A Target's Love

25

Javier slumped in his seat before his Dell Tower Desktop. The XPS 8930 system had an unlimited energy source. It could run for months on end if it wanted to, but its user was shutting down. His eyes blinked wearily and quickly filled with tears. He'd been staring at the screen so long his head pounded.

Angrily, he gritted his teeth and forced his closing eyes open. He wiped the moisture away with the sleeve of his t-shirt, then stared back at the glaring screen determinedly. Letting out a sigh of frustration, he let his fingers fly over the keys once more.

The grandfather clock in the hall sounded, signally the beginning of the twelfth hour. Javier vaguely realized that this concluded the fifth hour since he'd sat down at the desk. He'd skipped both lunch and dinner; so important was the task at hand. What a way to end the weekend.

He had to find out where Renee and Jake were. He'd been trying to track them using the IP address information he'd gotten from Mark earlier, but it was clear that all five of them were only decoys, bouncing all over the globe. His guess was that they'd engaged multiple VPNs to cover their tracks. And they'd done a great job, too. Add that to the list of hidden talents he didn't know either of them had.

Earlier that day, he'd decided to pull his hacking skills out of the cobwebs while Mark and two other associates approached their current problem from a more practical point of view. All he could do at this point was hope that they were having better luck than he was.

After sitting there for about an hour more, Javier decided that he was done for the night. He'd hit too many dead ends. He'd hoped to pinpoint the router code and eventually uncover their actual location, but whatever software they'd used to erase their history was good; he didn't usually come across paths that he couldn't recover using his own custom-made programs.

Yawning loudly, Javier shut the computer down and trudged into the kitchen, eyes half-closed. He'd just take a quick bite and then head off to bed. He felt dead on his feet. Swaying, he opened the refrigerator.

Twenty minutes later, he collapsed onto his bed and lost consciousness.

When he awoke the next morning, the first thing he did was curse the idiot who invented alarm clocks. Groaning, he kept his eyes closed and flipped onto his stomach. Then he pulled his pillow over his head in an attempt to drown out the noise. It didn't work. In a final attempt to get rid of the noise, he shot his arm out and slammed his hand down on the device. He sat up quickly when he heard a loud crack. Oops.

"You asked for it, buddy," He told the now-dead clock. He looked at it for a few seconds, then added, "I'm gonna miss you, old pal."

Stretching, he climbed out of bed. His muscles ached, and his eyes burned from lack of sleep. He turned back to the broken remains of his oldest alarm clock and glared hatefully.

"I lied. I've always hated you."

Then he strolled into his bathroom. An hour later, Javier was seated at the breakfast table. The conversation around the table was kept light, but Javier hardly paid any attention. William noticed but chose to ignore it, knowing how things could get when one had a specific task in mind. Carolina wasn't so insightful.

"So, Javier, honey, what have you been up to lately?" She asked, biting daintily into a piece of toast.

"Nothing much," Javier answered vaguely.

"How is work?" His mother pressed.

"Fine."

"What are you working on there?"

"Stuff, Mother."

"I know that. What kind of stuff?"

"Computer stuff. You wouldn't understand."