When the doorbell sounded, the grill was already going, and Erin was about to start cooking the meat. Heather answered the door for the smiling man, and after greeting him, invited him in.
"Miss Brown, I need to tell you that this isn't an official visit. I'm here only as Gary Atwater. In fact, I have been prohibited by my bosses to interview any of you."
"I wonder why?" Heather asked, curiously. "It seems to me, we should have been the first people you would need to talk to." She shrugged. "Whatever, come on out back, we're about to grill and we're all relaxing around the pool. Daddy thought it would be a great idea after the day we had."
"Oh! I didn't want to intrude, perhaps I should come ba..."
Heather interrupted him with a wave of her hand. "Nah, really we don't mind. We'd be happy to have you."
Gary nodded and followed the beautiful young woman out to the back yard. She had been wearing a short silk robe, and now Gary found out why; She dropped the robe to reveal a thong bikini that only barely covered the good parts.
That would have been bad enough, but the rest of the woman, all beautiful, were not wearing much more than Heather. Brad (Gary recognized him from the pictures on his desk) and an older man were wearing a pair of Bermuda shorts, and t-shirts. There were two other men; one wearing a speedo, and the other just cut-off jeans and a tank. The woman cooking appeared to be nude except for the apron she was wearing. Gary was hoping she was on the menu as well.
Gary, who was wearing a pair of jeans and a polo-shirt, said. "Wow, I feel over dressed!"
"I'm sure we can find you something to wear, if you'd like?" Brad said as he approached. He offered his hand and introduced himself.
"Maybe later. I think you should know, I'm also the lead investigator in the Ecogen case. As I told Miss Brown, I can't interview any of you, and I can't even talk to you officially. Hell, if my bosses find out I even stopped by to say 'Hi' I'd probably get fired," Gary explained after the introductions.
Brad nodded his understanding. "Then, forgive me for asking, but why risk it?" He asked as he waved Gary to a seat next to him and Frank.
"There is way too much of this case that simply isn't adding up. Too many things are getting skewed, and I'm blocked from officially discovering the truth. This reeks of a cover-up. Normally, I'd leave it alone because of National Security, but I can't see the connection this time. So I'm even more interested in finding the truth," Gary explained, sounding frustrated. "Nothing you tell me tonight is official, or will appear in any official paperwork. Hell, you could tell me you've killed someone, and I couldn't do anything about it. So you have nothing to fear from me."
He suddenly noticed that most of the group had gathered around them, and his 'Spidey Sence' tingled.
"I'm afraid it's more the other way around, Gary, but let me assure you, that regardless of what you learn here this evening, you have nothing to fear from us either," Vanessa said softly from the pool.
Gary thought it odd that the young woman would say such a thing, but left it go for now.
Brad smiled at the man's reaction. "Before I begin, I do have to ask you, even though you just assured us to the contrary, not to share what you learn here tonight with anyone not of our group. That is to say, those of us present. I must warn you that we will know if you're deceiving us. I'll tell you how later. Do you agree?"
"I can agree to that with the caveat that it doesn't conflict with any previous oaths," Gary replied.
Brad frowned. "I'm afraid that you might decide that what you learn is a viable threat to the United States. So I must ask you to set that aside for this, this one time only. I will swear in turn that we love our country as much as you do, and contrary to appearances, would never act to her detriment as a whole. Can you accept that?"
Gary looked closely at the young man. "You're completely serious about this. Okay, only for the information learned here tonight, and any further information stemming from it, I swear I will not reveal its existence to anyone not of your immediate group."
Brad nodded. "Thank you, In return I swear to not take advantage of your trust. I must also swear to you that everything you will learn here tonight is the complete and honest truth. Some of the more fantastic stuff, we can, and will, prove if you ask.
"I know this sounds a little melodramatic, but I think you'll understand why in a few minutes." Brad took a drink of his iced tea, and started at the beginning. He told Gary everything. He mentioned the Rebellion, but didn't name any names.
"The Rebellion is at the top of the list for cyber-terrorists!" Gary said, amazed.
"Even so, they're not terrorists. As much as you trust them, our government isn't always the best source of accurate information," Sammi said from the pool.
"How do you know?" Gary asked reasonably.
Brad just smiled and tapped the side of his head. "I've met them."
Gary shuddered at the thought that someone could actually read someone else's mind. "Yeah, about that, you said you could prove them? The mental abilities I mean."
"Which one would you like to see first?" Brad asked.
"I think I could believe in the others if I knew yours was real. I'd think that was the most dangerous."
