Secrets of the Fall (6 page)

“Had
me fooled,” I whispered, looking up at him.

“I
know,” Drew said. “I’m so sorry. But I really wanted to break through to you,
make you act on how you feel instead of holding everything inside…all those feelings.
Like Nat did. It’s not healthy, Summer, to bottle all those feelings inside. It
can make people do crazy things when they have too much pressure from that. I
know, which was one reason why I was such a whore in school. It was a release.
But you, you have no release like that, and with Nat gone, and you moving on…I
want to be that release for you. I want you to use me, use my body for that,
Summer. Because, Summer, you are definitely mine.”

He
kissed me long and hard until my toes were curling before pulling away and
opening the door for me to get in.

I
sat in my seat, and he reached over with the seat belt and sensually pulled it
across me, brushing against my nipples and my thighs several times until they
were sensitive to the touch. “Drew,” I swatted his arm away after about the
fifth time he readjusted the belt. “We have to get going.” I laughed, and it
felt good to laugh.

Drew
smiled an innocent but wicked smile. “You totally get me, Summer,” he said
happily. Then he leaned into my ear to whisper. “You have me if you want me.”

I
felt a rush of heat soar through me and said huskily. “We really have to get
going or we will have a repeat performance we don’t have the time to do right
now.”

“Oh,
Summer,” Drew sighed, playfully. “You balance me. My total equal. What would I
do without you?”

“Drive,”
I said. “Oh, I know what you could do without me, but it’s more fun with me
there.” I smirked, and he laughed.

It
was the first time in weeks we’ve been able to laugh. I thought I had forgotten
how to, but now it was back.

Chapter
8

Nat

           
S
ometimes to show love, to be loving, is to be
able to walk away from that person you love. The hardest thing in life to this
date is not dealing with my parents’ divorce, my mother’s mental illness, or
college; it was walking away from love, from the woman I loved with all of my
heart.

            Again,
it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t think I would; I never
thought that I could. But there were legitimate reasons why. And in the end
when I made this decision to do what I did, I did it with the best intentions
for her, for my family, for Drew, myself, and our country. It wasn’t about
me…and that was how I was able to walk away.

*****

            I
was dressed just like everyone else on the team…in camouflage so none of us
stood out as we headed over to the headquarters. For weeks, they’ve prepped me
on how to fight, how to use weapons, how to pass lie detector tests, and how to
act if caught and tortured. For weeks, I’ve stayed in camps with these larger
than life ex-marines, ex-army, purple-heart-decorated veterans and even heroes,
who now worked privately as an army or Special Forces for hire. And for this
mission, I had hired them through Donovan Dynamics. These men were part of my
army. Being the youngest, the one without any military experience, and the
smallest in build although I was as muscular and fit as any athlete; I stood
out. I was the liability, but since I was the one with the intelligence and key
information needed for this mission, I had to be trained to infiltrate just
like one of them.

            “Donovan,”
Tito Reed, a brawny tattooed ex-marine who stood 6 feet 5 inches of pure
muscles including a head, bald, tough, and with a neck as thick as my torso;
gestured for me to come up to join him in front. I moved my way up to the
front, having been pushed back out of the way so the Special Forces could scope
out the location while protecting me…the holder of the key.

            “You
see that?” Tito pointed, handing me his binocular. “That’s the entrance we are
entering through. There are two guards who rotate standing guard every four
hours. They’re small guys, but they’re armed. If you get close enough to them
in a fighting situation, the first thing you do is remove their weapon, then
you have a fighting chance to take them down. If not,” Tito handed me a large
serated knife in a leather sheath. “Here are some back up.” Then he reached
into his leather vest, packed with weapons of all kinds. “You know what this
is…” he took out a MK3 revolver. “We’ve practiced for weeks on this. You a damn
fine shot now, too. It’s yours. Take it.”

            I
stared at the revolver before taking it and stuffing it into my own leather
vest. The MK3 was the revolver of choice used by and specially made for the
Special Forces, known as the SOCOM pistol, it was praise for its accuracy.
Having it on me, I felt like I was one of the guys now. I felt a little more
secure knowing that if I had to protect myself, I at least had something to
protect myself with…and gave me a good fighting chance to survive. I was going
into this mission fully equipped and prepared. There was no cutting corners for
this. If this mission failed, we would not be going home.

