. . . Thrown Away as continued
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Chapter 16
“You know, Ev, do you mind if I call you, Ev?” I asked.
“Oh, no, that’s fine.”
I continued, “I really need to get some more information before I can get too tight with the Studios. I mean, I am grateful for what you all have done for me so far, but I need more info.
“Of course, Nat. That’s why I am here. To start the indoctrination, and, hopefully, to get your buy-in,” she responded looking very confident and pleasing to the eye.
“Cool. Let’s dig in as I am starving. What is that tostadas?”
“Correct. I hope you like them. I have some sparkling water as well,” Evelyn answered.
After some serious chowing down amid silence, I said, “Ev, I feel like a prisoner. It’s a really cool place, the studio starship, but I need to know.” I paused and looked at Evelyn with an expression of seriousness.
She looked at me, wiped her face and started to explain the Studios. She took my laptop, not needing my password or multi-factor authentication, and showed me some copies of documents, maps, floor plans, financials and more. We spent several hours pouring through her presentation, I occasionally interrupting to ask a question or to get a clarification. It became very clear that my suspicions were correct – this was a big effort to counter totalitarianism anywhere on Earth as far as things needed to be taken without taking life except in self-defense. Was it legal? It was hard to say. POTUS was the originator, so it was hard to argue against it, and it had a somewhat limited life until the year 2030.
I was an investigator and analyst of cybersecurity systems, human trafficking and environmental threats of all kinds including but not limited to endangered species, cultures and global warming from climate change. That’s how the growing more wonderful in my eyes, Evelyn, explained my role. I was ready to add to my workload. And, she had much more to go over with me.
“I need to wrap up our meeting, Nat,” she said, “I have some responsibilities to take care of, and I want you to meet some colleagues. Are you up for some badminton?”
“Sure,” I answered with a little eagerness in my voice.
“Great,” she said mildly, “I’ll come by in a few hours and take you to the court.”
So, I got back to work from my quarters doing research mainly. It seems that countering false information is very important. Persistence is needed. And, you don’t want to bring publicity to the wrong doers by repeating their names and presenting their images. You must allude to them in a negative sense. Otherwise, many will not process the information correctly due to their own bias. The US major media outlets are a big part of the firehose of falsehood. They are not helping. Everyone must do their part, somehow.
I contacted Parker to see how she was doing with the new cyber security responsibilities, and to brief her on the limited progress I had made researching human trafficking. I told her I would be playing some badminton for a few hours, and that I would contact her not long afterwards. I had a plan I wanted to run by her. She sounded a bit jealous about the badminton, but was available later.
I was very jealous of my relationship with Parker, though I had never met her personally and only had a vague idea about what she looked like. She was the absolute best active cyber security technician in the world. North Korea thought she worked for them still, which she did in a limited way, and she also had roles with the US, China and Russia government agencies among others. She was that good. And, her security was everything to me. She had saved my bacon several times, and even had improved the hedge fund with some great tips. She seemed to have unlimited financial resources herself.
This storm was something, but like all storms it would be over soon enough. Then, it would be time to take care the victims, clean up and move forward.
Chapter 17
Parker was going over her recent activities as associated with Nat to prepare for their meeting in a few hours. She was a little jealous of his opportunity to play some badminton. She was a little leery of his new organization, but she didn’t plan on mentioning that or giving any hint of her building distress. She was pretty sure the directive was real, but it seemed really difficult to know what was up or down or sideways as he described it. She did get a good feeling about Evelyn, and that was important to her. She could read people very well.
When Parker landed in Bangalore as a preteen, she knew very little English and no Hindi. She had to read people to navigate the orphanage in those early days as a North Korean ex-pat. She still doesn’t quite understand how she ended up here, but it was part of a plan to be activated as an adult, or very nearly so, and to learn mathematics and coding in a technology rich environment. India had been like heaven to her when she arrived with plenty of food, decent weather and comfortable living quarters. She loved India from day one.
