“I want to warn you about a loose raccoon getting into the trash” I said
“Thank you but it is actually a beaver.”
This was the cheesiest, most horrific passphrase sequence ever. I was not happy with where I was but at least it was a dark neighborhood. If the cameras really were down, then maybe I could get away tonight without anyone knowing better.
They led me into a large basement room, no one was talking to anyone else. I tried to hide in the shadows as much as possible. Being unseen might save me if this operation had any issues. Thus, I also kept my head hung low and did not look at any of the others.
Unfortunately, it got crowded really fast. A typical cell had five to eight. My cell was of course vastly different due to how we operated. Before I found out about the Chief Accounting Officer, I knew my parents and grandparents, the two people who trained me, and the artist. The other times I was contacted were just updates to my phone's hidden systems or for specialized dissemination via dead drops. The few others I could suspect I could not exactly place, unless they were merely associated with us and not active participants.
I was still mulling over the forty or so individuals here when one handed me an electronic camera. It was a fancy one with audio and video. I could not help myself, so I looked up when he handed it to me.
“You will need to edit out any audio with our voices of course, and any fingers or faces. Get images of all the children as we find them, you get the imagery, and you leave then and take any safe route home. Avoid any contact at all when returning home. Also wear this over your face on the way there then peel the tape off and dispose of them. Keep those gloves on the whole time as well.”
I had worn gloves and combed my hair halfway over my face. I nodded my head and looked the camera over. It had a port for a USB J on the side and had a memory stick inside. Examining the stick, I saw it was a half terabyte stick.
The briefing said that we had a van and two panel trucks available. Each of them was from a company in the region which made deliveries. I was assigned a seat in the van with my Chief Accounting Officer next to me. He was second in command of the operation.
The mission was broken down into three parts. The first part was elimination of the various guards at the target site. The next part, mine, was to obtain video imagery of the children our target had apparently kidnapped and had brought to his rented house. None of them were expected to be alive due to the information we had about this 'Made Man'.
A Made Man, or Woman, was a business leader, a celebrity, or some other well-loved individual. While they were not allowed the ability to order audits, nor to make policy, it was recognized that the government needed these individuals to help keep the population under control. Therefore, when one got high enough, they were first considered an 'influencer', next they were 'respected'. The final level was 'Made'.
The government would not let influencers get too far with things; they could not avoid an audit for example, but no one did anything if they committed a few low crimes. A respected person could get away with raping someone in every town they visited, so long as it was just one, and nothing would ever come if it.
A Made person could do truly sick and twisted shit and get away with it so long as the elites were one hundred percent sure he would never betray them. In fact, they liked the sick and twisted because they could ruin that person quickly if that person did in fact betray them.
Our target was a movie actor who would lure children to his vehicle and then take them to wherever he was staying that week. Those children were raped and then killed. Later he would have a special aide take the bodies out to be dumped in a desolate location.
The third mission was to kill the Made Man, his primary assistants, and to not necessarily be nice killing him. Fortunately, I did not have to be around for that portion.
During the ride I saw all power was down. It had been explained that just before cutting the power backdoor hacks went out to all cameras on the route being taken but especially the ones that had power supplies to last through a blackout. There was a severe storm north of us and the operation included a false power outage due to the storm cutting power to this area of the city.
Men covertly jumped out of the trucks at various points as we circled wide of the house. The trucks stopped at intersections as we sped on. Then we stopped and most of the team got out. My company's executive and I remained with the driver until a blue laser dot flashed a circle on our windshield.
We went out running, I definitely did not like this part, but I also knew speed was of the essence. Running I passed a number of dead bodies, the guards, on the way in.
A member of the breach team directed us in a door and pointed down a hall. They had found the bodies early in the breach.
I jogged down the hall. In a small half bathroom was a plastic tarp and in the tarp were the bodies of four girls and a boy. Not one of them was over the age of ten.
I pulled up the camera and started video right away. I zoomed in on each child's face and upon their naked bodies, I briefly focused on the injuries inflicted upon them all. The insurgency always gave evidence when they performed a hit. This was the evidence this time. I almost gagged, I definitely cried silently.
Footage in hand I walked over to the exit, I pulled the goggles off my face, removed and pocketed the tape that kept it from having samples of my skin, and tossed it to the side. I also pulled a bandanna out of my pocket and put it over my face. I needed obscurity for a little bit more.
I was about forty blocks from home which just plain sucked. It was common for people to walk everywhere since vehicles were mostly for executives, business purposes, elites, and those who needed vehicles as part of their work.
I walked everywhere, I did not even take a public ride-share vehicle or bus. In fact, I definitely needed to avoid the bus routes because there could be a lot of cameras involved and right now that would be bad.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
So, I started walking. I also started looking down roads as I went for those with hedges, fences, and a lack of cars. Time after time I would divert to the left or the right to avoid homes with cars. A few of those houses had lights on which indicated generators which meant I was going way around those houses. Those houses likely held agents, auditors, executives, or the likes.
I somehow felt like I probably avoided any scrutiny when I got home hours later. At least I greatly hoped so. It was a long trip and my legs ached. Fortunately, I could sleep on Sunday and upload these graphics when I wanted to.
I needed to hide the camera. First, I made sure the images were on the camera's memory card which I then removed. Next, I heated up a jar of oil drippings. Due to no power, I used a heating candle. I poured most into a pan and put the camera inside after the jar cooled enough to support the camera. I then heated up another portion and mixed in butter to it. This got poured into the jar. Letting that cool I then made a portion mixed with some gravy from my fridge, cooling it down as well. The final portion was just as annoying as I added some olive oil, just a dab, to it. Once it all seemed cooled down (I used the freezer to help speed the process up) I put it back in its usual place. It was an over-sized jar just for this sort of thing as I was trained to do. Few would think to search a pile of used cooking oil and if it looked like it had proper layers then they would move on.
