Dissent (II) : Whispering Wires

Read the first part of this story here: Dissent(I) : Vanguard

Jotteau woke up startled by the sudden explosion of sound in his headphones.

“Sorry. I did not mean to alarm you,” she spoke softly. “It’s Khristeer’s connekt.”

“Did you verify?” he asked getting up and rubbing his ears.

“I’ve verified it. It’s secure,” came the voice of the device, Julia, as he called it.

“Accept the connekt,” Jotteau said and Khristeer’s hologram appeared on the mobile’s screen.

“Hi, Jotteau,” said Khristeer’s hologram.

“Hi, Khristeer. What happened?”

“Are you alone?”

He looked at Leia - his cat - lazily clawing at the bedsheets and back at the screen.”Yes”

“Turned off the device intelligence?”

“Goodbye dear.” He made a gesture and turned off Julia temporarily. “Yes,” he said to Khristeer.

“Okay. We will all start leaving at 6:30. Too early and they’ll suspect something. The codeword for tomorrow would be ‘Paxton’.” He stressed on the last word.

“Alright,” he said, and noted it down on his Sekure-Note.

“Are you nervous?”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Okay then, brother. I will see you tomorrow,” said Khristeer’s hologram.

“See you tomorrow,” Jotteau said and Khristeer nodded. The mobile dimmed as the connekt ended. Jotteau gestured to enable Julia again.

Jotteau got up and walked out of the room. Moments later, the mobile screen lit up again. A systematic humming emanated from the device, as Julia furiously tried to break into the security and retrieve the messages before they disappeared. This went on for a minute but then it went silent. The messages were long gone. A few more moments passed when the only sound in the room was that of distant traffic. The mobile screen lit up again, but this time the main screen lit up too. Julia had discovered a recent Sekure-Note, and she had started trying to infiltrate it. Lights flashed and numbers were crunched. Every probable combination was being tried. Time was running out. Jotteau could return any moment. She got in.

“State your name,” the desktop said.

“Jotteau,” said a voice that sounded exactly like the name it had spoken, but came from the device and not a person.

The Sekure-Note opened on the screen - PAXTON. Julia hurriedly copied the word and closed the program. The mobile screen lit up brightly. She initiated a secure connection with a remote server and was just about to send the message that would implicate Jotteau, when Leia jumped onto the the table and clawed at the bright and shiny screen of the mobile, thrusting the shattered mobile across the room.

Thousands of miles away, a small blip sounded on the screen of the anti-terrorism squad.