"Our system is under siege, we don't know what, we don't know who," a man told several people who were sitting around a large desk like a meeting. In front of each person was a flat screen computer. All the screens were blank of course. "But there's one thing we do know, it must be stopped. If this goes on for much longer we could, one, lose everything. Or two, have everything all over the Internet. They already know what we are. But if this information does, they'll know where we are and who we are."
"But they could be anybody," Hilary suddenly said.
"We know that, but I fail to see why that would matter," he told her.
"If it was the government they'd have security, it would be harder to track the signal of where this 'ghost in the machine' came from. Whereas if it was someone with nothing better to do in their front room it'd be far easier to, A, track them, and B, stop them," she told him.
"Okay then," he told her. "Go for the best case scenario. If it is someone in their front room who has little or no security how do you think they managed to get through top-notch security?"
"I guess." She sighed. "What if we infected the system ourselves?"
"What?" he asked. "How would that help?"
"Think about it," she began. "They haven't put a virus in our system, they're doing this manually and draining our stuff from our system. If we put a file with a virus in it on there they'll take it and we can track them."
"And how do we get onto the system exactly? They've shut us out," he reminded her.
"They may have shut it out to us, but not to everyone else," she told him. She grabbed the laptop, opened it, and logged onto the emergency user on it. "At least they haven't found at least one user." She programmed a virus and emailed it to her user. She then logged off.
"And what if it does work?" he asked her.
"You'll know if it does," she told him. "And to get the files back just use the Internet Backtrack. If they used the Internet to get to us it'll return our files and they'll lose them."
All of the screens suddenly burst into life. Each one lit up, still logged on. But most users were empty.
The man had a shocked look on his face. He congratulated Hilary, told one of the people in there to use the Internet Backtracker and left. Everyone else left fairly soon after.
Hilary and Kai went back to the office they shared with a girl called Maria. Hilary checked the Internet to see if anything had happened. Nothing, she logged off.
"I'm going," she told both of them as she stood up.
"I may as well go too," Kai told her. All he had been doing was watching what Hilary was doing for the last ten minutes.
"Maria, can you lock up?" Hilary asked. Maria nodded and looked back at her screen. "That was one hell of a day," she commented as she and Kai headed towards the exit.
"You can say that again." He agreed.
"So what's your plan?" she asked. "Go back to Tyson's and get some sleep?"
"Not really tired," he told her. "Probably have a wander round town. See what's happened while we were gone. You?"
"Probably just go home," she replied. "I am kinda tired after today."
"Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked.
"Okay." She agreed. "What happened? About last year, what you said," she asked after several minutes. There was silence between them.
Kai knew what she was talking about. It was still fresh in his mind.
Flashback
She suddenly realized that she wasn't alone. She looked up although she knew who it was already.
"Hi Kai," she said drearily. "You're here to kill me, right?"
"No," he told her simply. "I'm here to thank you."
Did I hear that right? She asked herself, confused.
"You mean you used it?" she asked. He nodded. "But… Why did you trust me?"
"Because of what you said," he told her. "And because…" he seemed to hesitate but she still waited.
Is he going to say it? She asked herself. She wasn't expecting him to. No, he's not like that. Even if he did he wouldn't admit it, right?
"I love you."
No way, she told herself. She smiled to herself, stood up and hugged him.
"Thank you," she whispered and then realized something. "But what about what you said earlier?" She looked up at him.
"It doesn't matter if you are a bitch; the important thing is that you're my bitch."
End of Flashback
"I don't know what you are talking about," Kai lied.
Hilary looked like she wanted to kill him. "Bullshit Kai, you know exactly what I'm talking about." She exclaimed and glared.
"It meant nothing." Kai said frostily. Hilary fought back against the tears that threatened to fall down.
"Fine, tomorrow I'll find the both of us new partners. I think it is better if we don't ever see or speak to each other again." Hilary said sadly, but firm. His eyes widened in shock as she said that. Before he knew it, she had run off. He sighed as he realized his big mistake he just made. Kai walked off in a different direction.
With Hilary
She ran until she couldn't anymore. The tears were flowing down her cheeks like rivers. Hilary realized that she was in the park, since she saw the empty swing-set. She walked over to it, and sat down in one of the swings. She never realized that someone was watching her from the shadows.
With?
He watched her as she sat down on the swing. He knew who the brown hair angel is, Hilary the trainer of the Bladebreakers. He had been watching her, and fell in love with her. But he knew that she had eyes for Kai that was easy to tell from the look she would give him. Now even if she didn't like him, he could at least comfort her.
Hilary's head snapped up as she heard someone approaching her from behind. She looked behind her, only to find that it was Tala of the Demolition Boys. Tala walked over and sat in the other swing. Her head hung down as he sat down next to her. He knew she thought he was Kai. That made him mad, that Kai always got what he wanted; fame, fortune, the girl, respect, and a place to call home. But he would let that stop him from helping her.
"Why is a beautiful angel like you crying?" Tala inquired.
"Because I thought that someone I liked liked me back but he didn't." Hilary said sadly. The tears still running down her face like two rivers.
"Kai," was the only thing that Tala said. Hilary turned and looked at him, wondering how he knew that she liked Kai. "I know because I've been watching." Tala answered the unasked question. She let her head fall at those words. He picked her head up, and gently wiped away the tears with his fingers. "But I know something else to. That he just lost something really good in his life."
"Oh, and what would that be?" Asked Hilary with a very sad tone.
"You," Tala said never letting his eyes leave hers. She started crying a little more, and then shot forward burying her head in his shirt. He gently rubbed her back as she cried. She cried for a while listening to him trying to sooth her. Hilary had stopped crying but was still sniffling. She looked up at him wondering why he let her cry into his chest. "Because I love you," Tala answered the unasked question.
She smiled and said "I just had my heart broken. I'm not someone who is willing to let you play games with my heart." Tala nodded, knowing she had answered his unasked question. He lent forward slightly, letting his lips brush over hers. She went forward, firmly pressing her lips against his. He let his tongue gently run over her bottom lip. She moaned in this kiss and opened up to let his tongue through.
His tongue explored every inch of her mouth. She slipped her tongue into his mouth, without him even realizing it. When he did, he retraced his tongue back into his mouth and started battling her tongue in there. They finally broke the kiss for air. She rested her head on his shoulder and he laid his head on top of hers'. They both stood up and started walking back to her house. Unknown to either of them, someone was watching and they weren't very happy.