water. The road rose steeply up into the hills. After a number of seemingly random turns, each of which kept their path climbing, they turned onto Horizon Drive. The road soon wound it’s way to the top of a scrub brush covered ridge. Rounding a turn, a bright white cylindrical water tower loomed at the end of the road. Andrea felt cold, even in the strong sun. This must be it. Dorian must be guiding Mel here. But how Dorian had found this place, she didn’t know. She was sure he was going to try to extract what happened to his family out of Mel. She prayed Dorian knew what he was doing. Mel was almost certainly a world class liar.
The Bentley pulled to a stop and the driver’s side door opened followed immediately by the rear left door. A defiant looking Mel Boxton, his hands above his head, got out, closely followed by Dorian, pink gun pointing straight at Mel’s head. Andrea slowed, then parked about fifty yards away, and got out.
“Jam the cell phones,” Dorian shouted.
She pulled the jammer out of the backpack and pressed the button. Checking the phone in her pocket, she saw she had no signal.
A spectacular view of the ocean stretched out behind Mel by the edge of a steep ravine that cascaded down toward the water. It reminded Andrea how much she loved LA. The thought broke as she focused back to the situation at hand.
She walked closer. Mel’s eyes widened. “You? I can’t believe it. What are you doing here?” He quickly regained his composure. “This guy’s kidnapped me. And he thinks he can just get away with it. He claims I’ve been involved in some strange conspiracy to kill his family. You know me,” he pleaded. “You know I’d never do anything like that. Don’t listen to him. He’s fooling you. You have to be careful of these kinds of people. They’re unhinged. Lots of crazies around.”
“Shut up,” Dorian said quietly, a strength in his voice Andrea had never heard before.
“He’s still claiming he’s got nothing to do with this,” Dorian said. “I should just shoot him.”
Andrea worried that he might. “The police are probably on their way already. We’ve only just jammed the phones now.”
“I know,” Dorian said quietly, then turned to Mel. “Now is your time to explain what happened. Or, and it is your choice, to die.” His voice cracked at the end of the sentence.
“Ok, ok. Look. I can tell you maybe how things got started.” He spread his arms a bit over the top of his head. “Do you mind if I lower my arms? They’re hurting.”
Dorian nodded assent. “Go on. Quick.”
“So I needed to reduce the amount of piracy. I had a contract.”
“What does that have to do with killing people?”
“I didn’t know anyone was dying. That wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
Mel shifted uncomfortably. “It must have been Colonel and his guys. They must have gotten out of control.”
“You paid them and then blame them for doing what you want. They are just contract killers.”
“No, god no. I never wanted them to kill. Actually, they promised to solve the problem. I assumed they had found you all and had a plan for how to intimidate you so that you’d stop stealing movies. That’s all I wanted. I wanted them to intimidate you and your friends.”
Andrea could see that Mel was warming to his subject, just as she’d seen him do many times before.
“So given they said they could do it, and I had a contract, I thought I owed to my clients to get the job done.”
“By killing people.” Dorian’s face turned bright red.
“First of all, you are one of those movie pirates, right?”
“I uploaded movies for fun.”
“Yes, that’s what you think. You know you destroy the livelihoods of thousands of people by doing that. That’s why you and all your kind have to be stopped. Peoples’ jobs are on the line.”
“So it’s my fault my family was killed. Is that what you’re trying to tell me.”
“Look, they were going to convince you to stop. No one was going to be killed. I didn’t know anything about that. It’s a terrible tragedy of course.”
“So why are so many people dead?”
“I didn’t do it. I didn’t know. You know, sometimes things happen. Unintended consequences. I think that’s what we’re dealing with here. It sounds like you’ve punished them enough.”
“Hmmm.”
“So really, you’ve got no reason to threaten me. I’ve only hired the wrong people who then went on a rampage. If you let me go, I’ll let everyone know you were acting in self defence. I think you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Dorian looked at Andrea, then pulled out the cell phone. He pressed a button, and the sounds of the conversation the Deep Noders had recorded of Mel telling Colonel to get the job done, played back.
Mel looked pained at first, but confident. But when Mel heard the phrase ‘just a few more bullets’, he shrank back, his face going pale.
“That wasn’t me,” he said almost inaudibly.
“That’s the number we called to tell you we were coming,” Andrea said. “It’s you.”
“And you killed my family, who had nothing to do with all of this.”
“Milan?” Mel whispered, looking even paler.
“Milan.”
Andrea could see Dorian fighting himself. His knuckles went white around the grip of the gun.
“Don’t shoot, let the police handle it,” she said.
Dorian beat his fist against his head. His jaw clenched and unclenched. He looked longingly at Andrea, making her feel like her heart had stopped.
Pain shone from his eyes. Part of her wanted Mel dead just as powerfully Dorian did. She took a deep breath.
She could see Mel drenched in naked fear. And equally, Dorian was only moments away from shooting. She had to try something. “Let him sit in the car for a second. Please. Give me a few seconds to talk.”
Dorian nodded ok. “Don’t close that door. You’re dead if you try that or anything else.”
