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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jake sent Danny an email, assigning him his next task, exactly an hour after their phone conversation. Danny read the email.

Okay. That shouldn't be hard. The rendezvous might be tricky though, because of its time-sensitive nature, but I think I can pull it off. The pickup is at midnight. It's a few minutes past five right now, so that gives me more than six hours to finish the task. Great.

He closed the email and opened the surveillance application. It showed all the cameras' footage in multiple small boxes on the phone's screen. He also had the option to open one of the small boxes and see the corresponding camera's footage on a full screen.

Danny stood up and turned his TV on. He then connected the phone to the TV so that he could watch the footage on it.

"Surveillance is on and working fine. Now for the next stage," he said to himself.

He made a call, using the smartphone.

"Hello, Rupert Blake here," the voice on the phone said.

"Rupert. You are to listen attentively to what I am going to tell you because your life depends on it," Danny said in a composed and confident manner.

Rupert didn't recognize the voice that spoke with him. In fact, he found it hard to believe that the voice was human. Danny had activated the voice-morph feature which changed his voice digitally to make it unrecognizable.

"Excuse me but, do I know you?"

"No Rupert, you don't. And you don't need to."

"Well, stop wasting my time with your prank calls," Rupert cut in.

Danny laughed.

"I see your wife is making dinner now, and your daughter is playing with a toy piano and you, Rupert, are seated on the couch with a laptop on your lap, holding your phone with your right hand."

Rupert had decided to end the call, but changed his mind as he heard Danny's last statement. His heart raced and he looked around him in a worried state. He put the laptop aside and stood up, still looking around the room.

He walked to the window and looked out, his phone still on his ear.

"No need to panic, Rupert. Sit down," Danny said.

"How do you know what I'm doing? Are you watching me? Who the hell are you?"

"Listen. I'm not going to waste my time answering your questions, so here's the deal. We require your assistance on a certain project and it is best if you comply."

"And if I don't? You can't make me do anything," Rupert shot back, though not believing it himself.

"Oh, yes I can. If you don't assist us we will be forced to eliminate both you and your family, because you will turn into liabilities to us. But if you do what we say then the turnout of events will be much better. We get what we want and you save your life and the lives of your loved ones. It's not like you have much of a choice here, Rupert."

"Oh my God. I can't believe this is happening. No, no. This is a joke. You're joking right?"

Rupert breathed heavily and his hands shook.

"Your wife, Sylvia, that's her name right? She is wearing blue denim jeans and a pink sweater, isn't she? She's in the kitchen isn't she, Rupert?"

Danny spoke in an annoyed and mocking tone.

"Stop playing around, Rupert. Will you comply or not?"

"Yes, yes. Oh God, why me," Rupert answered in a low, almost whispering voice.

"Good."

"What do you want? Tell me so that I know."

"I notice you are whispering now. I suppose you don't want Sylvia to know any of this, right?"

"Yes," Rupert whispered.

"Good. If you cooperate, no one gets hurt, okay?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now here is the thing. We know that you have just been promoted to the Head of Internal Security at Leadsway, and so we want you to give us access to Leadsway's computer system."

Rupert's heart beat faster and harder. Sweat ran down his forehead and armpits as he realized the seriousness of the issue.

"You're those hackers, aren't you? You hacked BuyNow and now you want Leadsway."

"Finally, you get the picture," Danny said.

He then cleared his throat and continued.

"As I was saying, you are now the Head of Internal Security, and as such you have access to the technical documentation for the whole of Leadsway's security system. We want you to send us copies of that documentation as the first task in this project. Do you understand?"

"Yes, but how will I send it to you?"

"You will receive an email address on your phone tomorrow at exactly eleven o'clock in the morning. Do not let anyone see it and delete it after memorizing it."

"Okay."

"Good. Oh by the way, your daughter is coming downstairs now. You might want to pull yourself together. You don't want her to see you all shaken up like that."

Danny abruptly ended the call.

Rupert put the phone in his pocket and then turned around as he heard footsteps from the stairs.

He really is watching us. That sick bastard is watching us.

Any doubts he had about the phone call and the stranger's message vanished. He suddenly felt powerless and helpless.

Jane noticed the blank and distant look on Rupert's face.

"Daddy, what's wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing Jane. I'm thinking about work, okay. Mommy is in the kitchen. Go and see if she needs any help."

"Okay. Bye Daddy."

Jane skipped away towards the kitchen.

Rupert sat on the couch, and put the laptop on his laps. He stared at the screen, apparently concentrating on the document that was opened, but his mind was elsewhere.

This is real. This is really happening.

He took multiple deep breaths, exhaling slowly, trying to calm down.

They put cameras in the house and they are watching us. Who knows what else they've done. There could be a bomb placed somewhere in here for all I know. How did they put the cameras in the house? Sylvia and Jane were here the whole of last week; they haven't told me of any visitors.

He ran his fingers through his hair and held his head.

"Today," he whispered.

Yes, we left the house unattended today so they must have broken in today. They were smart about it though, because we haven't noticed any signs of forced entry. What am I going to do? What happens after I give them access to the system? They could just kill us anyway.

He shook his head sideways and tried to regain his composure.

Falling apart won't help me now. I need to do something. The best thing for me to do now is what they command, and buy myself some time to figure this out.

Rupert finished off his presentation and saved backup copies on his flash disks. Dinner was ready by that time, and so he joined his family and ate dinner.

"I've made one of my specials," Sylvia said as they sat eating.

"It tastes great, honey. Well done," Rupert said, trying his best to appear unshaken.

"I helped mom make the potatoes," Jane added.

"That's good, baby. The potatoes are great too," Rupert said.

"So are you done with that review?"

"Yes, actually, and I'm glad it's finished. It's been stressing me out," Rupert answers his wife.

"I'm happy that you are finished too. Maybe now you can get some rest," she said.

"Trust me. I am looking forward to sleeping in a bed for hours, uninterrupted," he said.

Sylvia laughed, and so did Rupert, a few seconds later though.

The three ate dinner and went to their bedrooms. Although Rupert had not slept well in two nights, he struggled to fall asleep that night. He laid on his side, facing away from Sylvia, feigning sleep, but Sylvia fell asleep within an hour of them getting in bed.

His mind could not rest, as he thought about the phone call, and what it meant for him and his family. He eventually fell asleep after a few hours, as fatigue overcame him.