Solving for Myself

Chapter 11: Poking the Raccoon

Their ride arrived around 3 Am that morning in the form of a plumbing van. Confused; Carson asks the guy what's going on and he says"The chief sent you this surveillance van, you are to operate out of this and only this...equipment you need is in the back". The other guy tossed Stella the keys and said"You guys are driving into town alone; good luck".The two men then got into their blacked-out sedan and took off; leaving the two detectives alone. Stella frowned and said, "Alright, let's check out what we got and get set up and on the road; we'll sleep in shifts if you want". Carson said, "No, I'll drive and you set up your equipment since you'll be doing the hacking".Stella said"Okay" as he started the van and took off, headed back into town.

The two detectives arrived back in LA 2 hours later around 5 AM and Carson pulled into an alley for the night. By now, Stella was fast asleep on the inflatable bed in the back and she looked so peaceful; strangely enough, he noticed she had a smile on her face and another pillow beside her. She had scooted all the way over, waiting as if she was trying to make room for someone and Carson knew who that someone was. He climbed in the back and laid next to her but facing away from her; he didn't want her to get the wrong idea if she happened to wake up before him. Carson awoke a few hours later around 10 Am, feeling warmer than usual, as he looked down, he noticed two soft brown arms wrapped around him. As more of his senses came back he felt a light breeze on his neck as well followed by the pounding of his heart.

Despite loving the feeling of sharing warmth with another person, especially one you love, he knew he had to end this for the sake of duty. He gently shook her awake, quickly climbed into the driver's seat, and started the car. He smiled and said, "Good morning, I'm sorry for the abrupt wake-up call but we've got to move into position". Stella smiled and said, "I was already awake, let's go ahead and go". Carson drove while Stella made some instant coffee and got herself prepared and she was ready within the hour that it took to reach Damon's house. He lived in a 2-story modern home, in the low part of the hills in a well-to-do area so they had to be careful of raising suspicion.

Carson pulled into the back alley, 2 houses down as Stella connected with the security system and verified last night's footage was A-OK and that Damon wasn't suspicious. After verifying the house was clear, she began to take the system offline as Carson headed for the house, dressed in plumber gear, his toolbox in hand, and gloves and rubber mask on. He walked up to the back door, quickly picked the lock, and headed inside. He found himself standing in this beautiful, white living room with a black marble floor, tall, tinted windows, a white sectional with modern coffee tables, and questionable designer furniture. The kitchen was open and to the left of the living room and was absolutely tricked out with every modern amenity including in-wall ovens, wine racks, and double-door fridges.

Carson was caught off guard by how luxurious a blind man who murders people, could live and he was a bit envious as well. He wished he could one day settle down and have a life like this and not have to hop from place to place seeing death and misery. Thankfully he was snapped back to reality when Stella said over the earpiece"Remember, get the computer on the second floor and the wife's laptop on the kitchen counter". Carson whispered, "I'm well aware, now let me work".Carson was just about to take apart the computer when he noticed that it had physical locks on the casing.

Sure he could easily remove the locks and then reset them but it would simply be no use, he concluded that even if he physically accessed the drive, they would notice. Faced with too many unknowns; he decided to go with plan B he created independently of Stella's. He slipped out of the kitchen and into the living room and disassembled the WIFI router and modem before planting the remote access chip in there. Afterward, he reassembled the equipment and returned it to its rightful spot before planting a chip in the wireless Voice assistant they had in the kitchen as well. He figured that if they detected the bug somehow in the modem then the speaker would be a backup gateway into the home internet grid.

Thanks to technology nowadays, hackers can gain access to devices on a home network just by gaining access to the home's network itself. Once access is gained, they can connect to any devices remotely and read data, copy it, and even lock that device and take it hostage with ransomware. This was what Carson hoped to accomplish and he would do it before they got home and had the chance to delete anything. He figured that 9/10 if they spent this much money and effort on security then they probably didn't go through the trouble of deleting confidential data. Carson went upstairs to the dog's private room and stuck a transmitter into all its service vests so that no matter which one he wore, it would be taken to the club meeting.

After that, he quickly exited the house, walked down the alleyway casually, got into his Van, and drove off. As they drove, Carson said"Change of plans" and Stella said, "I know, I saw everything...I'm accessing their computers now". Bit by bit, She downloaded the data from the computer, which was mostly emails and Images. Once she finished, she downloaded it onto a portable hard drive and then smashed the computer. Stella said"We need to ditch the van now and Carson said, "Way ahead of you...we're about to get arrested for the first time". Stella looked at him confused before she heard the sirens of a cop car behind them which forced Carson to pull over.