David watched the men as they dug into the envelope and read over its contents.
“Please let them not suspect anything” he prayed silently. He still was getting over the initial shock of what he was doing. “Why did I have to go along with the plan” he asked himself. He dug into his pocket and felt the timer digging into his fingertips; he took a deep breath, trying to calm down. The leader finally looked at him, and David thought it a good time to leave. But before David went away, something in the eyes of the leader stopped him. It was as if he were holding him under a spell. Dark and full of evil, his eyes were resting on him.
The leader got up and stared him down, finally saying, “Do the work and then come back. No taking the easy way this time, understood?”
David shrunk back, and his whole body shook. He wondered if the gang suspected anything, but before he could think up a response, he was shoved into a dark closet and locked in.
----
Richard stared around the dorm room shocked in disbelief. Papers were scattered everywhere and chairs were overturned. The room looked like a tornado had just come through it. Now Richard was really worried, David was a neat freak and always had his side of the dorm perfectly clean. What had happened? Richard rummaged through all the papers looking for clues when he found a piece of a song David had written when he was a kid. There were numbers surrounding the lyrics, “Why does David still have this?” he thought to himself. Richard was looking through the stack of papers when one of the newspaper clippings caught his eye. It read; “Libraries Need tO hAve Healthy dieting books.” He was confused because the capital letters were in the wrong places. N, O, A, H, what were those letters for? He looked around, and then a thought struck him, “Where was Noah?”
---
“Boy, it sure stinks in here.” Noah thought to himself as he rummaged through the coats and scarves. He felt somewhat in a good mood because he had found a job; but he froze when his fingers curled around something breathing. Noah brought his lantern closer to the warm object and gasped when he saw his best friend; David lying on all the coats, and he was deathly pale.
---
David awoke to find himself in a bright room with a splitting headache. “Where am I” he thought to himself, “Had the librarians found me and arrested me for carrying a pistol.” He was even more confused when a librarian walked in and pressed a cold compress against his forehead. He tried to get up but blackness clouded his vision. Who found him? He raised his head up gently to look around, he saw all of his comrades looking around; pretending to look worried about him. He chuckled; he knew that, that was just a big lie. He reached into his pocket and felt the timer; he was running out of time. Noah came out of nowhere and began a lively conversation, “Man, that guy can talk a person’s head off” David thought to himself. A change of tone brought David back to Noah’s conversation.
Noah; now solemn as a hanging judge whispered in his ear; “I’m in,” then he left.
David knew Noah had chosen the right decision, but did he know how hard it would be?
---
Cathy sat there in Steve’s arms sobbing uncontrollably, the postcard discarded on the coffee table. Cathy started recovering and snatched up the postcard again and the lion on the front with a rabbit grazing harmlessly along. She had always known that one day she would get this postcard but she hadn’t expected it to come so soon. The scrawled note said:
Motherboard-
The rabbit has left the safety of nest and is now unguarded.
The lion is hungry and sees the rabbit. The rabbit needs Mother
Most when he can’t have her.
~Rabbit
She bit sown on her lip and stepped over to the computer and started typing the code that she had used for so long.
1-23-89-2-7-56-34-10-34-23-8-76-36-7-24-93-90-3-26-94-5-71
~2-6-0-7-8-1-9-6-3-14
She put it on her USB drive and closed it making sure it was never saved. She went over to David’s dorm only to find a thug standing, waiting for her
---
Words failed David as he saw his mom unconscious, being hauled up to the secret hideout. “How had she gotten messed up in this plan? Were they going to hurt her?” He stopped the guy holding his mom and offered to hold her himself and to get rid of her. How thankful he was that they allowed him to. He set her down and felt around her pocket and found the USB drive and quickly stuffed it in his own. He loved his mom and he couldn’t let her get hurt. He pulled out a glass bottle and raised it to her lips, forcing her to drink the contents. He gathered her up in his arms, called an ambulance to drop her off at the hospital, then left.
---
Richard felt uneasy in David’s mom’s room at the hospital. Cathy was unconscious, why had he thought it would be good to visit an unconscious person? Richard looked at Cathy lost in thought when Cathy’s eyes fluttered open. She smiled tiredly at him. He got up from his chair and went to her bedside and she started mumbling. He could only make out a few words, “library……code……..liberty…….timer……..missiles,” and then she drifted back into sleep. He quickly jotted down the five words before walking outside. He started with the first clue and ran over to the library.
---
Noah held his breath as the needle pierced his skin and injected the mystery liquid that was in the bottle. He clamped his jaw to keep from spilling out all the words he wanted to say. He was tired of hiding and now he had officially joined the group, there was no going back now. Noah remembered the injector’s crooked smile before he was engulfed in darkness.
