"Silva, its me Robby."
"And me, Tai," she heard in the background.
"What's up? Is something wrong?" Leaning a hand on her hip in concern.
Robby, "No, its something good!"
"We found out who produces that Baleek gear we saw!" Tai yelled into the speakerphone, Silva held the phone away as it whined.
Silva's jaw dropped at hearing the news, held the phone away again. "They found out who made that gear, Zarek."
Zarek stood up, Don asked interested. "What gear? What are you talking about?"
"Its by a small company that went out of business a couple of days ago," Tai continued. "The company's name is-" The phone satellites shut down, as he was about to say who it was.
"Shit!" She tossed the phone against the couch, nearly hitting Rick. "The satellites must have shut down before he could tell me who it was."
"Calm down, we still have landlines," Zarek said.
"Zarek they shut the landlines down years ago! Don't you remember?" Silva was starting to become a little upset. "Holy crap!"
"What!?" The three men cried out.
"It's a fire sale!" Silva watched as the TV and lights went out.
"What happened?" Don said in the dark. "What's a fire sale?"
Silva replied, "A fire sale is when three main things shut down causing panic and chaos." She held up one finger, "Transportation falls into chaos." Another finger went up, "Communications and energy resources shut down, causing major panic." And another finger, "Currency goes haywire. That is a fire sale, and only superb hackers can do it."
"You mean someone like, FallenAngel?" Zarek sat down on the couch.
"Just like FallenAngel." Sitting next to Rick, watching Don sit beside Zarek. "FallenAngel was the most notorious and famous hacker in the United States ten years ago. He shut down the pentagon, launched three missiles into the ocean and one struck a cargo ship, then screwed with airplanes almost killing thousands of people. Last but not least, he stole millions of dollars in stocks, and other things. Until he was tracked down to his house, and forced to put things straight by the military…at gunpoint."
"Geezus! This FallenAngel sounds psychotic!" Don stated.
"He was, but not only that. I got in trouble along with FallenAngel." Silva spoke into the darkness, and before they could ask why. "He was my brother…"
"Your brother," Rick spoke softly in her ear. "There's a lot I don't know about you…"
"I'm more than just an ordinary star-pilot, I am an A class hacker. Top of the line…" crossing her arms over her chest. "And in one hour by my guess, transportation is about to go next…" Staring at the clock on her cell phone. "These will be useless using the ordinary satellites…"
"Useless," Don muttered, fingering his cell phone.
Rick and Zarek pulled theirs out too. Tossing them onto the coffee table, Silva popped her cell phone apart and fiddled with the insides. Hearing a satisfying jingle come from it as it connected to the military's satellite.
"I got a connection," Silva then stashed the phone into her back pocket. "We'll need to gather our teams if we're going to survive this nightmare…"
"How? Most of the Silva team is scattered across the state! And mine are out in the country with no transportation!" Don started sounding hysterical.
"Not exactly, fire sales only mess with ordinary transportation. Like the new planes, cars, buses, and trucks…but not star-racers, older models of motorcycles, bikes, roller blades, and other old vehicles like my restored camaro…" Silva stood up and went to the front window. "We'll still have one hour before all hell breaks loose on the streets. Zarek, do the twins still have those old walkie-talkies?"
"I'm sure of it," Zarek stood up. "Why? How do you know how long we got?"
"We're going to need 'em. And every other piece of old tech that doesn't rely on satellites and landlines. And how do I know, is because when my brother caused a fire sale, I took down transportation. Even though I was a pro it took me a full hour to shut down all of it."