I was with my father, working on fighting his protective firewalls.
“Why don’t you put yourself in their shoes?” I asked him, regarding his Al-Qaeda project.
“What do you mean Olivia?”
“I mean create a base from which you send out all your signals and then block them all. Then see which one would be best to break through to get to the source. You can then try using that method to hack into their signals.”
My dad smiled at me. “I already tried that, but it didn’t work because I knew everything about my signals, where they were being blocked and how they were being blocked.”
“Hmm,” I said thoughtfully.
“Forget my work,” he dismissed. “How is the Academy?”
“The Academy is fine, but things feel different now that I’m doing missions. Everything is very pressured and real. Major Wilkes is sending me on another training course tonight for three weeks,” I told him.
“But something is bothering you,” he stated.
“It’s being kept from my fellow students that I’m being assigned to and completing missions and there’s this one person from my age category who won’t stop asking questions. I get the feeling he’ll find out pretty soon if I’m not careful, and I can’t afford a blow up like that,” I admitted.
“Then stray him away from what you’re really doing.”
“And say what? That my mother shot me in the chest with a bullet, that she beat me to near death? They know that she can be harsh but they also know that she wouldn’t try to kill me.”
“Just tell him whatever he wants to hear, it’ll satisfy his ego.”
“Of course, but then what about when he decides his ego is no longer satisfied?”
“Humour him, expand on the lie you have already started, but don’t overcomplicate it otherwise you’ll be stuck and it’ll be too easy to make a wrong move.”
I nodded, taking this all in. “Do you know what this training course will be?” I asked him after some silence.
“You will find out tomorrow.”
“My mother has decided against training me today which means it’s going to be harsh enough that someone thought it would be better if I went in good health. Am I correct?” I asked.
“You’re always correct,” he said simply.
“So then I’m also correct in my assumption that it was at Major Wilkes’ request that she doesn’t injure me. I know my mother well enough to know that she would expect me to succeed no matter my state.”
“You are right.”
“I broke through your firewall,” I told him. He looked back at his screen to find that I had in fact broken through.
“You’re getting better at this.”
“Soon I’ll be as good as you, if not better,” I told him satisfactorily.
“You’re nearly there,” he said as he frowned at his screen.
We continued for the rest of the day until I was picked up to get taken away.
I was driven all the way down to Wales where there was sea, fields and a lot of trees. I was standing in a wooden cabin on my own deep inside the woods.
“Olivia Trent,” I heard a man say.
“Major General Harris,” I addressed when I turned to see him standing in front of me.
YOU ARE READING
Prepared
ActionIn the first of the Survival series comes 'Prepared'. Between her school and her mother, Twelve year old Olivia Trent excels quickly at becoming the best trained agent at Victor Institution. The first lesson of survival is Preparation. There is no...