Chapter 10
August 20th, 2012
1145 hours
The workers of 1201 Glades Avenue stared up in disbelief as smoke poured out of the third story window. Fires danced through the windows. It was utterly silent for what could have been days. Then one scream broke the calm. Murmurs of “I thought this was a drill” and “What the hell just happened” raced through the crowd like wildfire.
The security guard was in a state of shock. He just stared, open mouthed at the burning building. Was the man that had warned him still inside when it went off? He didn’t see him around. No, he must have still been inside. He gave his life to warn them. That man wouldn’t go unrecognized. He would make sure of that. And then the building came tumbling down.
Chapter 11
August 20th, 2012
2310 hours
An excerpt from the blog “True Story Bro”:
He Saved My Life
By Steven Lynch
August 20th, 2012 at 11:05 PM
A man walked into my building today. He risked his life to warn me of an attack. A terrorist attack. Not by an enemy we know, but an enemy we don’t. He said they threatened his family. He said that they forced him to take a bag into our building, and he warned us. He saved the lives of everyone in the building. Mine. Every worker. Every person. I wish I had gotten the chance to thank him. I wish I could have traded with him. He had a family for Christ’s sake. What bastard would do this to a man? A man this noble. A man who would so willingly give his life to help complete strangers. I hope the person that forced this upon him reads this. I hope he knows, that he is WORTHLESS. He is a coward. He is nothing. Nothing but a smudge of the human spirit. One that should be stomped out. I hope he burns in hell. I hope he disappears from the face of the earth. I hope he never gets the chance to do this to someone again.
“Sir,” A nervous private ran up to Major Turnbull. “You’re not going to like this.”
Major Turnbull snatched the report out of the private’s hand. It was an excerpt from a blog called “True Story Bro”. Turnbull finished reading it, and then crumpled it in his hand. He noticed the private trying to walk out of the room unnoticed. He pulled his sidearm, and fired. A blood red hole appearing in the back of the private’s head. Brain matter sprayed across his wall. A lieutenant scurried into the room, and stood, shocked.
“Lieutenant! Get a cleaning crew and one of those techies in here.”
“Y-yessir.”
Ten minutes passed, and a janitor was busy scrubbing the wall, the body already gone to be disposed of elsewhere. A young man strode into the room, looking very nervous, and very young.
“Lieutenant! Is there anyone more… experienced?”
“Sir, he’s the most qualified person here. He was arrested last hear for hacking NORAD. We switched him.”
“NORAD? Impressive. I apologize.”
“What’s the problem?” After a disapproving look from the Major, the young tech quickly corrected, “Sir.”
“That’s better.” The Major slammed the crumpled paper onto his desk.
“Let me guess. You want this gone.” A brief pause. “Sir.”
“What are my options?”
“Well, the server’s based in Malaysia, so nothing. Officially”
“Unofficially?”
“I could launch a DDOS attack against the server, or…”
“I don’t care what you do, just do it.”
“Okay.” The tech caught himself quickly this time, “Sir.”
The major stewed in his chair as the tech scurried off to get to work. He knew he could cut out the source, but he knew the damage would have already been done.
“Lieutenant. Did the press release already go out?”
The lieutenant swallowed hard. “Yessir.”
The major thumbed the safety on his pistol, then shot the lieutenant. He was aiming for his head, but instead hit him in the neck, nicking his jugular. The lieutenant grabbed at his neck, trying to stop the bleeding. He collapsed onto his knees, blood spurting out from between his fingers. The major looked with disdain at the mess. He really needed to hit the shooting range.
“This better be cleaned up when I get back.”
With that, he stalked out of his office.
Chapter 12
August 21st, 2012
0901 hours
“An office building was destroyed in a terrorist attack by ‘The Defenders of Freedom’, it is unknown how many people were inside at the time but…”
Ellie flipped the channel. Why hadn’t Stanford come back yet?
“The bombing took place yesterday. However, many of the people working were able to escape thanks to a warning from a man. An image of this man was released by an independent company after they salvaged footage from the building’s security cameras.”
She was just about to change the channel again when she suddenly saw Stanford staring at her. A blurry, black and white photo of Stanford was staring at her from the screen. His face looking directly at a security camera.
“According to security personal, this man warned them about an impending attack.”
Stanford’s image was replaced by that of a security guard. Ellie tried to hold on to that image of Stanford.
“He came in and handed me a note. It said they threatened his family, and they were forcing him to carry in something. I wish I could thank him for saving my life.”
The screen flashed back to Stanford’s face.
“If you have any information on who this man is, please call the station hotline.”
The number flashed on screen, but Ellie was running down the hall. She didn’t know where she was going. Then she saw a door. A bathroom. She crashed through the door, it slamming into the wall. She pushed the door closed and sat against it. Sat against it, and cried.