Open Source Writing
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The Wife Disposal Service by Peter

Section 17 | Back

Greg woke up the next morning and got ready for his new life.

"Guten morgen Greg." said Heike, she could speak perfect English but felt it was her duty to spread a little multilingualism about.

"Morning Heike, morning everyone." said Greg yawning. "So, what happens now ?" he enquired.

"Come over here." said Anton and Greg obliged. He traced the voice to a room off the side of the main one.

"We meet here every morning when everyone has had breakfast and discuss what needs to be done." continued Anton.

"OK" said Greg and Anton continued his morning briefing.

Greg looked around the room. Monitors, computers, servers and laptops of different shapes and sizes filled one side of the room, on the other wall were large white-boards with diagrams of all kinds. Anton described the various technical tasks for the other hackers.

"Greg, I need to speak to you !" said Anton finishing his briefing.

"Sure." said Greg and followed him to a large L-shaped sofa.

"I need to brief you on how we operate and what's expected of you." said Anton.

"OK" said Greg excitedly. Anton laid it all down :-

1. Don't talk to anyone outside the unit about it's members or the work.
2. This unit is totally self-contained, if you need anything just ask.
3. I'm in charge, whatever I say goes.
4. Working hours are flexible-ish but you are on call 24/7.
5. Units are formed as needed and retired when not.
6. Many members will earn a million or so, some much more when they retire.
7. There certain protocols that need to be followed without fail. Here is a list.

Anton looked Greg in the eye and said "Rule number 1 is the most important. If you break it the results will probably be ... severe."

Greg translated 'severe' to mean 'terminal' and gulped.

"OK, to work. Greg follow me." said Anton. Greg followed Anton to the room with all the computers. "OK we need to add some more features to the spyware programs we use." said Anton pulling out a seat at a table.

"You can work here." Greg sat down and Anton gave him a sheet of paper with some instructions on it. "If you need anything just ask." said Anton.

"OK" said Greg and he got to work setting up the machines he had been given.

Thread-ID: 36, Next Threads: 37

Next Section 18

Alternative Section 18
By Peter (UID:1)

DI Hanson decided to have another chat with his computer go-to man. The police had their own IT experts but he found that Greg explained things a lot better. He arrived at the IT company where Greg worked and walked to his cubicle.

"So, what can that skinny thing give you that I can't ?" demanded a plump, middle-aged woman referring to the pretty young woman three cubicles down.

"A hard-on !" said a young man, who only came over to pick up some paperwork.

"You men are all the same !" sneered the plump woman.

“Once you start down the lard side, forever will it dominate your destiny.” replied the young man doing his best impression of Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. He looked at the pretty women three cubicles down and wondered off in her direction.

"Where's Greg ?" asked DI Hanson.

"He didn't turn up for work again." explained the plump woman tucking into another slice of cake "We're thinking of firing him too." she added spraying cake crumbs over DI Hanson.

"Oh, I see ... where does he live ?" asked DI Hanson brushing the crumbs off.

The plump woman finished her cake, pulled out a pen, copied Greg's address onto a post-it note and handed it to him.

"Thanks." said DI Hanson and walked out.

A few miles away, the police were looking through Greg's old flat, having been alerted by the woman who lived underneath.

"So what happened here ?" asked DI Hanson to the police in Greg's flat.

"It looks like someone got invited in, shot the owner and dragged him away somewhere." explained the young police officer looking at the dismembered computers "And it seems like they took the hard drives too !"

"Oh ... why would anyone do that ? Greg was just a harmless computer nerd." said DI Hanson.

"He was much more that that !" explained the young police officer "We think he may have been a hacker."

"How do you know ?" asked DI Hanson.

"The profile fits, his work report suggests his IT knowledge was way above what was needed and he was using things like VPNs and Tor." explained the young officer.

"I know what Tor is ... but VPNs ?" asked DI Hanson.

"Virtual Private Network." explained the young officer "They have many uses but disguising your location and your online activity is very useful to hackers."

"Oh ... " said DI Hanson somewhat taken aback "Can you trace his phone ?"

"Yes, we did that but the trail stopped somewhere in Devon." replied the young police officer.

DI Hanson left the flat and got into his car. That was the third hacker who had disappeared in the last few months. He then had a crazy thought, what if the murders and the disappearing hackers were related ? the software used would have to be very sophisticated and the skills required would have to come from somewhere.

Thread-ID: 37 | Next38

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