A Better Life

by Liza O'Connor

Sinclair rolled his chair closer and read her monitor. “Who’s Toby?”

  In heavy sobs, she answered. “Tom’s son.”

  “Shit,” Sinclair muttered and rolled his chair back to his station.

  Davenport and Braddock burst into the room one after the other.

  “Why weren’t you here, watching her?” Braddock snapped at Davenport.

  “Because you paged me,” he replied.

  “The hell I did!” Braddock stated and gripped her firmly by her arm. “Situation is under control!” he spoke loudly, presumably to the director.

  He then glared at Davenport. “Show me my alleged page.”

  Davenport pulled out his phone, poked a few buttons and held it out.

  “Any of you guys know about phone systems?” Braddock barked.

  After dead silence and shaking heads, Sinclair spoke. “Tyler did, but you got rid of him.”

  “Shit!” Braddock stormed out into the hall.

  Leon sighed. “I’m thinking not.”

  Angel didn’t care about Tyler. All she cared about was Toby. She’d just gotten the boy killed.

  Tom would never forgive her for being the cause of his first son’s death. God, how could he even look at her after this? He would no doubt demand a transfer, if such a thing was allowed. Then her boys would miss having a loving, gentle father. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she remembered Toby when he was an adorable eight-year-old being so brave after his mother accidently poisoned him.

  Braddock returned just as Hamilton’s voice came over the phone. “Angel, I need you to calm down. We have confirmation that Toby is alive and well at school.”

  She threw herself onto Davenports’ stiff chest. When he set her back, she realized he was trying to save his job and needed to look like the ultimate professional right now. So, she turned to Leon and hugged him before he realized what she intended.

  His hand patted her back, but seriously the man knew nothing about hugs. The person she needed was Tom.

  “Leon, please watch over Angel’s workstation and ensure no one touches it.

  “Can I just shut it down?” Leon asked.

  “Not until we’ve assessed our options.”

  Angel forced herself to be rational. Toby’s life depended upon it.

  “It would be better to shut it down, sir. As long as there is a connection, we have some risk of contamination.”

  “Leon, do you agree?”

  “Yes, that’s why—"

  “Shut it down!”

  Leon closed the program and shut down the computer. “Done, sir.”

  “Davenport bring Leon and Angel to my office.”

  The anger in his voice made Angel want to go anywhere but there.

  When they entered his office five minutes later, the tension hovered like an angry cloud over Braddock and Hamilton.

  “Sit, both of you,” he snapped at Angel and Leon. Hamilton breathed in and released his air loudly, as if both frustrated and outraged.

  “It appears Sam Anderson had a spy on the inside, so he knows with certainty that Angel is here. What Tyler couldn’t or wouldn’t tell us is what that link was supposed to do.”

  Angel spoke up. “I’m worried about Toby. And we need to let Tom know—”

  “Who is the director here?” His tone was all outrage now.

  “You are, but Tom is his—”

  “I know what Tom is. And he will hear nothing of this until the situation is resolved. Neither he nor you can be expected to act rationally in this matter.”

  His words angered her, but Davenport’s intensified grip on her shoulder kept her mute. Fighting openly with this man would only make matters worse.

  “I will admit I am more vested in Toby’s safety than you, but I still believe I might be able to offer a rational perspective. For example, Sam had to expect that his first attempt at contact would be detected by others and I would be prevented from clicking that link. In which case, the ball would be in my court to contact and try to make amends, so he doesn’t kill Toby.”

  Leon was the only one who nodded. The director was on him at once. “You just told me that contact with this bastard could contaminate the system, so why the hell are you shaking your head in agreement?”

  “In Angel’s perspective, it would be the rational thing to do and we could safely do so by having her contact him outside of Black Hole.”

  Angel frowned. “But then I wouldn’t be able to assess that file.”

  “You won’t be able to assess that file even through Black Hole. According to protocol, that location point should now be shut down permanently.” He glanced at the director. “If Tyler is working with this guy, then he’ll know that. Thus, if she does contact him via that site in the future, he’ll know it’s a trap.”

  Hamilton frowned and glanced at Braddock. “Interesting observation. Has the site been locked off?”

  “No.” Braddock replied. “I was holding off to leave our options open. I’ll give the order now if you wish?”

  Hamilton nodded and refocused on Angel as Braddock called someone on his phone. “So, with the site shut down, how would you contact him?”

  Angel shrugged. “I guess I’d go through the home computer.”

  “And what would you say?”

  “I would explain I was prevented from clicking on the link, then tell him I’ll do anything he wants if he doesn’t harm Toby.”

  Hamilton’s brow furrowed into a thousand creases. “Is that what you’d really do?”

  “It’s what my heart would want me to do, but if you’re asking would I put the whole country at risk for Tom’s son…” She closed her eyes. “I wouldn’t. But I will beg you to save that precious boy while I try my hardest to determine what this bastard wants.”

  Davenport’s thumbs gently rubbed small soothing circles on the back of her shoulders. That was his way of letting her know her response had been good.

  The tension in the room eased and both sources of the negative energy leaned back in their chairs.

