Page 8 of Ashfall
I follow him outside as we head down to a tree-lined road. It’s as safe as it can be, mostly abandoned, used only by our guys at base to drive into town. It also serves as a perfect path for highly confidential conversations - ones that could get two people killed for sticking their noses into something they know nothing about. "You wanna tell me what’s got you taking me out into the woods?" I ask, scanning the area around us to be sure, even though I know no one’s here.
"I created an app for us to use - something I’ve been working on as a side project for a while, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to launch." Adam says. I roll my eyes. He spends his free time buried in that laptop, but credit where credit’s due - he’s a genius with all things cyber because of it. “We can use it to communicate, send files, texts - no one can intercept it whileit’s turned on. All secure. But turn it off if we ever get inspected. If they can’t get through, they’ll get suspicious. The good thing is, anything you receive while it’s on, automatically gets masked by code. It’s untraceable unless someone physically looks at your phone."
I roll my phone in my hand and look down at it. This is us fully stepping into uncharted waters now. "I feel like we’ve both officially gone dark," I mutter, eventually handing him my phone. He pockets it, ready to add the update when we get back to our quarters.
“That’s not all I wanted to tell you. Those classified documents we found. I managed to remove the redaction.” I stop in my tracks to look at him as he does another scope of the area. “You were right; all the blacked out names were Nocturne.”
“No shit.” My sigh is strained as I look out at the woodland. The morning sun is trying its hardest to break through the tall, midnight green needles of the pine trees, but it's no match for their density, only providing a slither of light.
“I also had to wait until Graves was in the system during a period of high traffic back in the US, managed to shadow myself within his details and pull a small amount of files with his clearance. I searched every single document on the system with the use of that name. One thing I did find was someone linked to it... Lev Morozov? Is that his real name??”
I visibly take a step back, hands fisting like I’ve just had whiplash. A crack in my chest travels down my septum, hearing someone put a voice to his name after so long. Adam takes my reaction as confirmation. “Yeah, I thought that might've been it. I took the chance whilst I had it and pulled every record with that name before I let the system go back up.” I feel like I need to sit down and recover before I can process his next words. I've been avoiding even a whisper of that name in my mind, well, when I’m awake that is.
“What did you find?” My voice is hoarse with emotion.
“I only managed to find one document I could access, I haven't read it yet. That’s why I came to find you.”
I nod, my mind racing with information those documents might hold, whether they’ll shed any light on what’s going on. “Tonight? Come to my room, we'll look it over together.” Adam turns, ready to head back to base. I follow like a stray behind him, my feet moving, but I’m not aware of my surroundings, or what Adam is saying. My mind is humming with all the outcomes, but coming up empty each time.
Its 2200 bythe time everyone has turned in for an early night, we got comms through to meet at 0800 tomorrow in the command room, aka. the crappy old staff room with the kitchen that provides the world’s worst coffee: no one’s managed to make a decent pot yet. And that’s unfortunate, seeing as I need it to physically function, as sleep is a no-go. I pull out my phone, switching on Adam’s privacy app and checking it out with a text to him.
Nyx:
Hello, testing 1-2-3!
Adam:
Oh nice, I liked the way you did that.
Nyx:
Right? Think I'll be able to get used to this.
Adam:
Just not the whole browser cookies though, right?
Nyx:
I don’t need another TED talk on those TYVM.
Adam:
Just get to my room Nyx, you're clear.
Sighing, I throw on a worn out pair of grey sweatpants and the hoodie to match. Peering out my door, I look up and down the corridor before I launch into a light sprint down to Adam's door, keeping my footsteps light before rushing straight through. I find Adam chuckling into his pillow as I come to join him, sitting on the edge of his bed. “What’s so funny, weirdo?” I frown and cross my arms, clearly missing the joke. “I was watching the feed when you were coming over here, why were you creepily running like that?”
“You leave the stealth expertise to me buddy.” I pat his shoulder. His laughter dies down as he adjusts his position, back against the wall, feet hanging off his bed while the laptop rests in his lap. I mirror him so I can get a look at what he's bringing up on the screen. He's got a document showing, withLevclearly highlighted… it doesn't pack the same punch as earlier, but my heart still does a little flip as my inside voice reads it over.
“I had another look at all those documents with Nocturne's name, to see if I could spot anything that would stand out for us - nothing to report. They're all training records, courses he completed and ones he oversaw at your home base.” I nod along, trying to multitask by listening to him and reading the documents on the screen.
“This one, though, may be our golden ticket.” he looks over at me. “Ever heard of Ashley Trace?”
Immediately my brows furrow, wondering where this is going. “Yeah, she was part of cyber operations at my home base.” Now it's Adam’s turn to frown at me, “Okay?” clearly impatient as I stare off into his room “I ... I've been having dreamsthe past couple of weeks, of everything that happened when Nocpretend-died.” Adding air quotations around the pretend, because that’s the only explanation I have right now. “Like the run up. Last night I had a dream about when I first joined the mission. Ashley was part of the surveillance team that day. She was also friends with my mom. I haven't seen her since that day either.”
Adam looks back at the screen. “Well, it says here, both were involved in a misconduct. Both getting a verbal warning. Says Nocturne was asking her to dig into information for personal reasons - nothing further added on what it was about though.”
I frown as I voice my inner thoughts .“Wait, did Ashley throw him under the bus with it?” I couldn't imagine Ashley doing that; she's one of the few people that I always thought would help someone out. “No, this says she can't remember what he'd asked her to investigate. And they were already knee deep with another surveillance op, so she turned him down. Graves was the one to report suspicions, but due to lack of evidence, General James let them off with a low warning not to use resources for personal use.”
