Chapter 14
Date: August 2nd
Location: Hilton Hotel
Time: 11:28 a.m.
I hate Jupiter; they can really just go burn in hell. I think Nathan Jone's made them just so that it was harder for hackers like me to break into them.
Nathan Jones was one of the most brilliant computer and electronic inventors of our time. He created Jethro inc when he was 20 years old and has been making billions ever since. His most famous inventions was the Jupiter phone, the June, a music playing device, and the Jackyl a thin computer. Nathan had a thing with J's also but back to my main point.
Why, why do Jupiters have to be so difficult to break apart?
It was basically just an electronic block that held all your apps and information (basic of course). No panels, no screws! Iris started cracking up when I told her about this. Back to the main point, the only way to break one of these phones is by smashing it into bits and pieces. I normally would have done that by now either to get the information or just out of pure rage but I didn’t want to give up my contact with M.L. A. Stupid I know, I know but at least I was able to deactivate the tracking device.
That still doesn’t account for my actions. It was and is extremely stupid to keep in contact with him, not that I was responding, which is why I didn’t tell the others, I’d be saying hello to lectureville again. Besides I wasn’t even responding back to his texts which irked me in so many more ways than one.
Are you alright?
You dead?
Where are you?
Pfft, like I was going to tell him that. At first it sounded like a good friend concerned for the others health until I got the most recent text early this morning.
U better not be hurt…
See normal until
… it decreases your value.
Back to the Lockstar I know and hate. I didn’t understand his concern until I noticed the pattern, after that all I could think was that he is a conceited ass for using the C.A.S.T method.
C- Care for person of interest/ object
A-Arrange meeting with POI after a period of time for them to trust you
S- Secure POI
T- Take them home or to point of interest
The C.A.S.T method is old and outdated mostly forgotten and not used for its original purpose. It was originally intended for traumatized patients in hiding, cops would send them letters reassuring them that they were alright.
It was also kind of like a watered down version of Stockholm syndrome. Instead of the hostage feeling empathy for their kidnapper they will feel empathy or security within the cops or the people trying to help them. The only problem with this is that the hostages that they tried to use the C.A.S.T method on actually had Stockholm syndrome and needless to say it failed.
For the cops that is.
Criminals and kidnappers alike always use this method once they get in contact with the kidnapee or hostage. They usually give them reassurance asking if they are alright, they are doing this to help them, yada, yada, so on and so forth before giving them the sob story. I’m doing this to pay for my dying grandmothers hospital bills was a common one.
M.L.A was expressing the reassurance and concerned part of it or step one. Once the stages progress then the hostage/kidnapee feel a sort of connection with their enemies and when the time comes to ask where they are they will usually tell them so their new ‘friends’ can protect them. I don’t need to explain how badly that turns out for the hostages.
What they are telling the hostages isn’t real, ever. No gang member or kidnapper is doing this against their free will nine and a half times out of ten. They will do it for money or just for the thrill. I shouldn’t believe them or care but I still held the Jupiter in my hand completely unharmed. I was smarter than this.
I looked at the phone in my hand…….
Okay so I was getting smarter.
The door opened and the phone slipped out of my hand in shock. Like I previously said I didn’t tell the others about my contact with M.L.A and I instead told them that the phone hadn’t provided any useful information that we didn’t already know. Yet.
So I believe that they think that the phone is in twenty different pieces and completely useless.
“Aura?” John walked into the room. I kicked the phone under the bed and heard it make contact with one of the legs of the bed frame making a ricocheting noise. “What was that?”
“What was what?” I lie quickly back. He raises an eyebrow at my rushed speech but doesn’t comment on it.
Fran still insisted that John had a ‘thing’ for me and that was made more present when he insisted I wore the watch that had a tracking device in it the day I was kidnapped. I didn’t agree with or deny her statement but instead decided to follow her advice, give it a chance. Of course now I had to try and see if I could see him in that way, the boyfriend/lover way.
Today he wore dark wash jeans that hung on his body nicely; his blue button up shirt was rolled up to his elbows and wasn’t buttoned providing a nice view of his chest.
Six pack? Check.
Hair? Very minimal.
Tattoo? Check.
His blonde hair was messed up giving the nice just rolled out of bed look or sex hair look, whichever you prefer to call it. He seemed to make every girl swoon and giggle like a teenager who never saw a guy before. But I just saw him as, as…..
The Mechanic.
He was my friend, which I guess could branch out to something more, but I always imagined that when I found someone that I could love or really like I would feel safe. Safe from any harm or the clawing paranoia of being caught. Again.
“Aura?” He snaps his fingers in front of my face giving me a close view of his ocean blue eyes, “You in there?”
“Yeah I just,” I thought for a moment. “Blanked.
“Well get filled in, Fran wants to hold some type of meeting.”
“That’s what she said!” Matt screamed walking by my room.
“Not what I meant!” John yelled stomping out angrily. His jeans really fit his ass nicely.
AURA! My subconscious shouted at me.
What, he has a nice ass.
