p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm looked at Thea with alarm. Gibson knew already he wasn't prone to tempers, but this news made him immediately accuse her of sharing something incredibly private with a stranger, though he certainly did not voice it to his future daughter-in-law./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""She hasn't said anything yet, but I already know it. I can read your thoughts."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm didn't know what to say to that, though he obviously found it impossible. Gibson sighed and readied himself to do the basic demonstration of his mind reading skills. Before he could begin, a servant appeared with a cordless phone, and Gibson's face went white, knowing already who was on the phone. "It is Raquel Diaz calling for you, sir." It was Set Diaz's sister, the one he was trying to overthrow so that he could take the reins of his family's business./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You'll have to excuse me," Malcolm said, and rushed out of the room, his voice greeting the caller./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jordan looked at Gibson and knew immediately something was wrong, but when she asked, he shook his head, only looking up towards the corner of the ceiling, clearly listening in on the conversation. The women at the table sat nervously - Thea and Lu because they knew who Raquel Diaz was, and Jordan out of concern for Gibson./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"When Malcolm returned to the table, Gibson didn't feel the need for any theatrics. "You need to dismiss your servants for the day right now. We need to discuss what she said and plan for her son's arrival." Something in the young man's demeanor and voice made Malcolm nod and follow the instructions. They were soon alone in the large house, their dinners growing colder as they could do little more than pick at the food. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You think she's sending Ivan because she suspects that you already know about the data collecting."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm took a long drink of his wine. "You can't come into my home and start saying things like this without explaining yourself. Who are you, exactly?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You want to know how I know. I know everything you're thinking, everything your daughter is thinking, everything Thea is thinking. When Ivan is here, I'll be able to know what he's thinking too, and I can help you to determine what is going on and how much Raquel knows. And yes, I know what Thea found out, about how exactly the data is being collected, what's being collected, and what's being sent to Espana Ventures. It's a company I unfortunately know far too much about already."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm continued to stare at the young man, not believing him just yet, though a challenge for confirmation ringing out loud and clear. Gibson stared at him with a blank face, listening to all that was being thought at him, waiting for him to stop./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You have a gun in your study. You know that all the phones need to be off and put away. We did that. Thea made sure of it. You're worried about protecting your daughter because you know you weren't supposed to figure that out. But you're also worried about what they are going to do with the data." Gibson paused, letting Malcolm's head fill with thoughts again. "You still don't trust me. You don't have to, not yet. You just have to believe me first."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Thea looked at her future father-in-law and signed to him that it was true, that he was able to read people's thoughts. He didn't know the young man, but he knew Thea and trusted her implicitly. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright," he acquiesced. "What do you know?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Gibson looked to Jordan for support. What he was about to discuss was something even they had not spoken of, though she knew about it. "I was held prisoner by Set Diaz, Raquel's brother, for four months last year. He used me to read the minds of people who worked for him in the Central America region. I never met him in person, except for one time, and they had given me something that blocked me. I never knew truly what he was thinking or what his end goal was. But I do know from the mountains of reports and communiques that I was forced to read that he was obsessed with his sister and it seemed to me he wanted to remove her from power, maybe even take over worldwide operations."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jordan spoke next. "I don't understand though… what is going on? You said something about the data."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It was Thea's discovery," explained Malcolm, signing as he spoke. "She's one of our best coders, the kind that can speak to a computer as easily as she can a human, and read code like a book. She was troubleshooting a connectivity issue, and wandered into some backdoor coding that was pulling data out of our system. When she followed it, it led directly to headquarters, back in Spain. That was concerning, but it could have just been a simple tracking of usage in the States for their own records. But the more she looked," he said, his voice trailing off as he slumped dejectedly in his chair, not wanting to continue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Thea looked at Gibson with sadness in her eyes. "It's so much bigger than that," she signed, and then turning to Malcolm, asked him to translate for Jordan. "They are doing things that aren't supported by any known technology. I don't know how they are doing it. But they're pulling everything. They are listening to everything. They know where you are at every moment, even when your phone is off or the battery has died, and they shouldn't be able to do that. It's all being compiled and sent to them constantly. I tried to follow it, but I'm not a hacker. I can only see that it's going there, but not what they are doing with it." She didn't say it out loud and hadn't even told Malcolm, but she thought the only explanation for the technology she'd seen had to be alien. