The NASA Files

The man could hear the sound of heavy rain hitting the pavement outside, as well as thunder roaring restlessly. He could hear the busy chatter all around him, people talking about how their days are going or reading out food items from the menu. The man sat at the corner with an open laptop, back against a wall so no one can see the screen. He looked around the vast place full of tables, all with red and white cloths on them with four chairs in each one, on the walls beautiful paintings were hung, and a glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
As he typed he heard the door opened, he knew this because of the dramatic volume change of the storm outside, he felt a cool breeze hit him in the face, but he kept on typing.
"Good evening, Felix," said the man with a heavy British accent as he closed his umbrella and placed it by the wall , "mighty storm out there isn't it?"
Felix looked up at the man that entered, "Oh, Arran, how are you doing?" he asked as he stood up and shook hands with him, "please take a seat."
Felix pulled one of the chairs out and offered him a seat, Arran sat down and grabbed a menu from the center of the table, "Say, I've never seen you eating in an Italian restaurant, what's the occasion?"
Felix showed him his computer screen, "I'm here for the wi-fi, and I haven't eaten since breakfast." He said, then looked at Arran, "Could you do me a favor?"
"What?"
"You used to be a fantastic hacker back in the day," said Felix as he scrolled up on the page, "could you help me get past this firewall?"
Arran took the laptop and gasped, "You're trying to steal from NASA? That's an extremely serious crime, they could put you in a lifetime of jail for that."
"I know, but I'm going to transfer it into this USB drive and stash it away where nobody can find it." he said as he pulled out a USB drive out of his pocket.
"Are you sure you want to do this, I mean why would you want to steal information from NASA, it doesn't make a lot of sense." asked Arran, trying to crack the firewall into NASA's secret files.
"I got some issues with an employee from the company that I want to resolve," said Felix with a smile on his face, "Don't worry, I won't do anything serious with it."
It took a while for Arran to get past the countless firewalls, there were many codes he had to crack, after about fifteen minutes of hacking and code-cracking he finally got into the NASA files.
"Ok, it is done," said Arran as he returned Felix's laptop and wiped his fingerprints off the keyboard, "and I swear if you rat me out if you get caught I will kill you
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Cole Higgins sat in the dining room with a newspaper in hand, reading about trending topics like sports and child obesity. You could hear the whistle of a kettle that was heating water for a cup of tea, there was steam coming out of the spout indicating that the water was ready, he stood up and went to the kitchen to pour some water into a tea cup and then into another, he prepared the table with two plates each holding a steak and two slices of bread, he was expecting a visitor. He finished the preparations and sat back down and got hold of his newspaper and read for a while longer when he heard a knock on the door. He stood up and answered, a man in a police uniform was standing there, he was wearing a yellow rain jacket that was soaked with water.
"Good Evening, Cole Higgins," said the officer as he took off his rain jacket and hung it on a coat hanger on the door, "Chief Patrick here, I have come to discuss something with you."
"Come on in, sir." Cole said politely as the Chief entered his apartment, he saluted Cole, and Cole saluted back.
The chief took a seat in the dining room, he got comfortable and took a sip of tea, then spoke, "Detective Higgins, I have come to discuss a major crime that was committed recently, some information from NASA has been stolen from their website, and we got an anonymous letter from the culprit that threatened that he or she was going to release it publicly," he took a bite from his steak and spread butter on one of his toasts, "I have come to you because you are a well trusted detective that has assisted the police force greatly over the last ten years, and I was hoping if you could help us crack this case."
Cole sat down and took a bite of toast, "I could try," he said after he swallowed the bread, " but I'm going to need somewhere to start, do you know where this crime took place?"
"We do, we tracked the computer and found it in a dumpster behind Il Fornaio, we took it out and decided to let you inspect it at the New York City Police Department." said the Chief after finishing the second slice of bread.
"Sure, I'd be happy to inspect," said Cole as he finished his steak and took his plate to the sink, he returned and took a sip of tea, it was scalding hot, "I'll be there first thing tomorrow Chief, and I'll go to the restaurant after inspecting the computer to investigate." he said as he tried to cool his tongue by drinking some cool water.
"Very well then, I'll be going now, I have to get home and help tuck the kids in, it's getting late." He said as he glanced at the clock, he stood up, thanked Cole for the meal, and headed out.
"Hey Chief!" yelled Cole as the Chief was leaving, " you're forgetting your sweater."
"Oh, well darn me," said the chief as he pulled the sweater off the hook and slipped it on, "you know Higgins, this is why we asked you to investigate this case, you are eagle eyed when it comes to spotting small details."
"Thank you, Chief" said Cole with a smile, "guess it's just a gift I was born with." "Alright, see you tomorrow Higgins." said the Chief as he walked out the room. "Alright, take care." said Cole, and he headed to his bedroom, and he took his
newspaper with him.
Cole Higgins woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and the annoying sound of his
alarm buzzing away on the nightstand next to him. He stood up and opened the curtains, he could see the streets empty with the exception of a few morning joggers taking an early morning run around
the block, the streets were filled with puddles from last night's thunderstorm. From his apartment he could see the police department in the distance... The police apartment! He had to be there to investigate the laptop retrieved from Il Fornaio. He entered the bathroom and took a quick shower, then he got dressed and served himself some Frosted Flakes with a cup of coffee to wake him up a bit. After he was done he brushed his teeth and headed to the apartment parking lot and drove his Mercedes-Benz to the police apartment. He entered the building and was greeted by a young officer.
