Bob Grove was shocked by what he found on his company’s computer server. “I’ve never seen this database before,” he said while looking at the link for the Special Security Consultants Project database.
Bob has worked for United Alliance Security (UAS) in San Bernardino, California, for ten years. Bob is a thirty-year-old computer software engineer and knows the company’s server like the back of his hand. He is your typical skinny computer geek. Today, Bob was tasked with resolving an issue with the server at UAS, as senior management complained that they couldn’t access the majority of the database.
Bob was always the curious type. “Where did this database come from?” he said while bringing his cursor over the database link. He couldn’t resist the temptation.
The UAS Corporation provided numerous security services to major corporations and numerous wealthy individuals worldwide. These included computer and physical security, as well as offering bodyguards for hire, which various movie stars utilized for special occasions.
Bob stood up in his cubicle and discreetly glanced over the top of the cubicle at the other cubicles. “The coast is clear,” Bob said softly when nobody was in sight to watch what he was doing.
Bob sat back down at their desk and clicked on that link. A small window immediately appeared, requiring a password. This was a challenge that Bob couldn’t resist.
Bob opened his briefcase and removed a disk containing his Hydra password-cracking software. He inserted the disk and started hacking away. If Bob wasn’t so honest, he could be a successful computer hacker, creating havoc on businesses and governments.
Within minutes, Bob was inside the Special Security Consultants Project database. Doing so would now change his life forever.
He navigated through the database and viewed a list of specialized consultants. Every consultant had a codename, such as Scorpion, Cobra, Viper, Gila, Tiger, or Eagle.
His eyes widened in shock after he read the completed assignment for Scorpion.
Bob read the completed assignment for Cobra, and his eyes widened more.
Bob read the completed assignment for Viper, and his eyes widened even more.
Bob read the completed assignment for Eagle, and his eyes widened in complete shock. “I don’t believe it! They’re all assassins,” he quietly panicked while staring at the Eagle’s completed assignments.
Bob checked out the list of upcoming assignments.
Bob’s eyes suddenly widened in shock when he saw the first upcoming assignment that didn’t have a consultant identified. He looked bothered. “No way,” he said while he quickly jotted down the password his software found on a notepad. He quickly jotted down the URL address for the database on the pad.
Someone entered his cubicle, and Bob jumped a mile, startled.
“Hey Bob, Kirby wants a staff meeting in a few minutes. And he wants your status on solving the server issues,” Harry Stinson, a fellow coworker, said the second he entered Bob’s cubicle.
Bob quickly closed the database he hacked into before Harry had the opportunity to sneak a peek.
Bob discreetly shoved the notepad into a desk drawer and locked it.
He got up and followed Harry out of his cubicle and the aisle.
During the walk down the aisle, the upcoming assignment filled his mind. This really bothered him. Bob had seen movies about hired assassins, but now he had found this in real life.
Bob and Harry entered the conference, and the staff meeting commenced.
Bob provided the status that he would have the server issues fixed within an hour. He also didn’t mention his discovery of that database.
After the staff meeting, Bob returned to his cubicle and spent twenty minutes fixing the server issues. Not a word of thanks from senior management.
Bob spent the rest of the day at his desk pondering what he should do with his discovery. All he could think about was that list of assassins and the unassigned next assignment. He wondered how he should handle it. His eyes widened with an idea. It was a risky move, but it had to be done.
Way up high in the blue skies over the Pacific Ocean, a United Airlines jet flew toward the Hawaiian Islands.
The airliner descended and flew past the island of Maui.
The airliner continued to descend and flew past the islands of Lanai and Molokai.
Inside the United Airlines flight, Ginger Taylor, a striking blonde in her early thirties, sat by the window. In the seat next to her was her handsome husband, Albert. They’ve been married for five years. Albert is in his early thirties.
Ginger had a job as an accountant, while Albert worked as a successful architect with a firm in Los Angeles.
“This is going to be a beautiful vacation with my beautiful wife,” Albert said while he held Ginger’s hand.
“I really need some relaxation before I dive into the firm’s taxes. I hate tax time,” she replied while looking out the window and noticing the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean down below.
“Will this require more travel?” Albert asked, looking a little afraid of the answer.
“Of course, it’s part of my job,” she replied while she stared out her window and saw the islands below.
Albert frowned, as he disliked the part of Ginger’s job that required traveling since each trip typically lasted three weeks on average.
“Oh, I bought a sexy bikini for our vacation,” she told him with a sexy smile and eyes that indicated Albert would have a great time between the sheets.
