Page 51 of Fragments

I don’t feel good, and I’m fading, and IknowI promised Leah I would leave it alone, but it’s not that simple.

Once the veil is lifted, it doesn’t go back down.You can’t just un-learn things like this…

I love Leah. I do. She’s my friend, and it kills me inside to think about what she’s been through. But the more time I spend digging, the more blogs I read, the more subreddits turn to sub-subreddits turn to sub-sub-subreddits, the less it’s even really abouther.

Sure, it’s about her, and them—the children who are ripped from their lives and tortured in ways I’m sure I could never even begin to understand. But it’s also about the men who’ve made it happen, and the people who haveallowedit to happen. It’s about the people who act like they have the citizens of this country’s best interests at heart, when in actuality, they’re using us as pawns in their fucked-up games. When they’re not actively chewing us up and spitting us out, that is.

Leah was right. There are no heroes. My eyes are fully opened to that fact now more than ever, as I work up recursive algorithms, coding and decoding and recoding, creeping around the dark web and into secure servers like a spy, completely unseen…

The way I see it, if you’re going to be a villain, you might as well be the smartest one.

I’m so deep in the weeds of what I’m doing, I barely even notice the chat notification popping up on my other monitor. LOIS has three monitors. Three is usually enough for what I do, but now that I’m hacking my damn brains out, I might need to look into getting a fourth.

Sighing, I rub my eyes and click on the flashing icon, pulling up a private message on Discord. It’s from Tony. He and Reno have been trying to reach me for days. I guess they’re worried about me, and I feel kind of bad.

First Leah disappears, then Cyrus, now me… It’s fucked up. I should at leasttryto pop in and let them know I’m alright, but it’s really easy to lose track of time when you’re digging for skeletons in government files like some sort of online grave robber.

Jumping into our private server real quick, I type out a message.

BerkeleysLexLuthor: Hey guys. Sorry I’ve been kinda MIA. I’m deep in this really important project that’s kicking my ass.

I run my fingers through my hair, noting how long it’s getting. The fact that I can even sift them through the pale blonde locks means it’s longer than I usually keep it.

DamnDatTony: oh you’re still here??? We were starting to wonder if you’d been abducted by aliens…

LuckyShot: he still could have been…

LuckyShot: Luthor. were you probed? Does your rectum feel wider than usual??

I huff and shake my head, eyes flinging up to the code running on my top monitor. I just found some encrypted files I’m trying to break into and it’s taking a while.

Hacking can be very tedious at times, like playing with a Russian doll. One door leads to another, then another, and so on and so forth. At this point, I’ve burrowed through so many layers of this shit, I barely even know where I am.

DamnDatTony: lol bro sounds like you have experience

LuckyShot: fuck off

BerkeleysLexLuthor: I told you before, homie, that wasn’t an alien. It was your creepy uncle Todd. Ya know, the one who isn’t really an uncle and always wants to tickle fight

DamnDatTony: LOL!!!

LuckyShot: oh yea I missed you tons

LuckyShot: get back to your schoolwork dick

I chuckle, reaching into my fridge for another soda. But it’s empty.

Dammit.

DamnDatTony: so can we expect to see you in the Vault anytime soon?? It’s super weird to play without you

Even typing out a response takes longer than it should because I can’t stop watching my malware chiseling its way through the Fort Knox security of whatever I’m trying to access right now.

BerkeleysLexLuthor: I’d love to but I really gotta get this project done

LuckyShot: Luth, have you heard from Leah at all?

At mention of Leah, the reason for all of this comes rushing back to the surface, and I check my progress once more.I’m almost in…