Missing - Part 1

Entry posted by Timberwolf October 18, 2017

790 views

https://thenorthlands.net/blogs/entry/45-missing-part-1/

Emily and Devin are sitting at The Citrus, one of their local restaurants that serves breakfast. “What should we do today?” Devin asked Emily.

“Well, I want to do some gardening this weekend, maybe plant some flowers along the side of the house. We’ve been talking about it for the last three years. I think it’s about time we finally do it,” Emily responded with a smile.

Devin nodded, “That’s a great idea. I think I’ll get some equipment at Home Pro and…” Devin moved back so the waitress could put their breakfast plates down.

“Would you like more coffee?” she asked, and both agreed.

“So yeah, I’ll get some equipment and some mulch, and I’ll work on those trees out back,” Devin continued.

“I have no idea how you eat your eggs like that,” Emily said while she looked at Devin’s plate. “Sunny side up is just so disgusting.”

Devin laughed “Hey, I have to get them when we’re out, because you won’t let me eat them in the house.”

“Don’t you even,” Emily retorted with a smile. “Anytime you want your eggs like that, you can cook them yourself. I’m not cooking anything that nasty.”

With that, Devin picked up a slice of toast, used the corner and dipped it into his eggs, breaking the yoke causing it to ooze all over his plate while he smeared it on the end of his toast, lifted it to his mouth, as it dripped the yoke off of it, and took a big bite. “But, it’s just so delicious”, he said as he chewed it up.

“That’s just horrible. You’re such a pig,” Emily laughed.

“Ahh, now that hit the spot,” Devin said as he leaned back and stretched his arms over his head.

“No going to sleep now. We have a lot to do today,” Emily said with a laugh. “Get the check.”

The waitress came back to the table, “Do you guys need anything else?”

“No thank you, just the check,” Devin replied.

The waitress pulled out the checks from her apron pocket. “Sure, not a problem,” she said as she sorted through the different checks, finding Emily and Devin’s. “Here you go. When you’re ready, you can pay up at the register. Have a great day” she said as she set down their check with a smile, turned, and headed off to another table.

Devin gave Emily some money, “Here’s some money, can you take care of that while I use the toilet?” he asked.

“Sure, not a problem,” Emily picked up the check and the money. “I’ll meet you outside.”

Devin finished washing his hands, exited the restroom and left The Citrus. He looked around, but didn’t see Emily, Hmmm, she must have headed to the car he thought, and walked to the back parking lot. He didn’t see Emily there either, but he walked to their car, but she wasn’t in it. Odd. I wonder if I missed her walking through the restaurant, Devin thought, heading back to the restaurant.

Devin walked up to the cashier, “Excuse me. I was just in here having breakfast with my wife.”

“Yes?” the cashier said.

“Uhm, did you see where she went?” Devin asked.

“She went outside, sir”, the cashier responded.

“Did she say anything before..” Devin’s phone started to buzz in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and saw he had a message from Emily’s phone.

Emily: Mr. Fredrikson

Emily: Don’t try to find your wife’s phone.

Emily: We have turned off the tracking

Devin started to type into his phone.

Emily: Mr. Fredrikson

Emily: Stop typing

Emily: Just read

Emily: We have some things we need to say

Emily: Before you start asking questions

Emily: First

Emily: Don’t bother calling the police

Emily: They will just tell you to wait 48 hours

Emily: Then your wife will be dead

Emily: If you do what we say

Emily: Follow every step

Emily: Your wife will be home in 24 hours

Emily: Unharmed

Emily: Do you understand?

Emily: You may type YES or NO

YES :Devin

Who are you? Why did you take my wife? What do you want? Devin thinks as he sends his message.

Emily: Very good Mr. Fredrikson

Emily: Now go to your car

Emily: You will see a note on the seat

Devin looked up to the cashier, “Thank you” and turned and walked out of The Citrus, and headed to his car. When he got there, he saw there was a note on his seat. He opened the car door, grabbed the note and started to open it when his phone buzzed again.

Emily: Mr. Fredrikson

Devin stopped opening the note.

Emily: Before you read the note

Emily: REMEMBER

Emily: DO NOT GO TO THE POLICE

Emily: If you do

Emily: We will kill her

Emily: If you understand type YES”

YES :Devin

Devin typed and hit the send button.

Emily: Thank you Mr. Fredrikson

Emily: You may read the note now

Devin opens the note, a polaroid fell out, so he picked it up to see a scared Emily with a knife at her throat which was held by a masked person behind her.

