All for a smile

It was just two clicks, two clicks and she would be free of it. But she made a mistake and for sure to change she would have to go through all the procedures. Sure enough, he was on the other side of the screen thinking he is a Robin Hood or Jesus Christ, damn it.

To make matters worse, the damn phrase was appearing every time she tried again: invalid user, try again, or reset your password. Tried before, but made a mistake when confirming the password, it was just two clicks.

The weather was like her mood, wetting and making the drops run on the windows of his rooftop floor, the view on hot days was beautiful and she could see other skyscrapers and a sea of ​​people passing between the others carefree, with a focus in mind that it benefited them. That made their work easier, people didn't pay much attention to what was going on around them, and if they saw a flier about a missing girl they would roll their eyes and say: someone must have seen her.

In the 80s it was easier to do this work because most of the records were in thick black notebooks with hundreds of names of girls between 9 and 15 years old, then it was just burning and getting rid of the little computerized information, in addition, the government helped to smooth out the dirt on the carpet as many of the customers were important men. Now there was no way not to get rid of technology because it made more money, many times it was just making a recording and selling them on secret sites. And how does she make money from it….

In cities like New York, São Paulo, and Paris it was easier, even though many people imagine it to be the opposite, regions with a lot of movement and busy people did not cause so many scandals. But the first time she worked with this was looking for girls in forest regions, in the Amazon. It was the end of the '80s and she was a tourist, the job was simple, just mapping isolated regions and attracting girls at the ages their employers wanted, then showing them pictures of Disney and other big parks so they could be enchanted, and that was it, hassle-free. They got on the boat and were never seen again. Some didn't even need it, their team negotiated with the child's own family for prices of up to 100 dollars.

Her name was Camille Parker Dubois, but at work, she was Cynthia or Anne or Marta, she constantly changed her name to camouflage herself in the police investigations. But now there were damn trained rats that learned to type instead of writing, the so-called Hackers. Most weren't police the best weren't police, just nomadic rats who moved often and nobody even knew their first names.

They liked to joke, they always gave crumbs of clues to know that they were after her. The damn meddler they were behind was even called by the police "Custos" a Latin name meaning guardian, so ridiculous and stupid in her eyes. It was unfortunate that the nickname did not suit the owner, because he was not stupid at all, he was very agile and smart.

It was 10 frustrating years that he disrupted the economy of the business, deleting the videos and showing the location of the accommodation centers where the girls were staying to the police. It threw millions of dollars straight into the trash with no hope of fixing the damage. In recent months he has managed to get into the secret files of the System and see names, dates, projects, and profits.

Dubois and her team did everything to change, even hiring other hackers, but Custos was always three, or four steps ahead of them. She kept thinking about how to resolve the situation, but her plans were like the drops that ran from the window, going nowhere.

- We lost another record Dubois, we lost another record!

Marcus Meyer, her partner at work, interrupting her thoughts, entered the room in an uproar and with an icy face, his voice exhaled despair just imagining what those simple phrases meant.

- I imagined. He canceled all my accounts with the records of 1/3 of the profits of the regions where we have accommodations. I tried to change the username and password but it didn't work.- she replied with an air of tiredness, there were only two clicks left… the awareness that even if she got the process right, Custos would figure it out in minutes.

- What do we do now?? He's ruining our business. We can no longer profit from the videos of the 9 to 12-year-old merchandise, the 14 and 15-year-olds it's just a matter of time. This month we lost a lot of goods in the accommodations and the dance club will have to be closed for a while…. Holy damage, Dubois…

She moved away from the window and went to get them both a glass of wine, or maybe more, they would wait for the other leaders to arrive, and they would have a long night to discuss the situation. So far two of the general staff had been killed for exchanging fire with the police, but it wasn't that important because she and the other leaders didn't have as many risks of being caught, much less their bosses. And if it were, it wouldn't matter, the law was flawed in every way, not because it was wrong but because it didn't match practice. After all, practice understood humans and not articles, it was just a matter of moving a little bit here and there.

But, Custos didn't just want to denounce and delete every movie they made, he wanted that famous word that hasn't been in use for decades. Justice. Dubois and her team knew very well that this word was not in line with this world, it was useless to pretend they are Samaritans in the middle of the 21st century. What harm did it do?

Police investigators called her work Trafficking in Women and Children, and indeed it was, there was no denying it, but something she disagreed with was the pejorative title given to them such as “these illicit activities are not human”, “that it is utterly vile and heartless.” She had heart, she certainly did and from the bottom of Camille Dubois's heart, she had no problem taking goods out of their environment and sending them to foreign countries that didn't know the language, making them serve their customers. This was a totally helpful medium, in all spheres, whether in capitalist or communist countries.

