Chapter 13
The sheer elation that KW felt as she basked in the knowledge of what they had done was utterly incredible. Never before had she felt such a huge sense of pride and relief all at once, knowing that everything she had worked toward for years had finally been entirely successful. Everything had been worth it – the tireless nights, the setbacks, the failures – all of it had come together in perfect harmony to not only topple the United States but bring its closest allies to the ground, as well. The American dollar was worthless now. No matter what the country tried, they wouldn’t be able to bounce back from this for years. They were ruined and it was due to her and her small team of elite and daring hackers.
She knew how different her situation could’ve been if it wasn’t for this opportunity. As a hacker, she had never really lived her life in the spotlight and when she was tracked down five years ago, that could’ve been the end of not only her career, but also her life.
Prior to this planned attack, she had gained experience by hacking into the mainframe of one of her own country’s biggest cyber security firms. Usually, the penalty for being caught doing something like that was death and KW had been caught red handed. Had she failed in the Trident hack, KW was sure that was a sentence that would’ve returned to her. The years she had spent hacking the US with her team was just an elaborate prison sentence. Her task had been simple: either succeed and go free or fail and die.
But now that was a worry that didn’t need to hang over her like a storm cloud any longer. They had been successful and they would be granted their freedom. What they would each do with it was another question. KW had never known anything other than the ones and zeros that fired inside computers; she had never practiced any other skill or tried to be good at anything else. Going out into the real world after five years of dedication to one task would be different, but it was certainly a challenge she was ready for. She wanted to see the sun again. She wanted to breathe air that hadn’t been filtered through hundreds of feet of tubing, eat real food and live by her own rules.
So, this hack had been much more than just a job to her, it had been her life. She wondered what would happen to the United States now. It had been in debt to her own country for nearly fifty years, each year the figure increased until it was far greater than anything they would ever be able to pay back. She wasn’t surprised her government had finally decided to take action. They were the most powerful country in the world, and it was about time they started to do something with that power. Things would change quickly now. Emptying the American accounts was surely only the beginning. The attack would continue, and it would become so much more than just the eradication of dollar bills.
Chapter 14
The sound of his phone ringing startled Samuel awake, his legs kicking out from where they rested on his coffee table and knocking over what remained in his glass of red wine. After getting back to his apartment that evening, he had struggled to figure out what to do with himself. Terrors and torments circled through his mind to the point where he ended up seeking comfort in his couch and the bottle. The breaking news channel still played on his television screen in front of him, going over and over the story of the Trident collapse and the different ways it would affect their country. Samuel must have fallen asleep somewhere along the spiel of devastation, the nightmares thankfully not seeping into his dreams while he slept.
Sitting up he felt groggy and exhausted. With a glance at the grandfather clock in his apartment – a relic he’d been left by his actual grandfather when he passed away – Samuel saw it was nearly four in the morning. He’d been asleep for give or take six hours, a decent amount of rest any other night. The memory of everything that had happened washed over him almost instantly, bringing with it a fear and desperation that made him shiver.
By the time he reached his cell phone, the incoming call had rung out, but as soon as he saw who it was from Samuel snatched the phone up in disbelief. After everything he had gone through trying to get in touch with Trident, he had missed a call from them yet again. Immediately clicking on their number, Samuel called them back, hoping and praying that this time he would get a response.
“Hello?”
“Yes, hello? It’s Samuel Westchester, Marketing Director. I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”
“Samuel, finally!” The voice at the other end of the line sounded relieved, though it wasn’t one that Samuel recognized. “Where the devil have you been? We need you down at HQ stat. How soon can you get here?”
“What? Why? What’s going on?”
“Can’t tell you that over the phone I’m afraid,” the mystery correspondent replied, cutting short Samuel’s quest for answers. “Just get yourself down here. I’ll explain everything then.”
“Wait, wait!” Samuel panicked suddenly; feeling like the conversation was going to end before he’d uncovered anything at all. “How do I get in? I was there earlier, and everything was locked up. How am I supposed to get
