Code Name X

Prologue

'There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.' - CS Lewis

14/02/2498

The boy ran through the streets, ducking and weaving and barging, for once, the crowds slowing him down. He couldn't stop, they knew what he looked like now, they'd be looking for a flash of dark hair and cloudy grey eyes.

He knew he'd had it.

There were at least twenty of them, and that was just behind him. He shoved a small boy out of the way, and in that instant, he felt a needle like prick in his left arm. All he had time to think was 'bloody stun gun', before he crumpled to the ground.

He didn't realise that he was being loaded into a van and taken to a prison in the Central Sector, what was once Berlin. He didn't realise that it would be over two years before he was released.

He didn't realise how much he'd miss being free.

13/07/2499

The sun was just beginning to rise over the buildings of the Western Sector. All looked peaceful and sleepy.

Then you had two kids, 'improving' government property. A girl tapped her foot impatiently, while waiting for the boy next to her to finish his latest 'masterpiece'. The face of the emperor on the body of a pig.

The girl noticed the rising sun and leant forward. "We have to go now! They'll see us!"

"Chill, they won't come for ages. I just need to do this-"

"Turn around slowly, hands in the air!" A voice barked behind them. The paint can clattered to the ground. Both of them followed the instructions. "You're coming with us. You are responsible for all the other defacement in this Sector, I assume?"

"Aw, you're too kind. No, not quite all, just most."

"Silence, boy!"

"Ooh, rude, are we?" They shot him with a stun gun.

"Hey!" the girl yelled. "Not cool, guys!" She received the same treatment.

They didn't know that that was the last time they would see each other for a long time.

20/09/2499

A boy no older than fifteen ran through the streets. He had to get back to her before they came. He ducked into an alley to avoid a guard patrol and then continued, almost silently. The moon shone above, lighting the way.

Finally, he made it back. The girl immediately began questioning him. "What took you so long? Do they know where we are?"

"They know, and they're coming." he gasped out.

"Oh shit." she cursed. "This is not good."

"Where the hell are we going to go?"

"We need to get south. If we can get out and make it to the border, we can do it. Come on, grab your stuff, we'll go now."

What they didn't know, was that even as they spoke, they were being surrounded by a dozen highly trained snipers.

They didn't know that they were about to become the highest security prisoners in the whole of Germany.

29/10/2499

The door opened and a short blond haired boy came in. "I got it." he told the two girls.

"Took you long enough." The taller of the two replied. "We have a deadline!"

"How am I supposed to know that there's some riot going on and police are everywhere?"

"Well, you're here now." the other girl said reassuringly. "Why are people rioting?"

"Food prices again, I think." he answered. "Doubled in the last week."

"Damn it! We can't afford that." the first exclaimed.

"Which is why you need me." he held up two loaves of bread. "Another reason it took so long."

"And another reason you're under arrest." A voice barked outside. The three inside froze. "Outside, hands in the air!"

"We're totally screwed." he muttered.

31/10/2499

Only now was he realising that being able to get through any security on any database in the whole world was only useful for some things.

And defending yourself against police was not one of them.

He knew it wasn't going to work from the beginning, but he tried. But it was one seventeen year old against too many trained professionals, and there was only so much a guy could do.

And so the greatest hacker of the century was imprisoned.

25/05/2500

"See you tomorrow!" the little girl said innocently. The elder girl in front of her laughed.

"Maybe not tomorrow, but I'll try."

The girl disappeared down a little alley, as always varying her route so she couldn't be followed. She climbed up a wall and down the other side and cut across a street, waving to a woman she knew. She sauntered right in front of a police station, laughing inside, because it would have taken the policeman standing guard barely a second to arrest her.

She had thirty seconds.

She continued down the street, smiling.

Twenty seconds.

She saw a girl across the road, talking to someone. She recognised her, Lisa was her name.

Ten seconds.

Lisa pointed to her, and the man she was talking to crossed the road.

Five seconds.

She realised too late. They were coming for her.