Chronicles of Athena Lee Book 3 (eBook)

T S Paul (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018 | 1. Auflage
374 Seiten
Great God Pan Publishing, Inc (Verlag)
978-0-00-017318-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Read the Third Trilogy in the Athena Lee Series! 
Join Athena and Wilson as they discover a hidden secret on Mars Colony, battle the Cabal, and witness the beginning of the Third Interstellar War. 
Bonus! The Lost Pilot tells the story of Sam a genetically enhanced soldier and pilot. In the distant past he witnessed the birth of a unified Earth and was a part of its deepest secret.
Contains:
Prequel : The Lost Pilot
Book 7 : The Martian Inheritance
Book 8 : Infiltration
Book 9 : Prelude to War

Textauszug

Chapter 1

In the early 21st century, computer technology was at its pinnacle. Almost everyone in the world had some sort of electronic ‘gizmo’ that they either wore, carried, or communicated with. Miniaturization was the name of the game. The machines we used were getting smaller, faster, and cheaper to produce. Electronic advances allowed man to reach for the stars and explore the deepest darkest depths of the Earth. Private space travel, although still in its infancy, was booming. Groups such as Space X, Orbital ATK, and BMS enterprises, dominated the industry.

Space planes that could carry passengers and necessary freight could now fly exoatmospheric, and what once took hours, now took minutes of travel time. Rocket—assisted pods were now being launched and were replacing the major freight companies. These new pods used a form of safe nuclear fuel. The various world governments were rushing to incorporate these new and exciting technologies into their own military. It was only natural that someone would begin to use it for nefarious and anti-government purposes.

The governments of the world called them Cyber Terrorists. The media called them digital freedom fighters. The man on the street called them a-pain-in-the-ass. The first and most infamous was a twelve-year-old boy in Valdosta, Georgia, Neville Maske. Neville was a child prodigy who really liked computers. He liked them so much that he began to write his own computer languages before he was ten years old. As he grew older, Neville became more and more reclusive. He had tested out of mandatory schooling. His parents, both teachers, allowed him extraordinary freedoms not normally given to preteen children.

His online business would have been Fortune 500 material if not for the government’s interference. Social workers are the bane of many families’ lives. So are busybody neighbors. Child Protective Services (CPS) descended on the Maske household one afternoon and took poor Neville from a ‘dangerous situation.’ His parents lost their jobs and their financial security trying to fight the ‘system’ to get Neville back. Not one government employee asked Neville if he was endangered or felt threatened. Trapped in an officially sanctioned group foster home, without even computer access, Neville longed for his parents to come and save him. The day before his court date both were killed in a freak hit-and-run accident.

Neville was heartbroken over the death of his parents. Revenge against the system that killed his family was the only goal that kept him going. The foster school where he was committed had a computer lab, and access was not much of an issue. Most of the students wanted out of the school, not to stay in and work. And work he did. Neville still had his online accounts and his business contact lists. It was a small matter to hire someone to eliminate certain key workers at the CPS service.

With a little judicious hacking, Neville was set ‘free’ into the arms of hired actors who played his parents. Three days. Three days was all it took for young Neville Maske to bring the local government to a grinding halt. Three days for state investigators to realize that something was wrong. Everyone involved with his ‘abduction’ from his parents was punished.

Computer systems crashed, bank accounts were cleaned out, and lawsuits were filed. All of which was small potatoes. Neville wanted and needed to do more. To hurt them as much as they had hurt him. The Valdosta government buildings were new, their automated sensors and electronic controls were top of the line. A valve left on and a switch turned off was all that was needed to start a fire. Every fire alarm sensor had been deactivated. The fire was not even noticed until it was too late. The entire complex was already engulfed when the alarms finally went out.

No alarms were received at the fire station. Firefighters only knew of the blaze by seeing it on the vid. Gasoline and several propane trucks were in the area at the time of the fire. They had delivery orders to fictitious addresses. The resulting explosions were seen for miles. Most of the city center and all the government buildings were destroyed.

