Hacker

Rebecca loved her job. She was curled up under a computer, cutting wires and attaching them to her saver. The little black device had cost her a fortune but it was worth it, the thing made her job so much easier. She was in the city, the princes' monthly ball was going on in the great hall so most of the security was there to protect the prince from the 'terrorists' she giggled under her breath, everyone, where she lived, knew the threats were fake. They should know, they made them.

She heard a beep as the information finished copying into the saver. She pulled out the cords and tucked the device into the pouch that was sewn into the back of her dress which was covered by the shimmery cloak that was decorated with a gothic spiderweb pattern. She pulled herself out from under the desk and pulled her flash drive from the port. She tucked this into the pouch as well and hurried out of the room. She went into the hall and walked in the opposite direction of the great hall. She didn't have to go far to run into a guard. "Excuses me, can you kindly direct me to the restroom, I seem to have gotten lost." She flashed a sheepish smile to sell her embarrassment. the guard took the bait and pointed out the way to the restrooms. She thanked the man and walked in the direction he pointed to. As soon as she rounded a corner she pressed a button on the earpiece in her left ear. "I finished the job, no need for extraction, I think I'll catch a dance with the prince." not two seconds later she heard Kate's voice in her ear "Awww, someone has a crush!" Rebecca rolled her eyes "Ya, you." Kate started to say something but she pressed the button again to turn off the com.

She made her way to the great hall and joined back into the dance. the prince stepped onto the ledge that towered over the dance floor. "I would just like to take a moment to thank you all for coming and dedicate this next dance to my mother!" with that he held up his wine glass in a toast and stepped down the stairs. Rebecca's eyes followed him down the stairs. His perfect white suit blended with the perfect white steps and walls. The only things not white in the entire palace, were the paintings that lined the walls everywhere you looked.

Rebecca moved over to the prince through the thick crowd. She had made herself look as pretty as she possibly could so as to catch the prince's eye like every other girl had. The thing that she had that the other girls didn't, however, was the prince's personal files that also included what the prince liked, especially when it came to girls. He had written about how he would love to meet a nice gothic beauty one day, and that is exactly what she had made herself into.

The prince spotted her in the crowd and subtly made his way toward her, a dazzling smile ready. He took her by the hand and pulled her to him without saying a word, this was the sort of thing the prince was famous for, the sort of thing that made girls breathless and sent them over the moon for him. But not Rebecca. Any other girl would be a frazzled mess at this point but the one girl at the ball who knew what the price wanted was also the one girl who didn't care to know. The only reason she wanted to dance with him in the first place was that if she did get caught she wanted the prince's favor to be on

her side at least.

The prince pulled her onto the dance floor and orchestra began to play a slow tune. the center of the floor cleared for the prince but soon the circle began to get smaller and soon they were just another couple on the dance floor. "So what brings you here?" He asked through the look in his eye suggested her expected a certain answer. "I was in town. I hear there was a ball and decided I might as well enjoy myself while I'm here." He raised his eyebrows, "And why were you in town, may I ask?" she gave him a small smile, like that smile one gives when telling someone they have a secret but refusing to tell them. "You are a stranger, why would I tell you?" she cocked her head to the side while inside she was throwing up.

The prince just looked down at her with his genetically-modified violet eyes with an obnoxious smirk on his face. she kept a pleasant smile on her lips while her mind was filling with every insult a person could possibly think of while still keeping within reason.

Finally, the song ended and he prince looked away for one minute to take a drink from a  tray that was passing by, in which she was able to slip away. she went into the hall and climbed into the oversized vents that were required to keep the great hall cool with the hundreds of people stuffed into the large room. She crawled through the air ducts to the place where she had cut through the wall to access the air ducts. She allowed herself a small feeling of pride. She had just broken into the most secure facility in the country without getting caught if that wasn't worthy of pride she didn't know what was. She waited until she heard Kate give the signal in her ear, then she jumped off the edge of the building into the open hatch of an invisible ship that floated ten feet below the opening.

"Hey, Bobby!" Kate removed her earpiece and ran to Rebecca and jumped into a giant bear hug. "So, you danced with the prince." Kate pouted as she removed Rebecca's gothic cape. "Yes, I did dance with the prince, to gain his favor if I got caught. Just so you know he is a terrible flirt. He tried his 'dramatic romance' thing on me, the idiot thought that all girls would just fall at his feet because of his fancy title and flashy smile.

"Hey girls. Get over here and help me fix this backup fuel tank!"  Eddie was across the room working on one of the oversized fuel tanks that he said were 'necessary' the run the ship. Kate turned back to the wall of computer monitors she had been working at, "Na, I'd rather see what Bobby brought back from her trip to the dance." she sat down and held out her hand for the flash drive. Rebecca handed it over and Kate slid it into the slot on the side of one of the monitors.

A stream of data flooded the screen. It was made to look like streams of pattern-less gibberish to anyone who attempted to steal the data. Kate turned to Rebecca and raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows. Rebecca took her place in the black floating chair and began to type furiously at the holographic keyboard. The gibberish began to translate into words. Kate leaned in to get a better view of the screens. "No way," Kate breathed as she read the text. Rebecca's eyes skimmed over the text. She rolled her eyes and looked at her friend. Kate's light blue eyes were wide open as she read further into the file. Rebecca could never bring herself to believe that those eyes were natural in their contrast to Kate's dark skin, it gave her a mysterious look that made her even prettier than she would be without the unnatural-looking eyes. Though even if she did have natural-looking eyes she would be stunning. She was short and thin with dark hair that fell down just over her shoulders in a waterfall of curls. Her eyes were large and round with thick black eyelashes that made her eyes look even bigger. Gold eyeliner always lined her eyes to contrast with the natural brown lipstick she always wore. Kate was very aware of her beauty and sometimes even annoyed by it, but she would never give it up.

