The Code To A Don's Heart

o n e

When shit went South

P E A C H     M C C O Y — T H E     H A C K E R

My phone was blaring.

Why?

I opened my crusty eyes to my dark studio apartment, shifting in my bed to look in the direction of my window. No light. The sun hadn't come up so why was my phone in a frenzy. I turned to see it lighting up my room from where it sat on my nightstand, buzzing like it had been possessed. I sighed and shifted myself closer, reaching my arm out and grabbing it. I turned it over and squinted at the bright screen. Not understanding exactly what I was looking at, I turned on my lamp and focused on the screen. It wasn't an alarm but an alert. A red dot had moved into the 30km radius of my building. It took a second but adrenaline washed through my body and I jumped out of bed.

"Shit!" I cursed and I almost never curse. I only did it when things were going South, which they were.

I scrambled out of my pajamas, and into black sweats and a hoodie. With it being late autumn, winter was fast approaching and outside was cold enough to guarantee cozier clothing. I dropped to my knees and pulled a backpack from under my bed. It was full of extra clothes, snacks, water and toiletries. Throwing the slightly heavy bag over my shoulders, I grabbed the laptop on my desk. It was sleek, black and had a picture of a peach on the top. I held it close to my chest and turned to my drawer for shoes, picking out some worn combat boots, hoping they would get me through the weather. Finally, I grabbed my phone and a locket I hid under my mattress, putting the latter around my neck so the golden rectangular lock rested between my breasts under the black hoodie.

It was time to go.

I run like a bat out of hell, exiting my building. The time? 2:14 a.m. No wise person was awake so I was the only figure racing through the streets to the subway. The cold early morning air stung my deep bronze skin and caused me to shiver. This was not good. I managed to make it to my destination and squeeze into the first train that came down the track. I was the only one on the carriage I had entered and that was ok with me. I sat down, placing my laptop in my lap. It was the cause of all this.

How?

Two weeks ago, I'd received an anonymous message from a user called _m.a.r.k.v.i.k_ . He or she wanted me to hack a certain network and paid a good price for it. I did as I was told. I got into the network. I was just supposed to find out some information that _m.a.r.k.v.i.k_ said would be very important to him or her but I fell into something else.

I fell into the world of the mafia.

I know what people say about it. It doesn't exist, it is only fiction to make hungry teenagers happy and blah blah blah. Some mafias were real but they were controlled by the FBI or CIA. I hadn't known until two weeks ago that there were some secret underground operations that were, surprise surprise, actual mafia.

The Martinelli Familia, the Russian Bratva, the Vipers, the Rooks, the Aces, the Kings, the Castellano Cartel.... That was just the iceberg of it all. Shit was going down under everyone's nose. It was scary how big and influential these groups were and once I started digging I just couldn't stop. For three days I stayed hunched at my computer scratching every nook and cranny of these groups, trying to find out how they stayed hidden. Forget _m.a.r.k.v.i.k_, I was on something big here. He or she didn't even know what they would've gotten themselves into. What I got myself into.

While I'd been doing all the hacking I could, I set up all kinds of protection for myself and my alert had been the start of it. For every illegal network I tapped into, there was a warning if anyone connected to that network got anywhere near my building which was the most affordable residential area for 30km, my radius. Gold was for the Martinelli Familia, red for the Russian Bratva, green for the Vipers and so on. Right now, a bright red dot was getting closer and closer to my apartment according to my phone.