Revelations (The End 5)

Stephen nodded his head.

“So how are we going to know who is Russian in disguise? We can’t just go barging into the enemy’s camp without knowing who the enemy is” he asked.

Suzanne was quiet for a while as she thought about his question.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. The best I could come up with was a form of greeting we used. Usually, we are all compelled to reply once another comrade greets us that way. I think it should work,” she said finally. She took out a pen and a piece of paper; then, she wrote on it and gave Stephen.

Privetstvovat’ Solntse.

He tried to say it, but it didn’t sound right in his mouth. Suzanne ended up taking the next couple of minutes, teaching him how to say it like an indigene. After countless tries, she became satisfied.

“Say it like that and no one will suspect a thing,” she said as she sat down.

“What does that even mean?” Xander asked.

“Hail the Sun,” she replied. “Xander, Aaliyah helped us scout the whole of New York and she found this desktop computer,” Suzanne said, nodding to a computer on a desk by the wall. “It runs on Windows 7 which is enough to handle what we need. I hope you learned how to hack?”

Xander nodded.

“But how are we going to get the computer to work?” he asked.

“The monitor was made with vacuum tubes. EMPs don’t work on old technology. We found the CPU and the accessories in a metal-walled basement. Luckily, they were not affected by the EMP,” she answered.

Xander looked at Aaliyah, wondering how she had managed to find all those things.

“Electricity?” he asked.

Suzanne pointed to the car battery on the ground beside the desk.

“I took it from a truck after I arrived in New York. It can power the computer for a couple of days.”

“And internet?” he asked.

“We’ll use the hotspot feature on our Ray Tablets. It should be enough to support what we need. You’ll be writing a program that will move all the information from the Ray of Hope’s central computer to a mail I will give you. The main computer has a very complex file transfer protocol. I’ll tell you all I know about it once we start. Your goal is to bypass that protocol. It will take you a while. I hope you’re ready.”

“Yes. But we need the NMap software.”

“I’m sure we can find that here in New York.”

“Okay. I’m ready, then.”

“Good,” Suzanne said. Then, she turned to Aaliyah.

“Aaliyah, you’ll get to work, stirring up a mob. I asked you to get the dirtiest, meanest conspiracy theorists in New York and become friends with them once you arrived here. Were you able to do that?” she asked.

“Let me just say that my Facebook friend list isn’t going to be the same once this whole thing is over,” Aaliyah said, laughing.

“Great. Let’s move to the next phase. I’ve sent all the evidence you need to your tablet. Make them hate the idea of going to Spain. Make them distrust their government. Ensure that no one is willing to get on that ship anymore. Is that okay?”

Aaliyah laughed at that.

“Rebellion used to be a hobby of mine. I’m on it,” she said.

Suzanne nodded.

“Good. So, we’re all good to go. We’re all going to begin early in the morning tomorrow, so y’all better sleep tight tonight. You have a long day ahead. Aaliyah and I have arranged the rooms for you,” she said.

Just as they all stood up to go to bed, they heard a loud clang from the gate. Someone had slammed it shut. They all ran to the door. When they looked out, they saw the gate was hanging open. Someone in a black hoodie was running down the stairs. Xander froze, realizing what had happened.