FALLING | MxM (completed)

Chapter 71

Everyone had been at Aiden and Edwin's apartment for the last two days. Waiting for a call or a text or their messages to get delivered. But nothing. Ian had been trying every way he knew to get the whereabouts of either Aiden or Luis, but he just couldn't. He had always said Aiden was better at hacking, although officially he had always done the projects related to that and Aiden had always made programs. It was rather Aiden didn't enjoy hacking much, so he refused the projects that involved that kind of work. But he had done one or two of the big ones with Ian nevertheless.

Ian could still remember that one time, they were still rookies at the big company they worked at. It was a few months after Aiden had begun working there when they were finally getting some praise from their bosses. They were about to leave the company building late at night when one of the higher-ups called after them to follow her.

(8 years ago)

"Aiden Evans, Ian Johnson, you two work as a pair on projects. Am I correct?" The man who they hadn't seen around, not even once, asked them. He was sitting behind the desk that normally their CEO would sit. It was his office after all, but right now, the CEO was standing by the man's side and the boys were standing in front of the desk, confused by the whole situation and getting suffocated by the thick aura that surrounded the supposedly some government man in that chair. They had never worked for the government before.

"Yes, sir." Aiden replied firmly.

"And you specialize in... hacking?"

"Yes, sir." Aiden answered again and Ian turned his face to look at him with widened eyes. He didn't know Aiden knew how to hack. Not until that day.

"And you, Johnson? Do you specialize in hacking as well?" Ian looked at the man again. "Yes... sir" He was a little bit, no, a lot intimidated by this man. He didn't like being there, but standing next to Aiden, who seemed like he would make a hell of a good soldier, calmed him a bit like he could get through this in one piece.

"And where would you have learned such skills?" The man's face was rough. It was like he had never smiled once in his whole life.

"I learned the basics in school clubs. The rest, I taught myself."

"Smart." The man nodded his head. "And you?" He turned his fierce gaze to Ian.

"I... I, my father, he was a cyber defense strategist."

The man hummed, going through the folder he had in his hands before closing it. He picked another thick folder and threw it to the other end of the desk, closer to them.

"Read the details by dawn. We will pick you up at 6 AM. You will be working under us for the next few days. Do not talk about this to anyone. Ever." And the man left after. Just like that. Like they didn't have a say in this whole situation.

Aiden was the one to pick the folder up and look through it. "Daniel, are we really doing this? This is... big!" Aiden asked their CEO, who was now the only one in the room beside them. The man had an apologetic smile on his face as he shifted in his chair a bit.

"I'm so sorry, kids. When they wanna do something, there's nothing stopping them. They always keep track of smart people in this field of work, rather all fields of works, and you two happen to be the young geniuses they always like." The old man sighed. "I just hope they let you go after this one and won't want to make you their puppets."

Ian was panicking. He hadn't seen the folder yet, but from what it sounded like, it was something very important. Walking closer to Aiden and looking over his shoulder, his eyes widened the further he read. When they were done reading the first few pages, he looked up at Aiden, who was looking surprisingly calm.

"Are you insane? We can't do THIS! I'm a good hacker and I suppose Aiden here is too but, we're not capable of hacking through such a giant system! They have millions of alarms set in every line of their codes." His whole body was shaking at this point. It wasn't something they could get away with if they were to mess up. It could cause war. He definitely did not want to be the reason for millions of people dying, and he was sure it wasn't what Aiden wanted, either.

"Listen, Ian. There's no way out of this. If they want you to do it, you just do. They won't let you be otherwise."

"Are you okay with this whole thing?" He asked Aiden, frustrated.

The other was still going through the files with complete concentration. Aiden lifted his head up and focused his attention on a trembling Ian instead.

"Of course I'm not okay! But Daniel is right. We have no other choice, and I think I've already found a hole in their defense wall. So it won't take much time." Aiden closed the folder and placed it on the big desk again before taking Ian by the shoulders and looking into his eyes softly. "It's okay. We're gonna do this and then we're gonna tell them to fuck off afterward."

Ian's lips parted as he looked back into the guy's eyes. They seemed genuine. But... "But if we can tell them to fuck off, why not tell them that now?" He grabbed the hem of Aiden's t-shirt.

"Because they're on a deadline now. They won't accept it. But if we tell them after this, beforehand, they'll know they can't count on us again." He smiled his beautiful smile at him and it made him calmer. Made sense, what Aiden had explained.

Ian swallowed roughly. "Okay... but only this once. I don't wanna be a part of the government's dirty work."

Oh, if only he knew what amount of stuff he was going to do after having his own company. He had skillfully refused the big and messed up projects, but sometimes there just was no escape.

Aiden had done as he said. He had told them they would never participate in such 'projects' ever again firmly, like he meant it, and wasn't afraid of the consequences. The man and other people had thrown him a death glare but didn't say anything further. They had never contacted them again.

Aiden was a genius. So much that it shocked everyone in the whole building when they found out he had given up on programming to become a singer. It was like giving up a whole personal island to go live in a shack in a faraway desert to them. Little did they know, he would prove himself in the music industry as one of the most talented ones as well. And right now, only Aiden could break through the defense wall of the cellphone they were desperate to break into, in order to find their locations.

DeleteCreated with Sketch.

The sound of Edwin's ringtone broke through the silence of the apartment. Jumping up, Edwin looked at the caller ID and couldn't believe his eyes.

"Hello?!"

"Edwin. It's Vincent. I think Aiden's in danger."