#0001
“Testing…testing…testing 123.” [pause] “Do you think it’s working Bartholomew?”
[scuffling sounds] “Stop it Bartholomew!”
“Don’t call me that, Sulisaki! Just because you are Mom’s favorite doesn’t mean you have to use my stupid, demeaning name too!”
“It’s not my fault you didn’t turn out right.”
“Just call me Atkin, please.”
“Fine, let’s pause the recording and see if this piece of junk works.”
[click]
Zana Lord, a tall blonde with striking blue eyes, opened the type-written note that had appeared on her desk Monday morning to ensure that she was in the right place. Verifying that she was supposed to be in the central park of her town, she turned up the music in her car to drown out her thoughts. She turned to her armed guard, who was privately paid by the company. “When will this nightmare end?”
The man’s gruff voice responded with a slight twang of annoyance in it, “Once this meeting is over. The letter was clear. Once the conditions are met, everything will be back to normal.”
Sometimes one cannot be the master of their own fate and people are thrown into the pattern-less tornado that is fate. Such was the case for Zana. A few days before her clandestine meeting in her town’s park, she had woken up in the morning and begun her workday as usual. She had few hopes for the day. She simply hoped for a relaxing day at work. However, fate had different plans for her.
***
Atkin crouched behind a garbage bin in a dark alley way between Macy’s and Walmart. There was barely enough room to stand without touching the stone walls of the two stores. Even though none of the employees took their smoke break in the alleyway, his brother had asked—well demanded—that he remain hidden. Groaning, he turned slightly to the left and hit his shoulder on the stone wall next to him.
Angrily Atkin muttered, “How long am I going to have to wait here?”
His comment echoed as it bounced between the walls of the alleyway. Just as it was reaching the end of the alley, a man with a cigarette walked into the alley. The man was wearing shades, a hoodie with the hood pulled up to cover his face, and leather gloves. Because of his clothes Atkin assumed he wasn’t working at one of the two nearby stores. Still, Atkin began to sweat. He couldn’t be found. Crouching down even lower behind the garbage he hoped that the man hadn’t heard his comment.
Breathing deeply to avoid hyperventilating, Atkin peered over the top of the bin and watched as the man pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Atkin shifted slightly over in an attempt to see his face, but as he did the man turned his face in the opposite direction and puffed on his cigarette a few times.
Suspiciously, Atkin ducked below the garbage bin in case the man had turned because he knew Atkin was there.
The man chuckled as Atkin ducked his head. “You know Bartholomew, you’ve never been good at sneaking around. That’s why you’re my fall guy, not vice versa. I do better in the shadows.”
“Don’t call me Bartholomew, Sully.”
Sulisaki turned on his heels and took three quick paces towards Atkin and grabbed his shirt. He then pulled Atkin up onto the bin. “Don’t call me Sully, and I won’t call you Bartholomew. Oh, and I won’t punch you in the gut, deal?”
Atkin took a staggered, deep breath, “Deal.”
Sulisaki narrowed his eyes but let go of Atkin’s shirt.
Brushing the wrinkles out of his nice button-up, Atkin moved out behind the trash can and stood next to Sulisaki who continued to smoke. “So, what are we doing here?” Atkin inquired as he looked up from his shirt.
After taking a puff of smoke and inhaling, Sulisaki turned to face Atkin. “First, open up the trash bin and pull out the two tanks of gasoline in there.”
Not quite understanding, but afraid of his brother, Atkin walked over and pulled out two five-gallon containers of gasoline. He held up the lid with his shoulder as he grabbed one set it down, and then did the same with the other by passing it to his free hand. As Atkin closed the lid it began to squeak, so he lowered it very slowly to ensure someone wouldn’t catch them.
Atkin turned to face his brother, “What now?”
“You’re going to have a meeting with an assassin named Jaron Ravinski. We need his help to take down a company.”
“Which company?”
Sulisaki rolled his eyes as he took another puff on his cigarette. “Here.” He said as he handed Atkin a folder. Your instructions are in here, and important information you can use to blackmail Mr. Ravinski.”