“I’m going to have to beat the guys off with a stick once they see you at the beach,” he said, but the thoughts of her in a bikini started to excite him.
“Mmmm, I love a man who will fight for his woman,” she replied, then leaned over and kissed Albert on his cheek.
Ginger turned and looked out her window, watching while the jet descended for a landing at the Honolulu airport.
The United Airlines jet landed on runway 4L and soon headed down the taxiways to the terminal.
Twenty minutes later, Albert and Ginger held hands while they walked through the terminal to baggage claim. As soon as they reached the baggage claim area and walked up to their carousel for their flight, Albert spotted a Hawaiian Limo driver who held up a “GINGER AND ALBERT TAYLOR” sign.
“Did you get us a limo?” Albert asked her.
“Of course, I love riding in style with my man,” she replied with a smile.
“Are you sure we can afford this?”
“Don’t worry. I got it covered. I’m expecting a huge bonus after my next trip,” she smiled.
Albert looked pleased with riding in style while they walked to the Limo driver.
“We’re the Taylors,” Ginger responded to the driver while she walked up to the driver.
“Aloha,” the Limo driver responded, then immediately placed Lei around Albert and Ginger’s neck. “I’ll get your bags,” the driver said while he glanced at the carousel for their flight.
They walked up to the carousel.
An elderly lady, around eighty years old, saw Ginger from a neighboring carousel. Her eyes lit up with joy, and she rushed over to Ginger.
“Gina Watson? Is that you?” the old lady asked with a huge grin, happy to see Ginger like they were old friends.
Ginger got extremely uncomfortable while the old lady stared at her with a warm smile.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but I’m Ginger Taylor. You must be confusing me for someone else,” Ginger said, then stepped away from the lady like she had some contagious disease.
The old lady looked a little confused. “I’m sure you’re Gina Watson. I met you at a restaurant in Paris last June. I had trouble with ordering in French, and you helped me,” the old lady replied, sure of herself, and rushed over to make eye contact with Ginger.
“I’m so sorry, Ma-am, but I’m not Gina Watson. I can’t even speak French. My name is Ginger Taylor,” Ginger replied and walked away down their carousel.
Albert and the Limo driver followed Ginger.
The old lady watched. “She sure looks like Gina Watson,” the old lady said to herself while she walked away to her carousel.
“What was that all about?” Albert asked curiously while he stared at the old lady.
“The poor old lady must be senile. I was auditing our Munich office last June. I wasn’t anywhere near Paris,” she replied.
“Yeah, she must be a little senile,” said Albert while he looked at the luggage that started to come around the carousel.
Ginger looked bothered by that old lady and took a quick glance at the other carousel. She looked relieved when she saw the old lady leave, wheeling her luggage behind her.
The Limo driver assisted Albert and removed their luggage from the carousel.
They walked out of the baggage claim area and went outside to where a black Lincoln Limousine was parked.
After putting their luggage in the back, the Limo driver opened the rear door for them.
Albert and Ginger got in the back of the limo.
“This is so cool,” Albert said while he looked around the plush limo and felt like a movie star.
“I love living the good life,” Ginger beamed while she looked around the limo.
The driver got inside behind the wheel and drove away.
Albert and Ginger enjoyed the view of Hawaii while the driver drove to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Inside the hotel, Albert and Ginger followed the bellboy down the hallway to their room after they finished checking in at the front desk.
The bellboy opened their room door. They went inside.
The room was gorgeous and equipped with all the luxuries to make you feel as though you were in paradise.
“This is so beautiful. I don’t want to go back to my boring job. I want to live here for the rest of my life,” Ginger said while he looked around the room.
“Thank you, my good man,” Albert said, then handed the bellboy a twenty-dollar bill.
“Thank you, sir. I hope you have a pleasant stay in Honolulu,” the bellboy replied while he shoved the tip into his pocket.
The bellboy left the room, closing the door behind him.
Albert and Ginger walked over to the sliding glass door.
Albert opened it, and they stepped out on the balcony.
They hugged after they stared out at the Pacific Ocean for a few minutes.
“You’re right. I could live here for the rest of my life. But only if you’re with me to share this paradise,” he said, then kissed her neck.
“It’s you and me forever and ever,” she replied, and then they embraced in a passionate kiss.
“Come on, stud muffin. Let’s go enjoy this heaven on Earth,” she said while she grabbed Albert’s hand and walked him out of their room.
An hour passed, and they came back after a nice romantic walk on the beach.
After some dinner at the hotel restaurant, they retired back to their room. They had a passionate thirty minutes of sex.
