An Armageddon Duology (13 page)

“
W
hy do
we have to call you Fawkes, anyway?”

Three teenagers crouched in a dark hallway, whispering sharply to each other. Mark and Violetta slunk behind the third, a lanky boy with unkempt hair. He turned back to them with his finger on his lips.

“Because I said so,” he whispered. “Now, be quiet. Boot camp library is around the corner.”

“But it’s locked,” said Violetta. Fawkes reached into the back pocket of his jeans and removed several small, metal rods. “You’re gonna pick it?” Her eyes widened.

“Come on.”

The three moved quickly down the hallway. The building was still and silent, only the emergency exit signs providing light in the corridor. At the end of the hallway a set of double doors framed by windows on each side awaited, a soft glow from computer monitors in screen-saver mode spilling through.

Fawkes knelt down beside the lock and quickly worked the tools as the other two watched in awe. Less than a minute and the mechanism clicked. He reached up and pulled the handle down and the door opened.

“Inside.”

The three rushed in, Fawkes closing the door quietly behind them. He motioned with his hand for them to follow, and he led them away from the windows toward the recessed counter where the librarian worked. He went behind a computer monitor at the book checkout and wiggled the mouse. A login screen appeared.

“What are you going to do?” asked Violetta.

“I told you. Get us all out of here,” he said with a smirk.

“With the computer? Come on.”

He used one of his tools to open the chassis of the machine as he spoke. “These old junkyard machines have BIOS holes you can drive a truck through.” He toggled from working on the circuit board to typing at the login prompt and back again.

“I hate this place,” said Mark, looking around the dark room. “All I did was one joint. I didn’t even want it. Then it’s undercover cops and detention and mom sending me to this stupid place to save me, or whatever. It’s all my brother’s fault.”

“It seriously sucks,” Violetta agreed. “Caught me with a boy in the attic. Shamed the family, you know. I’m fifteen! They think I’m a baby.”

Mark swept his eyes over her body. “You’re not a baby.”

She ignored him. “So, Fawkes, why are you here? You never said.”

The computer beeped and he typed furiously at a prompt on a black background. “Stepdad. Got tired of beating on me. Decided the ex-marine who runs this place would get my ass straightened out.” He clacked the enter key and the screen went dark. A second later it lit up with a bright image of a field of green grass. “We’re in.”

His companions crowded around the screen. Fawkes worked quickly, searching through file systems and applications.

Violetta continued questioning. “How can you do anything from the library computer?”

“It connects to the others. See, look. I’m using this terminal window to remote login on the other system. They’re so stupid. All the passwords are related. So I’m in there, too. Admin office computer. And these,” he said smiling as text scrolled through the window, “are files on all of us. What’s your last name, Violetta?”

“Rayon,” she said.

“There you are. Born in Mexico City? What, you illegal?”

“Shut up.”

“Maybe you were born in LA.”

The girl gasped as the text changed at his keystrokes.

“You can do that?”

“And, looks like you’re here for the month program. That’s a long time.”

“Yeah.” Her face fell.

“But since the last day is tomorrow, you’ll be going home.”

She squinted at the screen. “You changed the dates!”

Fawkes opened another window and keyed in lines of code.

“Take too long to do this by hand,” he said. “This little script—wait, gotta save it—it will do them all.” He typed the name of the new file into the other command window.

“What’s it doing?” asked the boy.

“Reading all the files in this directory, looking for the dates, and changing them. There, all done. Everyone goes home tomorrow.”

“Fucking awesome!” The boy shouted.

“They’ll figure it out, dumbshit,” said Fawkes. “Don’t get too excited. But we’ll have a few days of chaos. I wonder how many parents will get calls and show up?” They laughed.

“What else can you do? Can you like put naked pictures on the screens or something?”

“Yeah, sure. We’ll need to download some. And—wait, what’s this?” Fawkes stared at the screen and the file he just opened. “Oh, this is good. See the dollar signs? This is budget stuff! Financials! Same format my stepdad uses for his accounts. Okay. We can do some serious damage here.”

The girl’s eyes darted. “Fawkes, maybe we should leave. We could really get in big trouble for this.”

“Hold on, hold on.” He tuned her out, opening other files, scanning the numbers and accounts at light speed. “What the hell? Ah, no, no, no, no, no. Ah, man. Tonight’s fucking lotto. Oh, Mr. Harrison, you’ve been a very bad man!”

Mark backed away slightly. “Mr. Harrison? Don’t mess with him, Fawkes. Scares the shit out of me.”

Fawkes laughed. “Boot camp marine man? Yeah, but right now, I got his balls in a vice. Oh, man. My stepdad’s gonna love seeing where his money went! The tuition? All the fees? It’s all transferred. It goes from the school account to this one. And look whose it is!”

“Wait,” said Violetta. “Mr. Harrison is stealing?”

“What’s stealing? Dumbass parents send them the money. Fix us and all that. He already stole it. But that’s not how the world works. I’ve seen my stepdad with his money. Taxes and shit. You have to do it right or the FEDs come down on you. You can go to jail, even. Mr. Harrison’s gonna be in a world of hurt if this gets out—which it’s going to!”

“Don’t!” said Violetta. “Fawkes, don’t. He’ll do something. The man is messed up or something.”

“Yeah,” said Mark. “Look man, this was fun, but I don’t want to end up somewhere worse than this. You get him in trouble, then what’s he gonna to do?”

Fawkes froze a moment in thought, a half-smirk on his face.

“Excellent points, friends. But it’s a crime to let this go. So, there’s only one option left. And I think it’s a much, much better option.”

“Get the hell out of here?” said Mark.

“No. Blackmail.”

C
BD
: Will you please identify yourself for the record?

MR. SACKER: Tyrell Sacker, Detective, NYPD.

