Dark Keys of Uncomplacency

Chapter 15: Hackers Know Best

"So that's her?"

"Yeah man that's her. She moved across the street like two months ago. She's real cool, her brother too".

"How'd you get so lucky", whispered Chris, as he and Connor peered out the back window at Allison. "Alright man let her in, we got a solid hour before my moms gets off work. Plus you have shitty WiFi, so we might need a little more time than that".

"Thank God for your mom's night shift at the clinic. I still don't understand why she doesn't let you stay out longer, it's summer vacation".

"Don't look at me man. It's my moms, she watches too much news these days. Too stuck on the black-blue-yellow-all lives matter bullshit going on".

Connor sucked his teeth. "We live in New Castle, man. The burbs of the suburbs, nothing ever happens here".

"Shoot, tell her that".

Allison stepped through the back door into the kitchen, the snack wrapper message in-hand. "You could've just asked for my number, ya know".

"This man don't have a phone!", Chris chuckled. "I'm telling bro, just save up for an iPod touch, download WhatsApp, and there you go—a working phone".

"I like your friend already", said Allison, turning towards Chris. "Does he send you secret messages too?".

"Nah we've been working on this thing for the past couple w—"

"We're wasting time, Chris has to leave in an hour", Connor interrupted. "Let's head upstairs. And be quiet so my grandmother doesn't hear us. Unless you wanna get cursed out in German".

Chris and Allison followed Connor towards his room. "He already said my name, but I'm Chris—Chris Taylor", he whispered.

"I'm Allison Scott", she replied, shaking his hand. "I just moved here from Florida a couple months ago".

"Yeah Connor told me. He said you know your classical music—well enough to crack this code we've been working on. Hopefully you could point my decryption algorithm in the right direction. Then maybe we could take this project nationwide".

Allison could tell Connor was keeping his friend in the dark about what was really going on. He had no idea what they were dealing with. "How did you meet Connor, in school?"

Chris smiled with pride. "Yep, in the back row of detention. They caught me hacking into the school district database, trying to change my grades. Small town schools are the easiest to break into like that, they're primitive when it comes to technology, which includes firewalls. But anyway, Connor got detention for some dumb shit like blowing up a toilet in the guy's locker room. One day, while we were sitting watching the teacher nod off, he told me he had a project he needed help on—some computer science extra credit assignment. After giving myself straight-A's, I thought this would be easy. But two and a half months later, we're still working on it".

Allison clenched down on the cold metal canister attached to her key ring, in the pocket of her hoodie. She prepared herself for any other facts Connor neglected to mention.

"Yo, what'd you do? Were you trying to flee the country or something? Last room I've seen like this was my own, when my moms thought I was hiding weed".

Piles of clothes and old bed sheets lined the old, creaky floor. "I just didn't get around to cleaning it yet, that's all. Plus, I gave my maid the month off". Connor smirked as he rolled all the loose articles into a giant ball and shoved everything into his closet.

The computer desk was less messy, with a few polaroids scattered across the desk and sticking out of a draw. On top of the pictures, Allison found the stack of music they were looking through earlier that day.