Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Hacker Zi ❯ Part Three ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

DISCLAIMER: While Hacker Zi and its characters were created by me, some of the screen names were taken from actual people. Please DO NOT TRY TO CONTACT THEM. The story is purely fictional

The next morning Marc found Nick in the kitchen eating cereal. She was dressed, and her backpack was on the floor next to her. He figured she had either gotten up early, or she couldn’t sleep. After getting a cup of coffee, he sat down beside her.
“Morning.”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine; I just had a little trouble sleeping.”
The drive to school was silent. Nick kept staring out the window. Marc couldn’t help but feel it was his fault. He began to feel regret, for showing those pictures to his sister. She had been through enough, and he had probably made the pain she was experiencing worse.
When they reached the school, Nick gathered her backpack and jacket. As she was stepping out of the car, her brother spoke.
“I’m sorry Nick.”
Nick looked at her brother, somewhat confused.
“For what?”
“Making things worse. I’m sorry about the other day, for showing you those photos.”
“Don’t be. You gave me hope.”
Nick smiled back at him, as she shut the door to the Tiburon. She watched as Marc’s car left the parking lot. Zeke had seen her get out of the car, and walked over to her. She looked at him, the smile still on her face.
“Wow. I haven’t seen you smile in months. Is there a special occasion?”
“Just hoping to see a long lost friend.”
“The two of you must be close. Is it a former boyfriend?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
Nick began to enter the school. She stopped at the doorway and waited for Zeke.
“Do I?”
Zeke received a poke in the ribs for his comment. Before he could retaliate, Nick had already gone inside the school. Their lockers were on opposite ends of the hallway, but they met up in homeroom. Surprisingly, Jess was already there. He was sitting at his usual seat when Zeke and Nick joined him.
“Whats up Jess?”
“The usual. Oh, Zi, don’t forget about dinner.”
“I’ll be there, but I probably should remind Marc, it seemed like he had a lot on his mind this morning, so he may not remember.”
“Dinner?”
“My mom invited her and Marc to dinner tonight. I’m supposed to invite Tiffany…fat chance that’ll ever happen. Wanna go Zeke?”
“I don’t want to intrude –“
“You’re coming, besides you can meet Marc.”
The three of them laughed. Jess wasn’t the kind of guy to take no for an answer, at least when it came to invitations. He was going to tell his mother that Tiffany had other plans. She probably did, but he didn’t want to think about that. Technically they were still a couple, their breakup had not been discussed, but Jesse knew it was over. The only question remaining was when he would talk to her.

When the bell rang for classes to begin, neither Jacob or Dylan had made it into homeroom. They were probably skipping. They’d occasionally skip school in order to play video games, or wait in line for the newest release. Days like these were somewhat dull. Nick missed the random comments Dylan made daily and the funny doodles in math class.
Lunch came after what seemed like an eternity. Nick had not planned on eating today instead she was going to try to call her brother, to remind him about the dinner. Getting to the office would be a challenge, however. The lunch line blocked the door to the office, so she would have to fight her way through.

