Booby traps

More hours had passed and tension was still filling the room. Both at the office as well as the police department. Because no matter how many laws the lawyers were citing, no matter how much Harold was shouting and demanding to see his nephew, the officer did not budge an inch. He did however get tired of their nonsense after a while. Not wanting to put up with their empty threats any longer, he decided to do some of the threatening. Fortunately his threats were much more effective than the ones the lawyers and Harold had been spouting.

The officer only needed to do one thing. He threatened to put them in a cell along with the nephew if they didn't stop for obstructing justice. He had put a stop to things as he had more to do than just listen to their ramblings and they were getting in the way of that with their constant presence.

So, the lawyers finally backed down and advised Harold to reconsider matters. This of course only caused the lawyers to be chewed out and sent home. Just forty minutes after they had entered the scene, the lawyers were gone. Once they left, all that Harold could do was sit there begrudgingly. Glaring at the officer as he quietly did his work and occasionally mumble some more angry words and threats. This is what had been going on for the past few hours.

At some point, after about an hour of him entering the police department, he stepped out, made a phone call and came back inside. Unfortunately they did not know who he had called and why, but for now they had plenty to worry about. There was no room left to worry about that as well. The hack had resulted in plenty of useful evidence, which was either sent to the local police over there, the news station or both. Regardless of what would be happening with the nephew, weather he would really end up with a criminal record or not because of his role in all of this, Harold would be facing a lot of trouble in the next couple of days. Most of which would be starting in the next hour or so.

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While the field team was making their way back home, time was ticking away and 7 AM was coming closer and closer. Harold was still impatiently waiting, his legs shaking up and down. His eyes glancing from his watch, to the big clock on the wall and off into the distance, before he repeated this cycle.

Noah, Steve and the others were still waiting at the office for the field team to return and to see how the situation at the police station would play out. They could see the anger rising in Harold. Especially after having been robbed of a night's sleep without any results to show for it. It was also clear that he was counting down every second. Waiting till he could stomp back over and demand to see his nephew for the umpteenth time. But this time he would not be denied as he would be abiding by the station's rules. Leaving the officer with no other choice but to oblige, regardless of his tone as he asks it. He could take solace in the memories of the past few hours, of him waiting and sulking and grumbling without result, and the fact that they had been able to deny him his request many, many times up until that point.

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Another few minutes had passed and it was 7 AM. Harold stomped over as they had anticipated and demanded to see his nephew. With a bit of a sigh, the officer got up from his seat before replying in a apathetic voice and with a face equally void of emotions, "Certainly. Follow me."

As Harold stomped away, the remaining members of Noah and Steve's team started walking in. They were welcomed with excitement, praises and smiles, before they gave their closing report to the two bosses. Everything seemed to have gone by without a hick-up and they were certain that no IT service would be able to take down their block any time soon. They had had plenty of times to build layers upon layers of code to keep people out and set booby traps to cause damage whenever they did manage to break through a layer. This would hopefully discourage them to go further and if it didn't it would certainly continue to help their cause. They needed to attack and cause trouble. That they certainly had done. Now they couldn't do anything other than wait for their handywork to be discovered and for the calls to start coming in, which by their prediction, wouldn't be taking long.

Noah and Steve were definitely pleased with the results achieved by their team. They had fully met their expectations for today and perhaps had even exceeded some of them. They had proven that their reputation as the best security and and electronic defence company had been well-earned. When they glanced at the code and saw the complexity of the defences they had built in against interference by a third party, they could not help but feel proud of their team and pleased with the people they had picked for this mission. A mission whose fruits were about to start showing.