Flashback

8. How

    How.

    How did the mafia know to chase us?

    I mean, shooting up our car, almost killing us, how could they of known we were Foundation?

    The only logical explanation is... a traitor. Yup. And at this point, I don't have any clue if James is trustworthy. He seems cool, but...

    I'll just say I'm still going to keep my eye on him.

    He's nice, but then. Not all bad guys are mean and cruel... I think.

    As I pull my car up to the secret entrance to the parking garage James taps something on his phone and says,

    "Hey, it's James and, uh, Alan. We're back in Alan's car."

    "Identification numbers for both of you?" A female voice asks.

    "2409-AMDL." James responds into the phone. "Alan?"

    I put the car in park and open the same app on my phone that James has open. CFS. Hm. Probably Central Foundation Security. Just a guess.

    After typing in my password and activating the touch ID, I go to the "personal identification" section. I read the ID into the speaker of James' smartphone.

    "Uh, 3609-YKDL."

    "Entrance granted." The girl says curtly.

    What looks like an ordinary brick wall on the side of a old building suddenly slides away to reveal a concrete ramp leading down.

    "We're home." I smirk.

    "Yea, it's quite the mansion." James says.

    I roll my eyes as best as I can while I park my Nissan. "Not very impressive, being underground and all..."

    James chuckles. "Nah, I don't care what people think, it's still cool to live in an underground mansion."

    "I know, I know." We get out and walk over to EVS 2, or elevator shaft two.

    James' POV

    I'm in the gym slamming my fists into a punching bag, one of my favorite things to do to waste time here at the Foundation. Of course, training isn't really wasting time, it's just fun to sound lazy. And I'm bored.

    As I send the bag flying with a left hook, my mind wanders back to Alan. His unexpected appearance, immediate trust by Stacy and the others, and his weird way of treating me.

    So, the question remains. He's here. Boom. And they trust him like a brother right away. At least, Stacy does. Maybe they were the ones that brought him here... to help us.

    But, how does he know so much about the Circle? I mean, the average Chicago guy has never even heard of the the Circle... "Uh, Circle? Duh, it's just a shape, fer cryin' out loud. Why arncha like, 'hey, bro, ever heard of the trapezoid?'"

    Must be something about his past... Ha! Gottit. I'll look in the research files Stacy's hacked into in the last month. Also, I might do some hacking myself and find out all I can about his family.

    But first, I have to release this extra energy. Think I'll use the firing range here underground. Yup, underground.

    Turning away from the punching bag that's still spinning, I grab my towel and head over to the shooting range.

    I nod at the security guard at the entrance and hold my smartphone up to the scanner, allowing it to read the ID image on the screen. After the beep, I step in and grab some ear protection and eyeglasses off the shelf.

    "Safety first!" My uncle used to always pound into my brain. A smile comes to my lips as I remember how irritated I'd get as a teenager when we were trying have some target practice. Put your finger here. Set your foot here. Pull the trigger like this. Don't squeeze to fast. But it payed off when I went to take gun safety training and just breezed through my classes like they were nothing...

    I walk over to the gun booth and grab a Kalashnikov, or AK47, as some people like to call them. That's the other reason my uncle was so cool. He had a full-automatic weapons permit, meaning by law he was authorized to buy and use full-automatic weapons, otherwise known as machine-guns.

    As I rip the targets apart with AK rounds, the blast of the poly stock against my shoulder calms my nerves somewhat. Notice I said my uncle was cool. Yeah. He was forced into it. Like a lot of people nowadays. By the trapezoid, I mean the Circle. I don't know much, except he had this sportsman's outlet store, and then the Circle started forcing him to do things he didn't want to do. Like giving them a good bit of his profits, selling guns illegally, and things like that. He still lives like that, in total fear and submission to the Circle.

     It's how they operate. They force you to use whatever you have for their purposes, then if you mess something up, you go to jail. If you tell on them, you die. Dead. That's it. Speaking of which, most of us here in the Foundation probably already have a death mark on us. That's the mafia for you, they don't. Play. Fair.

    But that is what our job is. To outsmart the Circle. Which is really five mafia grouped together. Which is worse. A lot worse. Tough, huh?

    The sharp sound of guns being fired on my left awakens me from my daydream. After using the last round in my clip, I turn my head and see Alan plinking away with his handguns. After today's showing in the car, maybe he decided to get some practice. I smirk.

    Several more Springfield Armory guns lay around him, including a modern 1911 pistol and a M1 Tactical carbine.

    We jerk off our earplugs. "Wow, man. You've really got an obsession with Springfield Armory, huh?" He grins.

    "I guess you could say that."

    Alan's POV

    I walk into the library and right away notice Jack and Benny sitting in the corner with their MacBooks.

    Jack immediately notices me and calls out. "Dude! Howsagoing?"

    "Hey! Great. What are you two hackers doing?" I walk up to them.

    Benny tilts his MacBook so I can see the screen. It looked like a web browser was open, but lines of code filled the screen.

    "We're hacking into servers owned by the Circle to see what they've been doing lately." Benny explains. "It's really not that hard, I mean, their security isn't top notch, and they really should try better to protect their information."

    Jack rolls his eyes. "Yea, just cause you're a pro at it, Ben, doesn't mean you have to act like it's super easy. C'mon! You say that every time we hack into stuff." He turned to me.

    "Ben's the best hacker around, and he built the software for all our tech systems to work, including the jackets, communications, and some for the smartphones. He made it based on Linux, of course."

    I point at the screen. "Um, that doesn't look like a normal Mac desktop. Why is it so different?"

    "Oh, it's Linux!" Benny replies. "I erased the original operating system and installed Linux to make hacking easier."

     I raise an eyebrow. "I didn't even know that possible."

    "Oh yea! Linux all the way, man." Benny grins.

    "Okay, I'll leave you two to your work now." I walk down the hall when my new phone rings.

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I'll try to update every week on Sundays and Thursdays but we'll see.

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J A M E S  A.  H U N T