I was at my house in minutes and I raced up the stairs to grab my laptop, which I kept in my nightstand. I hardly ever used it, and because it was a newer model, I was hoping it could handle the hacking Kathleen was planning on.
I briefly wondered if the porn I had watched on it not too long ago was still up on it, but decided not to think too much about it. Besides, there was no time to go in and delete the evidence.
Whatever, everyone watches porn. I’m pretty sure if I looked through her internet history, it would show some freaky stuff, too. Unless she’s worried like I am and deletes her history after every time. I chuckled to myself. It would be hilarious to see her reaction if I had forgotten to erase my history after the last time I used it. Sometimes I got lazy, but I would just have to hope that I remembered and could save myself from some serious embarrassment.
I rushed back to the car, and as I drove back to the holding lodge, I reached out to both Knox and Trent with my mind.
Guys. I need you both to meet me at the holding lodge.
What? You need supervision while you go visit your traitor girlfriend? I could hear the snark in Trent’s tone when he answered.
She’s not a traitor, man.
Did she spout off more lies to you? She already admitted she’s working for the government. What more is there to it?
Easy, Trent. What is this all about, Drew? Knox’s voice was calm.
I’ll explain everything; just get here.
I had arrived at the holding lodge and raced inside. Kathleen had been looking down when I entered, but her head shot up when she heard me approaching the cell.
“Did you get it?”
I nodded and held up the thin, black laptop and then slipped it to her through the bars.
“Ooooh, a Lenovo. Not bad.” She raised her eyebrows at me as she opened the laptop.
I shrugged. “The guys at Best Buy picked it out for me, so I can’t really take any credit for picking it out.”
“Where are Knox and Trent?” she asked, her eyes scanning the room.
“They’re on their way.” Or at least, I hoped they were.
“Good, I’ll set everything up. I doubt you have any hacking software on your laptop, so I’ll have to download a couple of things. But, first things first.” She closed the laptop and seemed to give it a thorough look over. She checked all the ports and the keyboard when she opened it. “Does Trent have any tape over there?”
I walked over to Trent’s desk and spotted some masking tape. I grabbed it and slid it through the bars of the cell to her, watching her rip off a few thin strips, which she used to cover the webcam.
“If I am intercepted, which I doubt I will be, they’ll only be able to track me if I don’t power down the laptop fast enough, just like before. It only takes a couple of seconds for them to locate the source of the hack, but even if I’m not that fast, you’ll have nothing to worry about. What are they going to do to you? Take away your laptop?” Kathleen rolled her eyes and asked for the password to log in. “Let me guess, is it something to do with fire?”
“Yeah, it’s inferno.” I rubbed the back of my head and looked away.
“You are so predictable; I could’ve hacked that in seconds.” Kathleen chuckled and, moments later, asked for the password to Trent’s office. “I bet it’s something dumb like trent69.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” I winced.
“I bet a lot of people get free Wi-Fi around here,” she joked.
Please no porn…please no porn…please no porn… I waited a couple of seconds, and if there had been porn on the screen when she loaded it, she hid it well. There was no reaction, so I breathed a sigh of relief.
While she downloaded the software she needed, I stood against the cell in silence, wondering what this meant. So what if she hacked into the NCPD-CID’s communication line and got Trent and Knox to believe she was with us now. Would they let her go? Would the NCPD-CID try to get her out in time for the fire, or would they just leave her there? I wasn’t sure of the answers to any of these questions, but I hoped she’d be off the hook after all this. If Kathleen was really on our side now, she didn’t need to be locked up.
“Alright, I’m all set up, just waiting for—”
“You interrupted my meal, so this had better be good.” Trent walked into the office, with Knox right after him. Neither looked pleased to be there.
“What’s going on?” Knox’s eyes were on the laptop in Kathleen’s hands.
“Long story short, Kathleen’s a hacker who tried breaking into the government’s files, but they caught her and made her work for them; that’s why she had to deliver that message. But now, she’s going to work for us and is going to hack into the NCPD-CID’s communication line to see if we can get any information on their plans against us.”
“How do we know we can trust her? She could be contacting them right now to get them to bust her out of here or something!” Trent was immediately on the defense, but I was prepared.
“I trust her. And she already has the laptop, so you’ll just have to deal with it.” I looked to Knox to make sure I wasn’t overstepping his authority. If he ordered me to take the laptop from her or anything like that, I would do it. But I would still try to convince him. He just nodded, though, and I felt relieved. Trent stood silently but was obviously pissed off. I could tell he wasn’t ready to trust Kathleen, but I couldn’t really blame him.
“So how exactly are you going to do this, Kathleen?” Knox addressed her directly.
“I’m going to hack their message board. Every organization has a secret message board where they discuss plans for the group that only a select few can sign into. It’s usually just the higher-ups that have access, but I would bet the NCPD-CID’s board is shared with every single person involved in this bear shifter execution plan. I don’t see how else they would find time to discuss it during work hours. If we find nothing there, I can always hack their emails, but I feel like emails take too long for responses. This plan would need immediate contact at any moment and an instant message board would be the best line of communication.”