It was later that night, around 2:00 a.m., in the San Bernardino area.
It was a quiet night with minimal traffic on the streets.
There was a lone Toyota Corolla parked backward in a parking slot in the parking lot of the UAS building.
Inside the Corolla, Bob Grove talked into his cell phone while eyeing the front entrance of the building. He looked nervous and scared.
“I’m telling you the truth, Wendy. They’re going to kill him. They have a plan in work, but they haven’t assigned an assassin yet,” Bob told his sister, Wendy Harper, who lived in San Francisco.
“This is really serious, Bob. How did you find out?” Wendy replied from his cell phone.
“I was fixing an issue with our computer server and ran across a database that was password protected. I’ve never seen this database before. I think the server issue must have brought it to light. So curiosity got the best of me, and I hacked into it,” he told her.
“I remember you getting kicked out of your first college for doing stupid stuff like that,” Wendy scolded him like she’d done thousands of times while they were younger.
“Those assholes deserved flunking for making me the brunt of their cruel jokes. Additionally, I don’t feel bad this time because the database indicates that UAS has connections with paid assassins. It appears that UAS contracts out these assassins from a company called The American Corporation. This database documents previous and future assassinations. Remember that drug czar in Columbia that got shot three years ago? It was a UAS plan. Plus, there was a government official from France who got shot last year from a UAS contract. This database only contains the code names for the assassins, along with their history of assignments. But no pictures of these killers,” Bob replied.
“What are you going to do?”
“It’s two in the morning, so the place should be empty except for that old guard. I’m going back to make a copy of the database, then I’ll drive up to see you. I was hoping you could contact Britney. Maybe she can help stop this,” he told her.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, you could get yourself killed,” Wendy replied, extremely worried.
“Don’t worry, there’s nobody in the building but some old geezer for a security guard. He pretty much sleeps during his entire shift,” Bob said with an air of confidence.
“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” she said.
“I have to do this, Wendy. I’d feel it would be partly my fault if he gets assassinated. And I don’t want to have this on my conscience for the rest of my life,” Bob replied.
There were a few minutes of silence from her end of the call. “Be careful, little brother, and you can never return back there,” she said.
“I know.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning,” Wendy replied.
“I should be there by seven. And make sure you don’t tell Britney anything until I get up there with the evidence,” Bob said.
“I won’t, and call me as soon as you get into town,” Wendy said, then disconnected their call.
Bob shoved his cell phone into his pocket.
He looked at the front of the building and hesitated for a second. “Should I risk this?” he debated while staring at the building.
He decided he would never forgive himself if he didn’t try and the assassination took place. “They would probably arrest me if they knew I knew and didn’t tell anybody,” Bob said quietly, then he decided he didn’t have a choice. He quickly put his baseball cap on snugly and then put on his sunglasses. It was overkill. He wore his sunglasses at night but figured it would help conceal his identity.
He got out of his car.
This was a long walk for Bob while he made a beeline through the parking lot to the side of the building.
Bob decided to use the side door so the old guard wouldn’t see him. Bob knew there were security cameras around the building. He silently prayed that the baseball cap and sunglasses would prevent them from recognizing him. Plus, he covered up his license plate on his car. He wasn’t worried about a Corolla being spotted since numerous employees owned that car due to its excellent gas mileage.
Bob finally got to the side entrance door and punched in the security code. The same code that the vast majority of UAS employees used to access the building without going through the main entrance. He could have used his badge, but that would have left his name and the time he entered the building in their security program.
Bob entered the building.
Bob quietly walked down the hallway and used the stairs to avoid the guard hearing the elevator’s dings.
Bob huffed and puffed while he walked up the stairs to the fourth floor.
Bob opened up the stairwell door and peeked down the hallway. It was dark and quiet.
Bob stepped out of the stairwell and tiptoed down the hallway.
Meanwhile, at the guard station in the front lobby was Rusty Bryant, the seventy-five-year-old night-shift security guard. It was late at night, so Rusty dozed off at this station. This job was incredibly tedious, as nothing ever happened. But Rusty needed the job for the extra money since his wife was going through cancer treatments.
Bob rushed over, sat down at his desk, and powered up his computer once he got inside the computer mainframe room. It seemed like an eternity for his Dell to boot up.
After a few minutes, his computer was ready. Bob inserted his hacker disk and a thumb drive, then opened the drawer on his desk. He removed his notepad and reviewed the information he had jotted down earlier.
He typed in the URL address for the database.
When the password block appeared, he quickly typed in the password.
Bob soon hacked into that database.
