Cloak and Dagger

Chapter 20

"Are you alright, sweetie?" I ask softly, leaning on Matt's wheelchair.

"Yeah, I just didn't get much sleep these last few nights." Matt admits, rubbing his eyes before returning to his game. "I'm fine."

Well, neither have I.

"Alright, Madoka." I murmur as the elevator stops. "Five thirteen, right?"

"Right."

I wheel Madoka to the apartment and knock on the door. It only takes a moment before Mikami opens the door.

"Good afternoon," he says with a smile. "I suppose you want to get straight to work, Madoka-san?"

"Yep. Lead the way, Teru-san." Matt smiles. I wheel him in on Mikami's directions. Mikami moves the office chair aside and allows Matt to access the computer. Matt opens the bag on his lap and pulls out a few devices, plugging the first one in.

"Sorry to make it look so conspicuous." Matt states. "I'm not great with Japanese alphabets yet."

"You haven't lived here long?" Mikami asks.

"Ojiichan brought us here a few months ago." I answer. "Our parents... died, rather recently, in a car accident with a repeat offender. Drunk driving, driving under the influence of cannabis and ecstasy, driving without a license. It's the same reason Madoka's in a wheelchair. We don't know if he'll ever walk again."

I toy with my wig, lower lip trembling.

"People like that, people who don't care what they do or how much they hurt everyone else are scum. Such scum should be removed. Simple as that. That's why I support Kira - he's the only one who'll actually get rid of people like that."

Mikami places a hand on my shoulder.

"I agree. I'm very sorry for your loss, Matsukaze-chan, and for Madoka-san's legs."

"Thank you, but it's not for you to be sorry for." Matt says. "So, I'm setting up a new firewall. You won't need to worry about it, but it's really cool, cause it generates a new password every fifteen minutes and alternates randomly between using words and randomized symbols. It makes it really hard to break through with most password-cracking programs. This should keep out most hackers, but I'm gonna set up a few more precautions just in case they have something up their sleeves."

"You really know what you're doing." Mikami remarks, bending down slightly to watch Matt work.

"I wanted to hack for the NCA back when we lived in Ireland." Matt replies with a smile. He pauses momentarily, pulling a small folder out of his bag. "Here, these are some really basic tricks to help prevent hacking. Even if it's not from the Deep Web, people can get into an unprotected computer like mice in a barn."

"You speak very fluent Japanese for people from Ireland." Mikami says, taking the folder. "Did your ooji teach you?"

"Yeah." I smile. "He's been teaching me katakana since I was twelve, so I wrote the instructions out for you."

"I'm gonna set up a VPN now." Matt murmurs. "A virtual private networker. It makes a neat little loop of encrypted internet that's really difficult to hack."

"So we're doing this in layers." Mikami concludes.

"It's the easiest way to keep hackers out." Matt says. "It's pretty similar to how I have my computer set up. I'm gonna make a second firewall, and shield the IP address. Oh, Neechan, can you find the purple USB with the Yoshi phone charm attached to it? It's got that spyware reworking that I used on your laptop."