Helping Nat to keep the hedge fund secure was a piece of cake. She was not overconfident, just knew that all of Nat’s procedures and the small population of users made it pretty basic. But, she would be vigilante. That’s what she does. She had been practicing cybersecurity and all kinds of hacking and Internet usage assistance for about ten years. She didn’t like to be still controlled by her NK handler, but for now she had to play along somewhat robustly.
Her main focus for NK was to find and steal rocket technology from India. Her Indian handler, Raj, knew this, and he fed her interesting if incomplete finds in drips and drabs with an occasional windfall. She maintained two residences in the Bangalore area, right next to each other, so she could have an official residence that NK monitored and her real privacy. Parker had quite the real estate portfolio that Raj had facilitated as part of their deal. Her residences were adjoining townhouse type of apartments. She had free passage through a common wall, using a paneled section of wall as a doorway. She rented the second home to Raj’s elderly female relative through one of her business entities. Raj’s aunt knew nothing of Parker, and Raj kept track of her like a good nephew would.
Fortunately, Parker was able to keep up on her health, not that the NK cared, and she had infiltrated several rings of hacking bandits from China, Russia, NK, the new bad US group she called Doggies, which allowed her to direct their efforts against nefarious targets from which she was able to skim substantial loot, mainly crypto. Being a Robin Hood was not easy, but she had her merry men, including Nat and Raj. When she felt lonely, she would daydream of finally becoming a UK passport holder and settling in her London digs. She secretly hoped Nat would join her. He was safe at a distance, and she liked everything she knew about him from her extreme stalking. She had even been subtly encouraging and discouraging various relationships he has had.
Being lonely is not easy. Parker had many, many online relationships from her work, but she had not allowed anyone into her life. The loneliness had driven her to her current station in life – a prisoner, a very wealthy prisoner. Parker didn’t bother adding up her wealth, and didn’t check any of the balances. She had a robot for that, and if anything was off course, she would be automatically notified. That was not likely to happen. Her mind was on her projects with the number one project being her eventual freedom.
She was playing so many roles, but she had been doing so since the age of 15. She started as a secret favor to NK hacker with that role while a student, expanding rapidly as she demonstrated unusually brilliant ability. Raj had intercepted her at the early stages, due to the ludicrous risk her NK handler had made her take. She then started working for India as a double agent if you will, but Raj kept her under the radar; otherwise, he could see her being spent and killed in a short period of time. His coopting her skills had allowed her to develop beyond what anyone could imagine. Raj knew much less than the half of it. She had her hand in many pots with many teams of subordinates, some human and some bots.
She thought about this relationship between Nat and Dale of the investment group. She had been in charge of both ends – investment and security, the entire time since she bought out the hedge fund a few years ago. Nat didn’t know, and Dale was in the dark about her role for sure. Dale was the manager with the credentials. Parker was the money behind it all, plus she provided the security – Nat was on her team. He thought he had a more essential role, and she wasn’t going to let him know otherwise. She would encourage him to leave the studio and make his way abroad. She could almost see the finish line in her personal super marathon. She hoped she could convince Nat to join her.
Parker was like a hands-on CEO of a huge multinational corporation. She was the only stockholder. Almost everything was invisible to the rest of the world, which didn’t know all the strings she was pulling to try to herd the cats towards making the world better. It’s what she does. She doesn’t care about the odds. She shouldn’t be alive with the freedom she has. She just wants everyone else to have a chance to live life well.
Unlike most CEOs, she had many clandestine operations running at all times. She had developed her own AI systems, which coopted many other AI systems, LLMs, chatbots and search engines to assist her in developing plans, managing operations and measuring outcomes. Her entities, clandestine or not, were running very smoothly for the most part, and her wealth was growing at a rate beyond her wildest expectations. She rivaled the wealthiest of men, but no one knew. And, she was not free. In fact, she had to die soon.
