An Easy Job
The sky was dark yet had a tint of green, lightning flashed and lit up the dark room I was in. Normally my room was lit only by a desk lamp and the two monitors, I had for my PC. It was there I sat, hunched over a keyboard. "Tsk.. Why is this taking so long? I should have been in an hour ago.", I thought to myself.
Starring into the code, I nearly lost myself in thought. The program I was running seemingly wanted to take its time finding the back door to the server. I purely on instinct called out, "Hey, Rika can you please grab me another Hertz? I'm going to be pulling another all-nighter!"
"Coming up Ori!" called back a voice from the other room. A few moments later the door to my room slightly opened, however, I was entered by the code that I was caught off guard. In an instant, my dark dwelling was lit up as if the sun was now in my room.
Leaping from my trance and the very chair I was sitting in. I fiercely spun around and with my hair on end I angrily fired back "No light, the light is bad!" Standing in the doorway between my room and the hall, was a child-sized metal humanoid; also known as a robot.
A small black and purple robot with cat ears, entered the room holding a slim aluminum can. "Here you are Ori.", said Rika as she held out the yellow can. "You need the light. If you won't go out in the sun, then you need these lights. They help by providing good UV rays.", continued Rika.
"But it hurts my eyes!", I whined as I leaned over the back of my chair, reaching for the can. "Gimme, I need the Hertz!", I strained. "Only if you leave the light on for half an hour, Oriana." Rika sternly replies. Slowly withdrawing the yellow aluminum can from my reach.
The can in question is a simple aluminum can, with a yellow color and red letters that spell the word Hertz; the z is shaped light a lightning bolt. This is no ordinary energy drink, some people say stims have been added to the drink, but nothing has been proven.
"After scanning your health, I must advise you to get more sun and less sugar.", Rika motioned. Snagging the can from Rika, I spun around in my chair. Starting to work again, I remarked "Thanks Rika, I'll go outside after I finish with this." Rika proceeded to clean the room around me, picking up books, trash, and clothes. After finishing the task, Rika grabbed one of the books and then hopped on my bed. She kicked her legs off the side of the bed while reading the book. Smiling at the cute sight, I returned to hacking.
The job was simple: hack into a server, steal some data, and get out. Things never go according to plan!
While sitting there watching the computer screen, I got ready to input a command once prompted. The programs I had running were doing their tasks and all was going smoothly. The prompt popped up and I quickly gave it the command to search for the data. I should have known something was up then, however, I was a bit cocky and forgot the basics. "There we go, this should do it!", I cheered.
Pushing the enter key I sat with baited breath when in a flash of red an error window appeared. "What the hell? No? That should have worked!" I cried.
Looking over the book, Rika chimed in, "There is an error in the command you are running, if it is not fixed in the next 3 minutes the Corps will be able to get a lock on to our location and will be at the door 10 minutes after that." She then continued; "To fix it you will need to run the Decryption program in addition to the others, which will allow you to bypass the firewall."
Sheepishly I quipped back, "Now you tell me!" Not missing a beat, Rika hit me with "I was in the other room, until moments ago. How could I have seen or known about the error, from the kitchen?" I clicked my tongue, "Tsk! Alright, you got me there." Quickly I started up the program and prepared to input the command once again.
Have you ever been in the moment, where you've lost sight and sound of the world around you? I sat there oblivious to everything when the world decided to make itself known to me. A voice rang out throughout the apartment block, thunder rolled and Rika spoke all at the same moment.
"Attention Residents! Tonight a thunderstorm is overhead! Wind speed is expected to be 35 mph! Thunder and Lightning are expected! As well as heavy rainfall! Storms are starting as we make this announcement. The Rain Gutters are opening to collect water.", bellowed a voice over the intercom systems.
Rika also chimed in with a warning, "Ori you have 2 hours and 58 minutes before the Corps know you are in their systems!"
Spooked by both voices and the thunder, I leaped from my chair, as I landed in the seat again my heart was racing. Of course, the command prompt would pop up at that moment. I slammed my fingers onto the keyboard, quickly entering the command once again.
Again the error popped up, as Rika reminded me; "You have 2 hours and 30 minutes remaining." Frantically I repeated the steps, and again the error appeared. I repeated the steps for what seemed like an eternity and then time was announced to me. "You have 1 hour and 40 minutes remaining," Rika warned.
Once again I sat there repeating the command, while Rika continued to count down. "1 hour and 40 minutes remaining, before we have the authorities at our door."
"Oriana I must advise haste as only 28 minutes is remaining.", Rika stated. While I kept typing and typing. Sweat dropped from my forehead and onto the keyboard, making it a bit harder to hit the keys without my fingers slipping.
As Rika let out a final warning of 5 seconds, I got the command code inputted correctly. "Finally I'm in!", I sighed. Spinning around in my chair to celebrate, I saw Rika holding out her right hand. I slapped my left hand against hers in a classic high five. "Not to bring the mood down, but we still might be in trouble. As a ping was set off in our area." Rika relayed.