The file Rebecca had stolen was about the prince, about his secret girlfriend. Kate was stunned. Rebecca, on the other hand, was not. The prince was publicly viewed as a flirt who was always getting different girls at his almost weekly balls. Kate finished reading the file and pouted, "Why would he do this to us, the jerk." she turned and walked over to Eddie and began to redo the exposed wiring on the fuel tank. Rebecca continued to decode the file until she found the identity of the secret girlfriend.

Rebecca gasped. She reread the text. Nope, she had read it correctly. The name written there was the same as it had been before, the name of her only living family member, Lillian Viv. Lilian had no knowledge of Rebecca's existence but Rebecca had discovered hers long ago, it was the first thing she did when she learned to hack.

She called Kate over to look at the name. Kate was one of the few people who knew about Lilian, only her and the rest of the crew knew. That meant that only Kate, Eddie, Damian, and Tala knew she had a sister. Her sister looked a lot like her, a LOT like her, they were almost identical. Both had dark blue eyes and a petite frame with a soft heart-shaped face and delicate features. Both of them had died their hair dark blue and cut it short with sweeping side bangs. The only reason the prince didn't mistake her for her sister was most likely because of Tala's skills with makeup and Kate's talent with clothing that transformed her into a different person.

A comlink popped up on one of the screens. Rebecca clicked it and Damian's tanned face appeared on the screen, "What'd you get this time?" he asked. She glared at him and answered "No hello? I thought you had manners. Anyway, I was only able to decode the drive as of now but the saver promises some juicy gossip to leak onto our little chat site." Damian laughed at her and said, "What was on the drive?" Rebecca's hands were fiddling with some of the random circuit boards and wires that were strewn about the desk. "You know, the usual. My sister dating the prince and whatnot, nothing interesting." she teased. He took a moment to register before startling "Oh. Okay. Wait what? You said your sister was... but... what." he cast a quizzical look at her through his thick dark hair that was always falling into his face. She laughed at him "Yes you did hear me right, my sister is dating the prince in private. I bet we could charge a pretty uvie for that bit of gossip, don't you think?" he shook himself "Ya, her identity could sell for quite a bit couldn't it? We will give out the fact’s for free to draw in buyers then charge for the identity of the girlfriend." Rebecca nodded and plugged the saver into the computer and began to decode the information on that. "I'll see you at the warehouse, later." she closed the link and put her full attention into decoding the text.

Rebecca couldn't keep up with the lines of code that were constantly streaming in, so she decided to just let the code flow until it was finished and she could translate it later without new strings of it constantly popping up. She went to the cockpit where Tala was driving the ship. "Hey," she said the back of Tala's head of black hair. She glanced back at Rebecca to show she had heard but didn't respond. Rebecca took the seat next to Tala and put her hands over the holographic controls so they would read her. A holographic sphere wrapped around her right hand and little circles rounded the pads of her fingers on her left hand.

She looked over at Tala. Tala had short, pixie cut dark hair, almond shaped brown eyes and a well toned muscular figure that was very intimidating when she was mad at you for any reason. Rebecca had only gotten on Tala's bad side once when they first met. Rebecca had been twelve at the time, she had broken into what she thought was just a random store to steal some food. As it turned out Tala had had the same idea. The two had run into each other there and, as street kids hated getting caught, even if by another thief, Tala had fought her. Then Tala had been in many fights before then and had taken Rebecca down easily. Now Rebecca had been training in combat and could hold her own against Tala in a fight.

"The drive turned out to be pretty valuable," Rebecca said to break the silence. "So this wasn't a complete waste of time, good," Tala responded in a monotone voice that the team had come to expect from her. "It was one of the prince's personal files, He apparently has a girlfriend, my sister." Anyone who didn't know Tala would think she hadn't given any reaction to this news, but Rebecca knew her. She noticed the slight movement in her face and body that signaled surprise and confusion, than pride. Rebecca smirked if Tala was proud that you knew you had accomplished something huge. Tala rarely showed even the tiniest bit of pride at the team's accomplishments, so when she did it was rare.

Rebecca helped To steer the ship over the city below. The view was breathtaking with the spiraling silver towers and curving hundred-foot archways that marked the entrance to the city from the southeast and the Pacific ocean sparkling just beyond the Archways. They flew beyond the archways to the ocean where a row of sad looking warehouses stood on a strip of land just short of the beach. They lowered into an opening in the top of one of the warehouses where a section of the roof had collapsed. They landed on the tin floor and opened the door at the base of the ship. They were home.

Author's Note

Hey, correct whatever you want, I want to know what you thought. This is one of my personal favorite short stories written by me so I want to know if that opinion holds up with y'all.

Reviews

[ForestEvergreen]

The Story Is Very well done and I could easily look over the very few errors.

[M. Mae Ringquist]

Thanks, it's one of my favorite short stories