotted around the community.

  Samuel and his father were sure Jessie was aware of the facts herself. They saw no need to call her back or send a depressing email. She would be experiencing these things first-hand and they were both confident she was well equipped to deal with them. Arthur was an intelligent and useful man. He worked in marine research and Samuel was sure he would do his best to take care of his sister. In the few times he had met him, he’d come across like a reliable man who loved Jessie very much. That was all Samuel needed to know to be happy she and his nephews were in safe hands.

  “They might do better there despite that. I think the smaller communities might cope better than the big cities now. There’s very little left around here that doesn’t rely on mass funds of some description.”

  “True,” Samuel agreed. New York was going to bear the brunt of this disaster and they were going to be forced to live right through it. “I’m kind of glad I got out of the city. Things were getting pretty dicey back there.”

  “Charles! Samuel! Turn on the television!”

  Addison’s cry came from the hallway, the sound of her making her way down the stairs to her husband and son overriding their conversation. Samuel looked at his father with a confused expression, reaching for the television remote as his mother burst into the room.

  “Turn it on! Turn it on! They’re saying it’s all been a ruse. The ransomware statement isn’t true!”

  “What?” Samuel gasped, frantically turning on the large television set and waiting for it to power up. “What do you mean? So, the money isn’t gone at all?”

  “No,” Addison shook her head. “It’s gone. Gone for good. People are saying the statement was just a fake to buy Trident some time.”

  “Oh no.” Samuel’s heart sank. His worst fears about the money were true. At the same time, he felt a huge pang of disappointment for the company he had worked for all his life. Surely, they wouldn’t have released a deliberately false statement. The people in charge knew better than that.”

  We come to you live from outside the Trident HQ, where reports have been circulating of activity on the top floor of the building and a rumoured false statement that was released earlier today. We are yet to hear from an official representative of Trident, but numerous members of the public are now claiming that they know the ransomware statement to be fake. We’re here with Taylor Winnipeg, a cyber security specialist from The Dorchester Group who tells us it simply isn’t possible for a ransomware attack like this to take place. Taylor, could you please explain why you’re so confident this statement issued by Trident some hours ago is untrue?

  Samuel looked at his mother and father in horror as the camera panned away from the news reporter to show another woman standing by her side, dressed in a sharp suit, her hair combed back neatly out of her face. She had to be the smartest dressed person in the entire tri-state area, representing a rival bank proudly outside the crumbling Trident building.

  “Of course,” Taylor replied. “It’s quite simple really. With ransomware you only gain entry to the outer layers of the account. You can leave breadcrumbs and infiltrate parts of the software and then have the ability to make threats or – as the name suggests – demand a ransom.

  “What has happened here clearly goes beyond just the outer-layers of the accounts. For money to have disappeared on such a large scale, the hack has to go beyond what ransomware is capable of. It just isn’t enough to have caused this much damage. All the money in Trident is gone and it’s not coming back. What we’re dealing with here is much more serious than just a threat or a ransom, this is a bankruptcy. Trident is broke and that means everyone who banks with them is broke as well. Your money is gone,” Taylor Winnipeg gave her final statement to the camera directly, looking at it in a sympathetic manner. “And there’s no hope of getting it back.”

  Samuel let out a huge breath of air, pressing two fingers up against each of his temples and massaging them. Now that The Dorchester Group was getting involved, this was going to get nasty. They were the bank that a few years ago had sabotaged one of their marketing campaigns by stealing their idea. The rivalry between the two companies ran deep, any communication with someone from the opposing side strictly forbidden by both banks. The people at the top in Trident were not going to like this.

  Samuel wondered who was left on the top floor of the company. The fact the reporter had highlighted that at the start of her speech had stuck with him. He suspected the nineteenth floor was still in operation already, with the elevators all being stopped up there. Who was in charge of Trident now? He knew a few names on the board but couldn’t think who had been in the building that day. Whoever was there would have to respond now that The Dorchester Group had gone public with their dismissal of the ransomware statement. This disaster was turning out to be so much more than just financial. The company name was being dragged through the dirt with it and the entire organization brought to the ground.

  “I’ve got to go back,” Samuel announced suddenly, shocking both his parents with his revelation. “I need to see this for myself.”

  “What do you mean?” Charles questioned his son, surprised by the outburst. Samuel was never normally a spontaneous person; this was so unlike what he had come to expect from his son. “Why? You said yourself there is nothing that Trident can do now. What use is going back there?”

  “I’ve got to try, dad,” Samuel explained, though he didn’t really understand his motives fully himself yet. Something inside him was telling him to get back into the city and for once, he refused to fight against his instincts. “There must be something we can do. I still don’t believe all the money is just gone. There are people still in the building. Maybe I can help them. It can’t all just be over like this.”

  “Samuel, darling,” Addison tried to calm her son down. “You work in marketing, what use is that going to be at a time like this?”

  Glaring at his mother and seeing the side of her that Jessie resented so much, Samuel tried not to rise to what she had just said. “I don’t know mom,” he replied, “but I’m certainly more use there than I will be here. Where is my cell? Did you put it on charger?”

  “In the kitchen. But –”

  Addison didn’t have a chance to finish before Samuel was out of the room, picking up his cell phone from the kitchen counter and waiting for it to turn back on. As the screen lit up, he saw a large number of missed calls, a few from friends and family, but most importantly three from the Trident head office.

  “Okay, now I really have to go,” he remarked, his mind already working frantically as he tried to figure out why Trident would be calling him. “Dad, can I borrow your car?”

  “Samuel please,” Addison begged her son, “just wait a minute. Think this through.”

  “Dad?” Samuel asked again, ignoring his mother and raising his eyebrows at his father, hoping the man would understand how much he needed to do this. He had to get Trident back on the phone and that was not a conversation he wanted to have in front of his parents. It felt like the situation had just heated up by a hundred degrees and he needed to get back into the city. “Where are your keys?”

  “In my jacket pocket,” Charles answered. “Downstairs closet.”

  Samuel was in the closet practically before his father finished speaking, rifling through the clothes until he finally found the jacket his father was referring to. As he pulled out the keys and went to step into his shoes, both his
parents appeared behind him in the hallway.

  “Are you sure about this, Samuel? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  Looking at his father, Samuel paused for a second and nodded. He knew his father would understand, even if his mother didn’t. He loved them both very much, but he was no good to anyone shut away at his parents’ house just waiting for the disaster to pass them by. The best way he could help them was to get back into the city and try to get some answers.

  “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything, okay? Stay here where it’s safe. I don’t know what’s going to happen now.”

  “Samuel,” Addison continued, still worried. She never quite went about it in the correct manner, but she loved Samuel and Jessie more than anything in the world. She only wanted them to be safe and she hated them not being by her side.

  “I’ll be fine mom, I promise.” Samuel opened the front door and pressed the button on the key fob to start his father’s Mercedes. “I love you both. Talk soon.”

  Without giving either of his parents the chance to say anything else, Samuel exited their house and made his way over to the car. His mind was racing. Why would Trident be calling him? What was happening back at the office and why was he needed for it? The seconds it took for his cell to connect to the car felt like hours as Samuel pulled out of the driveway. Once the connection finally showed up on the screen, he hit dial and waited anxiously for the call to connect.

  Chapter 12

  “Oh come on!”

  Samuel thumped the steering wheel with the side of his fist, frustrated by the voicemail message that greeted him again. He’d been trying to get through to Trident ever since leaving his parents’ house and every time he called all he got was voicemail. There was no one manning the phones, no one screening the calls; nothing. Any suspicions he had that the company was still in operation were fading fast.