Marc was sitting at his desk, staring at photographs on his desk. They were the autopsy photos he had shown Nick and Jesse. Next to the autopsy photos were pictures that had been collected at the memorial. Marc had a suspicion that he was missing something. Something that Nick had noticed about the photos she had seen. But what was it? Everything seemed to match up, everything was exactly the same.
Someone was watching him. He turned around to find his partner looking over his shoulder.
“You’re still on that thing huh?”
“We’ve overlooked something, I just can’t figure out what we’ve missed.”
“You almost missed a call from your sister.”
“Huh?”
“She called your cell a few minutes ago. You were so absorbed in this case you probably didn’t hear it.”
“Is she alright?”
“Fine, she just wanted to remind you about that dinner you were invited to.”
“Shit, I completely forgot about that.”
“I guess she knows you pretty well.”
“I just wish I knew her better.”
“What do you mean? Is the teen keeping secrets?”
“Something like that. She didn’t seem herself this morning.”
“How so?”
Marc told his partner about what had happened this morning. Robert thought about it for a few minutes. He recalled the events at the diner. Nick hadn’t seemed odd after looking at the photographs. He remembered she was as calm as before she had even seen the photos.
“She’s thinking like a cop.”
“…. That’s the only thing you’re going to say?”
“There’s nothing else to say. Except that we need to start comparing these photos. It was easy for your sister to spot something wrong; she’s known the guy for years. We’ve never even met the guy face to face….well you know what I mean.”
“Nice choice of words. You’re going to help?”
“Of course, we’re partners.”
The two detectives spent most of the remaining day looking over the photographs. The hours slowly trickled by. They tried to be as tedious as possible while searching for any differences among the pictures. When Marc left the precinct he was still at a loss.
He returned home to find Nick working on homework. She glanced up as he entered the kitchen. After grabbing an ice pack from the freezer, he sat down across from her. He rested his head on the table, placing the cold ice pack on his head.
“Long day?”
“My head hurts. Too much thinking.”
“Isn’t that what detectives do?”
Marc lifted his head from the table to look Nick in the eyes. As he did this, the ice pack fell onto the floor.
“Can I have a hint?”
Nick went over to her brother. She took the fallen ice pack and placed it back on his head. Afterwards, she took his hand and wrote something on his palm. When she had finished he read the message.
“KISS?”
“Keep It Simple Stupid. You have to see it, looking isn’t enough.”
Marc was as confused as ever. His head landed on the table with a thud. He heard Nick’s footsteps on the stairs. A moment later she returned, with some pills. Marc lifted his head at the sound of running water. In Nicks hands were a glass of water and some blue and red aspirin.
“You take the blue pill, the story ends; you wake up and believe whatever you want to believe. Or you take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and you see just how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
“And if I take them both?”
“Dreams and reality become the same.”
“Do you always quote movies?”
“On some occasions.”
“Does it help?”
“Does coveting help?”
“How does Hannibal help me?”
“It’s almost time to leave. You should take the aspirin and get ready.”
Nick set the glass of water and aspirin on the table. She gathered her things and left the kitchen. Marc watched as she went. Afterwards he took the two pills, and then followed Nick upstairs to get ready.
An hour later Nick and Marc arrived. They were greeted at the door by Jesse, who looked happy to see them. He took their jackets and led them into the living room. Jesse’s dad was watching a football game, and from the grunts and yells they heard, they figured his team was losing badly. When the two of them walked in, Jesse’s dad stood up. He gave Nick a hug, and shook Marc’s hand.
“I’m Tom, you must be Marc. My friend Rob has told me all about you.”
“You know Cormeir?”
“Sure do, we’ve been best buds for about twenty years. He has a few bad habits, but a nice guy. He and his wife should be here soon.”
Zeke and Cormeir arrived at the same time. For a while, they all sat in the living room, watching the game. Jesse’s mom, Andrea, and Cormeir’s wife, Katelyn talked in the kitchen while cooking the rest of the food. When dinner was finally finished, they all gathered in the dining area. Marc sat next to Cormeir and his wife, while Nick sat between Zeke and Jesse. After Katelyn said grace the dishes of food began to be passed around.
“So Rob, Marc, what kind of case are you guys working on?”
“A possible homicide, its not definite yet, not enough evidence to support the theory.”
“Like an accident?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Its hard to find evidence for those kinds of things. You usually have to look closely to find the evidence you need.”
“So I’ve been told. So what do you do for a living Tom?”
“I practice law. I’m a defense attorney.”
“It’s a small world. Kinda funny too – we put them away, and he gets them out.”
“Putting it like that makes me out to be the bad guy Rob.”
The conversations changed subjects frequently. At one point they were discussing law, and the next they were talking about the football game. When Jesse’s parents asked about Tiffany, Nick and Zeke became silent, looking over at their friend. Jesse showed no change in emotion or voice as he spoke.
“She had other plans. But she says hi.”
“I wish you’d bring her over more often, I miss seeing her around.”
Jesse may have been able to fool his mother, but he failed to do the same with his father. Tom knew the moment his son spoke, he was hiding something. He kept quiet about it the rest of the night, but the feeling he had bugged him. Jesse had been acting fairly unusual over the past few days.
After dinner Marc and Nick thanked Jesse and his family, and then returned home. Marc went upstairs and fell right on his bed. The headache from earlier had returned, and it seemed to be getting worse. He didn’t even both to change his clothes, he just wanted to sleep.
Nick on the other hand, was having difficulty sleeping. She kept having a reoccurring dream of the last time she saw David. His last words to her kept coming back, no matter how hard she tried to block them out. After several attempts, she gave up and decided to sort through the songs on David’s ipod. As she was searching through the device, she noticed that there was a word document hidden amongst the songs. Attached to it was a video. Nick read the document first.

Hey Zi, I guess if you’re reading this then you’ve probably already figured it out. I know it was wrong of me to do something like this, and I can’t imagine how it has hurt you. I doubt saying ‘sorry’ would make up for what I’ve done, but I hope you can someday forgive me. I didn’t intend for it to go this far, or for it to hurt you. I had to get away. I needed to escape. If he knew where I was, he’d probably kill me, he was already working up the courage to commit the crime. No, the reason this had to happen, the reason I chose to do this was out of love. With me gone, you’re life can be much better. I tore you apart, no matter what you say, I know I’m the reason you’re no longer together. Even though you never blamed me, or mentioned it. Please forgive me.
Virgil helped me through the 9 levels of hell. Now I shall be Defiant until the bitter end.
Look for my in the Shadows among the Wolves and Chaos.

The last two lines stood out the most. Was he trying to tell her something? She was thinking too much. Too many thoughts and you ended up like Marc, you’re brain overflowing with thoughts and ideas, each one screaming to get your attention. No. She had to get her mind off of this. Sleeping would only allow her thoughts to crowd her dreams, so she decided to log onto the Internet instead.
Nick wasn’t the least surprised to find that hardly anyone was on. Her friend Neo, however, was. She wondered if he was asleep, but decided to try sending a message to him. Strangely enough, he answered only after a few seconds.