C
BD
: And your background? How long have you been with the NYPD?

MR. SACKER: Four years. I signed up after my Iraq tour. Promoted to detective two years ago, detective second-grade this year. Military service and cracking cases clear a lot of paperwork.

C
BD
: Congratulations to you, Mr. Sacker. Can you tell us how you came to know the defendant, Mr. Savas?

MR. SACKER: Professional interactions. I served as the point of contact between FBI and the NYPD on the kidnappings and murders by Anonymous.

C
BD
: How did that come to be?

MR. SACKER: I was on site at the bank kidnapping of Mitchell O'Kelly. Agent Cohen from Intel 1 led the FBI team. I worked with her and her division from that point on.

C
BD
: You worked exclusively with Intel 1? No other agencies at FBI?

MR. SACKER: That’s right.

C
BD
: Why is this? Why only Intel 1?

MR. SACKER: I’m not sure. With all the chaos, it was just easier to set up a clear protocol to pipe information back and forth between the agencies. Things seemed to fall into place. You know, it was all getting crazy and manpower was being sucked up for a hundred security cases and events. Ladner, my captain, barely had time to go for a piss. The setup was working, so why fix it?

C
BD
: So you were exclusively shuttling information from NYPD on the events to Intel 1?

MR. SACKER: That’s right.

C
BD
: Do you know whether they shared this information with other divisions?

MR. SACKER: I assume so.

C
BD
: But you have no evidence for that?

MR. SACKER: No. But why wouldn’t they?

C
BD
: Please take a look at these photographs. In your interactions with the FBI, did you ever come across either this man or this woman?

MR. SACKER: No. I don’t think so. Who are they?

C
BD
: Known terrorists. Francisco Lopez and Sara Houston. You might know them better as the Priest and the Whore.

MR. SACKER: [INAUDIBLE] Why would they be with the FBI?

[
R
EDACTED
]: I’ll be frank with you, Detective. You have been summoned to this tribunal to help us figure out some highly irregular actions on the part of the Intel 1 division led by Mr. Savas. It is for some of these actions that he is the subject of this inquiry.

MR. SACKER: Irregular?

[
R
EDACTED
]: Illegal. Treasonous.

MR. SACKER: No. I don’t believe that. These were good people. I didn't work day-to-day with them, but I interacted with them enough to see their dedication. Look, I don’t know what was going on, but they aren’t traitors.

[
R
EDACTED
]: But as you noted, you were not closely involved with them. You need to understand the seriousness of this inquiry, and the consequences for not being completely forthcoming.

MR. SACKER: What does that mean?

C
BD
: The site in Connecticut—how was NYPD involved?

MR. SACKER: That was a coordination between New York and local police, as well as FBI. Most of the victims were from the city financial district. We had been filling our offices with new case files on their disappearances. We had a pretty big stake in it. FBI helped bring some of us on board in Bridgeport.

[
R
EDACTED
]: But neither you nor the local police handled any evidence?

MR. SACKER: No, it was local and NYC FBI forensics teams. Mostly the New York guys, I think. They were much better equipped to do the work.

[
R
EDACTED
]: So NYPD never saw any of the alleged evidence?

MR. SACKER: Alleged?

[
R
EDACTED
]: Can you answer the question, please.

MR. SACKER: No. Like I said, the evidence was all handled by FBI. They kept us updated on the results.

C
BD
: You mean the Intel 1 division?

MR. SACKER: I don’t know whose forensics team was involved. I think the results were handled by that division, yes.

C
BD
: But Cohen kept you informed?

MR. SACKER: She did. I mean, with everything going down, it wasn’t like I had her piping information to me on an hourly basis! But all things considered, they were pretty good about keeping us in the loop.

[
R
EDACTED
]: But you knew nothing about the fugitives Lopez and Houston?

MR. SACKER: No, I didn’t.

[REDACTED]: Or about the Intel 1 division hacking into governmental agencies?

MR. SACKER: Sorry, what?

[REDACTED]: Or about the disappearances of the fugitives and the head of their cybercrimes division after these hacking events?

MR. SACKER: No! What are you talking about?

[
R
EDACTED
]: Would you characterize all the NYPD interactions with FBI in this case in a similar fashion?

MR. SACKER: I’m not following you.

[
R
EDACTED
]: The raid on the Anonymous group. The capture of the hackers. The hit on the warehouses and ship. NYPD had involvement, but is it not true that all evidence, all prisoners, all aspects of the case were tightly control by Intel 1?

MR. SACKER: Yes, but—

[
R
EDACTED
]: And in all of this, you would describe John Savas as masterminding all the activities at FBI during this crisis?

MR. SACKER: He was head of the division. I don’t think masterminding is a good word, but he—

[
R
EDACTED
]: Thank you, Mr. Sacker. We appreciate your time in this inquiry.

C
BD
: [REDACTED], there are still several questions—

[REDACTED]: That will be all, Mr. Sacker.

M
R. SACKER
: But wait a minute! What’s this all about? What hacking? What treason? You can’t just drag me in here and ask me questions without telling me anything!

[
R
EDACTED
]: The tribunal reminds you that the entire proceeding is classified under past and more recent national security laws: The Patriot Acts, the Terrorist Surveillance Order, the Obama Doctrines. You are to be reminded that we are at war and under martial law. You may not speak to anyone about any of this or even acknowledge that you have been here or that this tribunal exists. The recent NSA authorizations for tracking and recording citizens means that you will be monitored via your new nation identity card through all electronic devices, both public and private. Failure to abide by these instructions will be discovered and may be construed as action hostile to the United States of America. Do you understand?

M
R. SACKER
: Jesus.

[REDACTED]: Do you understand?

MR. SACKER: Yes.

C
BD
: You are free to go.