Liberty, Chapter Two of a New Novel
Dex and Tony
*Note-a short prologue on chapter one provides details of the world in which this story takes place. Each chapter links to the next to make reading easier.
This is chapter two of a novel I am sharing online, titled Liberty, A Daughter Universe Novel. I use the word “Liberty” because it relates to this story on multiple levels.
Comments and criticisms are welcome and encouraged.
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Capitol City, ECA
Old Apartment building
10700 Blair St.
Friday 6:37am
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“Are you in yet?” Tony asked, the smell of garlic and stale cigarettes on his breath.
“I’m getting there,” Dex replied and looked up at Tony. “I told you, stop leaning over me. I have to focus. These firewalls are relentless- as soon as I crack one, another one pops up.”
“Just get it done.”
Muffled sounds filtered from downstairs; people getting ready for the day, oblivious to what was going on in the “attic” above their heads.
“I’ll stay out of your way,” Tony said then crossed the small space and flopped down on an old, dilapidated sofa.
The apartment building had seen better days, but its cramped “attic” space was perfect for their mission. Tony had tapped into the electrical line to power the server while Dex spliced into the fiber-optic trunkline and accessed the 'net using a spoofed IP address. Tony had chosen the building deliberately; one of twelve ‘safe places’ he had found and left servers in for Dex, all in poorer parts of the city-- no one asked questions in poor neighborhoods, and police rarely patrolled those areas.
A green glow shone on Dex’s face from one of two virtual monitors he had “thrown” into the air with a swipe of his hand above the tablet. “I’m in,” he said. “I sent an emergency reboot command so I could access the water system. Resetting now.” He looked at Tony. “I’m only going to reduce the flow by twenty percent then it will slow another ten percent an hour down until it stops at twenty-five percent. That will at least leave people with drinking water if nothing else.”
“That isn’t what the Council said, Dex. They want it shut off to show the city that they can control the city’s computers, so they’ll be taken seriously.”
“I don’t care what the Council wants, I’m not going to completely shut off the water. What I just did proves what they want, anyway.”
Flashing red lights abruptly filled both monitors where before they’d all been green, and Dex began typing furiously.
“What’s going on?” Tony asked. “Why’d those lights turn red?”
Dex kept typing, glancing from monitor to monitor. “I tripped something,” he said, fingers still flying around the keyboard, “and the security system’s spyders are trying to trace my connection. Damn it all!” Dex shouted, as he frantically entered a code on the holo-display that wiped the server’s memory chip and then closed the cover of his tablet.
“They traced me to this line, Tony, we need to get out of here. CivPro Security will be searching the building in less than ten minutes.”
Tony panicked and started unhooking the power splice and the one server.
“Leave that stuff. They can repair the electric line and you can replace the server. It’s wiped, anyway- they can’t trace anything to us. And I’ve got the algorithms in my tablet.”
Dex wasn’t concerned about fingerprints or even trace DNA- Tony had been born in Seaside so there was no official record of his existence. And although Dex was a citizen, he’d wiped all traces of himself from government records when he’d moved to Seaside, where he’d first met Tony and got involved with the Resistance.
“Now move it! Unless you want to spend the rest of your life in one of those black-site prisons that “don’t exist”.”
The thought of those secret prisons got Tony’s attention. People sent there didn’t come back. “There’s another place just ten blocks from here. We can get to through the tunnels and avoid the surveillance drones,” he said then sprinted for the attic door and dropped through into the third-floor hallway with a loud thud. Dex smiled, handed down his tablet and jumped down into the hallway beside him.
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This story was originally posted on Simily.co.
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About the Creator
Blaine Coleman
I enjoy a quiet retirement with my life partner and our three dogs.
It is the little joys in life that matter.
I write fiction and some nonfiction.
A student of life, the flow of the Tao leads me on this plane of existence.
Spirit is Life.
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