by Gabi Moore
It took me a minute to understand exactly what it was she saying, and how it related to my previously described predicament.
"So, what kind of information are you gathering?" I asked, with no small amount of curiosity.
"All kinds. Government email servers were the first because I didn't need particularly strong reception equipment in order to secure them. All I really had to have was this mainframe set up, and that was less of an initial investment and more hardware tinkering to get that to work."
She walked around the back of the box, and I followed.
The mainframe itself was the size of the chest freezer stood on its side, and reached up toward the ceiling. If I had to guess dimensions, I would say 12 feet high by 16 ft.² at the base. Like all of Angela’s equipment, it didn't look new. In fact, it looked a bit beat up. However, there were signs of care in the reassembly of the thing. The wires were all neatly bound together. The input-output jacks were also cleaned off, so it was clear which components were linked together.
"Can't you get in trouble for this kind of thing?"
"Only if you get caught," she replied. "The way I see it, I didn't personally offer the government any permission to conduct mass surveillance on my life, and our government is primarily based on a social contract system. The social contract is that I give up some of my rights so that the whole can be more collectively operated. If I don't consent to give up these rights, then all I see going on here is the collection of information, which might be used to benefit myself or others."
I smiled at the obvious rationalization for a dubiously criminal act. The real beautiful thing was that the legalities for mass surveillance were gray while operating on a national level. Angela had not differentiated herself much in the end result of her plan. Naturally, if she were caught, her entire operation would be seized. If she was lucky, they would realize her genius and then hire her, but for Angela's sake, I hoped that would never happen.
"The cables,” she continued, “are what really transforms this whole thing from low-level hacking into a formidable tool against the surveillance state. I mentioned to you that the cables go out at the ceiling level, and into the underground current located just outside of the building. If I had to pay for the amount of power this sucker produced… well, let's just say the city is helping me out.”
I had to laugh, but she continued uninterrupted.
“Anyways, the cables also go up to a satellite dish which I have installed on the roof. The satellite dish has been modified so that I can pick up local signals. The combination of the satellite dish as well as classic CB radio tools essentially enable me to get free access to phone records police scanners emergency radio systems, and patrol car radios."
"You're amazing," I said, totally in awe of the type of brain necessary to come up with this kind of system and make it work.
"I know," she said dismissively. "As our government has already demonstrated, the primary issue with scraping this much information on a regular basis is not only storage, but also organization. Without organization, the data tends to appear like a cluttered, undifferentiated mass. Fortunately, I was able to mitigate this problem slightly by ensuring that different sources were automatically routed to specific servers. Even after the bulk of the sorting has been done, in order to sift through this data, you have to have either something that you're specifically looking for or you need a national security budget."
“I need a minute,” I said, leaning up against a dusty tower of electronics.
This whole thing was way too intense for me to piece together all at once. It seemed to me that what she was proposing was impossible, but if there was enough data here, and we were able to search through police radio logs…
“This might just work,” I muttered. “Can you use time stamps as search criteria?”
Angela flipped open a laptop that was stationed next to the mainframe stack and loaded a custom designed search tool for the data she had collected.
“Not a problem. I had a friend design this search interface for me so I would be able to locate specific items. I can search by address, time stamps, badge numbers, and the like. Pretty much any specific information you could want, I can form a query around those terms. The only thing I can’t do is track the specific content of all of this data at once.”
“Did you program this as well?” I asked, looking at her in admiration.
She smiled a me.
“Of course not. You can’t do everything by yourself. I had a close friend of mine take care of the software element. Told him that I wanted to geek out on some database work, and he helped me out. Favor for a friend stuff.”
I gave her a nudge in the side, followed by a wink.
“Favors for Favors?”
“Fond, but not in love,” she replied, indicating that it wasn’t exactly going to work out like she had hoped, but that things had worked out as well as could be expected for that particular experience.
“Should I start with your address?” she asked. “I assume you are going to want to look through the police radio records.”
I nodded.
“That, and you can use the time stamp feature. Just to be safe, go ahead and use about 3 PM to now.”
“You got it,” she said, and before I could blink, her fingers were working their magic on the keyboard.
The screen became a flurry of activity while I watched the database program begin to sift through literally hundreds of thousands of folders, each one with what seemed like just as many sub-folders.
“This thing is top of the line,” she informed me, resting her finger on the side of the laptop. “If I wanted to make this work any faster, I’d literally have to invest thousands of dollars in order to get a computer system that was hot enough to manage all of this data. Since the search parameters are relatively small, and we’re only going through one database, the results should be in within about four hours.”
My hopes for an immediate solution were dashed, but then I realized that even four hours of hanging out with Angela would be much better than any alternative I could think of at the moment. There was really nothing more that I could do.
“Thirty minutes ago,” I reasoned out loud, “I had no idea how I was going to move forward, so a few hours of processing time seems like a small price to bay for the ability to get a hint as to where I’m headed next.”