Looking at Rika, I reminded her; "I have a blocker and a VPN switcher running, so we should be fine. Plus I'm in now and just have to…"
Before I could finish, the loudspeakers crackled and went off: "Attention Residents! We are undergoing a lockdown! Officers will be going floor by floor, performing random inspections and searches! Please for yours and the safety of others, follow their instructions without issue."
"Hurry!" I finished nervously. Rika and I stared at each other for a few seconds, before we frantically ran around like cartoons. I quickly started the shutdown of everything while activating a virus program that would keep me logged into the server. I turned back to look at Rika and was caught off guard. "What's wrong?", I asked. "I am registering two police cars that have just arrived.", Rika replied with a worried look on her robotic face.
—————
Outside the apartment building, two Chicago PD squad cars pull up, as the storm overhead is raging on. A pair of officers step out of the two cars and begin walking up the steps toward the front entrance to the lobby.
One of the officers reaches into a pocket to retrieve a small quarter-sized puck, they press a button at the center of the puck and a small light emits out of it. "We got ourselves a possible attempt of a hack from somewhere on the premises. It seems they tried to hack into Minerva Archives. The firewall sent out a ping to disrupt and track the hacker, however, there were four different pings. We got the short straw with this one.", says the officer as he looks at the hologram layout of the apartment building
"Yeah! Brindley is right this whole complex is filled with Corporate brats, who have mommy and daddy paying for everything!", mocks a female officer.
"Brindley, Cooper! Cease the chatter, we are on duty! Lin report!", orders another female officer.
The last officer stands up straight before she replies, "Sir, it is just as Brindley said. We are here to investigate any suspicious activity, involving a Hacker."
The four of them then head into the apartment complex. Inside they walk into the main lobby, a massive open atrium; that is decorated to look like a park. Four elevator shafts stand at the corners of the park, these lead up to the housing units.
"Alright, how do we want to go about this? Floor by floor as a group or split up?", questions Brindley.
Lin speaks up with, "If I may? I think we should do it by car and go by even and odd floors. With twenty floors and ten apartments per floor; we should be able to get each floor finished in an hour. Making it a total of ten hours, over the twenty-plus hours it would take to finish as a group."
"Sounds good to me, guys! Anyone got a coin?" Coopers joyfully adds in.
"Coins? Coins haven't been made in like 100 years or more!", scoffs Brindley
"Umm, I've got one!" Lin sheepishly says.
"Lin for the win! Alright, Lin your coin you call it, and if you win you pick.", replies Coopers as she reaches for the coin to flip it.
"Tails!", Cheers Lin, as the coin flies up from being flicked by Coopers' thumb.
The coin flips up into the air five times and four as it falls back down. Coopers snag the coin as it falls and place the coin quickly on the top of their left hand. Coopers then removes her right hand to reveal the coin.
"Lin wins!" cheers Coopers and Brindley. "Very well, Rodgers and I will take the odd floors then.", states Lin. After this interaction, the officers pair up and then split up heading towards the elevators.
—————
Back in my apartment, I sat at my computer thinking to myself; "I just need to plant this wyrm egg, and the job is done." On the monitor, Ori is looking a the Minerva Health Care logo, a progress bar, a command window, and a small pink and blue striped egg.
"Come on! Come on! Hatch, damn it!", demands Oriana towards the egg.
From the other room Rika calls out, "Ori, I have located the officers. There are four of them, and they have split into teams of two, one pair is on the first floor while the second group is on the lift to the second floor. At their current rate, the first team should be at our door within two and a half hours."
Oriana sighs with relief and then replies, "I'm nearly done here, 10% left to upload and the wyrm will hatch. It should be done in an hour." The egg has grown slightly bigger and has a few cracks in the shell.
While watching the eggs grow, I began to clean up my tracks and shut down my connection to the server. Leaving the egg to hatch and do its job of finding the information I was looking for.
"Ori, the first team has finished half of the first floor, we have an hour left.", Rika stated from a nearby room. "It's about to hatch, I just need a bit longer before I can close out!" I shouted back. The egg was now twice its original size and the cracks now cover the entire front. While I sat there watching, a small azure-colored eye peaked out at me. The egg then shattered, revealing a small light blue scaled wyrm with a pink underbelly. As the cute beast let out a small roar, I shed a tear as I said; "Feed my baby! Feed and find the info I seek!"
Standing in the doorway, Rika hastily stated; "There has been a miscalculation, it seems the occupants of 106, 108, and 109 weren't home, meaning the officers will be at our door in 20 minutes."
"I only need 10 more minutes and then the wyrm will have finished building its' nest in the Archives.", I called back, now panicking. I turned around to look at Rika, who was performing another scan. "The officers are heading towards the elevators.", she spoke while looking at the floor. Looking back at my computer screen, a smile grew across my face and I joyfully said "No worries, our friend is already eating away."
