Her new space was a complete dump, but Yeo wool was oblivious. The last eight months had been a string of crushing disappointments and frustration.
After leaving the compromised apartment, she had accessed a stash of secret funds to finance a new base of operations, replacing her equipment with the latest upgrades in the process. Money was no longer an obstacle. With her expertise, she had solved that problem a long time. But security was paramount. She would need somewhere she could not be found by the powerful people she would be pitting herself against.
Her new home was in a relatively rural area, a dank floor in a building at the top of a steep incline that only someone who lived there or had business would attempt to climb. She had installed CCTV all all access points, and an alarm for anyone approaching the perimeter.
She could not afford to be discovered, but if her enemies did find her, she would at least see them coming.
Once her new software system was in place she carefully approached her investigation. This time she used every precaution she knew of to escape detection. In the meantime she placed automatic queries on the news outlets and governmental agencies so she could monitor for new information.
The trial proceeded at a breakneck speed, further confirming that there was a hidden force pushing forward the proceedings. Three months into the trial, she had collected crucial evidence; a potential suspect who had been seen leaving the club with the murdered girl, and video from a car dash cam showing that Cap had only been in the apartment where the murder occurred for just over 3 minutes.
With this, and the information about the modified footage from the prosecutors, it should have been enough to stop or at least hold up the trial. She had created a video showing that Cap was innocent and sent the collected information to everyone she could think of; the defense attorney, the prosecutors, media outlets.
But it was being ignored. Ignored and erased from what she could see.
In desperation, she had hacked into some of the smaller media outlets and posted the video and evidence. Only a small number of viewers saw it before it was taken down and information posted that the video was a scam. One of the outlets had continued to post it for a day, and their server inexplicably crashed, leave the entire site down for a week. When it came back up again, the post was gone.
Within four months, Cap had been convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life in prison. On the day of sentencing, she watched the footage of Cap in the court room, screaming that he didn't do it, calling for his mother. That day, for the first time since she was a teenager, Yeo wool cried.
As Yeo wool continued to search for evidence, she monitored Cap's mother as she staged her protest and worried about her too. When Cap's mother found the video Yeo wool had posted online, she mentioned the video in a protest. The next week, Cap's mother was found dead; supposedly a suicide. Yeo wool had no doubts about what had occurred to Cap's mother. She regretted that she had not thought to take additional measures to protect her. Once again she had underestimated how far the enemy would go. But like with Cap, it was too late. She was helpless.
Two weeks after Cap was transferred to the prison where he was sentenced to serve the rest of his life, Yeo wool hacked into the prison computer system.
There wasn't much to access. Cell numbers and prisoner names, as well as the visitation and health records for each prisoner. But she was thorough, looking for any sign that he was okay, that he was safe.
When she found the first infirmary record saying that he had been beaten and with photos of his beautiful face so badly bruised, Yeo wool hadn't been able to eat or sleep for three days. The record said he had be placed in solitary confinement for two weeks and she shuddered to think what that would mean. She had researched the prison, knew what it meant to be stuck in a dark cold room, all alone, for so long.
Not being able to do anything to help him was so frustrating she wanted to scream. Instead she threw herself into the 'net' scouring and revisiting all the evidence.
She thought it couldn't get any worse.
But the next time she looked at his infirmary record, she realized she had deceived herself. With her keen ability to analyze, she couldn't fail to understand what the record showed. The bruises on his thighs, the close-up of his personal areas. He had been violated in such a way...
...her Cap.
She went into a rage that day, throwing whatever she could get her hands on, curling up on the floor when energy from the rage finally left her exhausted and empty.
How could anyone do that to her Cap?
She wasn't sure when she had started to think about him that way. Not just as Cap, but as her Cap. In the late nights of his imprisonment, his days of isolation, she sat in the dark of the room. Like him, she too was alone. Like him, she was in a prison from which she couldn't get free.
Yeo wool wasn't much for prayer, but as she sat there imagining his face night after night, she willed that if there was a god he would send her thoughts to Cap to let him know he wasn't alone. That she was waiting for him, and would find a way to get him out.