I never had a need for this, but our training did include this, well my training did since my dad often had done operations until he married my mom and changed positions to command a cell.
I was still amped up, so I started to make a bowl of cereal using milk from the fridge. It would go bad anyways, so it was best to use it up.
Then the power was restored. I was actually relieved at that part as it meant I was home and successful in things. The last thing I needed to do was hide the video chip and check my clothes and shoes to make sure there was no evidence of my trip. So, I stripped to my shorts and after checking the clothes I emptied my basket upside down then I dropped the nights clothes at the bottom before carefully dropping clothes from the previous week and a half on top in proper order. My shoes were unmarked with no blood, dirt, or liquids to my eyes, so I put them where they usually went, then I sat down to my cereal.
I got done, put it unwashed in the sink, and grabbed the chip. I went to my alarm closet and using a hand towel from inside the closet I carefully opened the alarm system. Inside was the alarm panel guts. It looked, or so I was told, exactly like the regular alarm system down to exact sizes of the various components. However, mine had a small difference. I carefully used a key from my key ring to pull a processor out. It was a fake cover and the functions of that processor had been hidden inside the board spread out in very thin fibers. This fake processor had space for five of these memory cards and I carefully dropped it inside, gently used the cloth to push it back in, then closed the cover. I might even wait until Monday to upload the video since I went by the motto 'safety first'.
I went to the bathroom and got rid of a lot of tension as well as the usual. I washed up my hands and then walked back to the kitchen sink. I almost reached the faucet when my back door and front door crashed in.
I dropped to the floor and leaned up against the counter covering my face as screams of “Federal Agents, do not resist, you are under audit!” came not just from the doors but from the windows around my house. I put my hands straight up, but I could feel how bad I was shaking.
A half dozen agents reached me and tied me up hog tie style in quick order. I was thrown into an empty space on my floor and an agent sat down and started to just watch me. The other agents fanned out and started searching everything. I watched as my electronics were seized, tablet, desktop, smart phone, even television and as they went through every surface. I was not going to talk to them but apparently no one was bothered with me watching them.
Our training included that an audit of this nature could happen but that we needed to just be quiet unless talked to. Acting afraid was okay because even innocent people would act afraid during an audit. All hints of fatigue vanished as this process went on. The agents were very thorough using devices designed to detect electronics, weapons, and hidden compartments.
Finally, an agent ordered others to sit me on the couch untied. He looked at me directly as I carefully perched on the seat and then he started asking me questions.
Where were you over the last twenty-four hours? Do you know Mitch Markelson? (That was our Chief Accounting Officer). Do you know what he was doing this weekend? Do you know anyone in the resistance? Are you a rebel? How long have you worked where you work? What do you do there?
The questions lasted for hours and the auditor often repeated questions, sometimes exactly the same and sometimes in different manners, but at a pace that barely allowed me to answer them.
Of course, I lied when I needed to. I even managed to keep my lies separate from the truths I told. I think my parents would be proud of that. Throughout the whole process I utilized my training and my instincts, and I avoided making myself complicit during this questioning phase.
Then he waved his hand at me, cutting me off. He gestured to some of the other agents who reported that there was nothing uncovered inside the house, that my electronics were clean of any illicit software (since I was given equipment with hardware modifications including hard-coded programs that could only be activated under the correct circumstances and handling this was true) and that my background came up clean.
He then asked me what I was doing just before they entered. I told them I ate breakfast and then used the restroom. He walked over to the sink and looked in.
“Why cereal? Our records indicate you rarely buy cereal.”
“Oh, that's simple” I answered, “the power was out, and I did not wish to waste the milk since I did not know when it would be restored.” It had turned twilight near then.
“And the heat candle?”
“It was cold and dark; I usually wake up early and I am not the type to go back to sleep just because it is a weekend.”
The agent nodded as if that made sense.
“Last night your Chief Accounting Officer and a bunch of rebels attacked a man and his family. He killed the man, his staffers, and the children. Apparently, this was done to support the rebels in scaring other innocents into not doing their obligations to society.”
“The man fingered the President and CEO of your company though I think they are probably innocent. Unfortunately, the decision went out to seize all executives at your company.”
I gasped at this revelation, this was a big deal, were they going to close the company down? Were they arresting everyone at the company?
“I did, I was, I did, I was not aware of this stuff. Wha, what happens now?” I asked, shaking because even though I may have passed the audit I might be doomed anyways.
“The company will get a large group of new executives. Due to your being supported by one of the elites you are being made an executive.” he waved me down as I started to gape “apparently your efforts as a facilitator have paid dividends and you are trusted implicitly currently.”
“You cannot turn this down as they feel it is essential to have someone who knows enough about the company be able to attend board meetings and to provide the new executives with information as needed. We will be digging deep but fortunately for you your background has been checked so many times due to your facilitator role and this flash inspection was to make sure you were not compromised.”
That missing fatigue? It caught up to me just then and my legs got wobbly. “Err, what, or who? Who do I report to?”
He started walking me to the front door. “Go to work Tuesday as we will be checking the offices out all Monday, your regular hours” and with that he walked out my door. A new door with a key in the lock “the doors were replaced while I questioned you, but the frames might be weakened a bit, check it out later”
With that he waved the few remaining agents out, pulled the key out, tossed it to me and closed the door.
I walked to my bedroom, put the key on the nightstand, I was still in my undergarments, so I went to bed.