by Newbiel
"I can understand that. Where is mom?"
"Well, I'm right here."
Nathaniel groaned, triggering a fit of laughter from Mary. That was an old joke of theirs. When Nathaniel was little, since he had two mothers, he was calling both of them mom. That led to a couple of funny scenes and after that it became a joke so used that it was almost painful to hear now.
"Mom, I remember that when I was twelve we said that the next one who will make that joke will be called 'other mom'."
"Don't you dare!" She threatened making Nathaniel laugh. "Karine is in the shower by the way."
"Good, I'm just here to change and then I'm off to college." Nathaniel said.
"Not so fast sweetie, look at the newspaper." She interrupted, pushing the journal in his direction.
Curious, he picked it up and started to read the headline. 'Drabs hotel shootout solved, all the persons implicated in the attack arrested.' Reading through the article in his entirety Nathaniel could not help but shake his head. Since the "Black Hand" was located in Korea, there was no one they could arrest considering that the only ones who were on American soil were dead. The FBI must have arrested a couple of criminals to present as their fall guys.
Politically, they could not give no response to the american people without backlash and putting the finger to an asian assassin organisation was not a very good move to make for obvious reasons. Nathaniel was sure that people were on the move in the shadows to get retribution but that did not concern him anymore. He had made a promise and he will keep it. For now, he just wanted his friend back to college.
"Everything is solved then." Nathaniel said with a tone as neutral as possible.
"To the grand public, it is." She responded in the same manner.
Knowing how she felt Nathaniel did not add anything else and just kissed her cheek before going to his room. Sometimes, knowing the truth was worse than not knowing.
*****
Two hours later in One Police Plaza James Mattews, director of internal affairs, was talking about a case with one of his agents when three persons exited the elevator. The thing that made them stand out was the three blue FBI jackets. Cutting the conversation short that he had with his agent, he made his way to them.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes, we want to talk with director Mattews." The female agent responded.
"I am director Mattews, who am I talking to?"
"Oh good. I'm agent Aldrin and this is agent Williams. The one here is our computer expert, agent Zipert. We are from the FBI."
"Thanks for the heads up, that was not obvious enough with your flashy jackets. What do you want?" Mattews said sarcastically. He was not a fan of the FBI by any means.
"Can we talk in a more private location?" Agent Aldrin asked, ignoring the jab.
"Alright, follow me." He sighed, leading them to his office.
Sitting behind his desk he looked at each of them long and hard, not even offering them a seat.
"So, what is going on here?"
"We came today about a case that happened on the third of june. The Piotr Droski case."
"Yes, I remember it quite well. What about it?"
"In the record you said that an unknown individual was caught on camera taking out four armed men in a close combat quarter and dispatched them without even a scratch and he took out more once inside. We are thinking that the same man is involved in our case." Agent Aldrin said.
"I see. You can't tell me which case it is, am I right?"
"You are right, we can't. In the record you mentioned having a video of the event but it was not forwarded with the rest of the evidence and it is not on the Police server. Why is that?"
"I did not want that video ending on Youtube so I kept it on my private server here." He said.
"Can we see it?"
Looking at them, he just sighed.
"Alright, come over here."
Typing in his password, he easily found the file that he was looking for while the three agents were taking place beside him. Double clicking on the video files a cat playing a piano suddenly appeared on the screen.
"What the hell!" Jonathan shouted, cutting the video off.
"What is going on here? Is this a joke?" Agent Aldrin asked crossly.
"No it's not a joke, I don't understand. I have not touched the file since I uploaded it. This makes no sense at all." Jonathan said dumbfounded.
"Can I have a look?" Agent Zipert asked.
"Are you serious?" Mattews said with furrowed eyebrows.
"Agent Zipert is our technical expert if there is a problem with the file, he is the best one to solve it." Agent Aldrin said.
"Okay, I will allow it but I have a lot of sensible files in there if I see you put your nose where it does not belong I will fill charges." The director threatened leaving his chair.
"I will, director." Agent Zipert assured taking place behind the screen.
He started typing on the computer, opening one diagnostic window after the other. His brows knitted more and more as information appeared on the screen.
"The video was hacked." He finally stated.
"What! This is not possible! This server is not even connected to the internet."
"It is not. This was done physically. The time stamp showed that it was done on the sixth of june at two thirty in the morning." Agent Zipert said.
"You are telling me that someone broke into One PP and hacked into my server?" Mattews shouted.
"It looks that way Director."
"Has something else been touched?" He asked. He was keeping a lot of sensible files that could kill a lot of their current cases on his server. It could be catastrophique if everything was erased.
"No, it was specially targeted at this single video."
"Can we retrieve the video?" Agent Aldrin asked.
"That is what I'm trying to do but it seems the one who came here ran some kind of destruction program before leaving. I can't find any trace of the video anywhere in the registry or even a single piece of it, whoever did this had a lot of skill."
"We are looking for a hacker then." Agent Williams said.