MR. FREDRIKSON,

WE HAVE TAKEN YOUR WIFE. IN ORDER FOR YOU TO GET HER BACK YOU MUST REMAIN CALM AND DO AS YOU ARE TOLD. AS YOU SEE FROM THE PHOTO YOUR WIFE IS FINE. SHE WILL REMAIN SO IF YOU DO AS YOU ARE TOLD. IN 30 MINUTES THE TELEPHONE THAT HAS BEEN INSTALLED IN YOUR HOUSE WILL RING. IF YOU ARE NOT THERE TO ANSWER IT, IT WILL NOT BE GOOD FOR YOUR WIFE.

Devin started at the note and the Polaroid in shock.He felt his phone buzz in his hand again.

Emily: Mr. Fredrikson

Emily: Have you finished reading the note?

Devin punched YES into his phone, exasperated and terrified.

Emily: Very good Mr. Fredrikson

Emily: I recommend you go home now

Emily: You will received a phone call in 30 minutes

Emily: You should be there to answer

Devin numbly got into his car, started it and drove home.

Twenty-five minutes later, Devin entered his house and the first things he saw was the old fashioned rotary phone sitting in the center of the dining room table. Devin shuffles to the table, blind to everything else in his house and collapses into the dining room chair facing the phone.

At exactly thirty minutes from the last message the phone starts to ring which caused Devin to scream in shock. Frantically he grabbed for the phone and knocked it off it’s cradle. Devin fumbled while he tried to grab it. When he finally caught hold of it he raised the phone to his ear. “He-hello?”

“Devin?! Oh god, I’m so glad you answered the phone,” Emily said on the other end of the phone.

“Emily! Are you …” Devin responded but was cut off by a mechanical voice on the other end of the line.

“Mr. Fredrikson. As you can hear, your wife is alive and well,” said the mechanical voice on the other end.

“Who are you?” Devin said into the phone on the verge of screaming.

“It doesn’t matter who we are Mr. Fredrikson. All that matters is that you do we tell you to. When you do that, we will release your wife. Don’t do that, and you will never see your wife again. Do you understand Mr. Fredrikson?” answered the mechanical voice.

“No! You tell me who you are or I won’t…..” Devin is cut off by a scream coming through the phone.

“Mr. Fredrikson. That was your wife screaming. We just broke her ring finger. The one that she wears that expensive wedding ring you bought her five years ago. If you interrupt me again, I will break her hand. Then I will break her forearm. Then I will break her upper arm. Then I will break her shin. Do you get my point Mr. Fredrikson?” the mechanical voice said into the phone.

“Yes! Yes! I understand. Just don’t hurt her any more,” Devin sobbed into the phone.

“Mr. Fredrikson, Your job is to hack into Maverik Corporation. Once you have done that, you need to find a folder titled Marshal Falls. Copy all of the contents of that folder and then delete the folder from Maverik Corporation.” Devin was told.

“But I don’t hack any more. I haven’t in ..” Devin started to say.

“Don’t lie to us Mr. Fredrikson. We know everything you do. We know you haven’t stopped. You may have slowed down, but you haven’t stopped. You have twelve hours to to do this task. In twelve hours, we will contact you again. If you haven’t completed this task… Well, we don’t have to keep telling you what will happen. Just get it done Mr. Fredrikson,” the mechanical voice said and then the line was abruptly dead.

“FUUUUUUUUUCK!” Devin screamed as he slammed the phone down on the receiver. He picked it up again and slammed it down again “Fuck!” He then walked over to his desktop computer and started it up, smashing down F12, changing his boot from Windows to Linux and waited impatiently for his system to reboot.

Once his system finished it’s reboot, he started his programs for pinging servers, trying to track down Maverik Corporation servers. Once he found them, he started looking for his way in.

After eleven hours of work, he finally found the Marshal Falls folder. It was massive. There was seven hundred gigabytes of information in that folder. Devin copied it and deleted it from Maverik Corporation's servers. He was now going through the files, but there was just so many files in there. What is all of this stuff? Devin thought to himself, suddenly he sees a folder with the title Gitega Fallout. Devin started to scan through the folder when the phone rang causing him to jump out of his seat, nearly giving him a heart attack. He jumps up and runs to the phone on the dining room table and answered it. “Hello?”

Devin is greeted by the mechanical voice. “Hello Mr. Fredrikson. Did you copy the folder?”

“Yes I did,” Devin responded. “What’s it..”

“Mr. Fredrikson, do I need to to give you another reminder?” the mechanical voice interrupted him.

“No, no. I’ve copied the folder over and deleted off of Maverik’s servers,” Devin responded.

“Very good Mr. Fredrikson,” the mechanical voice answered. “Now you need to hack into Sutan Enterprises and put the folder into there.”

“I can’t do this…” Devin starts to retort.

“Mr. Fredrikson.” the mechanical voice started.

“Fine, fine. I’ll do it. How long do I have?” Devin asked frustrated.

“You have six hours Mr. Fredrikson. I will call you back then,” and the line went dead again.

... Keep an eye our for Part 2