The Razgriz Legacies [Book 6]

Cross-Reference

It's about time I update this story.  Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive."
~Sissela Bok
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Chapter 6: Cross-Reference

I hit a dead end about two weeks into my research of the Iron Cross.  I decided I needed help and from someone none of my friends would suspect I'd go to.  It had to be someone none of us talked to, and I had the perfect candidate.  Her name was Allison Bells.  She was pretty reclusive and didn't talk much to anyone, but when it came to cracking codes, she was an absolute genius.

I knocked on her bedroom door, politely yet anxiously waiting for her to open up.  I didn't want any of my family crossing paths with me because then I'd have to explain why I was at this kid's door and that wouldn't go well.

Thankfully she answered my knocking pretty quickly.  She stared at me curiously and said, "Percy Bartlett, right?"

"That's me.  Allison Bells?" I said.

"Yeah.  What can I do for you?"

"I need your help with something.  It's top secret and I can't have my friends knowing.  I need someone smart and considering you're pretty damn good at codebreaking from what I hear...  I know it's a long shot asking you to do this, but would you be willing to help me out?"

She stared at me. "I will but you owe me something in return."

"What?"

"You tell me exactly why your friends can't know."

"Deal." She moved aside so I could enter.  I sat on the edge of her bed and pulled out my laptop.  She pulled her desk chair up in front of me, taking a seat as well. "Okay, so the night that the terrorists attacked, I pretended to play dead so they wouldn't shoot Shiloh or me.  But I noticed that one of them had an Iron Cross on his gun.  I've been researching it trying to see if any group identifies with it."

Allison snatched my computer off my lap. "No military I know of uses that symbol.  And no current, meaning in the past fifteen years, terrorist organization I know of uses that symbol.  But have you looked into past ones?  Maybe it's an old group trying to make a comeback or something.  I mean they're certainly starting off with a massacre like that."

"My first guess was the Gray Men but I looked into their history and found nothing about the Iron Cross," I said.

"Didn't the Gray Men go down when your godmother shot Grabacr and Ofnir down?"

"That's what I thought, but I just have this... feeling it's them.  But I need proof."

"Give me a few days.  I'll figure it out.  If we want any real information, we'd need to get into some government files."

"Where would we get those?"

"It's the twenty-first century, Bartlett.  There's a thing called the digitalization of files and another thing called 'hacking'.  I can put up a firewall, make it damn near impossible for them to track me.  We'll be fine.  I know you won't be here much longer, so I'll hurry, but if I can't do it before you leave, I'll send you the information via mail.  Can't trust the internet for the exact reason I'm using to try and get the files.  Why aren't you having your friends helping though?  Aren't two of them super-geniuses like me at this stuff too?"

"Isabelle is.  And I'm not telling them because I think they'd think I'm off my rocker.  Maybe not Shiloh but I want definitive proof before I show them anything.  On top of that, my parents acted weird when I told them about the Iron Cross.  They said it was nothing but you know that look parents get when they're hiding something from you?"