"No, you are not understanding me. This kind of work is too sophisticated for a normal hacker. We are looking for someone way more skilled than that. To be honest, it kind of reminds me of destruction software given by the CIA to their agents for destroying any data once received to limit the risk of being seized by foreign nations."
"Wait! You are saying the CIA did this?" Aldrin shouted with disbelief.
"Them or another agency with three letters." Agent Zipert said, a serious expression on his face.
"I need to make phone calls. A lot of them." Director Mattews said darkly.
Chapter 85: :
New York. 22/10/2012. 16:00.
Nathaniel was working on his next assignment in his room when he heard the front door being opened with way too much force than it used to be and then he heard his mother yell.
"NATHANIEL ABRAHAM LYNDON" Karine yelled in the appartement, slamming the front door shut.
Hearing that voice, Nathaniel felt a shiver run down his spine. That was the second time in his entire life that his mother used his complete name to call him. Thinking back to the first time that she used it, he was eleven years old at the time when he had inadvertently spilled his glass of milk on her folder containing a weeks worth of work on a case, ruining it completely. He ended up so traumatized that he stopped drinking milk.
The thing that was not reassuring by any means was that she was looking even angrier now than back then. Steeling himself for what was to come he got up from his chair and exited his room. She was so red that she seemed to explode and was about to yell when she appeared to remember something. Taking her phone out, she tried to take it apart but losing her patience she just smashed it on the ground to use all of her pent up anger. Seeing her lose her temper like that, Nathaniel gulped.
"I'm going to ask you this only once." She started, chewing on each word. "Did you break i
nto One PP, hacked into my friend James personal server and used a CIA software to erase the camera footage of the Droski case present in it?"
"Euh, yes?" He answered in a little voice.
"ARE YOU FUCK**G STUPID?" She yelled before forcing herself to quiet down. "Do you have any idea of what you triggered? James called the commissioner who called the mayor who ended up calling the governor. The FBI was there too and they put a joint formal complaint to the congress against the CIA. You triggered a political incident like nothing I have ever seen and a lot of important people are pissed off."
"I'm sorry mom but I needed to do this. The less evidence there is against me, the better." He apologized.
"You do not understand! What do you think will happen when the CIA is going to say they have nothing to do with it? We are going to be put under scrutiny. You just put a huge target on our back!" She said angrily, tears threatening to spill over.
"No mom, you are wrong. You think the CIA is one block but it is not. On the contrary, they work in the form of independent cells for security purposes. Yes, the CIA will say they have nothing to do with it but realistically who is going to believe them? They say that every time they are accused of something and the case ends up buried alongside someones career each time. They will do an internal investigation to appease the congress to find out from which cell it came from and they will come up empty handed. Like every investigation made against the CIA. The agency can not be monitored because their whole existence is created that way." Nathaniel explained.
Thinking about this she could see that her son's reasoning was not without merit but she was still too angry to give it up that easily.
"This is still not okay! You can't keep doing what you are doing, creating havoc everywhere you go." Karine continued but a lot calmer now.
"I had to. When I looked into the personnel files of your friend James, he was still convinced that the man that attacked the compound of Drosky was sent by us. That's why I used that particular program to erase the evidence. I created a way bigger culprit than us. A culprit that can't be linked to our family by any means."
"You created a false trail." Realised Karine, the last bit of her anger leaving her.
She was not surprised to find out that she did not succeed in soothing her friends' suspicions. James was a very experienced officer and was used to people lying to him. He also had that particular cop instinct who made him troublesome to deal with.
"Yes, against an organisation who is adept with this kind of operation and who had access to the kind of highly trained people who could do this. Especially now that they do not have the video they will have to follow the research with what Jonathan and his team saw, a six foot, two hundred pound and at a minimum thirty five year old man." Nathaniel added, shrugging.
"You put much thought into this but please do not do that ever again. You can't imagine what I felt like when I heard about this. I almost lost it in front of everyone." Karine slumped down on the chair.
"I'm sorry mom, I won't."
"Good. At least now I know that I'm done with that." She said, tiredly.
"Well, about that…" Nathaniel said uncomfortably.
"Come on! Are you kidding me? What did you do again?"
"I sneaked into One PP a couple of weeks after that. I did not hack into anything I promise, I just stole the access code to one of the directors. I just put fake addresses for us, even if they notice they will just think of it as a typing error. After what happened the last time with the Droski case I will not trust the NYPD to keep us safe." He said with steel in his voice.
"Nathaniel just please, no more breaking into One PP." She said weakly.
"I promise mom, it was the last time." He said, truthfully.
"Alright, now about punishment. Effective today, you are on grossery duty, dusting chore and laundry for a month! Do not even try to argue against this or it will be two months." She warned.
"I know better than to argue against a New York prosecutor." Nathaniel answered respectfully.
"You also owe me a new phone." She added, looking at the pieces of her old one on the ground.
"Of course, I will take care of it." Nathaniel said, relieved that it was finally over.
"Not so fast, I need a drink right now."
"Yes Ma'am."