Chapter 18
Nat was enjoying the robust badminton games as he and the other players were tiring after two hours. They had all followed Evelyn’s instructions to wear loosely fitting coverings over their faces to their anonymity. All four understood the reasoning being senior advisors or technicians of some sort for The Studios. However, Ev had told us to keep to small talk as we are all needs to know. Will was pretty good, and we played together the most. Val and Pen were a good team and partners on and off the court he learned from the limited small talk. Most of the games were close and we all had a good workout.
We said our pleasantries and expressed our hopes to play again soon as we departed from the studio court. I made a mental note to ask Ev about them later. I was going to need some resources to make some progress on the human trafficking problem. For now I scurried back to my small apartment to take a shower and get prepared for my video chat with Parker. I was looking forward to the work, but also Parker was always just so nice to me, I was remembering fondly. I was very conflicted about my commitment of heart.
After getting ready for the meeting, showered and changed, I moved down to the bridge, as I liked the starship bridge as it made me feel optimistic, and set up for viewing Parker on the big screen. I had a drink and a few snacks with me as I settled in the desk facing the screen. My biggest concern was how I was going to be able to reverse the trend in human trafficking, as I was confident in Parker and the cyber security team taking care of the hedge fund. I didn’t feel like The Studio location was going to work with the massive confrontational twist that the GOP ice force was taking.
My phone ring tone started to go off. Parker was trying to connect. I became pensive for some reason unknown to me. I touched the answer button on my phone and the connection resolved.
“Hi, Nat,” Parker greeted me with her brightness, which immediately put me at ease.
“Hi, Parky,” I responded, unable to contain my big smile as we both were radiating happiness. Interesting I mused in the back of my mind.
“I don’t have much to report, Natty. Everything is going well with no known security issues at present. Dale seems to be satisfied with all systems, and continues to work his investment magic.”
“Well, that’s good. I feel good about the arrangements the Director has made. I just feel I need to get out of here to start making a difference in fighting human trafficking.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t know much about that,” Parker said deferentially, “I will let you know if I happen to find out anything useful.”
“Okay, Parky, I wish I had more to share. I enjoy seeing your wonderful, er, you,” I managed to spit out. Maybe she blushed?
“Maybe our next call will be more productive, though I enjoy seeing you, too,” she replied, “you have a wonderful evening – remember the backup routine for next time, soon I hope.”
“Okay, you have a great day. Get some rest, and I’m sure we will talk again very soon.”
“Bye!”
And, with that the connection was lost, and I began to wonder what was so urgent. Parker had used the specific code phrases that meant I should spend some time on Minecraft for a more clandestine meeting. I continued checking my notifications and reviewed some human trafficking news as I slowly finished off my snack. I couldn’t help but feel a little anxiety and helplessness anticipating our next meeting in an hour or so. It helped to remember the few precious moments of our call. Parky did something to me, something good.
Chapter 19
Parker immediately made sure all systems were running smoothly before retreating to her closet office, a faraday cage within a cage. She fired up Minecraft, assumed a character Natty would recognize and transited slowly towards the meeting place, making sure to not give away her intentions. She needed to let Natty know to get to London to work on his assignment, and that he needed to expect something unusual to happen in their relationship.
He would be going to London, and she would be contacting him through a totally different persona and from a different place. Their lives would be changing for the better. She hoped the rest of the world would come around as well, but there was only so much she could do. She hoped he would be happy with her when it all came about. She knew him well, but she could not be certain that he would take to their being a couple. She needed it. She had been so lonely. Really lonely for so long.
She waited near the meeting site collecting some tools and other items, including a few writing tablets. She went into the library and out to a place she had made years ago. It was as a place could be in the game space. She wrote her message on her tablet, the violet one which meant this was a go, and waited for Matt’s character to arrive. Her heart was beating wildly, so she started her meditating routine to regain control of her body. She can’t remember the last time she felt like this, so amped up.
