Hostile Takeover ❖ Jake Riley | ✓ [book 1]

10~ Resilience is to Thrive

Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.

~ Jamais Cascio

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They crowded around a computer as one of the techs typed away, "While you guys went to investigate the doctor, I managed to get the videotapes from a Seven-Eleven a block over from Rooney's," he said.

"How does that help us?" Slater asked.

"Watch," the tech pulled up black and white video footage, looking down the street from where the explosion of Rooney's went off. They saw Lex and Jake run around the corner, just as the explosion went off, and the footage went fuzzy. Jake instinctively rubbed the bandage over his head.

"I remember that, wish I didn't have to," Lex said.

"Show them what you found before," Vicki said. The tech rewound the footage, just ten minutes before the explosion went off. In the middle of the street, they saw a man walking idly down the street. He was looking around and over his shoulder, then he went inside the store.

"I doubt he's going to get his allergy meds," Jake mumbled. Fast forward thirty seconds later, the same man came back out, then walked directly down the street and out of the camera's view.

"Did we run him through facial rec?" Slater asked.

"Yes. And we got a hit," a DMV photo suddenly popped up, "Edward Estherman. Thirty-two, no job, no family," he said.

"I bet a fifty Edward Estherman is a fake name too," Vicki said.

"What does he have to do with anything?" Jenna asked.

"Interpol has been looking into him for the past six months, suspect him of having relations with these guys," a few more clicks later, a website pops up with big, fat red letters spelling out the word Mbretëria e Pavlefshme.

"Mem... membr... what?" Jake asked.

"It's Albanian, directly translates to the English phrase 'Void Kingdom'," Vicki said, "And Mr. Kralj? Kralj is the Bosnian translation for 'king',"

Slater grumbled under his breath, "So, King Kralj is building his Kingdom,"

"And recruiting fighter rebels in Europe. People who have no country, no means, no values," Lex added.

"Can anybody see this?" Slater asked.

"The website is heavily guarded under the dark net. Apparently, to get access, you need an invite from a recruiter," the tech said.

"So how did you find it?" Jake asked.

"FBI keeps a record of all expletive websites on the dark net," Vicki replied.

"And you can't shut this down?" Lex asked.

"It's like a game of whack-a-mole with these guys. You take down one website, ten minutes later, they have another one up and running,"

"So, how about we go find Estherman and get him to tell us who Mr. Kingdom is and what they plan to do next?" Jake said.

"Once we drag Estherman in here, he's going to clam up tighter than a stuck zipper," Vicki said.

Jenna then had an idea, "I can help," she said. Everybody then turned to her.

"How can you help?" Slater asked. Jake felt the instinct to slam his hand across his forehead.