Nicole and Jackson were riding around in a strange car. This woman had greeted Nicole at her job a few hours ago. She was standing outside of her office building. The strange woman's hair was dyed red as the roots were starting to show. Her face was serious. Her voice was more serious.

"I don't know exactly how to convince you of anything," the strange woman started, "but you and your son have to come with me." The woman's face was in a grave grimace.

"Who are you?" Nicole was afraid she was being kidnapped… again.

"Let me just say that Aiden is counting on me to keep you safe."

"What is your name?" Nicky was about to run away.

The strange woman presented an ID. It was a genuine official Missouri card and the picture matched the face.

"Why would I trust you? I've been kidnapped before," Nicky silently shouted.

"I know you have. I've been watching your brother and you son and you. You're not safe. DEDSEC is trying to take you and I don't want that to happen."

Just then the door of a black van opened up. Nicky had assumed that the van belonged to the strange woman. Her boyfriend stepped out of the van. Maybe, she did need to go the redhead. Her boyfriend approached her,

"We have to go. I'll explain it all on the way."

Aiden found the fourth server in Mad Mile. It was not too far from the Merlaut. It was in the Navy Pier building He got access to this from through the ctOS cameras in the area. They were actually going through a ctOS server in the station itself. It was too easy to get through to the station and disable the server. Unfortunately the ctOS station for Mad Mile had a bad flood. The banks in the area would have to close. It was going to look like DEDSEC did it, or maybe the cold weather was to blame.

Aiden got back into his car and turned the radio on:

"WKZ NEWS. We have a news flash that's apparently official. The stock for Blume took a massive hit today. The value of the stock was decreased by more than half as investors ditched. The cause of the sell off has been attributed to the attacks on the system in recent hours. The social security numbers of several thousand people have been released. This also comes on the back of ctOS failure in November. This is further compacted by the recent announcement that ctOS will be discontinued for expansion into other cities. We spoke to one investor who sold all of his stocks. "This deal is not as golden as it looked back in '03 and '04." The stock started at about $150.89 and this afternoon is at $66.60. We will continue to follow this. I'm John Lawrence WKZ

"Good afternoon, I'm Kimberly Hatfield with WKZ. We have breaking news in Mad Mile. An apparent computer glitch has causes the ctOS station covering the district. DEDSEC immediately claimed credit for the attack. But many citizens are just as angry with DEDSEC as they are with Blume. It also seems that the vigilante is trying to eliminate DEDSEC as it is thought that he took out three of it's operatives yesterday. Public and police support to the vigilante has no end. Eighty-eight percent of citizens and 65% of police officers said that they approve of the fox. Some citizens even went as far to say that they would harbor him. The chief of police still refers to him as a 'menace who's teaching our kids to take revenge into their own hands'. This is WKZ.

This news was also breaking in St. Louis. It was on the radio in the bunker that the strange redhead had provided. It seemed that the woman and her boyfriend were somehow affiliated. That was not explained. What was explained was the whole DEDSEC situation. Nicole was thankful that it was all explained before Jackson was picked up. She came in during the middle of math. She went to the front desk and signed him out. She decided to walk to Mrs. Burnett's class and collect him herself. She stood by the door and looked through the pane glass. From her vantage she couldn't see her son. Conversely, he couldn't see her. The teacher, a stern looking black woman with graying hair in a neat ponytail in her early sixties, was at the board with one of those old-fashion wooden pointers. It was clean except for some fractions on the board. One of the students in the class raised her and said something that made the teacher turn towards the door. The older woman smiled as she walked to the door. She turned around once and put her index finger up to her lips. She took two more steps and opened the door, stepped out into the corridor, and shut the door behind her.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Burnett. I hate to interrupt but Jackson and I have to go, urgent business" she was rushing as she spoke.

"Ms. Pearce, are you alright. You look pale. You're shaking," she said, grabbing Nicky's forearms.

"I'm fine. It's just that I got this news on very short notice."

"I'm sorry. I hope your family is well. I'll grab the packet they were going to get for next week."

Mrs. Burnett walked back into the classroom and approached her desk. Mid-stride she grabbed the key to the locked desk from the lanyard around her neck.

"Mr. Pearce, your mother's here go and grab your things from your cupboard, please."

He got up immediately to grab his coat and his book bag. He grabbed the math notebook on his desk. He was about to ask what you did to solve example #3. That was of little consequence now. The two of them left. Jackson was carrying his book bag and Nicky was clutching, with white knuckles clutching his homework and her pocketbook. This is going to be really hard to explain.