“Alright. I’ll get it done.” Atkin said as he opened the folder. “If he wants more than a million is that negotiable?”
“Yes, within a half million range. Also, we will pay for any job expenditures like plane tickets.” Sulisaki replied.
After standing there for another moment and puffing on his cigarette once more Sulisaki spoke. “Any other questions?”
Skimming the contents of the folder more, Atkin looked up. “Actually, yeah. You’ve never smoked in your life. Why start now?”
Sulisaki laughed, “Oh, I’m not starting an addiction. The cigarette is for something else.” Then Sulisaki waved at Atkin to follow behind him as he walked away. On his way out he stopped and opened and tipped over one of the gallons of gasoline.
Puzzled, Atkin followed Sulisaki out of the alleyway. Once they were within a safe distance, Sulisaki turned and threw the match at the two gallons of gasoline. The two sides of the store almost instantly caught fire, and Atkin followed Sulisaki into their car in stunned silence. Even though he found the act horrific, Atkin couldn’t ever stop Sulisaki. They had to finish the job, and Atkin didn’t want to know what would happen if he betrayed his brother.
Soon, Atkin was sitting in front of Kevon, watching Kevon drum his fingers on his desk.
Kevon pushed a button on the intercom to his left. “Charles?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Why did you let this man into my office?”
“Er, well sir…” He began, but Atkin interrupted him, deciding that now was the time to break the silence.
“Mr. Ravinski,” Atkin began, “I’m here to hire you.”
“What need do you have for a lawyer?”
Atkin chuckled loudly, doubling over in his chair before regaining composure, “I’m not here to take advantages of your legal services, Mr. Ravinski.”
Kevon narrowed his eyes and smirked slightly, “Oh? And what would those be? If you’re asking for me to rig a case, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m an honorable lawyer Mr.…what was your name?”
“General Bartholomew Atkin,” Before Kevon could ask why he would need to hire a lawyer, Atkin preempted his question. “And I’m not here to hire you as a lawyer.”
“Then you’ve come to the wrong place, General.” Kevon said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously, and reaching for the Glock strapped to the underside of his desk.
Atkin smiled, “I think you’ll find that I have come to the right place in just a moment.” As he reached for his briefcase he commented, “You have such a quaint office. It’s almost barren with one filing cabinet, a desk and two chairs. There are no mirrors or paintings on the pristine white walls. You likely have some form of OCD due to the cleanliness of the room. But, why would you have such a small quaint room when your legal firm is highly prestigious? The lobby outside can only fit three people. For such a reputable firm, you don’t seem to be expecting many visitors.” Atkin then opened the briefcase.
“We have another office downtown, General.” Loading his Glock while it rested on his lap, he continued, “Now, if you don’t have any need for my firm’s services, I need you to leave immediately. I have another client scheduled for a visit in five minutes, and I don’t like to keep my clients waiting.”
Atkin pulled out a folder and placed it on the table. “Mr. Kevon Ravinski, a lawyer in the public eye and an assassin for hire in private.”
It was time to pull out the Glock. Kevon lifted it up and pointed it at Atkin who was looking down at the folder. “Mr. Ravinski, put the Glock down,” Atkin said calmly, “You’ll want to see the contents of this folder and the offer I have for you first.”
Perplexed, Kevon relaxed in a smug manner. “Why wouldn’t I kill you right now?”
“This folder contains pictures of your last job. Unfortunately, you broke your rule of sniper only shots when you found your target was wearing a protective vest.” Atkin flipped to a photo of Kevon pointing his Glock at another man’s head.
Kevon began to sweat as Atkin continued. “My men have a video along with copies of these photos and the file on you. We’re the only people with such footage. Now, if you join our cause, and dedicate your team to it, I will pay you, and ensure that this footage is destroyed. I’ll even let you watch us destroy it if you like.”
Setting the gun on the table Kevon grinned, “I love meeting people who play the game well. How much would you be paying me?”