Chapter 86: :
New York. 25/10/2012. 08:20.
Lina was looking at herself in the mirror, fixing her outfit. Today was to be her first day as an employee in the Lyndon label and she was anxious. She had put on her more serious get up which consisted of only black pants, a white T-shirt and a grey jacket. These clothes were chosen by her mother since she was not very good at shopping. She had no sense whatsoever of fashion and since her money was tight all of her clothes were kind of old.
"You look good Lina." Helena Campbell said, entering her room without even knocking.
Lina just put on a little smile as an answer, trying to soothe her hair.
"Don't be anxious, everything is going to be fine." Her mother said, taking the hand that she was using on her hair.
"What if I ruin everything and they fire me instantly? We will lose everything." She said anxiously.
Looking at her mom now she could barely believe it. For the last five days since they had accepted the proposition of Nathaniel Lyndon, the condition of her mother had steadily improved. So far they could barely afford the basic medication for her illness and they could only watch as she faded away. But now that the Lyndon label was taking care of all the medical bills she was doing better each day. Just looking at her now, capable of walking and staying upright like that was heartwarming. She was not going to be cured anytime soon but now they could live a little lighter.
"Lina, that Lyndon kid is just the first to notice what me and your father have known since you were little. You are gifted in what you do. Just be you and more people will realise that you are gifted as well." She said, soothing her hair.
"Thanks mom." Lina smiled, calming down.
"Lina, are you ready?" Her father said, entering the room as well.
He was wearing a nicely cut black suit which was complimenting his imposing aura. That particular suit was there when they had arrived, along with two other sets. That was not the only thing that was here when they arrived. Nathaniel Lyndon had even taken the liberty to buy them two brand new king sized beds.
"You look really handsome in that suit, love." Helena said smiling.
Hearing the compliment, Michael cracked a smile. He was not smiling or laughing that often when he was at his job but at home it was totally different. He was loving the two women in his life more than life itself and did not bother trying to hide it.
"Thanks. So are you ready kiddo?"
"Yes dad, I think I am." Lina nodded resolutely.
"Good, let's go or we will be late. There is no way I'm going to be late on the first day." He said.
"Mom, you are going to be okay alone?" Lina asked.
"Yes, don't worry. I will busy myself with unpacking." She smiled.
"Just take it slow and unpack only the clothes or the other light objects and take breaks. Manage yourself love, alright?" Michael said.
"I know my limits, don't worry about me love."
*****
They arrived fifteen minutes earlier than the time they were supposed to check in. Entering the huge lobby, Lina followed her father who was walking in the direction of the front desk.
"Universal Lyndon Records, can I help you?" The man in the front desk asked.
"Yes, we are supposed to meet here to start working this morning. I'm Michael Campbell and this is my daughter, Lina Campbell."
"Alright, let me check on my computer for a second." The man said.
"That will not be necessary." A pleasant voice sounded beside Lina, surprising her.
"Of course, sir." The man said seeing who had come over.
Turning to the side she realised that Nathaniel Lyndon was there beside an imposing man. The ey
es of the man passed over her without lingering and settled on her father. Even if there was a huge difference in build between the two men Michael did not appear intimidated by him and just looked at him impassively which elicited a nod of approval coming from the man.
"Hello Michael, hello Lina. Glad to see that you made it." Nathaniel said.
"Of course sir." Michael said while Lina simply nodded shyly.
"Oh, let me introduce you to Jean Martin here. He is one of my grandfather's personal bodyguards and technically your boss, he will show you around."
"Campbell is it?" Jean asked.
"Yes sir."
"Good, follow me." Jean ordered, Michael following him in his step with a last nod of encouragement to his daughter.
"Lina, I will be the one to show you your post and explain what your job will be." Nathaniel said.
Walking with her to the elevator he slid his badge to unlock it and then pressed the button to the tenth floor. A minute later they arrived on the floor and the door opened. Nathaniel led Lina through a succession of corridors until they arrived at a door named 'IT department'. Nathaniel walked through the door. Lina followed him and could see that there were already quite few people working, so far all men with geeky apparences between twenty and thirty years old.
Seeing Nathaniel entering their department all of them got back to work, closing a couple of games from their work computers making Nathaniel smile. Lina could see that the two of them gathered a lot of attention and she closed in on Nathaniel, trying to hide in his shadow. She was not very comfortable being stared at.
Passing in the open space, Nathaniel guided Lina to a small office and closed the door once they were both inside. Lina was mesmerized, looking at the high end computer on the desk and the two 17" flat screens on it.
"This is your home." Nathaniel announced spreading his arms wide.
Lina was so focused on the computer that she almost missed his words and it did take a couple of seconds to fully comprehend what he was saying.
"What? Why am I not with the others in the open office?" She asked troublingly.
"Because they are here to make sure every computer in the building works and fix them when they don't. You are here for another reason. I want you to conduct a thorough investigation of our cyber security and our firewall. As of now, we contracted an outside company to provide us protection and I'm not satisfied with their work so far."