“Yea. Hopefully, this guy you’re looking for has enough of a survival instinct to stay out of police custody or hasn’t been caught already. Of course, if he has been caught, or he ditched this bag you’re after, then none of this really matters anyway.”
I blinked, taking in the sober realization that Angela was one hundred percent correct.
I hadn’t even thought about what would happen if the man I was after had been apprehended, or ditched the bag. Any self-respecting criminal would probably do everything possible to avoid getting caught. However, if he was caught, I’m absolutely certain that he wouldn’t want to get caught carrying those goods. He seemed like he was already on the run from something, but tacking on the weight of baggage like that was sure to land him a place in hell.
“You want to take a nap,” Angela yawned and looked over at me with hopeful eyes.
I smiled, and nodded, realizing that at this point, there was nothing more that could be done, except wait.
“That would be nice. I could use a bit of recovery time.”
We walked upstairs to her crash room.
Angela was the type of person who had a nearly unlimited capacity for projects, and the majority of her house reflected that fact. In addition to her excessive penchant for electronic equipment, her kitchen was full of fermentation experiments, and her bathroom was full of plants. The only room in the house that had minimalistic sensibilities was her bedroom.
“I keep this area clear,” she had explained to me once, “so my mind has a place to relax in the face of all of these other distractions.”
Her flat only had a living room,
a basement, a kitchen, a bathroom, and the crash room. Really, the place was relatively lavish, given that she was the only one that lived there. Rent was her biggest expense, but she never had any difficulty coming up with the money. One of the reasons that she was able to afford to live in a place like that was because it was on the outside of the slums.
Where Angela lived, things got a bit less grimy, in terms of the petty criminal activity and trash that was typical of the inner slums. The outer sector of this area led to an extensive network of warehouses until the island hit the water.
There were other, more prosperous areas of Venice. Areas where tourists longed to visit, and where businessmen decided to spend much of their time. For the moment, this area was safe, and I was safe as well. I allowed my guard to relax.
Some friends are worth all the gold in the world.
And that’s when it started.
While were sitting together on the bed.
Chapter 14 - Piper
Our bodies were only a few inches away, and we were settling into that old familiar feeling. The feeling that best friends feel for one another, while appreciating their inherent level of comfortability.
Our conversations moved slowly toward sexuality.
Angela was the first one who brought it up.
“Do you ever think about what it might feel like if we were to make love?"
I took a deep breath and then nodded, turning slightly to the side away from Angela. Then I realized how silly it was for me to think that way.
This was a woman that I've spent so much time with during the course of my life, and I wanted nothing more than spend more time with her. It was obvious that the men in my life were nowhere near as sensitive as she was, and we're not nearly as interested in helping me as she had been.
In a bold move, she walked her fingers across the distance between the two of us and placed her hand on my vagina. I felt her fingers on my lips, and I felt one of her fingers pressed slowly inside of me. I was already wet for her, and soon, the two of us were sharing one another's bodies as well as a bed.
At first, I was a bit slow to pick up, but that was because I hadn't had much experience with women before. When I turned close to her and saw her face less than an inch away from mine, I knew that there was no going back. My desire for her was too strong, and the joy that I felt and sharing in touch with her was more significant than anything I could've hoped for.
She held onto my shoulder and kissed me, pulling at my skin with her mouth. Neither of us had actually penetrated the other. We were still both wearing pants, but I was getting so hot that I didn't want to wear my pants anymore.
Angela was lifting her leg up so that she was slowly wedging her knee between my legs. She leaned forward, her mouth only centimeters away from mine.
I offered her a small nip, to which she replied with a passionate kiss. She had her hand around my neck and was kissing me completely. She wasn't holding me down like the men had, or fucking me brutally. She was sensitive and understanding. She was warm, and I love the way that her curves made me feel.
She leaned over me, and I kicked the covers off from between the two of us. Soon, we were kissing one another, my tongue was flapping out of my mouth, and my hand was tearing down her shirt so that I could find her sweet nipple with my lips.
The passion exchanged between the two of us was a beautiful thing. I loved staring at her, and more importantly, I loved pawing at her. It was like both of us are so hot for each other, and the only thing we could do was allow one another the pleasure of touching each other's body. Even her hugs were sensual and passionate.
As I was removing Angeles shirt, I kissed her beautiful chest. Whether it was her nipple, her breast, or the space right above her abdomen, I couldn't get enough of her.
She was so passionate, and so incredibly beautiful.
In no time at all, my legs are spread, and her leg was pressed up in between my crotch. She pushed into me, grabbing the back of my head with a fistful of my hair. I tried to push into her, and the two of us were like sparks together.
We were wild, feral, and in that moment, freely in love.
She pinched my breasts, and bit at the side of my neck. All of the passion from years of being around one another was coming out now in one single uninhibited session. I knew that nothing would ever be the same between us again, but I didn't care. This was too beautiful.