“We will start with a million for each team member that you bring. I will pay more depending on how much we use you for. It may just be one or two jobs, or we might need you to continue helping us, in which case we’d pay you a salary of some sorts.”
Kevon pursed his lips, “I suppose that will do. Is that negotiable depending upon the tasks I’m given, and expenditures used to complete them?”
“Yes, and expenditures will be covered by us and not taken out of your payment.”
Kevon nodded as though this was expected. Which, it often was. When buying an assassin’s services, one always wanted to make the deal in favor of the assassin. If a client didn’t, they’d probably end up dead too. “So, what is the first task my team and I will be completing?”
***
When Zana Lord turned on her computer that Monday, she pulled up the combined files for the project that her subordinates had been working on. The project had started months ago. Chandler Inc. had chosen to create a new laptop to compete with Portland Corps most recent laptop. Lord’s team had been charged with creating it when they had presented a model for a new processor in front of the company’s board of directors and CEO’s. The processor they had created still hadn’t been named but one of Lord’s engineers discovered a way to make this new processor faster and cheaper than the one in the new laptop.
Unfortunately, when Zana opened her project files, she discovered that it had been corrupted. Opening each of the files created an error warning. Everything her team had done was gone…unless. Panicking and frantic Zana bolted out of her chair and quickly exited her office. Her thoughts racing, she ran to the elevator. Once inside she waited to get to ground floor. Her heart raced as she tapped the floor with her foot. What if her employee’s copies of the project had been corrupted too? They’d have to redo over a months’ worth of work. They didn’t have time for that. The project was due for presentation to the committee of owners and stockholders in two weeks.
Once the elevator reached the bottom floor, she ran to one of her employee’s computers. “Steven, can I borrow your computer for a moment?”
Steven, who was scared by the frantic look his boss had immediately vacated his chair. “Sure, is something wrong?”
“I just needed to check on something for the project.”
“Can’t you do that from your own computer?”
Trying to appear and remain calm, Zana took a deep breath as she clicked on the folder. “I just wanted to double check one more time that the compiled file has all the data that I need for the presentation on the twentieth.”
When the folder opened, Zana highlighted every file, right clicked, and hit open.
Puzzled, Steven frowned, “Then you should be checking with my department manager, Josh. We each sent him all our files two weeks ago. He double checked his copy with all of our files and said that they matched.”
Turning to look at him, Zana responded impatiently as she waited for the first file to load. “I’m just double checking every file myself to be certain. This is a big project and we will all get nice bonuses if it goes well. For everyone’s sake I want everything to go right.”
Accepting that response, Steven nodded and backed away. Zana was obviously in a bad mood, and Steven didn’t want to risk losing his job right before their big bonus from the project. His family needed the money.
Out of the corner of her eye Zana saw something pop up on the screen. It was another error message.
“Wait, what?” Steven exclaimed, “What’s going on?”
Zana ran her hands through her hair, “I have no idea. The same thing happened to all my copies of the files this morning.”
“Hmm,” Steven said as he scratched his chin. “Let me see if I can isolate what part of the file has been corrupted and then remove it.” Steven moved the keyboard towards him, pulled up a command program, and began to type.
“Do you think that the company was hacked somehow?” Zana inquired.
“Maybe, someone could have brought in a virus on flash drive instead. We should run everyone’s flash drives through an antivirus program to determine if we were hacked or if we just got a virus by accident.”
Concentrating for a moment on his programming, Steven frowned. “Did we send a copy of the files to any other CEOs or the board of owners?”
“I did, about a month or two ago. We’d never make up that ground in the next two weeks.”
“Well, at least we won’t lose everything.”
“Yeah.” Zana said as she fell into a momentary dejected silence. The mental fog cleared when she heard Steven address her.
“…The files didn’t show as having a virus or being corrupted and I was able to isolate the source of the error. Josh is more qualified in IT than any of the others in the department though. He might be able to figure out what’s wrong with the files.”