            “Ok,
Tito,” I said. “I’ve studied the layout inside, know which room to search, and
even know what to say if questioned. Are we ready to do this?”

            Tito
looked over at the other four guys in the group. They were silent but ready,
each nodding their heads. “Ready,” he said. “You stay behind me and Colby
there. The other two, Hugh and Gao, come in from the rear.”

            “Gotcha,”
the men said.

            Tito
looked at me, and said, “Let’s make this quick and painless. The faster we get
in there and out, the safer it is for everyone.”

            My
heart was beating so fast, and my hands were already beginning to sweat. I
couldn’t even answer back to Tito because I was just hoping I could remember
everything I was to do. My dad’s life depended on it, as did a few other
military personnel, whom he was working with before the operations went down.
No one knew what I was doing, that I was here, that I was even alive. It was
important for them to think that. Even my mother, Rachel, and Summer.

            Summer…how
I wish I could see her one last time, how I could tell her the truth. I would
be lying if I said I didn’t care what she would think about me lying to her,
but for now, this was what I had to do. Sometimes you have to make choices that
will hurt someone you care about deeply in order to help them in the long run.
Summer,
if you know what I’m about to do, you would be proud of who I’ve become…for
you. I’ve become a man who had to make those tough choices in life, for you.

            “Let’s
go!” Tito said, and like stealth ninjas, we moved as one unit hidden in the
dark, blending into the background, through the forest and onto the
heavily-guarded fortress.

            Tito
stepped to the side as we came up to the entrance, while Hugh distracted and
took down the lone guard at the entrance. Quietly and efficiently. These guys
meant business alright.

            Tito
led the way in the dark hallway in a maze of hallways, obviously designed to
confuse and disorient intruders who weren’t supposed to be there. Tito knew the
way, and having prepped for this moment for weeks, I did, too.

            We
came to a section that split into three hallways, and Tito turned to go into
the one closest to our right.  I had to stop him, and point out that I thought
it was the one straight ahead. He looked at me frowning for a second before he
pulled out his tablet…a small one that fit into his large pocket on his vest.
He nodded. I was right. He got in front of me and quickly led the way.

            It
was unusually quiet for what I imagined would be a busy headquarter for one of
the largest cyber-crime rings in the world. That was how Donovan Dynamics got
involved in the first place, hired on as an expert of security and cyber
intelligence to aid the U.S. government and a couple of other countries who
banded together globally to discretely find and dismantle cyber rings like
these. It was such a top secret project, my father was personally involved in
the operations.

            It
was so top secret, just a handful of executives at Donovan Dynamics knew about
this contract. In fact, I was the only one who knew in detail what it was.
Despite my age, I have already had years of experience being privy to Donovan
Dynamics’ operations and most confidential projects.

            In
fact, and this was another secret I withheld from Summer, because if she knew,
it would put her in danger, she would look at me differently and not in a good
way, and she would never forgive me for never contacting her or seeing her for
those three years straight after we moved from Malibu to San Francisco.

            When
I turned thirteen, my world changed.  Not only did I discovered how attracted I
was to Summer as a girlfriend and had even gotten almost close to intimacy with
her; but I got sucked into a world that was dangerous and even criminal. I was
a computer geek, nerd, genius-what-you-will; and had a knack for breaking
through security walls and systems. I saw things that would blow anyone’s
minds. I saw the good and the ugly. Unfortunately mostly the ugly since people
tend to use the computer and the internet for anonymous things they were too
ashamed to do in public.

            I
got into the world of hackers, saw that they were able to infiltrate into
people’s personal computers, able to point people’s own webcams at themselves
while the hackers laughed and made fun of the people they labeled, their
“slaves” or “minions”. It was like the Sims Game to the hackers, being able to
manipulate people by playing with them.

            It
was an ugly subculture, which I was ashamed to have fallen into when I was a
young teenager. I didn’t have any friends, had moved to a new city with a new
school, and all this pressure to succeed. I was like these boys who wasted
hours playing these hacking games. That was why I was too ashamed of telling
Summer why I didn’t see or try to keep in touch with her right after my family
moved. It wasn’t her at all. It was because I did some stupid things, got
involved in some stupid idiotic groups, and was too ashamed of it all. Summer
was pristine, good, pure…she would not look at me again if she knew.

