Clandestine

fifty nine

Maybe Julia can't get me into her mother's computer hard drive.

But maybe I can get myself in.

If I can get Julia to reveal when her mother will be gone from their house and where her office is, maybe I can get in.

I shouldn't tell Julia the truth of what I will be doing. She'll feel obligated to help and then her mother will see on the cameras that her daughter is against her.

But Marcia Quintana already knows that I am against her.

I'll cut the wires on the cameras. I'll find away to delete the video.

Or maybe I'll leave the video so that she can see that I managed to break into her office. She'll see that I discovered her secrets.

And then I'll leave.

I'll leave the country.

I'll hide somewhere. Anywhere.

There's nothing in this country for me. I have no family or friends to hold me back. Kristy and Andrew will be better off without a delinquent to look after.

I call Julia. When she answers, her voice is breathless, "Hello?"

"Hi, Julia, I need to--"

She speaks over me, "Hi Carlotta. You know that you can always call on my cell phone. My mother commanded me not to see you, but she said I could still talk to you."

"No, this isn't Carlotta, this is Diane."

"No, I know who you are. Just a second, I need to do something quick."

Her breath quickens and I hear a thud.

She answers, "Okay, now we can talk. I just had to climb out of my window. I'm in the gardens now."

"What's wrong?"

She laughs, but it doesn't sound sane. "My mother had cameras in my room. Can you believe? Cameras in my room. She's looking back through the feed right now. She's going to find everything. Me talking to you, hacking her computer. Everything."

A sob chokes up in her throat, breaking over the phone.

I say, "Julia, you need to take a deep breath."

"No. No. No. She's going to know everything. Everything. I don't know what she's going to do, but ti's not going to be good. Do you think she's going to kill me? I know well enough that she is capable of it. What if I'm too big of a threat and she decides it would just be easier to kill me? Oh, she's going to kill me. She's going to."

I say, "Julia. You need to take a deep breath. Your mother isn't going to kill you."

Because she wouldn't right? Julia's mother isn't going to kill her. I want to believe this, but I've seen the cold look in her eyes.

I say, "Is there anywhere you could go for a little while? Just while your mother cools down? Maybe a friend's house that you trust."

Julia sobs, "I'm not going to get my friends into any more trouble. Last night I told them the truth of what I knew about my mother. That's why my mother is already angry at me. Now, she's going to know everything. Everything."

She gasps on the other side of the phone and says, "That's my mother. She's leaving the car. Where do you think she's going?"

I frown, "I don't know. Work, maybe?"

"She might have had an emergency meeting. What if she called the emergency meeting to talk about the horrible things I've done? Do you think she could throw me in jail? I did hack into her computer, right? That's punishable by jail time, right?"

"No, I'm pretty sure they can only charge you a fine for that." I know this for a fact because I've looked it up myself. I wasn't sure how dangerous it was to be hacking, so I just wanted to check. They can charge you a lot for a fine, but never jail time.

She says, "It doesn't matter what the law says. My mother loves to play with the rules. She's almost proud of how little she follows the rules."

"Listen, Julia, go back inside the house. See if she left the computer there."

"Good thinking." I hear footsteps and a door opening and closing.

She says, "Okay, the computer is right where she left it. And she left a note. It says, 'Emergency meeting. I'll be back at one. You will be waiting for the conversation we will have. There's a lot to discuss.' That means she saw the files, right? She must have."

"I don't know, Julia." I glance at the clock. It's just a few minutes past twelve. "Listen, Julia, I'm going to come over to your house. Right now. I'll show you how to swipe everything. Then we can download the hard drive so that we can look at the files. How does that sound?"

She hesitates, "I don't think you'll have enough time. It's a far way from your house."

"Not where I'm staying now. I'm only ten minutes away, walking."

"How is that possible?"

"Well, I might have to cut through some people's lawns but that is besides the point. I'll be there."

I hang up before she can argue.