Bob proceeded to download a copy of the entire database onto his thumb drive.
Upon the sixth floor, unbeknownst to Bob, Kirby James, a fifty-year-old executive with UAS, was working late in his office. In fact, Kirby was a workaholic and often spent a few days a week in his office. That was easy since his office came equipped with a bathroom that also had a small shower.
Kirby sat at his desk where, on the wall behind him, hung a picture of James and Grant with five other men at a golf course. Golf was the sport where James would make numerous business deals. Some were honest deals, but many were not.
All of a sudden, an alarm beeped on James’ computer monitor.
A window popped up with the “Unauthorized Copying of Special Security Consultants Project Database. Location: Main computer mainframe” message flashed in large red font.
James looked pissed when he saw the message.
Kirby jumped up from his desk and opened his cell phone, punching in a phone number.
“We have a serious security breach. It’s a code red. I repeat, code red! Meet me outside the computer mainframe room on the fourth floor,” he said into his cell phone while he rushed to his office door.
Ten nerve-racking minutes passed; Bob impatiently waited at his desk while the last file on Scorpion was being copied to his thumb drive.
The door to the room suddenly slammed open with a loud bang.
Bob jumped up, startled, and was scared shitless when he saw Kirby rush inside with two big brutes behind him, and both wore expensive Italian suits.
One was named Sal, and the other, Gino, of Italian descent; each was about six feet five inches and weighed three hundred pounds of solid muscle. These two individuals were once hired assassins used by UAS. Bob had heard about the brutes but never laid eyes on them until now, and their size was intimidating.
“Copying a database without permission, Mister Grove? Shame on you! That’s a violation of company policy,” Kirby yelled the second he saw the secret database on Bob’s monitor.
Bob looked scared to death while the brutes rushed over to him and snatched him up from his chair by his arms.
Kirby yanked out the thumb drive and closed the website. He slid the thumb drive into his pants pocket.
“Take the turd up to the roof,” Kirby instructed the brutes.
“Please let me go!” Bob yelled out and squirmed to get free from the brutes’ grip. They squeezed harder on his arms, causing Bob to cringe in pain.
The two brutes escorted Bob out of the room.
Kirby saw Bob’s notepad with the password and database URL jotted down. He ripped off that piece of paper, shoved it in his pants pocket, and then left the room.
Upon the roof of UAS, the door from the access hatch slammed open.
Kirby and the brutes escorted Bob out to the roof.
“Please let me go. I’ll resign and leave the area. You’ll never hear from me again. I won’t tell a soul. I promise!” Bob pleaded with them with fear in his eyes.
Bob dragged his feet across the gravel rooftop while the two brutes walked him to the edge of the roof.
They stopped a foot from the edge.
“Who have you been talking to, Bob?” Kirby asked while he got in Bob’s face.
“Nobody, Mister Kirby. I swear! Nobody!” Bob pleaded while his eyes welled up.
Bob squirmed to get free. The brutes tightened their grip and almost cut off the blood flow to Bob’s arms.
Bob fought hard not to pee his pants.
Kirby got suspicious and reached into one of Bob’s front pockets. Nothing. He reached into his other front pocket and removed Bob’s cell phone.
Kirby pressed a couple of buttons on Bob’s cell phone and saw the name and time of the last person he called. He slid the cell phone into his front pocket.
“So Bob, are you a licensed pilot?” Kirby asked with a smirk.
Bob was scared to death as he shook his head to indicate “No,” and for a second, he didn’t know why he had asked such a question. It dawned on him, and he tried to squirm away again. The brutes squeezed harder and left imprints in Bob’s skinny arms.
Bob peed his pants as he knew what was going to happen next.
“Well, I won’t tell the FAA that you’re flying without a license,” Kirby smirked, then nodded at the brutes.
The brutes tossed Bob off the roof.
“Let’s go take care of his story as to why he committed suicide,” Kirby told the brutes.
“Yes, Mister James,” Gino replied.
They walked back to the door.
Bob screamed all the way while he stared at the ground approaching at a fast speed.
There was a splat sound when his head made contact with the concrete sidewalk near the front doors. Blood flowed from the split-opened skull of his lifeless body.
Rusty, the old guard, rushed out of the front door after hearing someone screaming.
Rusty looked around and saw Bob on the sidewalk.
Rusty rushed over and saw Bob with a massive puddle of blood on his head.
“Oh my,” he said, then turned around and rushed back inside the building.
His hands trembled while he dialed 911. Rusty had never seen this happen while he worked as a security guard. His heart raced while he waited for the 911 operator to respond to his call.