"Okay, but to do that, I need your permission. Normally, when I meet someone, I'll touch their mind briefly just to get a feel for what type of person they are. Kind of like a mental handshake. I won't 'go through your pockets' unless I have permission first, or I have a good reason to do so." Brad explained.
Once Gary was convinced about the abilities. He told everyone about the video young William had made of the fake police chase. Everyone wanted to see it, but Erin vetoed the migration into the living room by announcing dinner was ready. Janice helped her lover serve dinner and soon, everyone had a plate.
"I noticed you didn't say anything about the girl," Gary asked, nodding at Julie. "What's her story?"
Brad looked at the happy, smiling girl. "Her story is a sad one. She is the result of a battle between myself and General Martin Sampson. He was the head of security for the agency that sponsored Ecogen's research. Once I got his name from the men he had watching us, I had Sammi track him down and hack into his personal computer system. The idea was to plant child porn to use to blackmail him into backing off.
"What we found, was far worse then what we could have planted. He'd been molesting Julie since she was a baby, and had taken pictures and video's of it. He home schooled her, so no one would find out about it. His household staff was either part of it, or to scared to say anything.
"I forced him to send her here so we could try to salvage what we could of her, but he even tried to use her as a delivery system for a bomb. She was so messed up, it was heart-rending to see. I ended up doing a lot of work in her mind to either erase or alter her memories of the abuse so she would have a chance at a decent life.
"Currently, she believes that she ran away when he kept making advances on her that she asked him to stop. She believes that she happened to run into Vanessa purely by chance and we took her in. Frank is adopting her," Brad explained. "Steph healed her scarring, and restored her hymen. She even removed the tattoo on her pubic area that read 'Daddy's Girl'.
"Jesus, now I'm sorry I made that promise to you. I'd love to nail that fucker to the wall!" Gary said looking at Julie, glad he hadn't seen her before.
The man that was introduced as the gardener and handyman, Walter, chuckled. "Good Luck with that!"
"Why?"
"Since Sampson didn't keep his word in not attacking us again, we did
keep our word to him, and made sure his bosses got copies of those
pictures. Apparently, Mr. Brush didn't like the pictures either,
because he ordered Sampson 'disposed of' in a very slow and brutal
manner," Sammi replied. "I still think the prick got off too easy."
Gary's ears perked up. "Mr. Brush? As in the Ex-President? He's behind
all this?"
"Yeah, I've already talked to him a couple of times. He's actually in town right now, or at least he was earlier today. He believes we are demons straight out of Hell, and it's his god given duty to eliminate or imprison us. I think he prefers eliminate at this point," Brad said.
"Well, on the surface, the fact that you're undertaking the total rebuilding of the government does sound sinister, you have to admit that. Especially since you are using alleged terrorists as an information source." He paused to eat a little.
"I do believe Brush would prefer you dead, and that he knows you're demons. Be very careful of him; he has a lot of supporters, and they are just as fanatically rabid as he is. Some of them're more so. All he'll have to do is leak the information about you to the right people, and you'll be hunted until the end of time."
Gary finished dinner, and talked to everyone. The more he got to know, the more he knew these folks were the real victims. The unfortunate folks at Ecogan had simply been collatertal damage.
Before he left that evening, he agreed to help Brad's family as much as he could. He gave them all his contact information, but warned them that any call made on an official line would automatically be traced. Sammi just laughed and rolled her eyes.
They said their good-byes, and Gary left feeling a lot better about this case. Everything Brad's family told him not only rang true, but fit perfectly with what he knew the facts to be. He knew Brad could have simply made sure everyone gave the same story, but it would have been a lot easier just to alter his mind. He knew Brad hadn't though, because he could still question it. Supervisory Special Agent Gary Atwater still loved his country, and would never betray her; However, he was starting to believe that the oath he swore to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic now included the United States Government.
~~ *~
Sammi had moved her computer to one of the empty bedrooms, and there were daily deliveries from local stores as well as UPS and Fed-Ex. Almost all of them were for Sammi and almost all of it was computer equipment.
In the room right next to her, Stephanie set up her office, and had Sammi set up her computers. Once those two were finished, the rooms looked like mission control. Stephanie even had a real-time stock ticker on the top boarder of one wall.
After getting permission, Sammi asked The Rebellion for two of their best. The kids arrived the same day the new, specialized computers for them also arrived.
'A couple' turned out to be three. 'Matrix' was a sixteen year old girl. She was obviously a child of the streets; she knew that this was important, so she 'played nice'.