  “I do want to know what that bastard wants, so let’s play this out.” He glanced at Leon. “So how can we do this without placing Black Hole or this facility at risk?”

  Angel held up her hand, causing all eyes to turn to her. “I’d like to emphasize the latter worry. Assuming you’ve closed the backdoors to Black Hole, then it should be well-protected. Thus, getting into the facility system and possibly bringing down vital components like door locks or ventilation would be a more likely target.” She looked at Braddock. “Especially if you purchased commercially available software. Then Sam could already know any backdoors the programmers left in their software.”

  Leon frowned.

  Hamilton noticed at once and leaned forward. “You don’t agree?”

  Leon met his eyes. “I do. It just scares the hell out of me. They could kill us all, just by shutting down the ventilation.”

  “They couldn’t do that. My men have hazmat suits with their own oxygen supply.”

  Hamilton glared at him. “That’s supposed to make me feel better exactly how?”

  “There is nothing in this scenario that should make you feel better. I was just stating a fact. If Anderson’s intention was to kill everyone, then walk in and take Black Hole, he’d fail at his objective. My men would remain alive and kill anyone who attempted to enter.

  Hamilton sighed. “Actually, I find that a little comforting, but only a little.” He rubbed his face with the palms of his hands. “So how do we turn this to our advantage?”

  “We make sure Angel contacts him from a confined system that has no access either to Black Hole or the internal systems.”

  Angel nodded but added her worry. “But we need to know if he’s after Black Hole or the infrastructure. If it’s Black Hole, he will have to tell me that straight out. If it’s the infrastructure, he will probably attempt entry while he negotiates Toby’s life with me. If he can’t get into the infrastructure from my point of contact, then he may realize we’re
on to his real purpose and kill Toby in retaliation before he disappears.”

  Braddock growled, “He’s not disappearing.”

  Angel met the angry soldier’s eyes. “Good. But if you want to know what he plans, you should either pick him up now and torture him until he tells the truth, or we need to trick him in telling us his plans.”

  Braddock leaned forward. “What are you suggesting?”

  “That I make contact with him.” She looked at Hamilton. “May I presume the computers the children use for their lessons are in no way connected to the rest of the facility?”

  “That is accurate,” Braddock replied. “Those computers have their own fiber line out.”

  “Then allow me to contact him through the children’s classroom computer.”

  “And what will that tell us?” Braddock challenged.

  “He will tell me to contact him through a different computer or he will tell me what he wants.”

  Hamilton leaned forward. “And if he wants you to move to a different computer?”

  “Then we need to have ready a second system that to all appearances appears to be running Black Hole.”

  “And how the hell are we going to create that?” Hamilton snapped.

  Now realizing that Hamilton was clueless to his systems, she looked at Braddock. “You perform backups on your entire system, right?”

  “Twice a day.”

  She smiled at Braddock’s diligence. “Then we can cull a backup and use the operational data of that day to feed into a second fake system so for anyone tapping into the system, it will look like the real thing.”

  Leon sighed with relief and smiled. “I knew where you were going, but I was stuck on the nightmare of creating fake data, so the programs seem functional. Your idea is brilliant. Not only will it look real, but we can isolate any changes made to operations by comparing the data from the original version to the data from the after-contact version.”

  “How quickly can this be done?” Hamilton asked.

  Leon shrugged. “Depends on the number of systems and how much testing you want done to ensure we haven’t created any glitches.”

  “How soon?” Hamilton snapped and glared at Angel.

  “Leon’s right. It could take two days or two weeks.”

  “Two weeks!” Hamilton yelled and looked at Leon for a better answer.

  “I would have said two months.”

  “But you said this was a better idea.”

  “Yeah, the more obvious way to solve this would have taken six months to a year.”

  Braddock stared at Leon. “Which one will Anderson anticipate?”

  “If he even thinks about this possibility, then he should assume the six months to a year, which means he’d give Angel a much shorter time frame to work within. If he’s as clever as Angel, then he’ll give her a really short window to operate within.”

  Angel nodded in agreement. “Assume the latter.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’ll only get one chance at this. We have to win the first time around.”

  The corners of Braddock’s mouth turned up. “I agree with Angel. Who among your team can assist in building this second system?”

  “We all can help, but some will be better at it than others,” Leon replied.

  Braddock looked at Hamilton. He breathed in and out heavily. “Get to it. Angel isn’t contacting this guy until we’ve got the trap set.”

  ***

  Angel stared at her team. Should she tell them a young boy with a bright future depended on their speed and accuracy? Would that make them work harder or just put undue pressure upon them.

  Leon evidently grew tired of waiting for her to speak and took up the reins. “Angel has thought of a clever way to determine what this guy plans to do. However, it requires us to create a second system that appears to run Black Hole and the facilities infrastructure, and we need to do this in two days.”

  “That’s not even possible,” Scott objected.

  Angel told them about her idea to use real data as their inputs that run the fake system.

  Sinclair chuckled. “I can write a program that will feed the data. Which means all you guys need to do is become experts of every piece of software we have so you’ll know how to interface my program to the software.”

  “How many software programs?”

