Unexpected 4: Digital Purge

Chapter 5: Spy

After shift, 3 hours before

"Yo, Hondo. This is serious man!" Luca began, as Deacon and Hondo met with him in a parking lot of a bowling alley, about 30 minutes from Deacon's house. "Something's up!"

"You know what? I think Luca's right." Deacon agreed

"Yeah, but...I just don't understand. Why would anybody spy on you, Luca?" Hondo said annoyed and confused.

"No clue, boss! It feels as if somebody's watching my house 24/7. Freaky stuff" Said Luca placing both arms on his head, trying to understand. "Got me all freak out, man!"

"Talk about freaking out. I just spent half an hour trying to calm Annie down." Deacon said sounding tired

"What happened?" both men asked simultaneously

"She was so excited! She was going to check her class grade. When she went on the system she had a message that the university was about to nullify the progress report because of failure to pay the tuition. She freaked out! Do you know how many hours she's put into her studies?" he paused, angry, "Somebody froze her account! Now she has to wait for the bank to finish their investigation so she can appeal in school. Without that grade she can't register for the only two classes she's missing before graduation. If not, she'll have to wait til next year to graduate. It's a disaster!" Deacon sounded defeated

"Deac, calm down." Luca said, trying to bring comfort to his friend. He placed a hand on the man's shoulder, but it wasn't much help. The stress level was through the roof!

"Yeah, man, try to chill. At least the bank is willing to play ball." Hondo began, "Talking bout that. Somebody messed with Nichelle's papers down at the center and now the IRS is threaten to close the center. This is messed up!" Hondo said pissed

"Yeah, man. I hear you. Ever since my bro set up camp in my house strange stuff have happened. Like lights turning on and off, appliances that change temperature or order...just spooky stuff." Luca added

"Talk about spooky. I just got a call from Tan. Poor guy had to calm his wife down coz she found a bunch of stuff in her cellphone and email. Said they felt somebody had been listening in to their conversations since yesterday. Scared the crap out of them!"

"Oh my God!" Hondo said shaking his head.

"That's terrible. You guys remember what happened with Street and Chris? They said this morning about someone messing up the security system at Chris's place."

"What happened?" Deacon asked concerned. After their little laughter this morning, he had to leave quickly to talk with one of the recruits an important matter. He must've missed part of the conversation, he figured.

"Man, they don't know. When you left the locker room they told us three patrol units rolled by, cuffed the little dude up coz his ankle monitor went off." he paused as the other two looked on, "Street spent almost an hour trapped inside a security door combo, while Hauser's crew worked to free him. Chris was freaking out coz she literally had to beg the judge to let the kid go!"

"Hondo, we gotta find out who's targeting us and our family. This just might get worse!" Deacon urged shaking his head in disgust

"Guys, hold up. All the attacks have been through machines and the web. The security system in Chris' place, Nichelle and Annie's accounts, even Tan's cellphone and car accident. Luca, they could be watching you through your brother's equipment." Hondo said

"This is definitely a cyber attack!"  Luca called

"Hey wait a minute! You remember what Whitlock said before the Feds took him last week? What if it's that gang of cyber criminals that are going after our families?" Deacon answered

"Why would they go against us? And how do they know our people?" Luca asked confused

"This is all so crazy!" Hondo added frustrated.

"We gotta contact Hicks or Whit...get information on what's going on. Feds can't keep us out of the loop when it's our families that are at risks!" Deacon said sternly

They all froze as they felt their cellphones sound and vibrate.

SWAT SOS: 1705 Arlington Road in 10 mins

"This is weird, I-"Luca began, but Deacon gestured for silence

"Shhh" Deacon interrupted gently, pinching his lips and placing his index finger over them. He gestured to his cellphone, then to theirs. He looked around, turning his whole body, while the other two frown completely lost. 

The parking lot was completely empty, only the cars passing by the main road were able to see them. Then Deacon spotted it: the intersection traffic camera. He stopped, turned his back to it and signaled with the same finger towards it, hiding his gesture with his shoulder.

Hondo and Luca followed his pointing direction, but were still lost. They frown, looked at him, then at each other and just shrugged. Deacon came over to both men, who just stood two feet apart, placed one hand on their shoulder, and guided them towards the outside of the parking lot. Both men followed his lead but were completely lost as to what was going on. Deacon maintained a cool face, as if nothing happened.

Once the made it out of the lot, Deacon hurried up to be the first one in the line. He looked around to make sure no camera was at sight, then took out two of presentation cards out of his wallet. He reached the front of a building with a huge tree up front, then looked everywhere. He bent to place the cards on the ground, and placed his cellphone on top of them. Then he took out the whole stack of cards, about five, and placed them on top of the mobile, covering it completely.

He turned to his partners and gestured to the floor. Hondo and Luca frowned, but repeated Deacon's actions, placing both cellphones on the ground. Hondo wrapped it around a napkin he had in his pocket and Luca used a couple of leaves from the tree.

Deacon whistled lightly as he gestured for them to move to the back alley besides the building. Deacon stopped, looked up at every corner, searching for transit or security cameras, but found nothing. Then he found a giant dumpster a couple of feet from them, and instructed the guys to follow him.

They hid behind it as Deacon began: "Guys, I think they may have been listening and tracking us from our cellphones. Did you noticed that address? Arlington Road is about half hour away from here, we would've had to run to make it in that time. I think it's a fake message, meant to break our group meeting!" he said in a low tone, all three hunched together

"What?" Hondo asked not believing what he was saying

"So...they've been tracking us too?" Luca whispered

"Yeah, and listening to every word!" Deacon said looking around, making sure no one was around

"Oh my God! We gotta tell the Feds, get our families safe!" Hondo said startled

"Something's up, and I think only they know!" Deacon added

"You're right." Luca said as he snapped back, jolting his body upright, "I'll make some calls. Somebody has to provide answers to me, I'm still acting Commander."

"That's right!" Deacon said extending his closed fist to him, "I have a contact in Cybercrimes. I'll give him a call too." They hit fist on fist, then Hondo joined in.

"While you guys do that I'ma round up the team. If somebody is watching us and threatening our families, we gotta move em to safe ground."