Reborn in 1994: Internet Empire

32 Bide our time

       “Jasper, we called you many times. Why is it that you come to us excessively late?” Mr. Locke said, impatiently tapping his ringed fingers onto the dark brown wooden long table.

       They found themselves again in the room with the long table, with the lights dim, just like last time. Jasper could still make out the intricate designs on the table, as well as the incredible design on the red and gold decorative table topper cloth.

       “Distracted, my boy?” he said again, even more impatiently.

       “I’m sorry sir! Uh, yes we called this meeting to relay to you the joint plan between myself, my men, and the Wolfpack.”

       Mr. Locke leaned back and silently waited for his nephew, Jasper, to begin the briefing.

       “Alright, let me get started,” Jasper said as he cleared his throat. “So here is what we know about the target, Julia Thompson, as well as where she goes and what she does. We also have a list of people closest to her.”

       “Get on with it… God damn, you make us sound like your run of the mill stalkers,” Mr. Locke said as he waved his hand commanding him to continue.

       “Yes sir. So what we have so far is her schedule. Every day she has classes from 8 am up until 4 pm. Afterward, she spends all of her time in the Art Department of the building. As guests are not allowed in the student only facilities, we know the building but we don’t know the room. On weekends, she goes to her house with her father. However, lately, she has been spending most of her time in school, and often skips these trips home,” Jasper said while looking at a piece of paper with all of the information written on it.

       “What about security?” Mr. Locke asked.

       “Well, it is especially tight. Carlisle Thompson made sure that the security in the school was strengthened. She has at least 2 guards tailing her. And whenever she enters a car, another car quickly follows them. So I’m assuming that they follow her wherever she goes. She has been going on motorcycle rides with one of her friends a lot lately. The pattern is unchanged. The guards still follow.”

       “I see… How about her companions?” Mr. Locke asked.

       “We have several notes on them as well. A list of the people she isn’t particularly close to, but still goes out with occasionally are her friends from her other clubs. Notable names are Amy Williams, Sandra Carlson, and Johnny Dough.”

       “Skip them...” Mr. Locke interrupted.

       “Sir?”

       “You know the names on the list that I’m more interested in any way, do you not?”

       Jasper gulped and obliged.

       “Yes sir.”

       Jasper flipped through the pages of his notes and landed on the information that his boss would rather hear.

       “So she spends most of her time with these four people. We are all already aware of the first one. His name is Trae Owen. From our research, he hails from the Bronx and is in the same course, Maximilian Burner. We will get to him later, however.”

       Mr. Locke raised his eyebrow, but let his nephew continue.

       “The next one is a girl named Lina Kusonoki. She is from the Art Department and focuses mainly in the new course known as Graphic Design and Media. They spend most of their days together with the others. And whenever she stays over at school, she rooms with this girl.”

       “A management student mingling with an art student eh? Times really are changing,” Mr. Locke said sarcastically as he waved for Jasper to continue.

       “Alright, next is Charlie Landers. He is in the IT course with both Trae and Maximilian, albeit a year higher,”

       “Landers… Landers, Landers… That name sounds so- Landers… As in Magnus Landers? Owner of Landco?” Mr. Locke asked in astonishment.

       “Yes sir, the same one. He is consistently at odds with his family, and as such, moved out of his house to pursue IT. Unlike Julia, he has no intention to take over his father’s company.”

       “This has gotten exceedingly more interesting, Jasper.”

       “Indeed sir… However, that leaves the last one. Maximilian Burner.”

       “Yes, yes continue.”

       “Right.” Jasper took a breath as his notes on this particular person was almost double the amount that he had taken of the other three. “So Maximilian Burner is from the Bronx as well. He has ties with Trae as they seem to be childhood friends. He takes IT as well, and spends a lot of his time with Julia, significantly more so than the others. I’m pretty sure that he has a more deep relationship with Julia, considering the body language that the latter displays when they are alone together,” Jasper said.

       “Hooo, how romantic,” Mr. Locke interrupted again, his words laced with sarcasm.

       “That’s not all sir. We can hack into the other companions’ devices with relative ease. But for some reason whenever we try to hack into his personal computer, we are easily shut out.”

       “Oh, and why is that boy?”

       “Well sir, we believe that he has some kind of program that blocks out even our most sophisticated programs used for hacking systems. It is completely ridiculous because even some government systems crumble to our hacking software, however when it comes to his, it is locked tight like a safe.”

       Mr. Locke stopped talking and rested his face onto his fist.

       “So you are saying that you cannot even hack into a boy’s personal computer? I thought you had the country’s best hackers bought out. Why can you not access his personal computer, Jasper?”

       “Sir, I don’t think that is the issue,” Jasper argued.

       Mr. Locke lifted his eyebrow in curiosity.

       “Sir, I think that the bigger issue is how this boy got his hands on tech so sophisticated that even the most advanced programs, bugs, rats, and viruses can’t budge it. Even the code that we were able to peak at looked nothing like the code structures that we have encountered before. Layers and layers of protective coding were interlaced together on a single interface. It is like launching our program into a spider web.”

       “Hmm, therein lies the issue… Well regardless, I’m sure that boy will not be able to get in our way when it comes to physical activity,” he said, dismissing the topic effectively. “Continue.”

       “Right. So as for Julia’s overall relationship with her companions, I can speculate that they are in some sort of group together.”

       “Group?”

       “Yes sir. It seems that they might be starting some business venture of sorts. I’ve heard that Trae speaks a lot of an XMC Tech group. I have no idea what that means, however. It might be some sort of club that they are establishing. But judging from the lineup of members that they have, they have the chance to make a viable business. Lina is a graphic artist, so her role could be marketing and design, of both products and usability. Charlie, Trae, and Maximilian are all IT savvy. Not to mention that Maximilian has tech that we have never seen the likes of. Julia is also incredibly influential given her family and has many ties to several companies that are either owned by Thompson Motors or are friends of the father. Human Resources. It is my hypothesis that these students are starting up a company of their own.”

       Mr. Locke stayed silent for a moment as if processing the information that he had just received. The room suddenly grew cold and eerie as Mr. Locke stood from his seat, with his hands pressed against the wooden table. A chuckle was soon heard throughout the room. Then a laugh. Then unhinged bellowing that completely left the entire room feeling unnerved. Jasper looked on at his deranged uncle, who seemed to have a grasp of the entire situation.

       “What a laugh my boy! So the heiress is attempting to work in two companies? This makes it all too easy. Everything you told me… It’s too f*****g easy!”

       “I’m sorry sir… I don’t understand.”

       Mr. Locke caught his breath for a moment and addressed his confused subordinate.

       “Of course you don’t, boy. You use the remainder of your brain cells to decide which bastard to shoot out of spite,” Mr. Locke said condescendingly. “Nevertheless, I don’t need to know your plans. Everything you told me has changed this entire game. We don’t need to look at the kidnapping like a game of chess, where we look for the weaknesses. Now… we will look at it as a game of poker. We have incredibly powerful cards, boy. Now it’s a matter of waiting for the others to place their bets. I know for a fact that once the flop ends… at least a few of their members will be folding.”

       Mr. Locke started on again with his maniacal laughter, as he waved the other two to get out. The other two people present in the room obliged, and walked out of the room, leaving the evil man to his musings.

       “Now… all we need to do now is wait...” he said as he reached into his pocket to pull out his cellphone. “Isn’t that right… Magnus?”