"Hello, Detective Higgins here, I have come to investigate the laptop that you requested me to inspect." said Cole as he shook the young man's hand.
"Of course, come this way." said the young officer as he showed Cole into the Chief's office. They entered his office which was at the end of a long hallway of doors.
The young officer stood by the door and let Cole entered, "Detective Higgins has come for the investigation of the... laptop." he said with a nervous tone in his voice.
"Thank you for bringing him in, Officer Felix." said the Chief, he was sitting behind a desk made of what appeared to be spruce wood. He was going through some files while drinking a cup of coffee, "good morning Higgins, I assume you have come in word of the investigation."
"Yes sir," said Cole as he took a seat on the other side of the Chief's desk.
"You want some coffee?" asked the General politely as he filled the coffee machine up with water.
"No, thank you," said Cole, " I already had a cup this morning."
"Ok, follow me, I'll take you up to the investigation room." said the Chief as he stood up, Cole followed.
They made their way back through the hallway and went up a flight of stairs, they entered a room that was pretty big, but with hardly any furniture inside, just a table in the middle and some counters in the back full of tools. There was a bag on the table that held a computer.
"This is the laptop that was retrieved from the restaurant, it's an older model, but it still a good piece of equipment for hacking." said the Chief as he stood next to Cole and took the computer out of the bag.
Cole inspected it, "Well to start off we should probably check for fingerprints." he said as he studied the computer carefully, he used a magnifying glass to check for them, there weren't any.
"Someone wiped the fingerprints off it," said Cole as he he studied the underside of it for any more, "they were prepared to pull this off."
Right when the Chief was about to speak Felix burst into the room, "Sir, I'm going to have to quit, I have a family emergency in New Jersey, my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer." he said as tears trung out of his eyes.
"Dear me, are you sure you want to quit, you can still keep your job even if you go?" asked the Chief with a surprised look in his eye, he put his full attention on poor Felix.
"Sorry, I have to, it's ok I'll find a job in New Jersey," he said with a crack in his voice, " My grandfather is like a father figure to me, I use to spend so much time with him as a little lad. It wouldn't be right if I just ignored this situation." "Alright, you can quit your job, we would be happy to send money for your grandpa." said the Chief as he patted Felix on the back.
"Thank you very much, sir, that is really appreciated." said Felix as he left the room, again he had that nervous look on his face.
"Poor Lad, grandfathers are something that you should truly idolize, I remember the days when it was just me and my old man." he said with a crack of his voice, tears threatening to escape from his tear glands.
"That's sad, cancer is much more deadly to older people, I really hope he can fight it."
"Yeah, anyways about the laptop, without any fingerprints on it, how are we going to find the culprits?" said the Chief as he placed the laptop back in the bag.
Cole thought for a second, there weren't many ways that they could find the culprit without fingerprints. He could ask an employee who was at the restaurant at the time, that was about it. He could ask if anyone went out through the back of Il... the dumpster!
"We could check the dumpster for fingerprints!" said Cole excitedly, he grabbed a magnifying glass and started heading out.
"Alright, come back if you find anything." said the Chief as he went back to his desk and sat down."
Cole got in his Mercedes and drove off to Il Fornaio, he entered and asked an employee to let him go behind the building, the employee led him out into a small area with nothing but a dumpster, he inspected it with the magnifying glass. He could just make out some fingerprints on the lid, and he lifted them and took them to the department.
"Chief, I found some fingerprints on the dumpster behind the restaurant," said Cole as he showed the Chief the fingerprints, "process them and see who they belong to."
The chief ordered some people to investigate the prints, after about half an hour they came back with results. Cole inspected the results, he gasped and quickly ran to the Chief's office.
"Chief, you have to look at these results!" screamed Cole as he ran in the Chief's office and put the results in front of him.
"Good Lord, Felix Joggen," said the Chief with wide eyes as he looked through the results, "he was the one who used to work here, I know his full name, Higgins go to his house immediately, he may still be there packing."
"Yes, Sir." said Cole as he dashed out of the room.
Cole drove to the address given to him, 302 Main St., when he got there the door was locked, he had to break through the window, when he got inside him and his three officer helpers went in to investigate, after an hour they couldn't find Felix inside the vast house.
"Damn it, he left!" said Cole angrily as he gave up on the investigation.
"Higgins, you might want to take a look at this." yelled one of the officers from upstairs. Cole headed up and was met with the officer that yelled, he handed him a light blue USB
drive.
"Good job, Officer Marshal, we will take this to the department for investigating." said
Cole as he inspected the USB drive carefully.
They headed to the department and gave the USB drive to the Chief, who plugged it into his computer. A bunch of information popped out on the screen, after a few minutes of scrolling, the Chief's eyes went wide.
"This is all the information that was taken from NASA," said the Chief with a delight in his voice, he took the USB drive and commanded one of the officers to take it into the investigation room, "he must've forgot it, which is lucky for us."
Cole felt a rush of relief, he sighed, "Finally, that case was a tough one to crack."
"Yeah, now that we have the information there is now way Felix can do any harm," he said as he took a sip of coffee, "well done, Detective Higgins, this case is closed."
Cole looked up at the ceiling and got lost in his thoughts, "Yeah, I hope so."