---
Richard crawled around the bushes pretending to be an Indian stalking David as he entered the library. He was feeling especially spyish with his new glasses gadget that could x-ray things. He entered the library cautiously and hid behind the bookshelves as David walked toward the basement hallway. He watched as David hesitantly turned the doorknob and entered inside. He waited a little longer then followed David to the Basement stair case. Richard quickly set up his x-ray vision and heat vision components on his glasses and slipped down into the blackness.
---
David heard the buzz of Richard’s heat vision glasses and cringed. He had known Richard was following him but why had he come into the basement. He was trying to throw Richard off the trail but he was determined to find out what was happening. David wished that he knew what was happening himself. He had tried hard to fool these thugs but they had seen right through him. He wished he could tell Richard everything, but he couldn’t. David knew he couldn’t tell him straight out but could he leave some clues. Before leaving he ‘accidentally’ dropped a note.
---
Noah smiled at the cafeteria manager almost faint with pain. He had gotten a series of shots and now he was officially in. He had taken possession of a timer and David was finding information. He got a good sized salad and sat down. He started eating when a young boy rounded the corner carrying the different injections. Before he knew what he was doing he grabbed the plate of injections and walked into his room. He looked closely into the liquid only to find a small computer chip inserted in the stuff.
---
David tried to calm himself down as he crept around the blackened building and climbed up the overgrowth of vines to the top right window. He peered inside, “Rats,” he thought; they had boarded up the windows. He pressed his ear up close against the wall, soundproofed, “well that makes things easier for me,” he said sarcastically. He started the treacherous climb down when he found a sizable rock protruding from the windowsill. He cautiously grabbed the stone and pulled it down. Nothing. He then yanked sideways and the stone fell sending him crashing down meeting the ground. His breath left him and he grunted. In seconds David was back up on the vines looking for what was behind the stone. He found a hole big enough for a small child to fit through but David’s 6’2 frame couldn’t fit through such a small space. He looked around trying to find loose stones that might lead to something bigger. He was about to give up when he spotted a red thread not visible unless you stuck your head in the small hole that led to a crevice in two rocks. He slightly jerked the string and the wall started creaking and a door in the wall opened. He walked in to find a colt pistol aimed right at his heart.
---
Cathy aroused and looked around. She was in the hospital. Why was she here? Then she remembered the thug and the USB drive. She quickly felt around her pocket to make sure it had gone. She was relieved to find it wasn’t there. She lifted her hand to rub her eyes when she saw that she was wearing a watch. What could that mean? She remembered seeing Richard and she was about to call him about the watch when she saw small numbers on the bottom of the watch. It read:
260781 96314
She translated it easily, it read: Motherboard.
---
David had talked himself out of that horror of being almost being shot at, but he knew he couldn’t do that every time. He relived how scared he had been when he had seen that gun pointed at him. He crept around the deserted rooms and found his target; the computer in the far left corner. He crept in and inserted the USB drive and started the process, only 28 seconds before the virus had loaded onto the computer. The paper printed and he stuffed that into his bag. A few seconds later he was done and he took out the drive and placed it back in his pouch. He crept out of the building, hidden by the night as he wove through the streets towards the library. He entered the library and headed towards the basement. He wasn’t ten steps before he was punched in the gut and punched in the eye. The librarians all rushed to him and he mentally groaned. Did they have to plant the viruses again? He thought that they had already done that. He watched as they skillfully applied their drives to the computers and they were getting away with it. The librarians didn’t notice because of his injury. When would he wake up from this nightmare?
---
Richard watched as Cathy typed codes into the computers, he admired computer programmers and how they could type and understand the codes. He and Cathy had been working on the codes David had sent them. They had only figured out the main idea. Some terrorists were going to blow something up that had a special importance. They were using viruses to use it and the timer on Cathy’s wrist had importance of some kind. He was rolling those thoughts through his mind when he remembered David’s song that he had found when he was rummaging around. Did that hold any importance? He remembered the numbers surrounding the lyrics and he had an idea. “Cathy,” he asked, “Do you still have David’s song?”
---
Noah thought he must have gone mad or something or else he wouldn’t be staring face to face with a hamster. No, it had to be a dream; he was just dreaming he told himself. He reached over to pinch himself when the hamster started talking. The hamster started saying in a low baritone, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are the key to living a fulfilling life.” Noah blinked and realized it was just another weird dream. He sighed and realized that someone was towering over him. He peered up to see David smiling, laughter dancing in his eyes. Noah realized David had said all those things and was intruding in his dreams. Then, the teasing light in David’s eyes left as he motioned towards the door. Noah got up out of his bed and followed David out of the room. David walked toward a park bench and sat down. “This better be important” Noah said, “I usually don’t enjoy midnight talks.” David smiled wryly. David fumbled with his hands before showing what was inside of them, inside was a miniature of the statue of Liberty. Noah gasped than looked at David weirdly, always being the drama king. David explained in hushed tones the plans of the men they were working with. They were planning to blow the Statue of Liberty up using the viruses. Even though David had explained everything he knew Noah still didn’t understand something, what were the timers for?