You still have a cut on your neck from almost having your throat slit open, now is not the time to be getting together with a guy!
In my defense I was just checking out his ass.
Such a guy thing to do, now get the phone.
Wow my thoughts are bitchy and slightly annoying, but right. This would just be too complicated and I don’t know if John and I could handle that. I had to focus.
I shake off the thoughts and reached under the bed for the phone.
Where was it?
I lifted the skirt of the bed and ducked my head under to get a better view of wherever the hell this thing was.
“Aura!” On instinct I lift my head up and hit the frame of the bed.
“Shit.” I mutter under the bed. I scoot out and met Iris’s gaze.
“Your head sounds really hollow.” She laughs.
“Shut up.” I say standing up and rubbing my now sore head.
I walk out of my room and walked the few feet to the living room. We were currently in the penthouse suite, courtesy of the Smithsonian museum.
Fran sat in a kitchen table stool at the head of the furniture, Matt sat on the cream couch and John sat in an overgrown lazy boy chair that was probably regular sized to them.
Iris gives me a look, I have no idea what it means but I think I should be afraid, before running over to the couch Matt was sitting on and sprawling out on it like a cat leaving no room for me.
That. Little. Matchmaking. Bitch.
What is it with these people and trying to get me to go out with John?! Did they forget that I almost got killed or that we were currently being hunted down by an organization that wants to sell us?!
Rant over I glare at Iris before discreetly glaring at Fran, who most likely got Iris in on her little plan to get John and I together. This was not the time for this! This was the time to run and hide and figure out a concrete plan.
My face pulled in a small frown I went over to the lazy boy chair not meeting John’s gaze. I sat on the arm of the large chair and before I could get comfortable a muscular arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me down into the fluffy cushion.
Heat radiated off his body and only a centimeter of space was between us. I didn’t know if he knew this but I like my personal space and he was clearly violating it but I kinda liked it too.
Nope, no, no, no, no, you are not going to like him.
But I couldn’t help but notice everything now that we were so close together. I shake my head slightly I should just forget about it until things settle down.
His arm was casually thrown around my shoulders and I was literally starting to sweat, whether from heat or nervousness I couldn’t tell. I decided to go with the first, this man felt like a furnace after all. I carefully plucked his arm from around my shoulders and put it in his lap.
“Rejected.” Matt coughed before he and Iris broke into a fit of laughs. Apparently my relationship life, or lack thereof, was amusing.
“Children.” Fran chastised and I was brought back to a memory of Sam, Terri, and I. Cheesy I know but I hadn’t seen them in months.
Sam and I were arguing if Tom Stone was worth being on Sam’s hot list (I couldn’t believe people still made those). Anyways Sam thought so; he was grade A meat or something like that. I thought that just having a hot list meant you were shallow; you did judge people solely on their looks after all.
Terri broke us up saying that we were acting like children and not to ruin a perfectly good friendship. Soon after that was the word we used to defuse tense situations.
“We need to figure out our living arrangements.” Fran continued bringing me back to the present.
“I still vote for staying here.” Matt threw in.
“It’s around 5 grand a night.” I counter. “How the hell are we supposed to pay for that?”
“In case you forgot we recently acquire $250 million.” Matt fought back.
“Which will drain quickly if we stay here.” I argue.
“Then we can do a little bank heist.” Iris breaks in. “Or steal something costly.”
“Do we really want another media coverage?” I ask.
“Well I was thinking our little hacker could take care of that.” How the hell was I supposed to hide something this big! Well I didn’t know if the item was news worthy, but knowing Iris it iprobably s.
“No.” Fran interrupts. “Aura is right; we can’t risk running into them again.”
“So we take down a few more, in case you have forgotten that is the whole point we got this little rag tag group together in the first place.” Iris exclaims sitting upright.
“No, we are not putting Aura or anyone else in danger.” John says his body tense.
“She won’t be, we’ll be there too, we always will.” Matt throws in.
“I’m not risking it.” John says.
“You! In case you haven’t noticed this isn’t just about you.” Matt starts to go off before I break in.
“No, John’s right, luring them here and taking down some guys won’t help us.”
“It will show Lockstar we aren’t going down easily.” Iris says irritated.
“Which means that when they come after us they won’t send two or three men; they will send more than any of us can handle.”
“Then how do we take them down?” Fran asks. “We can’t exactly go to the government; they are in on it too.”
“So we expose them.” I answer.
“What you mean like capturing one of them and making him spill the beans?” Matt questions confused.
“No we need something that can go viral, like a video of them in the act of selling someone to someone else. Just because the government won’t allow people to see this doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways for people to know.”
“How?” Fran asks.
“YouTube, hundreds of news channels, Facebook, Twitter. As long as they have it people will know, you know the internet once it’s on their it’s difficult to get things off.”
“Doesn’t mean that it can’t be taken off.” Iris says.
“By the time that happens enough people will have seen it.”
“Okay so we have the idea but how are we going to capture them in the act.” John questions.
“Bait.” I lick my lips before saying the next part. “Me.”
“What?!” The all scream at me.
