Chapter 5
I received a phone call on the day Abby caught her flight to the east coast. I figured that she would call me so I’d left my cell phone turned off. It was just past midnight when I finally listened to the message she left on my voice mail.
“I LOVE YOU JACK. I HAVE LOVED YOU FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER. I AM ALWAYS GOING TO LOVE YOU. I AM GUNNA SAVE MYSELF FOR YOU ALWAYS.
I was shocked by her words. I was certain that she would change her mind in the four years she’d be gone for college. I knew that she meant her words. But also knew that her words could never come true.
Abby tried to call me and to text me over the Christmas holiday while she was home for the two week break from school. But she could not reach me.
My cell phone was dead and in a police personal belongings bag. I was in a jail cell awaiting the sentence I was going get for hacking into the Pentagon computer base on my laptop.
I was left to sweat and worry for those two weeks till after the New Years. I knew it was a federal crime. I knew that I was in big trouble. Damn my knack for hacking into things I shouldn’t.
The day before I was supposed to go to my sentencing, I was pulled out of my cell and put in an interrogation room with two men in expensive looking black suits.
“Look, Jack…We already know that it was definitely you that broke into the Pentagon,” the older man jumped right to point. “What we are here for is to ask you how you managed to do that,” the second man butted in.
“It wasn’t easy,” I chuckled. “First, I had to find a way to break through the fire wall protecting all of your Government files. Then, I had to find a back door to get into your secured defense files,” I told them.
After a few moments while they both wrote something in their small note pads, they both stood up. “Excuse us for a few minutes, we need to discuss this privately,” the older federal agent told me. I saw him pulling a cell phone out of his coat pocket as they left the room.
It was ten minutes later that just the older agent returned to the room. “We at the FBI have an offer for you,” the man told me standing right in front of me with his hands in his pockets.
“We want you to work for us and help us catch other guys like you so we can keep our computer network safe,” the man offered. “If you say yes, your case will be dismissed and you will walk out of here as soon as we make the arrangements,” he told me.
“HELL YES! I AM ALL IN,” I blurted out my happiness. I mean, case dismissed AND I would have a government job. I’d be a fool to turn down this offer.
I had been released a half an hour after I accepted the offer. I was met outside by a huge black SUV with windows blacked out so dark you could not see inside.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when they took me directly to my parent’s home. “Pack up enough clothes to last a month,” the younger agent told me.
“Tell your parents that you are going to a training school in Virginia and will be gone for two months,” the older agent directed. We already retrieved your laptop and other personal belongings from the police,” he added.
I guess you could say that I was wowed when I was driven to a private air strip where a private small jet was waiting. The trip from Salt Lake city to Virginia took just a bit more than three and a half hours. There was another black SUV waiting when we got off the plane.
It was just past midnight when I arrived at a secret location and was taken to a room that would me mine for the next two months.
“You can stay in contact with your loved ones but you cannot say where you are or what your training is,” said the agent who greeted me at the dorm style dwelling I was taken to.
Since it was late Friday night, my actual training would not begin till 0700 hours on Monday. I plugged my cell phone into the wall socket and went to bed after taking a much needed shower and a shave.
It was almost noon on Saturday morning when I finally listened to the voice mails Abby left me over Christmas.
Jack, I don’t know why you won’t talk to me. I never thought that you would react the way you did when I offered myself to you.
I felt a huge heaviness grip my heart as I listened to Abby’s words. She has no idea how desperately I wanted to make love to her that night. She has no idea how hard this has been for me.
This is breaking my heart, Jack! You are the only one I have ever loved Jack.
You are the only one that I have ever wanted to give myself to.
Abby was sobbing on her phone when I hung up.
I was now sobbing too right there in the middle of the dormitory chow line.
There were heads turned in my direction as I wiped my eyes.
The girl that came and sat in front of me must have been a new recruit like me.
“Are you okay, buddy? Do you want to talk?” she asked softly.
I smiled at the attractive young girl and told her no thanks.
“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” I told her.
“It may take me the rest of my life to fix the mistake I made four months ago,” I told her.
“Well. don’t think that you are the only one here trying to get out of trouble,” she told me with a quirky grin. “I was busted because I hacked into my church’s Tabernacle choir files and added some cartoon figures to their personal files,” she told me. “I think we’ll be good friends,” she said.