“Outa Shiji”
“March 13, 1984 – January 4, 2009”
“Loving Father and Companion”
“May God Give Him Repose”
Near stood by the tiny grave yard that now held the corpse of Outa in six feet worth of ground. He lingered by the modest grave his friend occupied and finished cleaning his marker. He had heard somewhere that cleaning a loved ones grave gave the soul a clear view of both worlds. Not that he was sure Outa wanted to see what happened in this miserable world, but he could see his family when they came to visit.
“I’m sorry, my friend.” He whispered tracing the name engraved on the stone marble. “I thought we were safe from the monster that dares to call himself God. I swear. I shall find him no matter what I must do and bring him to his knees. I am justice.”
He stood and walked slowly back to the black Corvette. A man opened the door so he could slip into the leather back seat. Once he was securely in the door was closed and the man retuned to the front and started the motor. “Were shall you go, Sir?”
“Take me to the hotel.” Near mumbled to the driver. Who simply nodded and pulled out onto the open road. “But, before you do that I’ll need you to drop me for about two hours at the local ‘office’. Do you understand?” Near knew the man would as he watched the short shrug he got as a reply. “Good. I need to retrieve some things from there, then we may continue to the hotel.” He sat back for the remainder of the road. It took them twenty minutes to get to the garage that attached to the building.
Near hopped out telling the driver to wait for him. He then crossed the glass passage to his structure. And after climbing at least ten flights of stairs he reached the office.
“Hey!” A custodian stepped out of the other door. “What are you doing here so late? Don’t you know it’s closed to open office after hours?”
“I realize the property is closed to those with out a permission slip. But, I posses such a required object if you wish to see it?” Near offered. He saw the confusion clearly on the man’s bony face. “Thank you.” He said before going into the room and locking the door after him. ‘Silly man. Probably didn’t understand a word I said. I hate undermining the ignorant, but they can be a nuisance.’ Near sat at the desk and clicked on a computer.
He must have sat there for his first hour before he noticed the keys seemed to be acting on their own. He pressed the right ones to activate his firewall, stopping the mysterious typing. He watch as the furious typing stopped and stood still. Suddenly the letters became numbers and slowly began changing and forming across his monitor.
“It’s figuring out my codes!” Near stated to himself. “Alright little hacker.” He mumbled “You want something this bad, huh?” He started retyping the codes and again the movements stopped.
(Got you.) Near typed on the screen.
{Not so fast, kid.} The hacker typed back. {I’m not finished with this strand.}
(What?) Near’s fingers flew over his keys. (If you don’t stop I’ll have you arrested. There is nothing for you here. You may as well go.)
{Wrong!} The hacker replied {There is a case on here that holds some value to me.}
(*sigh* If this is for some kind of revenge, I’ll have you know that what you are looking for has already been moved and deleted from the records. Now please leave.) Near was tired and wanted to get back to his hotel for some rest. This person was stopping him from doing what was right and he didn’t want to pass the time he had given his faithful, and rather patient, driver. Knowing the man he would follow him in and break down the door if he had to, to make sure Near was alright.
After the two fought for as long as fifteen minutes, another person started typing on the screen. ‘How many are there?’ Near outwardly sighed and watched as the new person typed.
[Cut it out.] It said. [It’s no good if he already got rid of it. We can find him next time.]
{What!?} The exasperation was clear in the unknown voice. {Why!? I can get it from the main frame! I can get it!}
[Drop it.] The second said.
{…………. Fine.} The numbers, text, and hacking strands were instantly deleted from the screen. Again. Near found himself sitting as though nothing had happened. It appeared as if the two people hadn't been there.
Near sat for a while to make sure they had left checking everything from the main frame to his internet files. But, nothing was to be found. When the remaining minutes passed he packed up and left the room. But, of course not after having erased all roads the two intruders had made in his format. Escentially he destroyed the computer. But, that was the companies problem. Not his.
The building was dark as he stumbled back down the stairs to his car. But, between the seventh and eighth floors he saw two figures move away from an office that had been locked before. It was a fleeting moment, but Near was against meeting his potential hackers. So he acted as though nothing had happened and continued till he reached the bottom floors. Were he saw a red car speed passed the front window.
‘So they were in the building.’ Near thought ‘I figured they were. The trail they left didn’t go far at all. Ah, with skills like that I wouldn’t be surprised if my stalking people were Matt and Mello.’ He didn’t know how right he was.