“Alright. I will have him look into it. In the meantime, I need you to tell everyone to open every file they have on the project to see if everything has been corrupted or not.”
***
After Atkin left Kevon sat down at his computer and opened a folder titled “Payroll”. Due to the nature of the operation, Kevon needed to assemble a team with a few highly qualified hackers on it. Kevon clicked on a folder containing profiles on all the hackers he used. At the top of the list were the hackers he used most often, the ones at the bottom were people he employed the least. Kevon instinctively clicked on the person at the top of his list. The first and second people on his list were people that he had worked with personally. He knew that he could trust them. They had a thief’s code of sorts. He knew them by name, but he still needed to check their profiles for contact information and lists of people he had confirmed they could work well with. Kevon clicked on the name Veronica Varda without hesitation.
A file with every piece of information Kevon had on Veronica popped up.
Veronica Varda
Age: 27
Height: 5”7’
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Birth Country: Australia
Strengths: working with others, hacking, sniping, and stealth
Weaknesses: tinnitus, sleep disorders, wears contacts
Kevon already knew all this information. He had worked with Veronica often enough to know her skill set. Kevon scrolled to the bottom of the file to a section called “Contact Information.”
Kevon dialed the phone number at the bottom of the page. After multiple rings, an automated voice came over the phone. “The person you are trying to reach has a voicemail box that is not yet set up.”
Sighing, Kevon scrolled up to see if Veronica was currently on assignment. If she was, he would have to contact her through a different method. She’d also be a crucial asset to the mission. Pulling her out could result in a failed mission.
Kevon scrolled through pages of information discussing her childhood, previous missions, and skill sets. About halfway through it listed the missions she had been on. At the top it would show if she was currently deployed. Luckily, she wasn’t.
Picking up his phone, Kevon dialed the number again. This time Veronica picked up.
“Meet me at my office tomorrow at 10 a.m.”
“How much will I get paid?”
“One million for one job, more if we’re qualified enough for this client to continue buying our services.”
“Who else will be with us?”
“Probably the usual, but I’m looking through profiles right now. Someone new may make the cut. You never know.”
“Alright. I’ll be there. I may not be able to get a plane ticket there on time, but I’ll let you know.”
“Fair enough. Let me know when you get a flight here.”
“Will do.”
Kevon hung up and opened up a few more files. He quickly called up his usual team members. Kyle Torrent was an exceptional hacker and had all the airs of a businessman. If they needed someone on the inside, Torrent would win the company’s trust quickly. If he didn’t, and they suspected he was up to something fishy then Valentine Ravalin, an assassin, would be his perfect backup. She was skilled in stealth and various methods of murder. Ttasfa, a master strategist, would be key in analyzing their performance and changing strategy if needed. Greg Jones, a master of disguise, a former cop, and quite strong had always been versatile. He’d be there in case of emergency. Being a jack of all trades, he could fill any role if needed. Tyrone McClain would handle their communications and use his underground market connections to obtain any tools they needed for the mission.
Kevon tapped his chin softly. As arrogant as he was, he knew his normal set up was missing one thing. If anything happened to him, there were no natural leaders to take his place. He wasn’t about to let that happen. Based upon how long Atkin ruffled through the file on him before finding the pictures he was looking for, Atkin was likely working for someone else. Because Kevon didn’t know who he was working for directly, he would need to keep his guard up.
Spinning around in his chair Kevon began to mutter to himself quietly. “The way I see it, there are four ways that this job can end. First, we succeed, part ways and never hear from Atkin again. Second, we fail…part ways and never hear from Atkin again. Third, Atkin seizes an opportunity…kills me…somehow, and takes control of our group. Fourth, his superior kills me. No matter what, I need to ensure there’s a backup leader.”
After spinning his chair back to face his computer, Kevon clicked on the “Leaders” folder. When Kevon opened it, he saw that there were only six people listed in the file.
