The Lyon's Cub Caitlin (Lyon The Next Generation 1)

Todd

We came back to a full house after our afternoon picnic and I lost my girl to her many aunts while I headed upstairs to the guestroom. I wasn’t brave enough to just walk into Mr. Lyon’s office without an invite so I laid across the bed thinking.

I didn’t think much of the fact that those women were here, some of whom I’d met over that holiday break, but then I got to wondering about their husbands none of whom I’d seen when we came in.

Of course my mind took a journey after that and I started to wonder what they were doing locked away in his office all that time. I wasn’t surprised when Mancini texted me and called me in there.

The room was wall to wall with barely any room and as I walked in all eyes turned my way. Not the most comfortable feeling, but I didn’t show any unease in the slightest. They all seemed to know who I was which I found strange but I soon lost any interest when Mancini let me in on what was going on.

Once again, it was Catalina and her friends who’d given them the new information that had brought them closer to revealing who it is that we were looking for. Now I’m not sure how they were taking this news, the fact that three eight year 0ld girls were the ones piecing this shit together, but after learning how to do this shit myself in the last few months, I know it’s not that easy.

Track’s the best at it as far as I can tell, and even he has to go through hoops to get in that deep with these groups. It takes time and effort and a very steady balancing act. Most of these people have more security in place on their computers than the government. So I had to ask.

“Does anyone know how they’re doing this? No disrespect but haven’t you guys been working on this for a while? How is it that they can get this information this easily?”

“Nia Chan’s parents are top-level computer scientists, not only that, she engineered and built her first computer when she was five.” Mancini answered my question.

“She knows the ins and outs of computers, which means she can take apart the algos of a computer with just a few strokes. What she does goes beyond just infiltrating a group, she can actually hack into their whole system and take it over, she’s that skilled.”

“At eight years old!” I said it more as a statement of awe than a question because the evidence was right in front of me. “So they’re not interacting with these monsters is what you’re saying, they’re basically watching them from afar.”

“Exactly, but I’ve gone back the last couple of weeks to see what they’ve been up to and that’s not all they do. They’ve been using themselves as bait.”

“What do you mean by that Hank?” Mr. Lyon asked from behind his desk while all eyes turned to Mancini and the little gadget that was never far from his hands.

He turned it around now so that all the room’s occupants could see it. “Look familiar?”

“What the fuck Mancini? You found that shit and didn’t say anything?”

“I just found it, what do you think I’ve been doing all day?”

“What made you think of that?”

“These kids are geniuses but they’re still kids. When their little brains take a break they revert back to being children and they’ll do what children do; to a point. Now Catalina thinks that these people are the reason her sister can’t get what she wants, so she’s going to try to get this shit done fast because that’s how she thinks, that’s part of her genetic makeup, no patience.”

He looked at Mr. Lyon with a smirk when he said this. “Now, what do you think she’s going to do? She’s not just going to sit back and play on the computer, which is not her thing by the way, she’s a biochemist, Lily Flanagan is a genealogical historian and Nia Chan is a computer scientist.”

“The three of them came together and used their smarts but they’re still little girls, so we have a mix of high intelligence with…” He caught the looks from the others and decided to speak in a way that we could all understand.

“Oh for fuck sake! They used their brains with the natural curiosity of children and did what made sense to them. You know how law enforcement pretends from behind the screen to be a thirteen-year old girl to attract the pedos? Well the pedos are hip to that shit these days.”

“So basically your kid and her friends doctored pictures of themselves to feed the wolves. They hid behind firewalls so no one could find them, but they put themselves out there to lure them in. She didn’t give us everything. There’s more. I can’t put my finger on what they’re up to, but they’re up to something.”