Nat arrived in his persona, acted hesitant on meeting another character in the game, and then shyly made a greeting. He noted the violet writing tablet her persona had on top. She exchanged a greeting and they shook hands with Parker slipping her writing tablet over to Nat’s character, while he traded a violet writing tablet, which had a meaningless message, over to her. They went on their merry way, playing or creating for quite a bit of time in seemingly independent activities. Nat quickly read his message, taking a screenshot, before exiting the platform
Parker knew he had the message as she intended it, and also knew he would acknowledge the reception in a cybersecurity status update email later in the day. She felt a sigh of relief, and prepared for her big day tomorrow.
Chapter 20
Ka-boom!
Parker found herself floating above her residences, which were leveled from what appeared to be a delivery van bomb as there was some twisted portions of that remaining in front of what was her home. She could see Raj arriving and running into what was left of her living space, searching for her she presumed. His aunt must have been away this early morning; otherwise he would have looked for her first.
Raj lifted her apparently lifeless body and carried it quickly to his government truck and took off with Parker seemingly floating along behind. Things didn’t look like she expected. She realized this explosion was ahead of schedule, and it was supposed to be a controlled intense fire that she was to secretly survive with no one else harmed. Someone had beat her to killing her it seems. Her body was at a hospital being rolled down a corridor on a stretcher. She didn’t have any feelings for the body. But, she was still confused about what had happened. She wasn’t supposed to die.
Then, as she saw a team of medical professionals working on her body in a large room, she saw a bright light and followed that instantaneously. She had the most remarkably good feeling come over her. This was an amazingly wonderful feeling as she transitioned to a very beautiful large great room with interesting art and a small waterfall. She settled into a chair, not really sitting as she was no longer in a body, but she had a sense of her familiar humanness, and a very gentle and kindly older Asian woman sat across a small table from her. She knew who this was. She didn’t recognize her appearance, but knew it was her grandmother as they smiled at each other across the table.
They reached out and touched hands gently, and Parker instantly reviewed her life with her grandmother, who she had not known in North Korea, feeling totally at peace and with no judgement. It could have been moments or days, she could not tell. This was a wonderful place. She was aware that she could choose to stay here, but she also had the option to return. She was shown scenarios in the future that she could be a part of on Earth, if she chose to return. She thought of Nat. She knew she could do so much to help the Earth as it was certainly off the rails. She might be able to get things back on track. It wasn’t an easy decision. She was at complete peace feeling more wonderful than she could imagine.
Chapter 21
Raj had been frantically doing whatever he could to save Parker. The doctors had had to operate to relieve pressure on her brain as the blast had caused some kind of serious concusive event. He had activated Parker’s emergency protocol, and as a result had all the funds necessary to transport her to Tel Aviv. It wasn’t part of the original plan, but he had to make her dead, if she survived, or she would be targeted again. The NK had beaten them to the punch somehow.
He had quickly secreted her near lifeless body by private jet to the private, military hospital in Tel Aviv with her in a comatose state. They were hoping that somehow she would manage to recover. If she had remained in Bangalore he had no doubt the NK would find her and finish the job. She was now officially dead and cremated in India. His aunt was relocated to a senior living community with access to helping poor children, as Parker had always funded her efforts and continues to do so.
After making sure she was as comfortable and well taken care of as possible, Raj had made his way to his real bosses office in a nondescript light industry warehouse building that was attached to a parking garage and aging office building. Most of the complex was run by Mossad that wasn’t part of Mossad that worked with international intelligence agencies like the CIA and MI6. They were compartmentalized. Truly secret. Mostly funded by Parker.
After checking in, he used tradecraft to make his way to his private residence, checked on his new New Dehli office operations, as he was still working for Indian intelligence, but was working remotely. They would be surprised how remotely, but it was necessary to keep the NK hounds off of his scent. Then he circled back to his private quarters at Near Mossad to start planning for his favorite boss to return to the living. He was trying to have hope, but it was running thin from the poor reports he was getting from the medical staff.