His leader’s list was compiled through recommendations. Every once and a while, while on a mission, one of the team members would step up during confusion, the loss of a leader, etc. These people could then be recommended to Kevon to put on his leaders list, rather than his normal team list. Kevon usually let the teams pick their leader out of the assembled men, but Kevon couldn’t ignore the natural leadership these men had. Because of this he had chosen to make a list of these men and use them in special operations that needed an exceptional leader.
Kevon knew he couldn’t just let anyone replace him if he were killed. Looking through the files, he searched for the man with the highest number of recommendations. Such a person would likely be the best leader out of the whole list.
The man with the highest number of recommendations was named Jaron Vorsk. He appeared to be skilled in almost all styles of combat, was familiar with terrain, had been a police officer and a soldier, and he had trained with a multitude of weapons. His list of weaknesses was small, and his lists of strengths were large. Even if Kevon remained safe the whole mission, Jaron would be an amazing person to have around.
***
Zana Lord stood in front of her department managers who were sitting down in comfortable office chairs. Zana took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. As she looked around the room, she saw that each manager wore a weary and stressed face. Zana assumed that her expression was likely the same.
Clearing her throat, Zana began the meeting. “By now, I assume that you all know why we are assembled here. After checking all the files on the project, we have concluded that every single file is corrupted, correct?”
“Yes.” Responded a chorus of dejected voices.
“And was that double checked and confirmed by two different individuals?”
“Yes.”
“Pass me the check sheets for those assignments please.”
There was a slow ruffle of papers as each manager opened their meeting folders and pulled out a sheet of paper. On it was a list of each computer, the name of the person who used that computer, the section of the project they had worked on, and the signatures of the two individuals who checked to see if their files had been corrupted like Zana’s.
By quickly scanning the paper, Zana confirmed that every file they had on the project was corrupted. Next, Zana needed to make sure each managers task was complete.
Zana quickly opened her yellow folder to look at the agenda she had created. Fixating on the top of the page she saw that Zane Tennent, from their communications department was first up.
“Alright, Zane, did you to make sure that no one finds out about this hiccup in the project? If this leaks to the press, we could all lose our jobs.”
“Yes, ma’am. We decided that the best way to ensure that no one tells the press is to have all our employees use their blackberries for the next few days instead of bringing their personal phones home.”
“Isn’t that too controlling Zane? What if our employees complain to higher management? We must ensure that no one knows about this. Is there any other option?”
“Not really ma’am. We can’t control what they do in their personal lives and have them sign a confidentiality agreement wouldn’t work either. They could still just leak the information to the press and then we’d lose our jobs, but they’d be praised for informing the company. This is really the only option that we have.”
“Hmm, well, we can’t do that or else someone is bound to complain to HR. Did you make the announcement yet?”
“No.”
“Good, you need to have a better solution on my desk at the end of the day.” Zana quickly turned to the HR department head for a moment, “Tom, after this meeting, please inform the employees that we will need them to work until 6 pm today to work on the project.”
Zana then turned her gaze back to Zane, “Now, what will we tell the press if news of the corrupted files gets out?”
Zane ruffled through his folder for a moment and then pulled out a cream sheet of paper. He cleared his throat and then began to read. “Members of our community and the press, as CEO of Chandler Inc., I would like to inform you that there has been a mistake in our employees account of the corrupted files. In order to determine how well our employees would handle a crisis, I decided that we would run a simulation. My department managers and I backed up all our project files onto a hard drive. Then we replaced those files with ‘corrupted documents.’ Our programming department chair wrote a code that would popup whenever one of the project documents was opened. In these turbulent, and technologically advanced, times we believed that we should determine how well our employees would respond to a technological crisis. We are then taking this information to determine where our employees should start in a crisis management training course that our IT department stumbled upon. The project will be completed and presented on time. Thank you.”
Zana smiled, “That’s very good. Thank you.”
Zana then turned towards the head of the IT department. “Any news on who is responsible for the hacking of our entire department.”
“No ma’am. We have no way to trace the hacker. We haven’t located an IP address or any other information.”
Glaring, Zana inquired, “Then why are you in this meeting and not working to find out who it was?”
