Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.
You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.
Click here
It couldn't be helped though if she was going to survive this she was going to have to do it without him. He could give her the skills to survive. Lord willing the time with him would show her there was a reason stay alive, and convince her that life was worth living. He could make sure he pulled attention away from her and gave her a chance to get clear of this mess. He wished to god he could keep her with him and fly off to some new settlement or backwater world and live like there were now, but that wasn't in the cards.
He'd always known that there would come a time when he'd be asked to give his life in his line of work. At first the idea of dying for the cause on some godforsaken planet facing some new threat had seemed like a remote possibility. Then as he progressed deeper and deeper it had almost taken on a romantic hue in the idea of sacrificing himself for the good of millions of people even if they never knew what he'd done and only a handful of people ever understood what and why it had happened. As he'd become more and more disillusioned with the Advocacy and his darker work though that perception had started to shift.
Recently, as he'd begun to suspect he was being poked and prodded into revealing himself again, the idea that he might end up dying for nothing had settled like a sense of dread over him. After being thrust into this situation and connecting with Erillia at first he'd reacted with violent anger and denial to the idea that death had finally come for him. Eventually though like the stages of grief he'd moved past the anger until he'd come to accept his looming death as inevitable. In fact though he still wasn't looking forward to his part in the coming play he had a sense of grim satisfaction knowing that the person who'd come to mean the most to him would be saved because of his sacrifice.
He had to set the wheels in motion though and be on his toes because if he didn't read things right and wasn't one step ahead of everyone things would go tits up in a spectacular fashion. If Erillia guessed what he was going to do she'd find a way to stop him, and if he was honest it wouldn't be that hard even though he knew what he had to do. If the Advocacy caught on to what he was doing they'd be able to blunt the blow he planned to deal them.
His weakness when he'd left the Advocacy had been primarily in the electronics sector. He wasn't that great with computers, in fact at the time he'd left, while he'd been more skilled than the average person, he'd be considered a laughing stock by the tech savvy members of the Advocacy. If they'd been aware of it though he'd been doubly so. When he decided to break away from them he knew he had to brush up on this area, because he knew that was how they'd come at him first.
He'd studied, hard! It was the most difficult thing he'd ever tried to learn, but he'd kept at it quietly and in the shadows. He'd never been one to quit though and over time he'd gotten good. Very good even. Now, though he still wasn't the most skilled out there, he was light years ahead of where he'd been. He'd improved enough to hack the secure terminals in the Advocacy and had planted worms that had taken them weeks to find and weed out.
They'd been on the hunt for the hacker since then, but, while he was sure that they suspected him, they hadn't connected it to him yet. It had been a huge risk, but well worth it. He'd had to test his ability to breach the advocacy network. Their desire for their own communication lines buried beneath official channels was going to be their undoing. They'd reserved portions of the communications system for their use only. The traffic was the fastest on the network and outside the monitoring parameters of the government to protect the anonymity of the Advocacy.
He'd found a way to turn their own system against them. Without outside oversight he only had to beat the advocacy protocols. He'd learned enough about those protocols while a member of the team to know how they would react to an attack like his worms. He'd also learned enough computer skills to be confident his plan would work. Now it was time to set the final wheels in motion. As far as plans went it wasn't the most elegant or sophisticated plan out there, but that in and of itself was a big point in its favor in this case.
Sometimes the too brilliant to fail plan is doomed from the start because human nature is inherently unpredictable. No matter how good a chess player you are it's hard to predict each movement from the outset, and plans with too elaborate a conception have a hard time reacting to any potential unforeseen bumps in the road. To that end he'd taken the simplest approach he could, but he hadn't been able to do it alone.
He'd known from the moment he went MIA that they would quickly find that he'd downloaded and encrypted data on several specific operations conducted before and during his time with the Advocacy. The problem was with them on alert his information would never reach more than one system. Though he doubted that they'd willingly eliminate a settlement as established as Terra he knew that if push came to shove the empire would do whatever it took to keep the files he had from making it into the general public's hands.
They had the systems in place as he'd told Erillia and when people started dying others would hush up and destroy the files rather than be caught in the purge. It would be major news, but the truth wouldn't see the light of day.
This was much like a virus trying to infect a new host. The host had all the advantages. Numbers, brute force, and not having to avoid detection all played in their advantage, but to a degree the numbers were an advantage for him as well. Even though the advocacy was a small group relatively speaking they still had hundreds of members who accessed their system every day. They stiffened their security but they were focused on external access.
His worms had given him the opportunity to put in a backdoor access to the feed. They didn't think they needed to worry because their access points were all self-contained. In the rash of alarms the worms triggered though no one had noticed the alarm for the sewer access being breeched with the tools and training he had it was easy to tap into the data lines and run a feed out. He'd taken pains to hide the line and despite his curiosity and desire to find out exactly what they knew about his location and actions he'd avoided ever accessing that feed. He knew it was still active because the system he'd set up monitored its connection status automatically without attempting to access their data basis.
