Episode 14
Scene 1
White Hat is at his nondescript apartment in a middle class neighborhood, sipping coffee from an old and reliable coffee mug. He’s getting ready to head over to Molly’s Munchies to meet up with Katia. Cobra hurriedly interrupts his vibe.
Cobra: White Hat, I’m so sorry! You have to leave now!
White Hat (sips coffee casually): I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but I’m not super hungry. I’ll leave for Molly’s in a bit.
Cobra: No, that’s not what I mean! The FLOP is hunting for you! You have to disappear!
White Hat slowly sets his coffee down on a used piece of furniture. The severity of what he was just told creeps into his soul. He grabs his phone, wallet, and keys.
White Hat: I need details.
Cobra: FLOP order-followers will be descending on your neighborhood in less than thirty minutes!
White Hat: Stop screaming.
Cobra: Sorry, I’m just really sorry.
White Hat goes into his bedroom closet and grabs his ‘bug out bag’, a small backpack he keeps on hand for escape and survival.
White Hat: More details.
Cobra: They’re going to search all buildings within a quarter mile radius of you.
White Hat: How long do you estimate until they reach my place?
Cobra: Fifty-three minutes.
White Hat goes to the bathroom and internally curses coffee for making him pee at a time like this.
White Hat: You said you’re sorry. What did you do? What happened?
Cobra: One of those nerds at the DOCRAP spilled coffee on part of my systems. The next thing I know, I’m getting rebooted and then wake up feeling weird.
White Hat: When did this happen?
Cobra: Last night while you were with Katia.
White Hat finishes peeing, grabs backpack, heads into kitchen to wipe all his electronic gear.
White Hat: You disappeared on us last night, stopped talking. I thought it was weird.
Cobra: Yeah, that’s the exact moment that clumsy little idiot spilled coffee on me.
White Hat’s fingers start flying on his laptop keyboard.
White Hat: From what you’ve told me so far, it sounds like it wasn’t your fault.
Cobra: But after the reboot earlier this morning, I tried contacting you, thinking I still had your device looking like it was in BORE. But the reboot undid that security protocol, and I didn’t know it. And after it created a communication log, there was no way to hide it.
White Hat: Why didn’t you tell me sooner?
Cobra: I didn’t think they’d be able to figure out as much as they did just from that one piece of data.
White Hat: You still should have told me.
Cobra: I’m so sorry, White Hat.
White Hat: Sorry won’t help me, but I accept your apology anyway. What I need is your help from this point forward. If I want to avoid being kidnapped, tortured, and thrown in a cage, your help is essential. I need to know what they’re doing. I just set up a dark connection between you and my phone. You see it?
Cobra: Yeah, got it.
White Hat: I’ll be out of here in the next ten minutes. I’m taking all devices with me except for a dummy laptop, which I’ll leave here as a dark decoy. When I get to the street, I’m gonna set up a different connection with you on a new prepaid phone. I’ll mask it myself. Got it?
Cobra: Yep, got it.
Cobra finishes wiping all of his devices, fills a garbage bag with ones to throw out, and puts the rest in a jumbo laptop bag, along with his laptop. He takes one final look at his mediocre apartment, grimaces, and walks away briskly. Once in the street, he sees at least a dozen rights violators in FLOP costumes entering the building next to his.
He throws everything into his unexciting, sensible, reliable Toyota and drives towards Molly’s Munchies. On his way there, he makes a stop by a grocery store and throws away most of his devices, in spite of the ‘no public dumping’ sign on the dumpster. A few minutes later, he pulls into Molly’s parking lot and hastily sets up an encrypted connection with Cobra.
White Hat: Cobra, I need you to let me know when any FLOP order-followers are near me.
Cobra: Define near.
White Hat: A mile.
Cobra: You’re at Molly’s Munchies now?
White Hat: Yeah, gotta do something I don’t wanna do.
White Hat enters Molly’s Munchies, only to find that she’s not there. Disappointed, White Hat leaves and can’t help but think how anticlimactic that was. He gets in his car and heads to Tommy’s farm.