Keeping his composure, the head of IT, Tarin made a small steeple with his hands, “Because we believe that someone from the company inserted the virus themselves. It’s the only way they could have corrupted all the files without leaving a trace. So, the next steps are to ensure we profile each individual and determine who may have motive and ability to perform this task.”
Just then Zane’s phone rang, but he politely silenced it. Moments later Tom’s phone rang. Zana shook her head silently and turned back to Tarin. “And how do you plan to do that?”
“I worked with security to create a detail. A few outside hires were brought in to ensure…” Then Zana’s phone rang abruptly.
Picking it up she pressed answer and snapped “What?”
On the other end a familiar voice responded “Zana, this is the branch leader in Scotsdale. My branch was working on phase three of the companies project…”
“Sir, we have more important things to deal with here. We are almost done with the project. We will finish our part; you complete your part.”
“Zana, someone hacked into our databases. Do you still have the backup files that Tarin backed up in your facility when he transferred there?”
“No, we were also hacked. None of the project files anymore. We are working to get the files back and complete the project before the deadline.”
“Should I tell the board of owners that the project cannot be completed on time?”
“We’d all lose our jobs. We can’t do that. I will find out what happened and get the files restored. Do your IT workers have any idea who could have planted the virus?”
The man sighed deeply, “No, it appears that the virus must have been planted from a flash drive. There are no signs of hacking of any type.”
“That’s the conclusion that Tarin came to as well. After our security detail is done performing background checks on our employees, we will send his task force to your branch. Don’t worry Sam, we will figure this out in time. Just have a lot of coffee on hand, we will be pulling all-nighters all week.”
“Ugh, I’m too old for this!” Sam explained before hanging up without saying goodbye.
Zana threw her file folder across the room, and everyone flinched. Zana was always composed. She didn’t become angry, but still disciplined her branch quite well. They’d never seen Zana so upset.
Running her hands through her air Zana quickly apologized for her actions “Apparently the Scotsdale branch was also hacked. I’m going to need all of you to stay very late tonight. If we don’t get the files back, we will lose our jobs.”
Everyone slowly nodded and got to work.
Five days later…
Kevon stood at the head of a large table. A moderately size board of owners sat in chairs around him. Each of them stared at him skeptically. Remaining silent, Kevon waited. After a few minutes, one of the members began to tap his fingers on the chair before looking toward the member at the other end of the table, their most senior member. “What is he doing here?”
A man with white hair, glasses, and a pinstripe suit looked at the person who had spoken to him. “Apparently this man has some important information for us.” Then the man waved at Kevon to continue.
Kevon nodded briefly. “Thank you, Mr. Scott.”
Turning toward the board members with a clicker in his hand. “I was asked to head a private investigative detail in all of your main branches. They suspected foul play. Each of these branches discovered that their files on some confidential project for the company had been corrupted. Finding no indications of hacking they assumed that someone had inserted the virus via flash drive. They believed that someone in their branches had done this and hired me to find out. Unfortunately, the following video tapes prove that this was all a conspiracy between the branch members to take down the company. The slides after the video show that they bought stocks in the company that opposes you as a technological monopoly.”
The audience seemed surprised and Mr. Scott furrowed his brow. But the following videos and slides confirmed what Kevon had stated. Their branch leaders had betrayed their company by ending the project that would have set them ahead of their competitors.
Looking at their shocked faces for a few moments, Kevon locked eyes with the board members. “Betrayal isn’t fun, but at least you will be able to put them away for insider trading. They bought those stocks with the knowledge that your company would be derailed.”
“Yes, they’ll pay for this,” Mr. Scott scoffed, “But so will our company. Without that project we will fall further behind in sales. Stocks will fall, and we’re already in a financially tough spot. Our last failed project cost the companies millions. We thought that hiring new CEO’s would solve those failures, but it seems we were incorrect…”
Kevon held up his hand while Mr. Scott took a breath to continue his rant, “Yes, I am aware. That’s why I am offering to buy your company.”
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