The worms had done one other thing. They'd given him the chance to test data retrieval by the agents he'd managed to get in place. It hadn't been easy to establish that contact network, but he'd been persistent. When he'd first gone MIA he'd tried running to a far flung colony and setting up shop as an intel broker. He'd been hanging his shingle out for less than a week when his contacts started turning up dead.
He'd caught the tracer tap on his com lines just in time to run for his life again. Watching half a settlement burn because they were determined to get to him had galvanized him into action.
He'd vanished again, shipping off one world after the other. Blending in as best he could.
It had taken him eight months to make his way to Terra. His intention was to reach out to Edward Laroch and figure out what to do with his help. The man had been a legend and had been left alone for over a decade after leaving the service. In retrospect he wasn't sure what might had happened if he'd just come straight to Laroch. Then again it was more than probable that he would just have walked into the middle of the assassination attempt and wound up dead as well.
As it had turned out the Advocacy had been content with severing any ties he'd tried to form. In fact though he suspected it would have happened anyway he couldn't help but feel that he'd hastened action against Lieutenant Laroch. They were right to be concerned that he was trying to make contacts to permit him access to the military and news networks. In his fury over the way he felt he'd been betrayed by the men he'd thought had the empire's best interests at heart he would absolutely had burned this data and dared them to come at him.
It was disconcerting to look back and realize how on the edge he had been. As a trained operator he should have been calm and methodical, but he was anything but at the time. Despite realizing he was being used and that he needed to get out the sudden loss of connections and purpose was disorienting to say the least. With time his equilibrium had returned and his training had kicked back in. It hadn't been an easy transition, but then being betrayed and going off the reservation never was.
He'd watched the ports carefully as his anger faded and his drive to survive kicked in. Over time he'd found a pirate here, and a merchant with questionable goods there. Reaching out to those who lived in the black or grey areas of the world he'd started making new connections. He gained some intel in the exchange, but what he was after were agents. It took time, but a few well timed tips and people started to trust him.
When he was certain he had enough people in multiple systems he'd informed them 1 by 1 as they passed by Terra that he was going to be testing a data burst worm attack on government data. Classified shipping manifests, intel on pirate activity, security measures and planned sweeps, speculation and mineral reports that hadn't been released yet, etc. Data he knew these people were desperate to get their hands on, and that without his help they would be powerless to get ahold of. They had been skeptical, but they'd all agreed.
The attack itself had been simplistic. A mere lift and switch on a low level advocacy agent replacing his access card with a duplicate that had been infected with the worms. He'd built in a 48 hr delay to give him time to get in place once the power went haywire and the alarms triggered. He'd have a 30 minute window, tight, but doable for someone with his skills. It had turned out better than he'd hoped. He'd gotten direct access connection to a secure terminal he'd set up. His worms had performed better than he'd dreamed and tons of viable and actionable intel had been downloaded into the hands of his contacts.
All of that was the cherry on the top as far as he was concerned. The real treat was first, that he'd confirmed what he suspected. Namely that the Advocacy trunk lines were poorly monitored and required a complete shutdown of the coms system to stop. Secondly when they reacted they'd given him a gift. While they had substantially hardened the external safeguards they had done nothing with the internal protocols.
They were so convinced that he would attack again, but were equally convinced that he would never attempt physical access of a secure terminal, that they had focused almost exclusively on external means of attack. They'd put such stress on the externals that the security teams had neglected the normal internal safeguards. He doubted they would have found the offsite terminal even if they weren't so focused on remote attacks, but he wasn't one to turn down a stroke of luck whether he needed it or not.
Now he just needed a few seconds alone with a computer link to activate the system. His contacts knew to scan for any pulsed transmissions and he'd looped it to pulse until the advocacy noticed and shut down the system again. If he could get a few extra minutes with an actual computer terminal he could send a burst transmission to the signal beacons he'd had them deploy.
Those would trigger an alert to his contacts piggy backed onto normal coms traffic, letting them know he was sending data. Some of them knew what this data was, some didn't, but each burst had detailed instructions on the importance of the data and of disseminating the information in every system they passed through. There would be no stopping the data once he triggered the burst, and by the same token there would be no going back.
He watched smiling as Erillia flipped another fish in and stunned it before adding it to the stringer. Why hadn't he just vanished into some colony and live a frontier life? Well he'd stayed because he'd known deep down that they'd never leave him alone and he'd set his defenses so that he could do as much damage as possible on the way out. He'd probably also felt a sense of responsibility to Edward to make sure the truth about his death made it into the public's hands.
The man was a legend and deserved to be remembered as one of the best, not as a traitor and deserter.
He felt a tug on his line and brought his attention back to the present as he skillfully landed the fish. He'd just stunned it when he glanced up to see Erillia hauling in another fish. She swiftly stunned hers and placed both the new catches on the stringer. They rebaited and recast and then settled back in.
