Somehow the driver was able to shake off their pursuers. After several minutes of near-death driving and there was no longer any sign of the black SUVs, they resumed their journey. After just over half an hour had passed, the man slowed and stopped.

"Here we are." he said as they pulled into a large garage. "This is our safehouse."

He slid open the door and she stepped out of the van. The walls, ceiling and floor was similarly covered in metal mesh.

“I never caught your name.” Lily inquired.

“It’s Doug.” he smiled, “Doug Carlton, former cop.”

“Former? How come you left the force? You’re rather young to be retired.”

“I got put on permanent probation for asking too many questions about the NSA.” he shrugged.

“What kind of questions?”

“The classified kind.”

Well, clearly he’s not going to elaborate.

Lily glanced around and the larger Faraday Cage and changed the subject, "What kind of safehouse is this?"

"Just follow me," he said as he walked into the building, "and don't touch anything."

Lily followed him into the building and he led her down a long hallway to a steel door with a keypad lock. He typed in a series of numbers and the door swung open.

Inside, she saw a small room with a bed, desk and a bathroom. An intercom speaker sat next to the door. A thin cable ran from the panel to an outlet below the desk.

"This is our safe house," he explained, "Right now, it's only half underground. This is the only way we can get privacy. We'll add more rooms later on."

"Privacy?" Lily repeated, "Doesn't everyone have private phones nowadays?"

"Yes," he replied, "But that would make us easy targets for the NSA. If anyone finds out that we're helping you, they'd shut us down."

"Couldn't you use some sort of encryption?" she asked.

"We could, but then we wouldn't be able to communicate very much without getting intercepted."

"So, what about the rest of the world?" she asked. "Do they know where you live?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Nope. We don't want anyone to know that we exist." he said, "This is a good thing actually, because it keeps us safe."

"Safe from whom?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "For starters, it means that we can meet with each other whenever we want without worrying about being spied upon."

"You mean like today?" she asked.

"Exactly," he grinned. "You see, we know everything about you, which is why we decided to help you. If we didn't know who you are, we wouldn't be able to help you."

"How do you know everything about me?"

"We hacked into the NSA database." he smirked.

"That's impossible," she scoffed. "No one can hack into the NSA database."

"Not possible?" he laughed, "Trust me. It's completely possible."

"How?"

"With some trial and error, we finally figured out how to crack the NSA's encryption," he said, "Once we had access, we started to dig deeper."

"Digging deeper?" she asked. "What exactly did you find?"

"A bunch of dirty laundry." he chuckled. "Actually, we found a whole lot of criminal activity going on within the NSA."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Apparently, the NSA is in bed with the corporations," he said, "They're using the agency to cover up corporate crimes."

"Corporate crime?" she gasped, "What does that mean?"

"Things like fraud, bribery and extortion." he stated, "Basically, the NSA is protecting big business from prosecution."

"That's crazy!" she exclaimed. "I mean, isn't the NSA supposed to protect the public?"

"Technically," he said, "The NSA is designed to protect the US from foreign threats. However, the truth is that the NSA has been hijacked by the government and the corporations. Instead of doing what they're supposed to do, they're using their resources to cover up corporate crimes."

"That's insane!" Lily exclaimed. "Who would ever allow that to happen?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "However, I suspect that this is why the NSA is under such heavy scrutiny right now."

"Heavy scrutiny?" she repeated, "What do you mean?"

"They're being investigated," he said, "The NSA is losing its credibility."

"What happened?"

"I think it's pretty obvious," he snorted, "Someone leaked information about the NSA's involvement with the corporations. The NSA is trying to hide this fact by spreading rumors of leaks. They're trying to discredit the source of the leak."

"But if the NSA is involved with the corporations, shouldn't they be investigating them instead?" she asked.

"No." he shook his head. "If they do that, they'll ruin their own reputation. That's why they're using the NSA to silence anyone who tries to expose their corruption."

"Why doesn't the public know about this?" she asked.

"Because the NSA controls the media," he said, "Not to mention the politicians."

"Isn't there something we can do?" she pleaded, "How can we stop this corruption?"

"Unfortunately, we can't," he said, "At least, not yet. There's no way to tell the public about what's really going on. Not yet."

She knew that he was right. In order for people to believe that corruption existed at the highest levels of power, they needed proof. Only then, would the public rise up against it.

"Jason had the proof we needed.” Doug sighed.

“Jason?”

“Yes, Jason Bridger.” he explained, “The NSA agent your boyfriend was accused of murdering.”

“He was involved with your hacking group?! What is going on here?"

"It's complicated." he said, "I guess we should start at the beginning."

"Okay," she agreed, "Let's do that."

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