            But
my dad knew, and it turned out, it was the kind of talent he needed to help
grow Donovan Dynamics into a worldwide security firm. The cyber-security and
intelligence division of it grew in leaps and bounds because Dad had put me in
charge. At thirteen years old, being a former hacker, I was already running a
major division in a fast-growing company.

            But
no one knew this, except for Dad and myself…and maybe Drew, who suspected I had
more to do with Dad’s company than just some kind of internship. It was
inconceivable and even somewhat illegal that I would be doing all of these
hacking activities in the line of work. Although it was for good intentions and
good reasons, hacking for Donovan Dynamics, was still hacking. Illegally or
legally, it was still, to me, an invasion of privacy.

            But
as much as I was ashamed of it, I was proud to be able to use my talent toward
helping solve cyber-crimes for corporations, for the government, and
respectable organizations. Using my talents, I was also able to keep tabs on
Summer when she was younger. After we moved to San Francisco, I couldn’t help
it, but I hacked into her computer once or twice, just so I could see her face
when she looked at her screen. It was a way for me to keep in touch with her
(although she never knew). Like I said, it was wrong, and I felt horrible for
even trying. Soon after hacking twice into her computer, I stopped.

            I
even tried to stop working for Dad. But he needed me, and eventually, he ended
up hiring more people, and I was able to slowly pull away from Donovan Dynamics
while getting more into school, football, and making friends.

            But
here we are now…in the middle of enemy territory, smack in the center of
cyber-crimes central. With me getting ready to do the biggest hacking or
computer infiltration I’ve ever done…with so much riding on it.

            The
Ex-Special Forces team and I continued down the hallway into an area that
looked a break room with tables, a small kitchen, some sofa. Who knew organized
cyber-criminals had a need for a breakroom and coffee, too.

            We
went pass a large room that had a window from the outside of the hallway
looking in.  The room was dark, but I could see the outline of old-fashioned
desktop computer monitors on top of the rectangular tables lining the room. It
looked like it could fill up to hundreds of people at a time, working on the
computers. It was evening, and the workers had gone home.

            I
gestured to Tito about going in, but he stopped me and pointed to another room
tucked away in the back of the main computer mill room. He pointed to that
room.

            The
team made its way into the room, half of us inside, while the other half
outside, as Tito led the way into the office. It looked like any typical office
of any corporate building. There was a desk, a computer, stuff on the wall… I
immediately put on my gloves, went to the computer, which was left on, and
quickly got through the security wall. Next I went into the files, searching for
the one that held information that was vital to international security.

            It
was under some obscure name, but I found it, and went deep enough to obtain
what I needed.

            I
turned to Tito with a thumbs up, and was about to erase all tracks and put the
computer to sleep when I noticed a small red light on the computer turn on with
a click. Shit, it was the monitor. I gestured for everyone to get out of the
view of the computer monitor, ducking down myself so I was completely out of
the view.

            Being
the ex-hacker that I was, I knew a hacker had gone into that computer, turned
on the camera, and was checking out the room.

            Smart.
These cyber-criminals knew how to keep their information safe and how to secure
themselves. They didn’t need heavily-armed guards standing watch everywhere. 
All they needed were monitors in each room, capable of checking on everything.

            After
about five excruciating minutes of the monitor being on, the red light went
off.  I finished everything up, and stood up, along with the other men.

            Tito
stepped outside first with me following and the rest. It looked like a smooth,
quick mission with no hassles as we neared the exit. But that was short-lived.
One of the monitors near the exit turned on, and caught us about to storm the
door leading outside.

            We
opened the door. Tito knocked out the guard standing next to the door, and Gao
broke the neck of another guard who saw what happened and had ran up. Hugh
stopped another guard as Tito grabbed me and pushed me forward with him towards
the fence.  “Run and don’t stop!” he yelled, shoving me through the fence while
trying to follow me through.

            I
looked back, and saw that Tito was too big to go through the fence and had
taken off his vest and weapons. He was half way through when one of the guards
grabbed him from behind. Tito turned back and punched him in the face so hard
the guard’s nose broke and blood spilled everywhere as he fell backwards.

            Tito
saw me standing there, and he barked, “Follow the plan. Go!”