Brittany held up her hands, interrupting Doug's fantastical tale. “All right. Let’s pretend I believe your crazy story for a minute. What did the NSA do next?”

“Upon relocation, the NSA began developing a new technology similar to RFID tags that they called Gamma-Frequency Identification. They used this new technology to manufacture microscopic GFID tags for human injection. After several failed prototypes, they created functional microscopic Nano-chips. Without the public’s knowledge, they infiltrated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and inserted these Nano-chips into billions of vaccines which were quickly distributed to the public.”

“What?!” she said, shocked. “But that’s unconstitutional!”

“Agreed.”

“How can you possibly know all of this?”

“Let me ask you this, and then I’ll tell you.” He lowered his voice to a soothing, even tone. “After the U.S. Government contracted with CyberBolt Entertainment to protect communications and information systems against penetration and network warfare, what happened to the hackers of the world?”

“To my understanding, they were basically out of a job.”

“Temporarily, yes. But after a while they banded together to form an alliance of hackers with a united enemy.”

“CyberBolt,” she finished.

“Exactly. They created a secure forum inside Conquest where they could meet and discuss theories. They also used a secured open source platform to develop a program to hack into CyberBolt’s servers.”

“Are you saying they have already developed the program, or they’re trying to?”

“It took many years to develop, but we finally have a functioning algorithm.”

“We? You’ve joined them?”

“More like they took me in.” he clarified, “We call ourselves the Cyber Police. I’m kind of their mascot.”

“I see.” she wasn’t amused.

“After several failed attempts to hack into CyberBolt’s server, we stumbled across an existing ‘back door’ that had been established during the software’s initial development. Once we discovered this back door, we learned that the NSA had gone into hiding.”

“Interesting theory. After all, the NSA was notorious for discreet surveillance.”

“Yes, they are.” Doug agreed. “So please tell me, what was the anomaly you encountered with CyberBolt’s Law Enforcement Terminal?”

She studied him for a minute.

Maybe I should trust him.

“Well…” Brittany said, throwing caution to the wind. “I ran a blood sample from a crime scene. At first the results displayed the profile for a Lillian Thatcher…”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Whoa, hang on,” he interrupted. “The Lillian Thatcher, as in CyberBolt’s developer of the Law Enforcement Terminal?”

“Yes, that’s what the profile indicated originally,” she acknowledged. “But then the system had a glitch, and after several more tries her profile had changed to a Jamie Davenport from Tallahassee Florida.”

His pupils dilated. “They’re relocating her…” he muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry. Lillian is an undercover NSA Agent. We’ve been tracking her for months ever since we established our back door into the CyberBolt server.”

“She’s NSA? But she’s Allan’s girlfriend!”

“Allan...” he paused as he connected the dots, “Wait, are you referring to Allan Young?”

“Yes, he’s our primary murder suspect.”

“Murder?” He shook his head “I don’t think he’s capable of such a heinous act. I’ve read his files. The NSA has been watching him closely for years.”

“Why? Does he have a criminal background that I’m not aware of?”

“No, nothing like that. They’ve been watching him because there’s something unique about his blood chemistry which causes their GFID Nano-chips to malfunction. So far they haven’t determined a logical explanation for it. It seems to only happen early in the mornings.”

She pursed her lips. “Tell me more about this Lillian Thatcher. At least, that was her name until it changed. Now she doesn’t seem to exist.”

“As I said, the NSA must be relocating her.” Tension creased his face. “I hope they haven’t caught on to us.”

“So you think it was the NSA who changed her profile?”

“I have no doubt. The real question is why. That’s what we need to get to the bottom of.”

“How do you know she’s with the NSA?” Brittany queried.

“Lillian was the operator who developed the NSA’s back door in the CyberBolt server.”

“Are you sure she’s not the one who killed Jason Bridger? She had plenty of access to change her own profile from inside CyberBolt, regardless of the back door.”

His whole body stiffened, and he gazed deep into her eyes. “Jason’s dead?!”

“Yes. He was killed a few days ago, Allan is our primary suspect.”

“No, no…” He paced around the room like a caged animal. “This isn’t good.”

“How do you know Jason?”

“Jason was our primary contact inside the NSA,” he said. “This is very bad news. Do you know why he was killed?”

“We are still trying to determine Allan’s motive. But to be entirely honest, I think he’s innocent.”

“And you think it was Lillian who killed him?” he continued to pace, “I guess that’s possible. After all, if she got wind Jason had gone rogue and joined the Cyber Police, she may have been assigned to dispose of him.”

Brittany nodded. The logic was sound.

“I need to warn the others.” he called up his invisible keyboard and began tapping away. “We’ve been able to successfully access their personnel files, but we are only days away from completing a viable algorithm to hack into their mainframe. We still don’t know how many people they are monitoring with these GFID Nano-chips, nor do we know why they are doing it. If the NSA knows we’re on to them, we’re in big trouble!”

“You’re serious about all of this.” Brittany stammered. It was a statement, not a question. “None of this can be real!”

“Wait…” he stopped typing, a look of horror sweeping across his face. “Where were you when you lost consciousness?”

“I… uhh…” she cast her eyes to the ceiling. “Last I remember, I was in the Decommissioning Room at the precinct.”

“How long ago was that?!”

“I dunno…” she scratched her head, “A few hours ago maybe?”

He gulped. “I gotta get you out of there.” He pointed to the keyboard that only he could see. I just looked up your GFID signature. Your vitals are weak.”

Her stomach clenched in dread. “What are you saying, exactly?”

He looked deep into her eyes and spoke four words that dug into her heart like an icicle.

“I think you’re dying.”

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