Something from a chapter later in the new book...

Please always let me know what you think about the writing. It's still in quite a rough form, but you should get a good feel for it. Here goes...

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Noah

"Can I have another orange juice?" Jenny asked. Her bright eyes looked at me pleadingly.

"Please," she added a moment later. "Freshly squeezed, please."

I wasn't paying her any attention at all. I was miles away. I was thinking about what I had found the previous night. The information was going to be invaluable. It was the key to getting access to the SESCC. It was the ultimate hack. It would open doors for me which I never thought existed. It would let me manipulate whole countries. It would give me complete control. I knew that I would never actually use the power I was soon going to have, but nevertheless it was a strangely comforting sensation that I was feeling.

From the beginning I had planned to publish the defects that I was about to uncover in the security of the SESCC, so that people would wake up and realise that the government had too much power in their hands. There was too much information in the hand of too few people.

"Can I, please?" Jenny asked again breaking my trance.

"Sorry, I was miles away, darling. What did you just say, Jenny?" I replied.

"Can I have another orange juice, please?"

"Freshly squeezed?" I asked her.

"Yes, please," she said and smiled at me.

I ordered her another orange juice.

We had gone down to Homeland, Jenny's favourite diner. I had promised to take her there the night before last when she had caught me hacking into various security systems.

"Would you like a sweet?" I asked her.

"Oh, yes, please. Can I have a chocolate éclair, please?" Jenny replied with an even bigger smile on her face.

I knew she wouldn't say no to a sweet. She has always had a sweet tooth, so I ordered an éclair.

"Jenny. I just have to go across the road to drop something off. I will be back in a minute. Will you stay here and wait for me, please?"

"Yes, I will. I will drink my orange juice and eat my chocolate éclair."

"Good. I won't be a minute, all right?"

"All right."

I got up, walked to the door, turned around and winked at Jenny.

"I'll see you in a bit," I said to her. "Don't move, OK?"

She was too busy eating her éclair to hear me.

I walked out into the street. It was a lovely day and very busy. The sun was shining and there was a lovely warm breeze blowing between the tall buildings. I squeezed through two parked cars and crossed the road, dodging the traffic. I wanted to see a friend of mine to give her a copy of last night's findings.

The information I had discovered had to be distributed as much as possible, so that I wouldn't lose everything if the government raided my place and deleted my computer account — and any of my other accounts.

The copy I was about to give to my friend was securely encrypted. Even the government wouldn't be able to decipher it. The encryption was for two reasons: firstly I didn't want the information to get into the wrong hands and secondly, and more importantly, I didn't want my friend to get into trouble for being in possession of classified information. Even though the government didn't like people having encrypted data on their systems, there was nothing they could legally do about it. Not too long ago this was different, thanks to the famous RIP Act¹.

The friend of mine was working for a small computer firm and, just like me, spent a lot of her time hacking into computer systems. The only difference was that I did it to make a living, whereas she saw it more as a hobby. I had met her when I had hacked into the local police station's system and found a trace of another hacker, who later turned out to be her. She had quickly become a very good friend and we often helped each other out if we ever happened to get stuck with our shared interest.

I had reached the building across the street and walked to the entrance. I pressed the buzzer and waited for a reply.

"Hello?" came the answer through the speaker.

"It's me," I said into the microphone.

"Oh, hi there. C'mon up."

The buzzer hummed and I went inside. I climbed the three flights of stairs to her apartment and then knocked at the door. A moment later the door opened and there she was.

"Hello, Laura. How's life?" I said to her.

"Not too bad. Come inside," Laura replied.

"No, can't stay long. Just wanted to drop this off," I said and showed her the CC.

"What in God's name is on it this time?" she wanted to know. She was used to my dropping off hot information on CC for her to check out.

"Can't tell you just yet. It's quite amazing and all top secret. Government of the highest calibre is all I can say."

"Oh, so you've cracked the jackpot then, have you?"

"Well, I suppose you could put it like that. Look, keep this safe and be careful. It's encrypted but that doesn't mean that you can't get into trouble for having it. Ditch it straight away if there is any sign of danger, all right?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm not stupid."

"I know. I'm just worried. This is really hot stuff, hotter than anything any of us has ever touched."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. I'll ditch it if it bites. You sure you don't wanne come in?"

"No, thanks. Would love to, but can't stay. I'll speak to you soon, all right? You take care now," I said to Laura.

"Yes and you," replied Laura. "Speak to you soon."

"Oh, and thanks, “ I said as I was about to go back downstairs. “I really appreciate your help. I'm deeply in your debt. You don't know how much."

"Oh, never mind that crap. Just don't get caught, will you. You look after yourself and I'll look after myself, all right?"

"Yes, Laura. Thanks," I said and walked down the stairs. At the bottom of the first flight of stairs I stopped, looked back up and waved Laura good-bye, who was still standing in the door to her apartment.

"You're an angel," I said.

"I know, you little devil," she replied with a wide smile on her face.

When I got back to the diner, Jenny was waiting for me. She had finished her sweet and the orange juice. She looked at me as I walked through the door.

"Can we have the check, please," I said to one of the waiters and sat down next to Jenny.

"Did you like it, Jenny?"

"Yes, thank you. It was really nice. What are we going to do next?"

"Hm. How about if we go to the park?" I asked Jenny and expected her eyes to light up and her mouth to produce a wide smile.

"Oh, yes, that would be great," Jenny replied and as expected her eyes lit up and she smiled.