“Think about it, if they had the chance to get one of us who do you think they would be more interested in getting?” I ask rhetorically.
“No.” John says and stands up from the seat and starts to pace in the small living room. “Can’t we just wait for Valentin?”
“I’m getting nowhere John, we can’t just keep waiting for him to contact us or show up and save the day.”
“What about the e-mail?” Well there was another thing I wasn’t telling them.
“That was only a possibility.” Which turned out to be true. “There is a slim chance that was even his. I sent the e-mail almost a week ago.” And cue prolonged silence.
“Why haven’t you told us?!” John finally breaks the ice.
“Because!” I yell back standing up to meet his cool eyes. “I have gotten nothing! I didn’t want to get your hopes up! Face it, he isn’t coming.” My voice quieting as I struggle to regain my composure. “We have to do this on our own. If you can’t do it without having to kill someone then the door is right over there.”
“That’s the whole reason we want him though!” John retorts his rage still high.
“And you realize how useless he is. So he can kill people who want to kill us, who would he be able to kill that would make any difference in our situation or help us in any way?”
“Any Lockstar bastard!”
“No one deserved to die John.”
“They do!”
“Why?!”
“Because they tried to kill you, it’s only fair that they get equal treatment.”
“Why is this so important for you?”
“I can’t see another person I love get killed!”
And cue another silence. I stared at him in disbelief and tried to think this through, I had to think this through, and I had to understand what to make of this. I flexed my fingers, a habit I thought I broke before talking.
“You don’t, you just, and you don’t love me John.” I whisper not meeting his gaze.
“Who are you to say how I feel?” He asks glaring at me.
“Because you just don’t, I know that. You are just confused, hell we all are! And you and I both know that you are just saying that you love me so I will follow what you say, isn’t that right?”
“Well if I could get you to feel at least a little bit of emotion for me then you wouldn’t go out doing stupid things like you always do.”
“Oh I do stupid things; well at least I didn’t fly a car for everyone to see.”
“Well at least I wasn’t stupid enough to break into one of the world’s top secret databases and delete two top classified profiles.”
“They were my family I needed to protect them.”
“No they were you’re friends, you didn’t need to protect them.”He says his voice getting as cold as ice but I didn’t back down. “You actions are uncontrollable and ridiculous.”
“So you’re saying I need to be controlled?”
“Yes.”
“And you would be the one to do it?”
“Well I’m the only one that can put up with your shit. If I monitored your actions we wouldn’t always be having to hide.”
“So it’s my fault that those Lockstar men kidnapped me?”
“No but Lianne is your fault.”
“Who the hell is she and how did she get in this conversation?”
“If it wasn’t for you she wouldn’t be dead! It’s because of you and your little trace that sent the men out to us. If you never hacked into Gresdale then our list would have never been activated and my sister would have never been killed in an attempt to get to me. Life would have been a lot easier if you were dead.”
And that ladies and gentlemen is what a true insult, diss, or whatever you want to call it, sounds like. My throat constricted and tears welled up in my eyes but I pushed them back. John only seems to now realize what he said and shock covers his features.
“Aura I-" I cut him off.
“I’m done.” I whisper and look at the faces of all of them. “I’m done, no more playing criminal or trying to contact a killer or constantly parading in hotel suites because of some major heist, just no.”
“Aura you can’t be serious.” Fran says.
“I am, it was a stupid idea for us to be together in the first place. We can barely stand each other and as we can now see we can’t live together without grating on someone’s nerves. Of course there are always the what if’s too. What if kidnapping was just a trap to get you guys too?”
“We could have taken them.” Fran replies.
“Fran that’s not the point, we shouldn’t even be within fifteen miles of each other let alone fifteen feet. We should not be together, get one of us get all of us, you guys might be fine with it but I’m not.” I push past them and go into my room packing up my belongings and stuffing one of my many computers into my bag.
“Aura don’t do this,” Fran walks into my room with the others excluding John. “We need you.”
“No, we need to stay apart.”
“So you’re quitting.” Iris asks in a bitter tone. “You’re giving up on this? We finally have a plan and you’re flaking.”
“If this is how we act just living together I don’t want to know what will happen when we take down, excuse me, try to take down Lockstar. If we can’t function properly here what makes you think we can do it out there?”
“Hacker.” Matt mutters and I remember the first day I met them, not one of them would call me by my real name. No I would not keep memories of these people. “We need you, please don’t go.”
“Matt this won’t work.” I say my voice breaking. “Don’t make it harder than it already is.”
“Why don’t you make it hard period?” Iris asks. “Please Aura just give us one more chance.”
I look at the bag and then I look at them weighing the Pros and Cons. The cons weighed more in their direction so of course that is the one I was willing to pick.
“Just let me think.” I sigh.
“Alright, but figure it out by tonight. If your answer is no then we promise to leave you alone, for good.” Fran says giving me a hug. “But think of everything that has happened not just tonight.”
“Yeah and don’t let Johnny boy influence your decisions.” Iris chirps up.
“I won’t.” I say leaving the room and maybe leaving this life.