The other hacker, 'Skate' was about the same age as 'Matrix' but with him was a six year old girl he called BC. Matrix laughed and said the initials were for 'Birth Control'. The girl giggled and stuck her tongue out at the older girl, who smiled back.
Sammi showed them their rooms, then took them to 'her' room for a meeting to fill them in on the plan. Paladin and the 'counsel' were there via teleconferencing, along with Brad and Frank.
Grinning, the council approved the plan, and said they would make sure the rest of the net, and the media sources 'helped'. Once the plan was approved, Frank asked to speak to the council about a different matter. Paladin looked surprised, but agreed.
"Paladin, are there many kids like Skate and BC?" Frank asked.
"There are some, we have to be extra careful with them since the young ones tend to draw attention, why?" He replied.
Frank looked thoughtful for a moment. "I was just thinking, we're in the process of buying an island in the Florida Keys. There are a couple of buildings there that could easily be converted into living areas. If we set it up legally as an orphanage or a home or something, we could provide for them, without having to worry too much about the government taking everyone to different homes."
Everyone on the council looked thoughtful but at least they were considering the idea. "Give us some time to think about it, that would solve some of the problems we've been having. In the mean time, how are the new computers coming?"
"We had the first two delivered here for Matrix and Skate. We just need an address to send the rest," Brad answered grinning.
"Cool!" Paladin replied excitedly. "We'll get that to you by tomorrow. Is there anything else we need to discuss?"
"Not from us, is there anything you folks need?" Frank asked.
"No, actually, I think you're already seeing to that. We'll be in touch." Paladin said as the big screen went black.
BC walked up to Frank and tapped him on the shoulder. When he looked at her, she gave him one of her patented smiles and asked. "Can I have some ice cream?"
~~ *~
The job of discrediting the ex-president was far easier than Brad though it would be. Matrix and Skate, pulled up enough information from the 'Pandora Drives' to actually have him brought up on criminal charges.
Sammi began the job of disseminating it to the world, and the two hackers hit the net for more up-to-date information.
The sheer volume of evidence was overwhelming to both Brad and Frank. It was circumstantial, but it was proof that the news agencies in the US were anything but unbiased.
The information cover-up brought all three hackers to ask for a household meeting one evening. The house staff had been getting more and more involved in 'The Project' so they were asked to sit in as well.
Since Skate and Matrix looked ill at the thought of speaking, Sammi took the lead. "As you all know, we've been digging up the dirt on Director Brush in order to take his mind off us so we can get busy on the real job."
There was general nodding all around. Their actions had been well known by everyone. "Well, what you might not have thought of was that we ran into a tangled web of lies and deceit so thick, it's almost impossible to unravel without collapsing the whole government. If expose just the stuff on Brush, any investigative reporter worth their credentials would easily find the rest.
"Would they do it before the information was destroyed? We have no way of knowing, we do know there is no way all of the information can be destroyed. The question we need answered is; do we proceed with this? If so, how far do we go?"
"The final answer to this will need agreement from the Rebellion, I won't do anything to risk the trust those people have put in us," Brad said. "But I think we need more information from you guys. What was your original plan to nail Brush?"
"Well, there was plenty of dirt on the Pandora Drives to put him in jail for several life sentences, We were working on getting more immediate information on him to leak to several independent and foreign reporters. That way, our only involvement would be in the form of an anonymous tip," Sammi replied.
Frank was nodding at the wisdom of their plan. "That would have worked great, but perhaps we can use this as a way to start the repairs the Rebellion asked us to make. What do you suppose would happen if you gave different leads, on different people to different reporters?"
Skate finally spoke. "Probably nothing, at least for awhile. Maybe not at all if the reporters either get lazy or do happen to see the big picture, and get scared."
"We could ask LazerFreak to have Scarab's bunch keep an eye on them, maybe keep them on the right track," Matrix added.
"Who's Scarab?" Sammi asked.
"She and her people are our version of the CIA. They get the dirt that isn't in a computer. She's also my girlfriend," Skate said, with a lopsided grin. "They love to play with Bots and stuff. Most of them they have to build by hand. Her 'Baby' is a bot she calls 'Bad Mojo'."
"So they use robots as spies? That's smart as long as the thing can't be traced back to them. I think the military was looking into doing that, but they decided the whole thing was too expensive," Hal said, from beside Frank.
"Well, if the feds are involved of course its gonna be too expensive!" Matrix chuckled.
"That's a discussion for another day; we got side-tracked. Let's run the plan by Paladan's crew and see if they think its feasable," Brad offered, looking around for any disagreement.