“Can you do it?” Knox asked.
Kathleen nodded. “Getting in is going to be a piece of cake. Staying undetected is the issue. But I can do it and I’m about to. I’m going to place a reader on as well so that it will dictate their messages out loud, so we can all hear them.”
Trent and Knox gathered around me against the cell bars as we waited to hear anything.
“What’s taking so long?” Trent asked impatiently, but Kathleen answered before I could say something.
“They’ve beefed up security since my last hack, but I can still get in.” Kathleen was typing away furiously, her eyes glued to the laptop screen. “Yes! Alright, I’m in.”
Everyone stood in silence as we listened.
“Is everything set for Monday?” A robotic voice emitted from the speakers of the laptop.
“Is that the highest the volume can go?” I asked. It was a little hard to hear, but I could still make out the words.
“Yeah, sorry, the speakers aren’t all that great.” I laughed inwardly, That’s why I usually listen to porn with my headphones on.
The computerized voice continued, “Yes, everything is set. He will be paid once the job is completed.”
“Who’s he?” I asked.
Kathleen looked at the computer screen and shrugged. “No sign of a screen name. It’s usually that way, though.”
“When can he have it completed by?”
“He said 5pm…”
“That’s it,” Kathleen proclaimed. “That’s the time the attack will happen—well, sometime a little before that.”
She had been ready to shut down the laptop, but Knox held a hand up to her. “Let’s wait to see if they reveal who is going to do it or how it will be done.”
“The longer we stay logged in, the longer we are at risk of being discovered. You realize that, right? We already know the general timing of when they plan to initiate the fire, so we can be prepared.” Kathleen was treading lightly; I could tell she was nervous about confronting Knox.
“Look, I’m very grateful that you’re putting yourself at risk, Kathleen, but the timing isn’t enough. We need more information, if we can get it,” Knox responded.
Kathleen nodded; we silently waited for any further details to be shared over the next two minutes, but nothing came through.
“Okay, I’m closing the connection. Either something’s wrong or they’re busy, but we should be hearing correspondence if the communication lines are open.” Kathleen scrambled with the laptop and then closed it quickly. “I shut down the hack and deleted everything related to it from your computer, Drew.”
“So, we know they’re planning on attacking us sometime before 5pm because they hope to have us eliminated by then.” Knox seemed deep in thought.
“Well, at least that means we’ll be done with work for the day at our normal time,” Trent joked.
Just then, someone’s phone began to ring. Trent and Knox checked their pockets, but the sound wasn’t coming from either of their devices. I knew it wasn’t mine just by the ringtone alone, but I checked anyway. It sounded like it was coming from Trent’s desk, so he padded over to it and opened one of the drawers. The sound grew louder.
“It’s hers. It’s coming from the phone we took from her when we arrested her.”
“What does the caller ID say?” Kathleen asked suspiciously.
“Unknown.”
“It’s Hanson. Eric Hanson. He’s the head of the NCPD-CID and the one who forced me to do this job. He’s probably calling to find out how you guys responded to the ultimatum.”
“He probably already knows we’re not standing down and that’s why he’s setting up the plan for the fire,” I said, shaking my head.
Trent gave Kathleen the phone, which had started to ring a second time.
“Answer it,” he said.
“I don’t know, guys; this is weird. We just hacked them and now he’s calling me?” Kathleen seemed very nervous.
“If you don’t answer, who knows what they will think. They could come here searching for you tonight and set this place ablaze in the meantime,” Trent argued.
Knox and I nodded; he was right. The best thing for her to do was answer the phone.
“Hello?” Kathleen spoke shakily. “Yes, I did…They have chosen to stay and fight, but I am trying to convince them…Understood…”
She gulped and pressed the screen to end the call.
“What happened?” I asked, rushing over to the bars. “What did he say?”
“He asked about your decision, and after I told him I was trying to convince you all otherwise, he said I had until Sunday morning to get you on board, or he will proceed with the plan.”
“Whatever, it’s not like we’re changing our minds, anyway,” Trent snickered.
“It’s going to be okay, Kathleen; you did everything you could possibly do for us. My plan will work, and our clan and the park will be fine,” I assured her, but it just didn’t feel like enough. I turned to Trent. “Can we get her out of here now?”
Trent looked at Knox, who was silent for a moment, but finally nodded. When Trent unlocked the cell, I rushed in to hold Kathleen, who had started to cry, but she pushed me off.
“Listen, I want to help. Let me help you prepare the park for the fire; it’s the least I can do.” There was determination in her eyes, and if she hadn’t been crying, I might have found myself turned on.
“Well, there is no time to lose. Everyone go home and get your rest,” Knox advised. “Tomorrow, the execution of the plan resumes.”
Everyone nodded, and Knox and Trent headed out of the office.
I turned to Kathleen, “Do you want me to take you to the hotel?”
“Can I stay with you?” Her eyes were pleading, but she looked away quickly. “You know, since I’m going to come help out tomorrow. You live right here, so it just makes sense…”
I gave her a quick squeeze and helped her to her feet. “Of course, you can stay with me.”