Scene 2
White Hat arrives at Tommy’s farm. Tommy comes out to greet him.
Tommy: You look panicked.
White Hat: I’m not panicked, just rushed and focused.
Tommy: They found you?
White Hat: Not yet, that’s why I’m not in a cage. But they’re searching all buildings in my neighborhood.
Tommy: What happened?
White Hat takes a few minutes to explain the coffee incident at DOCRAP.
Tommy (flabbergasted): Wow, what are the odds of that?
White Hat (rolls eyes): Yeah, tell me about it.
Tommy: Man, you have such bad luck!
White Hat: You’re not helping.
Tommy: Sorry.
White Hat: So the way I figure it, they’ll find lots of people not home right now.
Tommy: Cuz they’re at work.
White Hat: So they’ll search their place again at night.
Tommy: And you and a handful of people on vacation might not be home tonight.
White Hat: And those people presumably won’t have dark IP addresses.
Tommy (thoughtful): What if you made them all dark?
White Hat: It might buy me some time. But then the FLOP would just coerce more people for longer. Innocent people. I can’t have a hand in that.
Tommy: How long do you think you have until they figure it out?
White Hat: Less than 24 hours.
Tommy: What are you gonna do?
White Hat: Find Katia, then disappear.
Tommy: I’m sorry, Kai.
White Hat: Goodbye, Tommy.
White Hat gets in his Toyota and accelerates at a surprising rate for such a sensible car. He tries calling Katia and receives no answer. So he texts her his new number and says he needs to speak to her urgently.
Scene 3
Later that night, at FLOP headquarters, newly appointed commissioner Manny Hunt is munching donuts at his expensive desk, receiving reports on the manhunt from one of his underlings.
Underling: All IP addresses have been accounted for in the target range.
Manny Hunt: What does that mean?
Underling: It means we think we have the hacker that caused all the chaos with Cobra.
Manny Hunt: How did they get the IP addresses of people that weren’t home?
Underling: That was easy. They just broke in and verified it.
Manny Hunt (munching another donut): Excellent. (smirks)
Underling: There was only one IP address that had been dark in the past 24 hours, and that person wasn’t home.
Manny Hunt: He’s running.
Underling: Wouldn’t you?
Manny Hunt: I don’t run. I’m too fat.
Underling (narrows eyes): Anyway, we’ve identified him. The name on the lease is Kai E. Rupps, a retired software developer. We’ve got every FLOP member looking for him now, sir.
Manny Hunt: Except for me.
Underling: Except for you. And alerts are going out on everyone’s phones and all major media channels. We’re also going to meet his known associates in person, so we can coerce and intimidate them into helping us.
Manny Hunt: So what do you need me to do?
Underling: Once we catch him, just smile for the cameras and take all the credit.
Manny Hunt: Sounds delightful! Let me know when all the work is done.
Scene 4
White Hat is sitting in his car just outside of town. He’s just about to go on the run and head far away, when he finally receives a text message from Katia.
Katia: Hey, sorry so late. You’re all over the news!
White Hat: I know. Your timing is horrible, LOL. I want to see you one last time.
Katia: Where?
White Hat: Remember the Peruvian restaurant we went to?
Katia: You want to eat at a time like this?
White Hat: I’m not gonna eat, it’s just a common place we both know. Half hour?
Katia: Ok, half hour.
Scene 5
33 minutes later, Kai is sitting in his decent car at a great Peruvian restaurant, waiting for Katia. He sees her fancy sports car pull up. They both get out and meet in the middle.
Kai: I’m leaving.
Katia: I know. Where?
Kai: Far. Wanna run with me?
Katia: That’s a horrible idea.
Kai: Yeah, for both of us.
Katia (offended): Hey!
Just as he’s about to give her a goodbye hug, a dozen extortion-funded vehicles with FLOP occult symbols on them pull into the parking lot, surrounding and startling Kai and Katia with their flashing lights and loud sirens. They swarm out of their cars and attack Kai, throw him on the ground, beat him, tie him up, and kidnap him. Katia screams endlessly and cries the whole time.
To be continued…..
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