Zi: Hey.
Neo: Nice to hear from you….in the middle of the night.
Zi: Sorry…did I wake you?
Neo: Not at all. I’m an insomniac. I rarely sleep anymore. Mostly because of college.
Neo: So, why aren’t you asleep?
Zi: Too many thoughts.
Neo: Want to talk about it?
Zi: You remember a few months ago, when my friend died?
Neo: Vaguely. The one that committed suicide right?
Zi: Yeah. Well this past month….more like this past week, has been somewhat odd.
Neo: Odd? How so?
Zi: my brother, a detective, showed me the autopsy photos. And something was strange about them.
Neo: He showed you autopsy photos?!?
Zi: It sounds worse than what it is. My friend had a scar on his right hand, from where he was stabbed. It was different in the autopsy photos.
Neo: How do you mean?
Zi: In the photos it ran like this - , but it should have ran this way - /
Neo: That is odd.
Zi: There’s more. Before he died, he gave me his ipod.
Neo: Right, I remember you mentioning that.
Zi: Well, tonight I was looking on it, and found a letter. I’ll email it to you.

Nick signed on to her yahoo account. She chose to compose a new letter and selected Neo’s screen name. Then she copied and pasted the letter into the email and clicked send. A few minutes later Neo replied.

Neo: Shadow….Wolf…Chaos
Zi: huh?
Neo: The last line. If I’m interpreting this correctly, he’s giving you a screen name. Was he a hacker?
Zi: I’m not sure. I remember a few years ago, back when I was first learning how to hack, he mentioned something about receiving a message from ‘Virgil’
Neo: The little war between Gods and Chaos. Your friend must have been ShadowWolfChaos. He and another guy….Zeke Araciel helped stop the Gods, with the help of Virgil.

Nick couldn’t believe what she had just read. She remembered David mentioning Virgil at school a few years back, but Nick was completely oblivious to two groups Neo had just mentioned. It was true, David and Zeke suddenly found themselves busy after school, but Nick always thought that was because of homework. How could she have been so blind?

Zi: Would Zeke Araciel know whats going on?
Neo: He might, but that screen name has been inactive for quite a few years. He’s probably using a different handle now.
Zi: I’m going to go, thanks for helping me get some of these thoughts out of my head.
Neo: Anytime. I’m here if you need me.

Nick logged off the computer and went to bed. The conversation she had had with Neo did seem to help. The next morning she awoke half an hour early. Instead of going back to bed, she decided to get ready.
Marc slowly opened his eyes. It was going on 6:10. His headache was gone, but he still felt horrible. He hoped that a hot shower would make him feel better. After he was dressed, he went downstairs to get some coffee. Nick was ready for school, but had fallen asleep on the couch. He woke her when it was time to leave.
“Didn’t sleep well?”
“I could ask you the same thing. You look horrible.”
“I feel horrible.”
“Maybe you should take the day off.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine. You ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
Marc drove her to school and then headed to work. Cormeir had already arrived. He was sitting at his desk reading the morning paper when Marc sat down across from him. He immediately began looking at the photographs again. He was determined to find a clue, anything that would settle the questions in his mind.
After his conversation with Nick, the thoughts in his mind increased. He wondered what she had noticed, and why he couldn’t see it. Was he cut out to be a detective, or was he doomed to repeat his father’s mistake. What did his sister think of him? Was he a loser to her, a pathetic investigator that needed hints to move an inch in a case?
Cormeir looked up from his paper to observe his partner. He hadn’t seemed himself this morning. He didn’t even say hello, he just went straight to the photographs. As he saw Marc grab his jacket and stand, he spoke.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Bell house. I’m going to poke around the kids room. Maybe I’ll find a clue.”
“I’ll go with you.”

The two of them left the precinct and headed for the former residence of David Bell. The father had moved to an apartment complex and the house was still sealed off by the police. Marc and Rob easily made their way up to David’s room, but Rob stopped to catch his breath at the top of the stairs.
The room had barely changed since the suicide. Blood could still be seen on the ceiling and on the carpet. Marc began to look through various draws and notebooks. When Rob came in, he started looking through the closet.
Two hours later they had searched the entire room and found nothing. Not a single thing. Disappointed, Marc went down stairs. When he reached the door he paused, then doubled back and went into the den. Cormeir caught up with him, somewhat confused.
“Why are you in here? The kids stuff is upstairs.”
“There was an ipod box in his room.”
“Yeah, a lot of people have them, even my wife.”
“So where’s the ipod?”
Marc went over to the computer and turned it on. Surprisingly, it wasn’t password protected. There wasn’t much on it either. A few word documents of no significance, some media files, and some pictures. He looked over these quickly, then opened the media player. It showed the dates of when the ipod had been synchronized with the computer. The last synchronization was the day before he died. A file had been added to the ipod. Marc tried to open the document, but it was password protected.
Another dead end. It seemed like every time he came closer to the truth, the farther away the truth became. His brain became overloaded with thoughts. He was thinking too much about the case, too much about what others thought about him. He began to get lost in these thoughts, as he slowly drifted into darkness. Not even the sound of his partner calling his name could pull him from the deep shadows.