Chapter 27:

Back home, Will walked in through the garage and found his roommates beginning to wake up for the day. He said good morning to them, but the grunts he got in response made it clear they needed more time and caffeine before they would be ready for human contact.

Will walked to his room, and sat down at his desk before speaking with his benefactors.

“So, I felt the data upload you mentioned while driving home. Did you find anything interesting yet?”

Artie had been in the process of going through the data they had acquired when Will began to speak, but was quick to reply.

“Much of this appears to be backup files for the organization as a whole. There are various tax records, bank account records, member roles, and other such things. There are records of the dues paid by the members of The Activated from all over North America.

Given the decentralized nature of their organization, they likely have backup storage facilities at many branches in order to be confident in the accuracy of the data. It is not a terrible method for security purposes, provided the people who manage these sites don’t decide to work together to alter a large number of backups at the same time.

There is also an entire directory dedicated to various political figures. That one specifically contains a sub-folder specified as, ‘insurance,’ which is clearly a database of blackmail material for those political figures.”

“Ugh, you know whoever named that folder was depressingly pleased with themselves. I can’t lie though, I’m a little tempted to look through that blackmail.”

“Sil expressed similar interest, and is currently doing exactly that.”

Sil immediately responded to Artie’s comment.

“Don’t judge me. Though I must admit some of this is just boring. Stereotypes have begun to lose the ability to amuse me, I fear.”

“Well you can’t just drop a line like that and not share. Spill, boss man.”

“Oh, just photos and videos of things like almost everyone in the American congress cheating on their spouses. The same for the most vocal supporters of various values being outright hypocrites. Records of all of them paying for the services of sex workers, some drug and alcohol abuse, and the trail of financial activities that either are, or should be, crimes are all here.

I did find something we should anonymously supply to federal law enforcement. It seems they managed to capture some evidence of several significant figures paying underage girls for sex. I suspect they won't truly get what they deserve, but some type of comeuppance should happen.

Okay, I need a break from that. I found a video of politicians involved in what appears to be a drug fueled orgy. Nobody should have to see that many naked old men at once. I truly hope they paid the woman participating well.”

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“Do me a favor and include a description in the file names. Even thinking about that makes me want to gag."

Sil’s response came through in an amused tone.

“I'll consider it.”

Then Artie took the conversational control back.

“Anyway, It bears mentioning that what remains is all encrypted. Some of it is also likely to be in code, after breaking the encryption. Obviously, I can decrypt it all with minimal difficulty, but I will need time to get it all done. Even volume sizes appear to be off, somehow.

I will need to devote my attention to this for the next two days, at least. Possibly longer, depending on the level of encryption further into the drives, as well as the sophistication of the ciphers used.”

“Ok, Artie. Let me know when you have something I can act on. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on getting stronger. I’ll also arrange a firm time to introduce you guys to Cierra. I get the feeling having some backup on this moving forward, won’t be a bad thing.

Sil, you can take care of telling you and Artie's story in that meeting right? I can tell her what I’ve been up to after that, as long as she handles that as well as I expect.”

“Of course. Truthfully, I’m quite looking forward to it. You and your friends were not nearly as excitable as I’d hoped when we first met. Perhaps she will be more visibly shocked by our existence.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. True, most people aren’t quite as cynical and dead inside as my roommates and me. However, she’s been dealing with the weirdness of a real secret society for her entire life. She probably has a pretty high tolerance for weird shit.”

This caused Sil to sigh, which was a little odd since he didn’t have lungs.

“I suppose you are likely correct. Alas, nothing for it, but to carry on.”

Will responded in a wry tone, "Your sacrifice is very noble, good sir."

With that, Will opted to get ready to sleep. He expected that Cierra would be ready to meet up again the next day, and he didn't want to be struggling to stay awake during that particular conversation.

Will woke up early the next afternoon, and went about with his normal routine. Once he was feeling human again, he decided that would be as good a time as any to contact Cierra.

Grabbing his phone, he sent her a brief text asking if she would come down for a visit that evening. He had decided to put it off until after dark, because it would be easy to make sure they weren't interrupted that way. Especially since they would be meeting out in the desert.

That evening, Will led the way out to his little getaway in the desert. He and Cierra had enjoyed each other's company for an hour or two while they waited for the sun to disappear for the night. He was excited that the time was officially here to have this conversation.

With darkness rapidly overtaking the landscape, Will was reminded of his trick for enhancing his vision at night, and wondered if Cierra was familiar with the technique.

“Hey, I figured out a way to enhance my vision to see in the dark. Is that one of the techniques your family teaches?”

“Yeah, focusing aetheric energy into our eyes really ramps up our ability to see in low light. It’s not as effective if there isn’t at least SOME ambient light, because it only boosts the light gathering ability of our eyes, but it is pretty awesome outside at night.”

“Interesting. I figured it out using my electricity. Pretty sure it makes my eyes glow a bit, so they give off enough light for my eyes to be damn near perfect, even in deep darkness.”

“Show me.”

“Sure, Princess.”

While speaking the sarcastic rebuttal, Will guided his energy into the pattern he had used for night vision. Without suppressing his energy, the technique formed extremely quickly. He actually wound up having to throttle down the amount of energy flowing into his eyes.

With his vision stabilized and effectively as good as daylight, he turned to look at Cierra.

“How do I look?”

“Well, peasant, you were correct that your eyes are glowing. It’s fairly subtle now, but initially it flared somewhat brightly. I have to admit, it’s this cool electric blue color that suits you. I might be a little jealous if I weren’t clearly the superior physical specimen.”

“Ha! Well, I’m not about to deny that."

In his head, Will had decided he was officially looking forward to seeing the look on her face when she met Sil and Artie for the first time.