  Angel grimaced. “Eighty-four. So, let’s go through them and determine who’s most qualified to do each.”

  Two hours later, the team had determined that someone in the eight members knew eighty-two of the programs and all programming languages were covered but one.

  Angel volunteered to take the one that required her to learn a new programming language.

  “I’d like to learn it as well. Two idiots working in unison may not be quite so stupid,” Leon offered.

  Angel chuckled and nodded in agreement. “Okay, then let’s give Bob the medx program so that you, Sinclair, and I have sixteen programs, and the rest of you have seventeen.” She then studied her group. She had parsed out the work as fairly as she could, giving them a mix of small and large programs, and wherever possible, programs they already knew. “Anyone think they’ve been unfairly burdened?”

  Thankfully, they all shook their head.

  “Then let’s all start with programs we’re not familiar with and learn those while Sinclair writes our data feed program.”

  Leon frowned. “Sinclair, can you take a moment and tell us, generally, how you are going to write the program? Speaking for myself, it will help me know exactly what I need to know when learning these new programs.”

  Everyone, including Angel, nodded in agreement.

  Sinclair walked to the whiteboard and discussed his plan of attack.

  Angel smiled at the man’s brilliance. When he finished, she spoke. “In my opinion, that is a work of art.”

  Sinclair smiled at her.

  Scott wasn’t as in love with it. He rose and pointed to a point on the drawing. “Why have this firewall?”

  Angel spoke. “Because it prevents an intruder from following the data back and determining a program is generating it rather than real machines or people.”

  Scott stared at her. “You’re giving this guy a lot of credit. If we don’t use the firewall, we can have this thing done by tomorrow.”

  “My gut says we need it.” Should she tell them Toby’s life depended upon this programming seeming authentic, no matter how hard the intruder pushes it?

  Braddock entered the room and Angel feared upon hearing Scott’s suggestion, they had decided to go with the sloppy solution, and Toby be damned.

  “We want this done in two days.”

  The team groaned, and several heads shook. Scott raised his hand. Angel knew he intended to reiterate his suggestion.

  Braddock stared straight at him. “But it has to be done right. No short cuts. Get it done right, and there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar bonus for each of you.”

  Their mouths collectively fell open.

  “We’ll need our hours extended and the rule against food and liquids in the lab removed,” Bob stated.

  Braddock frowned.

  Angel feared he was going to deny their reasonable request. “We’ll be very careful, but food and caffeine will be needed.”

  Braddock sighed. “The bunks will be here by eight tonight. The director will need to clear the food and drink request.”

  Hamilton’s voice spoke over the speaker. “Request granted for this project only. Anyone who spills their drink and ruins a machine will have the cost of equipment deducted from their bonus.”

  Scott rolled his eyes.

  Braddock stepped forward. “Explain your reaction now.”

  “It’s just a keyboard. Shouldn’t cost more than a hundred dollars, and we’ve got plenty of spares. I just don’t understand what the fuss is about.”

  Angel grimaced. This needless confrontation was not helping. She needed her team excited and enthused, not bickering with
Braddock over the cost of a keyboard.

  To her surprise, he backed down. “Thank you for explaining. Just so you know, these keyboards cost over ten thousand a piece.”

  “Why?” Scott challenged.

  Braddock shook his head. Angel wasn’t sure if that meant he hadn’t a clue or he wasn’t telling. She suspected it was the latter, because Braddock had thus far been very knowledgeable about his facility.

  Angel and Leon focused on their new programming code. She was glad Leon had offered to learn it as well, because it gave her someone to share her understandings and mis-understandings with.

  At eight, she stunned her team when she declared she needed to leave. “I have to put my kids to bed. If I don’t, they’ll worry all night, and become utter terrors.”

  Davenport’s cell phone chirped, and he read his text message. “You have been given clearance to settle your boys down and put them to bed.”

  “Settle down? Are they rioting?”

  Davenport sighed and nodded.

  She groaned but wasn’t really surprised. Every day they were getting harder to manage. Their teacher had requested that Tommy return to his own age studies, thinking that the change was the cause of their current behavior.

  “They need Tom back.”

  Davenport looked at her with his hard-cold soldier eyes. His message was loud and clear. Nothing she could do about Tom, so work it out on her own.

  When she entered her home, she stared in shock at the destruction before her. It looked as if the place had been raided by terrorists. The couch pillows were tossed about the floor, the coffee table turned on its side. Their lap top for their studies laying face down by the fake fireplace. In each corner a sullen boy stood, while Derrick looked ready to kill the next person to move.

  Her youngest was screaming his head off from Mrs. Adams’ room.

  “What happened?” she asked Derrick.

  Stevie turned to answer, but Derrick barked, “Face to the corner!”

  Stevie faced the corner and yelled. “We hate Derrick. We want Tom back!”

  Both Tommy and Dare yelled their agreement. Angel’s heart went out to Derrick. It had to hurt for his own son to agree with Stevie’s rude demand.

  “Well, Tom is away doing something that will keep us safe from further danger. But given your rudeness to Derrick, I wouldn’t blame him if Derrick were to ask for a different job than watching over you boys. Look at this place! What has gotten into you?”