—————
Inside the elevator, officers Rodgers and Lin waited. "So it's 301 and 303 next, what information do we have on the residence?", questions Rodgers. Lin reached into her pocket and removed a small tablet. Entering her password, she double-tapped her finger to a police star icon. This opened the Chicago PD database, Lin then searched for the information for Rodgers. "Let's see. There is a single resident in 3o1, Johnathan Rupert, British American, male, 45, nanobot programmer. As for 303, umm this is strange, it says classified!" Lin replies.
"Classified? What's that supposed to mean? So, what do we do now? Do we Radio it in or just move on?", questions Rodgers.
"Well, protocol requires us to radio it in and wait for orders." Lin reminds Rodgers
"Lin, I know I'm known as a rule follower, but this time I don't think we need to. Most of the time they always tell us not to worry about it and move on.", Rodgers says shyly. "For now, let's deal with 301." She continues.
Finishing up with the resident of 301, the pair steps up to 303. "I kinda want to knock to find out who lives there, but if it's a Corporate Kid then we will never hear the end of it," Lin says quizzically. "What do you mean, we? You want to knock, I don't. Plus it won't be the Corps Kid, it will be the C.O.P. on your ass." Rodgers argues.
Just then their radios crackle with static, and Rodgers reaches up and grips the radio. Coopers' voice speaks through it saying, "Lin, Rogers how goes the search? Find anything yet?" Rodgers then spoke into her radio "Nothing yet sir. However we do have a classified resident on this floor, how should we proceed?"
"Just leave it for now, this is already going to be a lot of paperwork.", Coopers radioed back. To this, both Rodgers and Lin replied "Copy!" into Rodgers' radio. The pair then moved past the apartment and on the next door.
—————
Waiting for a knock from the other side of the door, Rika and Oriana our breath. Well, I was the only one to do so really. "I believe they have left, one second while I scan the door," Rika said before peeking through the door with her x-ray scan. "The coast is clear, they have moved on to the next apartment.", stated the small robot.
Releasing the tension from my shoulders, I slouched in a nearby chair "Sigh! That was a rush!", I said revealed. It was nice to have a moment of relief, I sat there letting my heart calm down, only for things to blow up.
An explosion shocked my apartment, and smoke bellowed out of my bedroom. Three figures swung into the now exposed hole in the wall. Rika ran up to the door, only to get shot.
"Rika!", I screamed as I ran to her aid.
As I ran, someone began to knock on my front door and then a woman's voice called out "Chicago PD is everything okay in there? We heard an explosion and gunshots! Open the door and let us in!", Lin called out from the other side of the door.
Rika was lying on the floor with a bullet wound in her chest, sparks popping out of it. I held her close, tears running down my cheeks. I could hear movement coming from my bedroom and the knocking persisted at the front door. Then the front door opened on its own. "Run, Ori! Get out of here!", pleaded Rika.
I sobbed back, "I, I, I, I can't leave you!" While holding her close. Just then a voice called out from my bedroom "Target in sight" followed by another voice saying "Grab her!" The figure that spoke first, leaped towards Oriana. The figure missed as a bullet hit them in the shoulder.
A female officer stood in the doorway with her gun trained on the leaping figure. "Chicago PD, freeze!", she ordered as the figure started to get up. Gunshots began to be fired from my bedroom, towards the officer. I leaped to the floor to avoid the bullets, holding Rika close. The cop and the other people fought around me, then the female officer took a bullet to the chest.
"Lin!" called a voice from the hall. Then another female officer ran into my room through my front door, she grabbed the wounded officer and dragged her behind my couch. "Cooper! Lin is shot and we have hostiles, room 303!" called the second woman. Rodgers, we are on our way!" bellowed a third woman's voice from a radio.
I stood up during a shout pause in the gunfire, clutching Rika as we ran for the office. Making it to the office as the shooting began, I grabbed the hard drive from my PC. Grabbing a backpack from the floor and shoving the hard drive inside. I picked Rika back up and ran from the office to the front door.
Bullets flew all around me as I ran for the door. As I made the door, I got hit in the arm by a bullet from behind. I nearly dropped Rika because of it, but I held on and kept running.
Behind me, I heard the shoot-out continue, and ahead of me, the elevator opened. I sidestepped and ran for the stairs, to avoid whoever was about to exit the lift.
Hastily running down the stairs I made it to the ground floor in no time, I kicked the exit door open and bolted out onto the cold rainy night. As I ran from everything, I mournfully cried "This was supposed to be an easy job!"
Running into the city, thinking of where to go, I made the comment; "Well it's not sunny but I'm outside now, Rika!"
The small robot in my arms, continued to spark and short circut. "Or... Or.... Ori ana, are you okay?" Stuttered Rika.
END