Classified?
I am so very ver very very very very sorry!
I know no excuse will quell the flames, but hear me out! I had this chapter written from two days after my last exam (writing it was like a kind of post-traumatic stress therapy) but then my internet went kaput! I live in the middle of nowhere, and it has taken AGES to fix it; and I'm still not certain it is fixed! This is the fifth time I've tried to upload this (so fingers crossed), and I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but at least I'm uploading something!
I also apologise for not replying to everyone's incredibly encouraging reviews (again, no internet...), and as they have rather piled up, this is a blanket THANK YOU to all of my Favourites and Followers and Reviewers for sticking with me through this irritatingly persistant hiatus. Uploads will resume regularly from now on (I HOPE!) so just keep reading, just keep reading, what do we do? we read... Ahem... Oh, just read it...
Disclaimer: NOPE
"Remind me why we're doing this again Hugo?" Mrs Timmons peered anxiously at her eager colleague – who was perhaps a little too eager for what they were about to do, judging by the way he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as he leaned over the computer in front of them.
"Relax Samantha, that friend I told you about said that this was absolutely fool-proof."
"Absolutely fool-proof?"
"Absolutely. Besides, even if they do trace it back to this computer, all they'll find is the domain number of a public computer; it's not even licensed to the school because these ones were donated, remember?"
"I still think hacking into the Police Database is no one of your best ideas, not to mention the fact that it's completely illegal!" She sighed, then, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face, muttered, "fine, fine… let's just get it over with." Mr Ryan flashed her a brief grin before opening the program and typing the police website URL into the space. In no time at all, the program had finished its work, bypassing the security firewalls on the San Francisco Police database with ease.
They held their breaths for a long moment, perhaps waiting for the police to suddenly come storming through the classroom door, but when nothing happened, Mr Ryan clicked on the tab labelled 'Files'. The database was surprisingly simple to navigate; probably, he thought, because the average P.C. wasn't necessarily very computer-savvy. He typed 'Pleasure' into the search bar at the top of the Index page, but the only entry under that name was 'Pleasure, Edward'.
"Edward, isn't that Sabina's father's name?" Mrs Timmons asked nervously, "why would he have a police file?" Mr Ryan - now thoroughly side-tracked - clicked on the link to his profile. It was a very small file, with general details of Age, place of residence, etc. - and no scroll bar because of the lack of information - but right at the bottom of the entry was a small not marked with an asterisk. It read;
*See marked cases, CIA
"What on earth does that mean?"
"I remember now" Mrs Timmons said slowly, "Sabina's father is a journalist… I had no idea he was involved with the CIA though… But we're getting off track Hugo, we're supposed to be looking for information on Alex, not his adoptive father."
"Yes! Yes, sorry." He went back to the Index page, but paused, remembering that Edwards name was the only one under 'Pleasure'.
"Try 'Rider'. Wasn't that what Alex said his name was; 'née Rider'?"
"Hmm" Mr Ryan typed it into the search bar, and lo-and-behold, they found 'Rider, Alex'. Taking an excited breath, he clicked on the profile… and was sorely disappointed. Alex's file contained even less than his adoptive father's; only one, short note in block capitals. It read;
SEE FILE, CIA DATABASE
They stared at it in silence for a moment, before Mrs Timmons remarked quietly, "CIA database? Alex has a file on the CIA Database?"
"Apparently." Mr Ryan bit his lip, "want to have a look?"
"Hugo, breaking into police files is bad enough, but the CIA? If we're caught…" she trailed off, still staring transfixed at the computer screen.
For his part, Hugo Ryan knew he was being unbelievably reckless - he was a science teacher for god's sake, not a bloody spy! - but he just could not leave this mystery alone. But none of the facts they had were amounting to any sort of picture at all, no matter how they looked at them; they needed more information, and the only way he cold see to get it was to continue with what they were doing, however illegal it happened to be. He was a teacher, and he was bloody well going to look out for his student.
"You can bow out now if you want Samantha, but I'm going to keep digging. If Alex has a file with the CIA, it's pretty obvious he's mixed up in something, or has been at some point." His eyes flashed passionately, and suddenly his voice turned low and serious, "He's my student, just as he is yours; if I can help him in some way by finding this out, then by Christ I'm going to do it!"
Mrs Timmons took a deep breath, blinking rapidly in the force of her colleague's conviction. She found herself nodding along, and set her jaw determinedly. "You're right, of course you are. If we can help Alex then of course we have to. Run the program again."
He did, this time on the CIA Database. They went through the same process, finding the Index page and typing 'Rider' into the search bar. Again, they clicked on 'Rider, Alex', and again, they were disappointed with their results.
"'Security Clearance Level One required'? Well, that's it then," Mrs Timmons sighed in defeat, "all of that, and we still haven't found anything out."
"Hmm, no, actually I think we've found out rather a lot" Mr Ryan spoke slowly, carefully exiting the site and deleting all history of their being there. He uninstalled the program, but pocketed the little USB from whence it had come. Mrs Timmons gave him a quizzical look. "Well, we know that his file is with the CIA rather than the regular police, so whatever it is or was that warranted a police file is fairly serious, and probably quite important. We also know that you need Level One security clearance to even see his file - and level one is the highest, Samantha, not the lowest - so whatever it is, it is very important and not-a-little 'Top Secret'. This is big Samantha."
His colleague let out a long breath, eyes wide, and staggered back a few paces to sit in a chair, mouth slightly open in shock. She recovered herself fairly quickly however, and set her jaw with and audible 'click'. "All the more reason to find out then, isn't there Hugo" she said in a steely voice, quite different from her earlier nervousness, "If it's big, and Alex is involved, then we need to find out. 'Cause you can be quite sure than no one in the government" she spat the word with surprising vehemence for a kind-hearted school teacher, "is looking out for him; they never do. Not even their own soldiers."
The sound of a door slamming shut snapped Mr Ryan from his shock, and he became aware that Samantha had stormed from the room in anger.
He sighed heavily, looking worriedly at the door; now he had two people to worry about.