Chapter 258: Hello Children.

Chapter 258: Hello Children.

Wally pondered the new information he had gained, taking his time and searching for ties to other data. He didn't need the time but wanted to talk to Steven, and it was Sunday. Samantha had declared Sunday morning off-limits, promising to 'unplug' Wally if he stole her husband from her before noon. Wally was smart enough not to test that statement and didn't contact either of them until noon on Sundays. Breakfast had just finished when Steven's phone turned on, showing a door on the screen and emitting three 'knocks.'

"Good morning, Wally; what can I help you with?"

"It is indeed a good morning, Steven. May I ask that you and Samantha bring along your coffee and come to my secure briefing room? I have a small revelation that I think the two of you will enjoy seeing." The phone line went dead, which was very odd behavior for Wally. So was insisting on the secure briefing room. Their entire building was one of the safest places in the country. The secure briefing room was rarely used. Steven corrected that thought. It used to be seldom used. Since Milo had entered their lives, it was getting used increasingly.

Samantha refilled their mugs, then filled a portable pot and grabbed a pan of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. "I'm taking supplies. The last time we used that room, we missed a meal and ran out of coffee. I thought Sydney was going to explode."

"Good thinking."

Ten minutes later, they had walked the two hundred feet to the room, notified security of the need for two guards to be posted outside, and ran a complete check for listening devices. Wally appeared on the screen, looking happy and pleased. "Thank you for coming. I had some very interesting things happen last night. Firstly, for the 57th time, someone tried to break through the security that I oversee on Claw Master. And while that number might seem low, I'm only counting attempts that would be successful against 90% of corporate security systems. Less than that is inconsequential. These were fifty-seven serious attempts by master hackers with advanced hardware and software."

"How many of them have you identified?"The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

"Nearly all of them. The normal groups working for Alchemarx and ACME that they 'know nothing about' and who operate from countries where I can't prosecute them or even report a crime. Five were independent operators out for a big score. Three of those have been apprehended since they have warrants out for their arrests. Two are going to jail. The other has been grounded for two weeks by his parents. He's only fifteen. I'm talking to them about getting him into a school that will challenge him appropriately. However, thirty-four of the attempts were made by the same person, and they were the ones who finally got all the way through the system and into the secure Claw Master files."

"What?! How?"

Wally put up some elaborate schematics on two screens resembling mazes and traps. "I made the security as tough as possible and increased the difficulty as they got further. I almost identified them fourteen times, but in all of those cases, they detected me, broke contact and burned the connections. And when I say 'burned,' I don't exaggerate. This person didn't hesitate to abandon their locations and destroy the buildings to cover their tracks temporarily. Very thorough and very paranoid people. They have escape routes mapped that avoid any surveillance systems, or the cameras on that route are disabled already. Very paranoid and thorough people. I'm certain they've never been caught, and have no records."

Samantha was looking at the pictures of four destroyed buildings. "Those were dropped with professional demolitions. Did they kill anyone? Squatters? Residents? All of those places are in impoverished ghettos or abandoned urban areas."

Samantha poured coffee and took a pastry. "Eat up; we need to discuss some things. I think your big buddy is doing his best not to cause a huge panic until he knows more and has dumped part of it into our laps."

Steven was thinking but reached for food. "He can't take this seriously and can't draw certain conclusions, or he has to report it. That will cause a panic. Imagine corporations, banks, and governments finding out they are vulnerable to five twelve-year-olds?"

His wife shook her head. "But they won't see it that way. They'll panic and want control. If they are as old as Milo, then they count as adults and they'll be criminals. Mutant genetic monstrosity criminals, nearly as bad as rogue A.I. And it won't be five, it will be six. All it would take is someone in authority asking Wally how many of these creatures he knows about."

He nodded; that was all true. "We have to be careful what we tell Milo. Very careful. He'll go looking for them and might trigger exactly the scenario we want to avoid. There would be a thousand people running all over that habitat looking for him. He can't leave and wouldn't have anywhere to hide."

"I'm hoping that's what his brothers and sisters do: Hide. After a close call with Wally, I'm hoping they get scared and lie low while we look for solutions."

Onyx was flying the plane. He loved to fly. Technically, the plane was being flown by their pilot, Otto, but Otto was very content to take a nap in the back of the plane when Onyx wanted to take over. Otto had worked for Rhebus since they'd first opened their biotech research facility. Otto's son, Jacques, had been suffering from an incurable genetic disease that caused his immune system to deteriorate. The death rate was 98% by age 10. Rhebus had solved the problem, and little Jacques, with less than two months to live, had been the first beneficiary. Rhebus made headlines by making the treatment open source, and Otto had been recruited as one of the few employees who knew some of the truth about them. He was loyal to a fault, and Jacques had children of his own now, all cured of the same ailment by Rhebus, free of charge.

Bork was typing away furiously. He'd been in a state of deep concentration for an hour when he suddenly looked up, and shut the laptop. "I need more power. I can't crack things open without more computing resources. I need something like what we have at Rhebus."

Nina literally hissed at him, a habit she had picked up in the game and decided to keep. "You are not hacking anything from Rhebus!"

Bork held up both hands in surrender. "I said 'like what we have at Rhebus'. I'd never do anything that might compromise our main research facility. Rhebus is too important." They all looked at him. "Ok, maybe if I was really frustrated, but that's why we need to build someplace else. These little hidey-holes don't work anymore. I say we go bigger, and with more power. Then we stand less of a chance of being caught and can set up connections to offsite relays that don't involve us being there. If we build them in secure vaults we can use an EMP followed by incendiary charges to wipe a room, and not a whole building."

Zander folded his hands in front of himself and stated. "He has a point. I'm tired of rebuilding our game collection each time. All in favor of going larger?" Four hands went up and Onyx shouted "Aye!" from the cockpit.

"Unanimous. Let's start looking. We need lots of room, a lack of people, and somewhere with access to good escape routes." The search for the next secret base had begun.