Arlington

Thirteenth Chapter

Location: The residence of Valery Strazio

Address: 220 20th Street South, Arlington, VA, 22240

Date: 4/20/2014

Time: 6:50 p.m.

It turned out that some of the MAVs had survived the ordeal; even making it all the way to the White House. It seemed as if they had grasped onto different people associated with the president. However, Agatha knew the MAVs programming had been tampered with.

Initially, the bugs were programmed to roam about, but it was clear they were rewired to be stagnant. When the video from inside the White House first came from the MAVs, it was very clear that staged meetings were being recorded. It didn't take Jessica and Valery long to figure that out. The acting was poor; half of the time people would look directly into the camera. The worst part was discovering that the signal was being traced backed to Agatha. Once learning this, she terminated all communication.

All this information put The Board to an agreement. The program was going to be put on suspension. Valery and Jessica had to lay low, pay attention, and stay out of the way. It was only temporary, until things came to light; there were even answers that Agatha didn't have.

Jessica held the notion that they might have been set up. In contrast, Valery told The Board that they were ill prepared. Elizabeth wasn't pleased, but George gave them the benefit of the doubt.

"A revolution doesn't happen smoothly; there will be bumps in the road," he told her.

Even though the main targets were off limits, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey requested that they take down some public figures who were being used to confuse the masses. Valery accepted the list; she wanted to stay busy with the craft of assassination. The list was adorned with the names of prominent journalists. Jessica and Valery thought of the request as a joke. Unbeknownst to them, it honestly did start out as a joke between Jack and Mark. However, when they honestly thought about it, killing these people would slow down the progression of the enemy.

As Jessica read the names she said, "Looks like we're going to be hitting a detour."

There was a knock at the door. Valery was expecting company; some friendly faces were coming. The door was swung open and the beautiful faces of Jasmine and Malachi were present. Valery screamed and damn near tackled them to the ground.

Malachi was excited to see his friend, bursting with laughter as he caught the girl in his arms. "Damn, you are getting strong."

"I have been working out." Valery exchanged plenty of kisses with Jasmine; they had made up. Weeks before, Jasmine had called, crying to Valery. This was the first time they had seen each other in weeks. With a friendship that had lasted for over ten years, any animosity was drowned out by the love that was between them.

Jessica sucked up the feeling that was boiling inside her and smiled with the happiest grin to see Jasmine once again. There was no sense in being jealous; she knew Jasmine first, after all. Jasmine had her own partner. How come she couldn't just stick with him? She had to drown that voice out, and she did it with a smile.

They all sat down together and popped open a bottle of champagne. The bottle itself had a very complicated name, "Armand De Brignac- Ace of Spades". Jasmine couldn't even pronounce the name, but she knew the bottle cost around $300. You can live like that if you are the Chief Medical Examiner of Washington D.C. However, she certainly did prefer to spend her husband's money.

They were all having a good conversation, catching up, and shooting the shit. An hour or so had burned through and the tone had changed when Malachi said, "Congrats on your success. You know with Anonymous." The room went quiet. He didn't intend for that to happen. His heart restarted when he saw a smile at the corner of Valery's mouth.