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Over the years, she’d learned to anticipate slaps, hits, and punches. She’d learned that while it hurt—whether she flexed or not—she felt stronger when she didn’t show any weakness, which was why, when Russell backhanded her, she hadn’t expected the force to knock her down.
“You need to watch your mouth, Danielle. What’s our little Chloe going to do when you age out?”
“She won’t be here, that I can promise you. Come on, Chloe, let’s go.” Dani reached over and pulled the scared little girl by her hand and led her outside. There were so many who needed help, but she couldn’t be there for everyone, especially if she only had two more years in foster care.
Chloe was only one of the many children Dani had stood up for over the last seven years. Even at nine years old, she was a champion for justice. Now at sixteen, she refused to back down, even if they beat her.
“You’re all talk, little girl. You can’t save them all, you know,” Russell said as the girls exited the yard.
“That’s what you think,” Dani promised. He might not have heard her response, but he felt her wrath later.
Those had been her final words with Russell. A few weeks later, Dani was emancipated and left foster care indefinitely. As she’d told her last foster father, she had kept an eye out for the littles. She’d learned how to make use of her newly discovered hacking skills. Foster parents like Russell and Carol, immediately found themselves in trouble with the law. A few accusations here, a couple of indecent allegations there, and poof, foster checks ceased. Good riddance.
Dani knew she couldn’t continue the way she was. She needed ambiguity if she was going to continue outing those who hurt the innocent.
* * *
“And that ishow I became GigaByte.”
After another restless night, Byte stumbled into the office, drained and exhausted. The dreams were coming more often, more vivid, and more haunting. She needed to expel her demons, so she asked the girls to come to her place one night. It was time to tell them her story… at least the abridged version.
“And what happened to Chloe?” Voodoo asked.
“She died, and that’s all I’m going to say. I couldn’t protect her, so I went after the problems and created my own solutions.”
Ivy nodded. She could understand what drove Byte to go after the perpetrators.
There were too many innocent people who needed protection. The perpetrators were the ones with the power, who thought they were untouchable. Take one of them out, and it freed countless victims. More lives were saved when one evil person was extinguished.
“How did you become a hacker?”
“A boy in one of my homes. I think I was eleven or twelve. Aaron was four or five years older than me. He was there only until his aunt and uncle could finalize his adoption. He’d lived a normal life until a car accident took his parents and left him in a wheelchair. Life is hard for foster kids, even by other kids, and that was true for Aaron. He had a hard time making friends. He was sad and in pain, both emotionally and physically. Instead of trying to engage with them, he turned to his laptop. We were both outcasts, and we bonded over nerdy stuff. In the five months he was there, he taught me the basics, including how to write code. That was his passion; however, I discovered the world of the dark web. When he moved out, he left me his laptop and we emailed back and forth and remained friends until I stopped answering his emails.”
“Why?” Aria asked.
“Because he was good, and I was not. He still believed in people, while I believed in myself and no one else.”
The ladies continued their discussion with another round of drinks and eventually stumbled back to the office where their partners were waiting.
Byte excused herself and stayed in her apartment. It had been a long time since she’d talked about her early years. She knew Vanessa’s suicide had stirred up her memories of Chloe.
Byte tried to rid herself of those memories, but she couldn’t stop seeing the bloody bath water Chloe was resting in. Byte hadn’t known about the sexual abuse Chloe had undergone, not until it was too late. Why hadn’t Chloe told her about the abuse? She’d never know, but what she did know was that she would find justice for Chloe, and all the others who couldn’t protect themselves.
In anger, she threw a vase against the wall. She’d gone through the stages of grief years earlier, and refused to step back into that vast hole.
Her laptop dinged and redirected her attention.
“What now?” she asked, as she angrily opened the computer. She’d noticed the system was still experiencing some glitches. As she’d told Carter, ALIAS was protected, but her personnel file had been accessed. She had set up a dummy file, armed with bots, and hoped the hacker would take the bait.
“Who are you, butthead?”
She continued typing, switching screens, hoping to catch the intruder. However, the hacker had skipped the file, as if he knew it was a trap. He’d once again accessed her original file. What was he looking for? She’d carefully crafted her background. There were no strings that led back to her early childhood. Over the years, with each technique she learned, she applied it to her own portfolio.
“What are you looking for?” she asked the user. “And why me?”
* * *
“I found her.”Kyle’s voice squeaked. He hated puberty. Why did his vocal cords need to make his life even harder? He’d researched the topic. For some, the transition could happen quickly, only that hadn’t been his case.