We removed my pants, and I held my knees to my chest. Feeling as though I was being blessed by an angel, I gasped. My hand ran along her hair, while she kissed the outside of my panties. I was soaking wet for her, she was running her hands along the insides of my knees. She grabbed hold of the fabric of my panties and pulled them so that they pressed up against my clit. Losing patience, she moved forward with her head so that she could take a mouthful of my breast while pulling my panties down around my legs. They didn't make it all the way off, though because her finger found its way around and begin stroking my clit.
She pulled my panties all the way off, and threw them to the side and then, slowly, and with such beauty and grace, she spread my legs.
I felt so free. I felt so amazing, and I knew that she wanted me. I wanted her to, and I gave her everything, without contrivance.
When she finally spread my legs and brought her mouth to my clit, she moved in slow, purposeful motions.
The way that she looked at me, was like she was inspecting the treasure that was available exclusively for her. To Angela, my cunt was a mystery, a beautiful thing to be explored and treasured. I breathed deeply into my diaphragm, I sat up and then let my neck rest so I looked at the ceiling. I was gasping for breath, and smiling in a slow and steady way. When I looked at her, I saw that her pupils were wide. She was paying close attention to my body, and seemed like to her, the world had decreased in size and narrowed down to a tiny nub of sensitivity placed between my legs.
Angela had never looked so beautiful.
Her tongue moved gently, almost longingly on record. While her hand was pressed firmly on my pubic bone.
“Oh my God," I gasped, rolling my head down to the side and clutching onto the sheets once more. "Feels so good. Please don't stop!"
My breast was heaving, and my hand was clutching at the side of my head, pulling my hair by the roots. Angela, on the other hand, was taking her sweet time. Her mouth was incomplete contact on my labia. I could see her lips pressing firmly up against my labia, and reaching her tongue out toward the underside of my clit. The pleasure was too much to handle.
I clutched the side of the pillow, with one hand, and began to firmly pet Angela's mane of hair with the other hand. When she put two fingers inside of me and began fucking me, I had to turn to the side and bite my wrist in order to control myself. My breasts were moving to each side, and my whole body was shaking with the intensity from her masturbation. She was fucking me with her fingers and a ceaseless, fervent motion. All the while, her tongue was eagerly pushing towards me, tasting everything that I had to offer.
The way that my hands on her head changed when she was fucking me was an indicator of the intensity. I went from petting her, screaming and pleasure, and grouping to inherit the base of her skull.
She looked like a wild woman, and her face was attached to me. I could see the section on the inside of her cheeks. I could feel the intense short bursts of energy being pumped into my cunt.
I gripped hold of the sheets with both hands and watched as she shook my entire body with the force of her arms. Grasping hold of her head with both hands, I came into her mouth come. The orgasms were rolling, and multiple. In spite of the fact that I had already come once, she didn't stop her work.
Her fingers kept working on the inside of me, and her lips and tongue continued to press up against my clit. My whole lower body started involuntarily humping her face. I grabbed a hold of her while she bounced her face against my pubic bone.
"Oh, Angela!” I cried. “That's so fucking incredible."
My thighs clu
tched either side of her face, squeezing her between my body. I had so much tension inside of me I didn't know what to do with it so I was grabbing onto everything including her hair and the sides of her face. The sheets and pillows all around us were a mess. In spite of the fact that I had come twice now, she didn't stop her passion. She was staring directly at me and feasting on my cunt. She looked wild and untamed. The dark color of her eyelashes was all I saw when she came up to kiss me.
Tasting three orgasms in a row on the lips of my lover was an incredible feeling. I felt free, and beautiful. I wanted to love her, and I was so incredibly attracted to her.
She removed her shorts, and I worshiped her ass. I lowered her panties and licked the back of her body. My hands moved all around her, and I pulled her ass cheeks away from each other. Slapping her, and looking at the place where I had slapped her, I could see the blood rushing to the surface of her skin.
I set her down on the bed, began to worship her legs next. I could tell that she was fascinated by me.
She pinned me back down onto the bed, and wrapped her hand around my neck, holding me down on the sheets. With both of our underwear removed, she began to fuck me. She held my left leg up and rode her cunt against mine. Both of us were wet, but she looked like a prince. Her hair was down on her face, and she was a wild, fair own beauty. Our clits rubbed against each other, and the feeling of her hand wrapped around my leg was intoxicating. When I looked up to see her, I saw that she wasn't even aware of me at all. It looked like she was using me exclusively for her pleasure, and there was nothing that would've made me happier.
I never noticed Angela's lean body before, or the way that her hair hung in front of her face as her mouth was open. I knew that every single lover who had ever turned away from Angela had been a total and complete fool. In that moment, if she had asked me to stay there forever, to run away with her, that's exactly what I would've done.
She kept fucking me, while holding the back of my neck firmly with her hand. She switched her position once more and pinned me again to the bed. Her body was pressed completely against mine, her cunt on my thighs, and her lips on my lips. I moved up toward a peak, but before I could get there, she was making out with me again and holding onto my vagina with her right hand.