Dubois and Marcus sat with their glasses in their hands, thinking about how to solve this. She snapped out of her brooding and looked at him with a mixture of anger and concern.

- People are not doing enough Marcus. We must seek all means to prevent costs to take the next step. I no longer have the futile expectation of trying to kill him, for now, we have to stop him.

- And do you have something in mind? Because we've done everything and we're just losing millions and millions. I'm impatient and out of time to waste more money.

- We are going to create new accommodations and look for new merchandise from 9 to 12 years old, which were the ones we lost the most. And build again what he destroyed, what we cannot do is stop, we have a System on our side.

- It will be tiring, Dubois. And maybe we're going to lose more money, he won't stop until he hit enter and more enter to find the secret sites and delete the movies, as well as send the girls' location to the cops- He sighed and continued slowly- My real concern is that he stops looking for the drops and goes straight to the source. Look for us.

It felt like an omen. A few kilometers from the residence, Lilith Maria Montgomery was sitting in a new black leather armchair in front of 7 computer screens. She rested her eyes and listened to the rain that hit the roof and made that characteristic sound that her mother loved. She was very creative in choosing her name, even too much. She got pregnant at the age of 15, and chose the name Lilith in a girls' accommodation (called merchandise by the administrators of the place), the child inside her had read a story in which the character had that name, she was a villain. But a villain with a story. In that place her name was not Maria, it was several since she was 11 years old, when she was kidnapped while returning from school.

She managed to escape while she was 7 months pregnant with Lilith, thanks to a fire in the area. Maria and another eastern European girl, Karol were the only survivors. Lilith didn't know more details and didn't care much about finding out, her mother didn't like to talk, she never liked it and she only came to find out when she heard a conversation between her mother and Karol who became friends after what happened.

Rain noises always reminded her of her childhood, which was very good, but it would be better if her mother wasn't so protective, but Lilith would never blame her. The past trauma made Maria feel great love and protection for her daughter, which sometimes hurt Lilith. But even if it was like that, she always tried to please the child that was inside the mother, dead, but still there.

After the conversation, she asked Maria about what she had heard. And she can no longer deny, at least not the basics of the story, it was at that moment that Lilith knew she wanted to be an Agent. And she managed to be for a long time, but she left the service to work as a programmer, which she liked. It worked as a job and as an excuse to hack and erase all the filth she found with an entry here and there.

Her husband would arrive at dawn, he always helped with investigations. At first, because he was older, She thought he wouldn't be happy to see her hacking, but he was always very helpful and encouraged her.

That night she would do the last job to finish a stage, she would send two more locations to the police, but she would first wait for her husband to arrive to accompany her on that since he was her partner.

40 minutes later the rain was still pounding on the roofs, Lilith was lighting the fire as he arrived.

- Did you manage to find anything, love?- he shouted as he entered.

- You arrived early today, I thought you would stay late with your co-worker.- she commented, ignoring his question.

- They are there, I came to get my notebook from the office, I had forgotten it.

- I know - Lillith spoke in a tone drowned out by the sounds of sirens around her house. It was all so fast and pleasurable, she couldn't help but smile when she saw Marcos confused and unresponsive, totally apathetic.

- I found the location of Custos, and no, "he" is not a nomadic mouse, as you thought, I mean, as I said he was. In fact, I never really liked change.

At that moment, a dozen police officers were rushing in with guns pointed at her husband's head.

"Hands up where I can see it. Marcos Meyer is arrested for kidnapping and false imprisonment of minors. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in court."

- Julie…- that was all he managed to utter amidst the shock, not of seeing the policemen themselves, but of having heard what she said to him.

- No, Honey, actually my given name is Lilith, better known as Custos. But that's okay, you don't see a problem with a woman having several names, don't you?- she said ironically and with pure relief on her face.

She had sent the exact location 30 minutes before Marcus arrived home, she knew he would be back. Being a former agent, she alerted the police to the action days before, warning them to be ready when she called them.

As the officers handcuffed Marcus, he looked at her confused but not denying the fury in his eyes, the disappointment, and the disillusionment. Lilith didn't see a man in front of her or pay attention to the noises the agents made, she only heard the whispers of the fireplace and the noise of the rain... The rain suddenly remembered her mother and left the house, accompanying the policemen who took Marcus in the car, and in that scene, she saw a small girl wearing a uniform smiling at her with a rosy face and a pure and childlike expression. Lilith cried and wanted to hug that girl in her subconscious, because that child was her mother, and she would give as many 'enter's as necessary to change the password of the secret files, just to finally see that smile again.

A few blocks from Lilith's house, Camille was being arrested with 3 more leaders. She stayed with her head leaning against the window watching the dripping drops. “Reset your password” always appeared when Custos changed something in the file, just two clicks away…