"Well, let's go then."

I paid and Jenny and I left the diner.

After a few minutes' walk we finally arrived at the park. Jenny couldn't wait and started to run ahead.

"Be careful, darling. I'll catch up with you at the lake," I shouted after her.

"Yes," she shouted back.

All the way from the diner to the park I felt like we were being watched and as if somebody was following us. Whenever I turned around to check, I could see a figure disappear in a side street, behind a bus shelter or something. I wasn't sure whether it was always the same person, but it was certainly unusual.

The park was a wide-open space and it would be easy to find out whether we were indeed followed. Had the police or a Fed already traced me back here? That was very unlikely, but if somebody was clever enough and knew enough about me, they could have deduced my whereabouts. I had to be careful and see whether my suspicions were right or whether I was imagining things.

I slowly caught up with Jenny. I acted normal and only when I finally reached the lake I turned around to see whether there was anything unusual. There weren't many people in the park, but nobody look suspicious. I decided to sit down next to the lake and keep an eye on what was going on around me while watching Jenny inspecting the pond life.

"Look what I got," Jenny shouted across the water. She was holding something in her hand. "What is it?" she wanted to know.

"Bring it here and I'll have a look," I replied.

She slowly waded through the water, cautiously holding her discovery with both hands. She had lowered her head and was looking at the water to see where she was going. She was always very careful not to step on anything because she wanted to make sure that she left the pond in the same way as it was before her visit. She felt that she could inspect the pond and its inhabitants as much as she wanted as long as she made sure that she returned every specimen to where she had found it. She also felt that her careful and rare intrusions would not upset the balance of the lake and its ecosystem. She was really very considerate.

"Well, let me have a look then," I said when Jenny had finally reached me and had sat down next to me. She slowly lifted her left hand from her right to reveal her discovery.

"Look. It's all wriggly," she said giggling.

"Oh, it's beautiful. It's a little dragonfly larva," I explained. "You know, dragonflies spend their childhood as little larvae in a pond."

"It's not beautiful," Jenny disagreed. "It's grey and boring."

"Well, it just looks like this now, but when it hatches it becomes a beautiful dragonfly."

"Dragonflies are boring too," Jenny insisted.

"But their wings shimmer in beautiful colours," I said. "Don't you think that they look beautiful? A bit like fairies really."

"Yes, their wings look beautiful, but this larva is boring and not like a fairy," she explained. "I'll put it back in the pond."

"Yes, darling, you do that," I said and smiled to myself. Once she had made up her mind about something, she stuck to it. She was a very confident young woman. So, off she went back into the water to return the larva to where she had found it.

I used the opportunity to have an inconspicuous look around the park to see whether we had been followed. At the other side of the lake children were playing and their parents were deeply involved in conversations about the latest child fashion, how brilliant their little ones were for their age, how expensive toys were these days and how quickly they broke, their concerns about the dozens of jabs children were given and other topics of smalltalk.

On my left there was a young couple sitting in the shadow of a big weeping willow holding hands and exchanging affectionate looks and caresses. All around the park people in office clothes had come to spend their break in a relaxing environment.

Behind me there was a man on a bench reading a newspaper. He was completely dressed in white, even his shoes – and he was wearing a white bowler hat. Suddenly he lowered his newspaper and glanced over to me. He smiled and slowly nodded his head once and then resumed with his reading. I kept looking at him to see what he would do next. A moment later he lowered his newspaper again, looked at me smiling and then nodded – as he had done before.

Then he got up and started to walk in my direction leaving the newspaper behind on the bench. After about ten paces he stopped, looked around and then sat down on the grass facing my direction – still smiling.

I started to feel a little bit uneasy. He didn't look a particular tall or strong person and didn’t appear threatening, but his smile radiated so much confidence and superiority that I felt very vulnerable.

"Jenny, I think we should go now, darling," I said without taking my eyes off him. "It's getting late."

"Oh, do we have to?" Jenny complained. "I'm not finished yet."

"Come on, we have to go back home sweetie."

"Just one more minute, please," she pleaded. "Please!"

"No, we have to go now," I said firmly while turning around to face her. "Come out of the water and put your shoes back on."

She looked at me with a grim face, her lower lip sticking out, showing how upset she was. Her whole body language made it very clear that it would take me some convincing to get her out of the water. Her arms were crossed, fists clenched, her legs close together and her eyebrows expressed the strongest conviction.

"Oh please, don't give me that, Jenny. You know it's late. We'll be back here tomorrow afternoon and then you can carry on with your investigation," I said. After a moment I added, "Please darling."

Her face cleared a little and she uncrossed her arms.

"Oh, but…," she started to say. "I…," she added a moment later. "All right – but you have to promise that we go again tomorrow," she finally said.

"I promise – tomorrow afternoon – and I'll buy you an ice-cream too, OK?" I suggested.

"OK – but it has to be vanilla," she replied.

"I promise. Vanilla it is. Let's go then, sweetie," I said turning around again to see whether the man had come any closer – but he had gone. I looked all around the park but couldn't find him. He had disappeared.

1RIP Act – Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was a piece of legislation originally introduced by the British Government and later adopted by other governments on Earth. Among a lot of controversial rights given to the government, the Act in particular meant that the police gained full access to personal e-mails and data on personal storage. If the data was encrypted, police could force the individual concerned to hand over the decryption key. The burden of proof lay with the individual to show that he or she did not have the key. If proof could not be provided, the individual was faced with imprisonment. Eventually the Act was revoked.