---
Cathy started translating the codes David had sent using the song. Richard’s idea had worked and now she was uncovering the information about Lady Liberty. Her USB drive that was filled with the codes to send her private files had proved profitable. She looked over all of the notes David had sent her and smiled, she had a son who would change the world. She just got a new message and she opened the link. In that link was the virus that was being spread throughout all of the computers. She started up her work and looked through the programs and what it was doing to the computers. She laughed when she thought that David must be thanking his lucky stars that his mom was a computer programmer in the privacy of the home while she was a teacher during the day.
---
David hoped that his mom and Richard were figuring out what he was sending them and that Richard had seen his song. He had tried to make it as obvious as possible on top of all of that junk that he had spilled everywhere to get Richard’s attention. He knew that he needed to get the information clearly across, but he didn’t know how to do it. He was contemplating this when he felt a sudden ringing of his pockets and he lifted the timer out. There was only six hours left that were ticking away.
---
Cathy suddenly struck the information she needed. It was hidden away in the control panel, but it was there. Everything suddenly started fitting together. The timer, the Liberty, the virus, the missiles, they all were part of the plan to blow up The Statue of Liberty. The timers would signal the missiles where to go, the virus would seep into the military and eventually give them possession of the military boat which would shoot the statue of liberty and it would explode. Now, she needed to find out how to diffuse the missiles while they were in the air before they hit the statue of liberty. She needed to learn fast she thought because there was only five hours left on her watch.
---
Noah watched his timer, four hours left. He was getting uneasy, what if the plan didn’t work? What if he actually did blow up the statue of Liberty? The What If’s kept running through his mind as he started turning on the switches for the missiles, purposely setting some of the missiles directed towards the ocean instead of Lady Liberty.
---
Richard squeezed his eyes shut. Only three hours left until the timer ran out. Cathy and Richard had been working on disarming the missiles and now they thought they had it down, but nobody could be certain until the first missiles were shot.
---
David looked down at his timer, only two hours left before all of his plans would succeed or they would fail. He stared at the mock missiles that were loaded and ready to be shot; he hoped no one would notice the difference.
---
One hour left and Cathy was trying to stay calm. She positioned herself in the small office facing the Statue of Liberty with the computer all set up. She kept her mind busy by reviewing all of the details she and Richard had come up with. She leaned back and forced herself to relax.
---
David paused, his life work demolished. The fake missiles were discovered and Noah’s change of place had been discovered and switched to the statue of Liberty again. All he could do now in these final ten minutes was hope that his mom had come up with a plan. Minutes later the final countdown began 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FIRE! The missiles were launched and they were flying toward the statue of Liberty. All of his hope went down the drain and he felt empty. He watched the missiles sailing through the air aimed right at the Statue of Liberty, but wait the the missiles defused and just hit the building without blowing it up. He rejoiced in his head and smiled. His mom had saved the day! He quietly went along with his business, but when he found Noah they both did a little jig of glee. Apparently, his mom had contacted the military and they were going to arrest the terrorists so he was free and he had accomplished his mission with the help of his family and friends.
---
Cathy let out a sigh of relief. It had worked and she had saved the day! She felt important and she was glad she had contacted the military to take care of the terrorists. She leaned back in her chair feeling that her son and his friends would be safe. She felt comforted. She decided to take a break of all this computer work and she looked around to see if there was anything that looked interesting to do. She saw through the window a fancy restaurant where she could get a nice, decent, meal. Before she descended the stairs she was stopped by two cops. They asked, “Are you Cathy Setter?” she blankly nodded her head yes and before she knew it she was being led outside where dozens of reporters stood.
---
David relaxed back into his seat and took a deep breath. He had been flooded by reporters and now he was just happy to be back home with his family. The military had figured out moments earlier than when the missiles were about to shoot that they were blowing up the Statue of Liberty but couldn’t do anything about it so they were happy that Cathy had defused the missiles. The news had spread everywhere and now his face was on many of the newspapers. He saw his mom in the corner of his eye, she was a hero. He was happy that she had been the one interviewed so that he could have a break. He smiled, life was good.
---
Noah sat with Richard talking all night in their dorm. They were talking everything over and seeing what the other person’s side of the story was. Noah listened intently about the codes and the computers. He smiled when Richard eventually said, “one day I am going to be a computer programmer.” He knew that one day; he might need Richard to figure out the codes for him. One day…