“Yes, but I’m not sure I believe it. According to Byte, you’re good. If you practiced, you’d be great.”
“I know.”
“And I can’t see you not wanting to be great.”
“And.”
“And so to get there, you have to practice, which means you’ll be hacking.”
“I told you I’m not,” Kyle frustratedly said.
“How would anyone know if you did? It’s not like Mom and Dad would know how to track your online conversations.”
“And you do?”
“No… Not yet.”
“And what? Are you going to get training on how to hack a hacker?”
Hunter chuckled. The only hacker he knew was taboo. But Kyle had suggested it… Well, sorta. “Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t even know how to find a hacker I could trust. I need your reassurances.”
“Why? You already said you don’t believe me.”
“I want to.”
“So what you’re saying is that you won’t tell Mom and Dad if I promise to stop hacking, but if I don’t stop, you’ll tell them everything.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You put your life and mine in danger. I don’t want you to put theirs in danger, nor yours again.”
“Deal,” Kyle said and offered his hand to shake on it.
Reluctantly, Hunter shook it and wondered how he was going to reach Byte, because not for one minute did he believe his brother.
The devil you know,Hunter thought.
“Now, can I get back to my game?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
When Kyle left the room, Hunter pulled out his cell phone and did a google search for ALIAS in the Austin, Texas, area. He scrolled down past the dry cleaners, plumbers, and insurance companies until he saw ALIAS Protection. The hyperlink led him to a blank screen with only a text Contact Us box. There were no images, no About Us, no phone numbers, nor their mission statement.
Clicking on the box, he wrote a brief note.
I need to talk to GigaByte. Thank you, Hunter Higgins.He put his cell phone number on the request and hoped to hear from someone later that day if he was lucky.
* * *
Byte watchedas the contact form was being filled out. When she read the message, she tossed her pen onto her desk.
“Even his messages are formal, with grammatically correct punctuation.”
Despite her better judgment, she clicked on the phone number and listened as he said hello in his deep baritone voice.
“You called,” Byte said.
“Yes. Thanks for calling me back. I wasn’t sure if anyone read the text boxes.”
“If we didn’t, it wouldn’t be there. So what’s up?”