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He wasn't going to tell them about colonization, not unless he could prove the connection. Instead, he offered up the services of The Lone Gunmen. If anyone could hack into Espana Venture's system, it would be someone from their team./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""She hasn't said anything yet, but I already know it. I can read your thoughts."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm didn't know what to say to that, though he obviously found it impossible. Gibson sighed and readied himself to do the basic demonstration of his mind reading skills. Before he could begin, a servant appeared with a cordless phone, and Gibson's face went white, knowing already who was on the phone. "It is Raquel Diaz calling for you, sir." It was Set Diaz's sister, the one he was trying to overthrow so that he could take the reins of his family's business./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You'll have to excuse me," Malcolm said, and rushed out of the room, his voice greeting the caller./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jordan looked at Gibson and knew immediately something was wrong, but when she asked, he shook his head, only looking up towards the corner of the ceiling, clearly listening in on the conversation. The women at the table sat nervously - Thea and Lu because they knew who Raquel Diaz was, and Jordan out of concern for Gibson./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"When Malcolm returned to the table, Gibson didn't feel the need for any theatrics. "You need to dismiss your servants for the day right now. We need to discuss what she said and plan for her son's arrival." Something in the young man's demeanor and voice made Malcolm nod and follow the instructions. They were soon alone in the large house, their dinners growing colder as they could do little more than pick at the food. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You think she's sending Ivan because she suspects that you already know about the data collecting."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm took a long drink of his wine. "You can't come into my home and start saying things like this without explaining yourself. Who are you, exactly?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You want to know how I know. I know everything you're thinking, everything your daughter is thinking, everything Thea is thinking. When Ivan is here, I'll be able to know what he's thinking too, and I can help you to determine what is going on and how much Raquel knows. And yes, I know what Thea found out, about how exactly the data is being collected, what's being collected, and what's being sent to Espana Ventures. It's a company I unfortunately know far too much about already."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Malcolm continued to stare at the young man, not believing him just yet, though a challenge for confirmation ringing out loud and clear. Gibson stared at him with a blank face, listening to all that was being thought at him, waiting for him to stop./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You have a gun in your study. You know that all the phones need to be off and put away. We did that. Thea made sure of it. You're worried about protecting your daughter because you know you weren't supposed to figure that out. But you're also worried about what they are going to do with the data." Gibson paused, letting Malcolm's head fill with thoughts again. "You still don't trust me. You don't have to, not yet. You just have to believe me first."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Thea looked at her future father-in-law and signed to him that it was true, that he was able to read people's thoughts. He didn't know the young man, but he knew Thea and trusted her implicitly. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright," he acquiesced. "What do you know?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Gibson looked to Jordan for support. What he was about to discuss was something even they had not spoken of, though she knew about it. "I was held prisoner by Set Diaz, Raquel's brother, for four months last year. He used me to read the minds of people who worked for him in the Central America region. I never met him in person, except for one time, and they had given me something that blocked me. I never knew truly what he was thinking or what his end goal was. But I do know from the mountains of reports and communiques that I was forced to read that he was obsessed with his sister and it seemed to me he wanted to remove her from power, maybe even take over worldwide operations."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jordan spoke next. "I don't understand though… what is going on? You said something about the data."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It was Thea's discovery," explained Malcolm, signing as he spoke. "She's one of our best coders, the kind that can speak to a computer as easily as she can a human, and read code like a book. She was troubleshooting a connectivity issue, and wandered into some backdoor coding that was pulling data out of our system. When she followed it, it led directly to headquarters, back in Spain. That was concerning, but it could have just been a simple tracking of usage in the States for their own records. But the more she looked," he said, his voice trailing off as he slumped dejectedly in his chair, not wanting to continue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Thea looked at Gibson with sadness in her eyes. "It's so much bigger than that," she signed, and then turning to Malcolm, asked him to translate for Jordan. "They are doing things that aren't supported by any known technology. I don't know how they are doing it. But they're pulling everything. They are listening to everything. They know where you are at every moment, even when your phone is off or the battery has died, and they shouldn't be able to do that. It's all being compiled and sent to them constantly. I tried to follow it, but I'm not a hacker. I can only see that it's going there, but not what they are doing with it." She didn't say it out loud and hadn't even told Malcolm, but she thought the only explanation for the technology she'd seen had to be alien. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He wasn't going to tell them about colonization, not unless he could prove the connection. Instead, he offered up the services of The Lone Gunmen. If anyone could hack into Espana Venture's system, it would be someone from their team./span/p