They followed Mel, letting him sit down in the driver’s seat. A small worry in Andrea’s head wondered if that was actually a good idea, but she really had to bring Dorian down. Otherwise there would be more blood, and this time it wouldn’t be possible to keep the police from looking for them.
Dorian stood by the rear door, gun pointed steadily at Mel’s head.
“You don’t want to kill him,” Andrea said. “Right now there’s nothing connecting us to this case.” She put a hand on his shoulder. The muscles felt like stone.
“Other than Mel. He’s a witness,” Dorian said.
“Too true. But the more he talks about us the more he’s involved in this. He won’t talk. If he starts talking about you it proves that he knows about Milan. Watch out!” The car started moving silently; the motor off.
“Fuck.” Dorian instinctively grabbed the frame, but couldn’t keep hold. He let go and aimed the gun again at Mel who rolled slowly away. Another ten yards and the car came closer and closer to the edge of the road and the steep ravine behind. “What are you doing?” Dorian shouted.
Though the front door was still open, Mel did nothing to jump out of the car or turn the wheel. The tan Bentley rolled onto the verge and accelerated down the steep brush covered slope. Dorian and Andrea ran to the edge, watching dumbfounded. The car bounced once, speed up, then bounced a second time. It flipped front first then rolled sideways, faster and faster. The tail hit rock, bounced the whole car high into the air then landed on the hood with a massive crunch. The rear of the vehicle dropped to the ground and everything stopped. Suddenly a small flame flickered out from under the tires, starting near the back of the car. Within seconds the whole car burst into flames. It looked like a scene straight out of a Melbox Movies blockbuster, Andrea noted in a dispassionate recess of her brain. Like the end of some overproduced car chase.
A wailing scream came from the wreck followed by four of five heavy grunts. The grunts were a sound she’d never before heard in her life, deeper, more frighted, like some
one ripping their heart out. Then that faded too.
Andrea put her hand on Dorian’s shoulder. “We need to go now. The police will be here soon.”
“Ok.”
Dorian turned under her outstretched arm and followed her to the rental car. She could feel him shaking.
“I didn’t kill him. I wanted to. I almost did. I wanted to shoot his brains out, just like he let those bastards shoot my sister. But then I didn’t. Not because I was scared. It was weird. Fear disappeared. I realized that’s not the person I am. I’m not a killer. I…more than anything, I didn’t want to be a killer. I couldn’t do what he would have done to me in an instant if the tables had been turned.”
“I know.”
“Except back at the house.”
“You had to. It was kill or die.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I don’t want to ever do that again.”
“Me neither.”
Dorian grabbed Andrea’s hand. “I love you,” he said.
She smiled, her heart suddenly full of happiness. “Aren’t you too young for me?”
“Not anymore.”
“No I guess not.”
They were halfway down the hill when they heard the sirens. They began slowly, one simple wail, increasing to a wailing crescendo as some ten police cruisers roared past.
THE END.
Glossary
Adcryption Buying an ad on an obscure keyword on Google, where the ad only appears at the very bottom of the page, and links to a special website. Once the ad has been clicked on, it disappears forever because it only has budget for one click. A way to leave information hidden in plain site.
Bat Battle. Argument on IRC where different participants try to put each other down.
Cloaking Ensuring your identity won’t be revealed by your online activities
Convoc Hackers compete for getting a movie out the fastest
Deep Node A server deep in the pirate movie network that is only known by the 3-5 servers that connect to it and their hacker administrators
Deep Noders The loose group of hackers that Dorian is a part of that get and distribute movies illegally over the internet.
Flame To flame someone, is to write a nasty email, response or forum post, in reply to a perceived mistake by another emailer, responder or forum poster.
IRC Internet Relay Chat, a popular communication method for hackers
Lurking To be in a chat room without participating.
MAIG Movie Association Industry Group – the lobbying arm of Hollywood.
Mid Node The lower level servers that are slightly less secure than the deep nodes, where the first version of a pirated movie is pushed before it is placed on the peer to peer networks.
Node A server that contains movies that seed the peer to peer networks
Noob Short for Newbie, which refers to a person who is new to something. Newbies are often flamed for apparently stupid questions.
Peer to Peer Network A network of computers that connects movies on a hard drive on one computer to other computers where movies are needed (also known as P2P)
Pixes Short for pixels. This refers to the resolution of the encoded movie and the quality of the color, especially on very fast moving scenes where the movie tends to ‘pixilate’, showing large blocks instead of fine detail.
Pre-Air A movie or television show posted before it has gone into distribution or been shown on television.
Privoice A private voice discussion facility built into chat software. It allows users to speak without other people in the chat room to hear.
Rip A version of a movie captured from a DVD or other medium and made ready for playing on a computer.
SEO Search Engine Optimization refers to modifying a web site so that it appears higher up in the search results in search engines such as Google and MSN.
Vadering changing voice pitch and tone so that it can not be recognized. Used on internet calls where it is easy to insert a filter.
Notes
Talk about DN list early in the book for suspense. Put it at the center of what is being looked for?
"Get dressed, I’m taking you out to buy some clothes" => Would be good to add an Andrea chapter in here. Maybe one to clarify her past a bit.
Remove Colonel POV?
Remove Lieut POV? (or make Colonel or Mel?)
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