"I didn't just vanish for a couple of reasons," he said softly, drawing her attention. He smiled at her questioning look. "First of all the Advocacy had been hot on my heels when I settled in here. I needed people to blend in with. Given time I could have left, but I grew attached to the city and the work I'd started doing. It felt good to save lives instead of taking them. I suppose I also had a bit of unfinished business with them too. There were things I needed to set in motion to protect myself and be ready to strike back if they tried anything."
She nodded, turning her gaze from him back towards the lake. He sat there, watching her in profile and waring with himself over whether to just tell her the truth now and damn the consequences. He finally shook off those thoughts. He wasn't strong enough to do the right thing if she begged him not to go. He'd stay with her, and they'd both die, if she knew the truth now. It tore at his heart when he thought of what the truth would do to her, but he hoped in time she'd come to forgive him.
"I'm glad you didn't run off Ren," she said softly, turning shining eyes to meet his. His breath hitched in his lungs. In that moment, no matter what was looming on the horizon Ren knew he'd do it all again just to see her look at him that way.
Another hour of bliss and ten fish later he called a halt to the fishing. They had enough fish now to last for a couple days and coupled with the deer meat they had smoked from the other two kills it was enough to last them several weeks or more. He knew it would be enough to last the rest of the time he had before things kicked into motion.
Erillia scooped up the stinger as he gathered the polls and other items they had and hefted them to his shoulder. Turning towards the cave he set out at a brisk walk, smiling as she easily fell into step with him. He might be going to his waterloo, but every second until that moment arrived he was going to enjoy the easy companionship he shared with Erillia and take every chance he had to ravish her within an inch of her life.
"So what's the plan for the rest of the day?" She asked as they approached the cave. Turning to glance at her he smiled softly and felt his heart lurch at her answering smile.
"We pack quickly and then march fast back to the cabin," he said. He saw the shock register on her face as she tried to work out the logic in his plan.
"Why," she asked finally. Shaking her head as she gave up trying to reason her way through the situation to determine his motives. He forced the smile to stay on his face as he contemplated exactly what to say. Finally settling on a near truth.
"We have enough meat to last us a while. If the hunt was going to be on in earnest we would have seen signs by now. Either they're going to try and pretend they caught you and kill some criminal or other that they happen to have on hand as a stand in or they're wanting to just play a waiting game until you finally surface. Either way it's unlikely that they will be trying to block entrance to the city at the moment. They want you back where they can catch you and they don't have the manpower to keep full patrols all the time in every portion of the city constantly."
She nodded at the logic of this but something still didn't add up. The meadow was more conducive to the combat training they had been doing. Granted the cabin was more comfortable but the cave was more secure. She was a bit happy about the prospect of a softer bed and the chance for bathing without worrying about running off the fish and game. Still it seemed that it would be less advantageous to them staying off grid being at the cabin and unless something had changed the plan was to stay off the grid at all cost.
"What aren't you telling me," she asked with a frown. Unable to shake the feeling that something was not as it seemed. Ren fought back the urge to curse as he looked back at her. Coming to a stop at the rope to the cave he breathed a sigh out as he turned to face her.
"Right now they are likely still trying to figure out exactly what to do. They won't have held the execution if they're going to take that route yet. If they're going to try and wait or bait you out they'll still be formulating a plan for doing that. We have meat and we can always come back here for more, but there are some things we need if we're going to potentially have to make a run for it. The advocacy hasn't arrived yet, which probably means they aren't going to take any major action." He winced as he said that knowing it was a blatant lie.
The fact they hadn't moved yet wasn't a sign they were overlooking anything, but a sign that they knew exactly what they were dealing with and they were gearing up to make sure they were ready for him.
"So we're going back into town then? I thought we decided that was a bad idea." She said frowning in confusion.
"It was, and maybe it still is, but I want us to be ready to bail if we need to. We need clothes, money, etc ready to go so that if we find out they are coming for us we can just scramble away before they ever get close."
"Why do we need clothes? We both have a couple pairs of shirts and pants. We could use more, but we don't really need more," She asked trying to figure out what was off about the situation that had her alarm bells ringing. Everything Ren said made a sort of sense, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something going on she couldn't place, and that she didn't trust. Ren's laugh made her stomach flip-flop as she tried to resolve her inherent trust for him with her gut instinct that she'd always trusted. Neither had betrayed that trust to this point, and she desperately wanted to believe they never would, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was getting played somehow.
"Yes we have clothes and for simple clothing they will do well enough, but what we don't have are any clothes if we need to change personas. We need a few changes of clothing and we need to build stories around the look etc. so that we have a fleshed out identity if we need to make a hasty exit from the area or even from Terra. I want everything in place because if we have to run it's going to be a very sudden thing and we will dearly regret not having what we need ready and at our fingertips. Which is another reason I want to get back to the cabin, since it's closer to town and we can get to transport easier if we need to."
Erillia nodded as she contemplated what he was saying. It all made sense, and she couldn't fault any of the logic but she still couldn't shake the feeling that Ren wasn't being honest with her. He might not be outright lying but he was keeping something important from her. She knew it, but she just couldn't figure out what it was he was keeping to himself. So she'd follow his lead and keep her eye peeled until she figured out what she was missing.