Neville made one mistake. He told one person about what he had done. Everyone needs at least one friend, that one person you can confide in and give your secrets to. Neville’s was a fellow ‘hacker’ named Toby. Toby just happened to be an undercover government law enforcement officer. A law enforcer who saw an opportunity to take down a hacker and get a promotion out of it. Tracing the address, a veritable horde of SWAT teams and special police operations teams descended on a nondescript two-story house in the suburbs. Flash—bang grenades were followed by black-clad armed men shouting orders.

The lone occupant of the house, coughing and dazed from the explosions, was beaten to the ground. He was hauled out by his feet, his head bouncing off walls and then stairs, and thrown bodily into a police van. A hood was placed over his head, and despite his cries of protest, he was hogtied. The officers kicked him a few times as they left him there.

Forensic teams rushed into the house to search for evidence. A personal office was found, and the search began. Only when one of the officers glanced at the wall did someone realize that they, possibly, had made a mistake. Pictures, awards, and plaques covered the walls. The nameplate sitting on the desk read Judge Jonathan Pepper. They had arrested and beaten a Circuit Court Judge for the state of Georgia!

Sitting in the house next door, Neville had laughed himself silly. The Judge had been the last person on his list. He knew that he really should have left the house and escaped when he realized that his location had been compromised but he just had to stay and watch. He called a cab and grabbed his computer. The local driver was rubbernecking watching the police drama next door when a kid got into his cab. “Kid, you have to get out.”

“I’m the one that called, I need to go to this address please.” Neville gave the man a small card.

“Kid, I’m not telling you again. You need a parent or guardian to ride with me. I don’t take children anywhere.”

“Sir, I have permission. Please, I really need to go.”

The sight of a cab driver trying to haul a young—looking boy from his vehicle, with the boy screaming at him attracted a lot of attention. Police attention. Subsequent investigation while trying to locate his parents, drew attention to the inconsistencies in his story. A search of the house discovered his computer equipment. Neville was found out.

It was the trial of the century. Or at least the trial of the year. Neville’s lawyers tried to play up the harm that had been done to him by the government agencies and downplay the whole revenge bit. The media was having a field day. Calling him a Cyber Terrorist, the media plastered pictures of his life across the screens. The whole world got to see his parents’ mangled bodies, interviews with the foster care families, and every detail of his short life. Among the disenfranchised youth, Neville became a Robin Hood figure. Neville became a legend among the ‘black hat’ hackers of the world.

With two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and a slight concussion Judge Pepper insisted that he try the case. The fallout from the arrest and accidental beating of a court Judge were severe for many of the arresting officers. Only ‘dirty’ cops would harm prisoners. Many lost their jobs or were demoted back to traffic duty. Toby, the computer informer, did get a promotion out of the arrest.

As a tenured government employee, Toby’s bosses could not legally terminate him. So, they did the next best thing. He was made Technology Education Agent for the state’s call center. His new office was a small windowless cube down in the basement of the building. For some reason, the drains from the cafeteria leaked down into his ‘office.’ There was no ventilation available, so the office smelled like a sewer under a burger joint. Brown viscous grease dripped down the walls and clogged his computer terminal and systems. His primary duties now included repairing computers, removing malware, and teaching Computer Skills 101 to first-time employees. Motherboard replacement and general cleaning took up the majority of his time.

Cries of ‘free Neville’ and ‘no prison for children’ forced state law enforcement to make plans to move Neville from Maximum Security inside the prison to a protective custody location near the state capital. Transfer paperwork errors temporarily slowed this process. Unable to exit the prison, state officers placed Neville in a general holding cell to await transport. An occupied general holding cell. The young boy did not survive the experience of being in general population among the killers, rapists, and thieves. His broken body was shown in graphic detail by online bloggers. The media firestorm of outraged accusations almost broke the government.

Hackers, in protest, hacked government offices, causing destruction and mayhem. Neville’s personal crusade against those who destroyed his family and the reasons he enacted his revenge were lost. Now, all that mattered to his fans and followers was that the government pay for his death.

Effective computer security now became a thing of the past. The world had become too technological for its own safety. Government sponsored hackers joined the fray. Did you want to get back at a neighboring government worker? Have hackers shut down his electrical grid. Did you want revenge? Have your hackers freeze another country’s financial assets. All the dirty tricks came out. Several secret black operations groups came into the light as the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.1.2018
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• ISBN-10: 0-00-017318-5 / 0000173185
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-017318-8 / 9780000173188