Bella's Revenge

Undisclosed Location US Navy Special Warfare January 18, 2012/1534 Zulu

 “Dan, I need to know what your ETA is on that plan you’ve been working on.  I need it to be soon,”  the captain said.

We were sitting around the conference table at our Friday staff meeting.  This hadn't been a really merry Christmas here.  Usually everyone who was here and not deployed was happy and merry.  Not this year.  Asses have been puckered so tighter around here you would think these guys were lining up for a prostate exam from Cruella DeVille.  It wasn’t Cruella probing, it was Bella Juarez and she was going a lot deeper than people’s asses.  She’d just released a book right before Christmas about Badass.  Senior Chief Gavin Walsh, aka Badass, had been working day and night to get a federal court to shut Bella’s damn face.  So far, all attempts had been unsuccessful. 

After we broke from our staff meeting, I went back to my office and started working on modifying a program that I had written.  It was actually a computer virus that would open a backdoor on Bella’s computer so we could take a peek at what was going on.  Since no legal means had worked to shut Bella down, Master Chief and Captain reached the conclusion that maybe we should use more clandestine methods to harass Bella.  It worked for a little while until she caught on. 

What we’d done at first, was to break into her email account.  We were able to snag a few requests for some guest blog appearances.  Badass, being the sick bastard he is, gave the interviews to Master Chief who had a field day with them.  Master Chief, aka Bella, made a few blog appearances in December and is schedule to make a few more in January.  We all laughed our asses off when we read what some of these bloggers posted.  At least we got some kind of revenge for Badass. 

I was working along when my dive buddy, Shaq came into my office and took a seat.  I should’ve had a sense of déjà vu he was the one that got me into trouble the last time.  I was working, Shaq was babbling on about something that was going down later in the week.

“Well did you check?”  Shaq asked.

“Check what?” 

“Did you check Bella’s Facebook page?  Is it true?” 

“What the hell are talking about?”  I asked because I hadn’t been paying attention to what Shaq had been saying to begin with. 

“You were at the staff meeting!  Did he say anything?”  Shaq asked. 

I knew by the look on Shaq’s face I was headed for trouble.  In fact, I’d made a New Year’s resolution that I wasn’t going to let him get me into any more trouble so I went back to work

“No he didn’t say anything.”  I said not know what the hell I was answering.  

“No, Master Chief didn’t say anything?” 

“Master Chief spews shit all the time.  Very little of it pertains to me.” 

“Damn!  I just knew Master Chief would say something!”  Shaq exclaimed. 

“Shaq, what the hell are you talking about?”  I finally asked. 

“The new book.” 

“What?  What new book?” 

“What new book!  Where the fuck you been, man?  Mars?  Bella’s new book.  It’s all over her Facebook page, man!  Pull your head of that nanobot ass of yours and keep up!”

I hadn’t been able to keep up with Facebook and all my pseudonyms because I’d been busy and was TDY for a week.  I minimized the program window I was working in and logged into Facebook.  Holy Shit!  No wonder the Captain’s been a fucking wounded bear lately!  I scrolled through her stuff and it was all over the place.  Her website, Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest and even a little forum called Inner Goddess.  Every ounce of blood drain to my feet when I saw book three of the Black Ops Brotherhood Series was on the way, Dominant Deception, and it was about Captain Jack “Rock” O’Malley. 

“Now that one’s worth the price of admission!  Shit I’d pay double to read that biography.”  Shaq said. 

“Get out of my office!  I’ve got to get busy!”  I said closing everything on my desktop except the program I was working on. 

“What are you working on?”  Shaq asked looking over my screen. 

“Shaq!  Do you need a project?  Every time I see you, you’re fucking around.  Get busy or I’ll find you the shitest project I can make up!”  Master Chief said for the doorway. 

“I was helping Dan, Master Chief.”  Shaq said. 

“Bullshit!  Dan doesn’t need you holding his dick while he’s working.”  Master Chief snarled. 

While Master Chief and Shaq were debating what kind of project Shaq needed, I got busy on the program.  I was close, real close, to coming up with a way to hack Bella’s computer and shut her down for good.  It was then I caught it, the little bug in the code that was keeping me from getting this to work right.  I made the changes to the program and ran a couple of test.  It worked like a champ!  Yes!

“I’ve got it!”  I said.

"Got what?"  Master Chief asked. 

"I think I've got that data tracer and capture program working." 

"Deploy it," Shaq said. 

“I need to test it a little more.” 

“Then why the fuck did you say it was ready?”  Master Chief demanded.

“I said, I’ve got it, I had a problem with the code and I found it.  I just tested a couple of times on my computer and it works.  I didn’t say it was ready. ” 

“Well if it’s working on your computer, why wouldn’t it work anywhere else?” 

Just what I needed, my best friend and dive buddy helping me.  There were a few more tests I wanted to run to make sure that the code was solid.  Sometimes the guys around her only hear what they want to hear.  The command staff; the captain, Master Chief, Badass and a few others, locked-up in a seizer every time some said Bella Juarez.  Shaq's attempt to help me wasn’t helping.

“Dan, what’s the status?”  Captain asked from the doorway.

“It’s ready!”  Shaq said. 

“What the fuck, Shaq?  I said—“ I started

“What the hell are you waiting for?  Deploy it,” captain said cutting me off.

“See, I told you,” Shaq said to me.  “That’s exactly what I told him to do, Captain.” 

“But—“  I tried to explain again. 

“What about deploy don’t you understand?”  Master Chief snapped.

“Deploy it.  RIGHT FUCKING NOW! I want her stopped, like yesterday!”  The captain ordered.

“Yes, Sir.” 

I had a really bad feeling about this for some reason.  I knew it was working but for some reason I wasn’t sure if it was ready.  I opened my Mary Smith gmail account and sent Bella some fan mail.  She must’ve been sitting at her computer reading her email because the message was opened almost instantly.  I opened the window with my tracker and started watching the virus’ progress.  I smiled because when she opened that mail the virus installed itself on her computer.  So far, this thing was working flawlessly.  I opened a remote terminal window, meaning I could look through Bella’s computer as if I were sitting at her desk, and started searching her computer.  As I was digging,  I found a folder labeled blackops brotherhood.  Opened it and started looking through it. 

“Captain, I found the books.”  I said. 

“Download them! We need to find out what the hell she’s doing next.”  Master Chief said. 

“Yeah, we need to do some more research,” Shaq added.

“Do you need a fucking project, Shaq?  Why is it when I see you, you’re always fucking off?” the Captain snapped. 

“I’m not fucking off, Captain, I’m helping Dan. I need to figure out a strategy on shutting her down, so I need to read her books, remember, sir?”  Shaq said innocently. 

“Strategy, huh?  Let’s hear it.  If ain’t a damn good one, you’ll be helping Master Chief for a while.”  Captain said.

“Oh goody!  You get to be my special pet for a while, Shaq.”  Master Chief said with an evil grin. 

I started downloading the file folder as well as a few other tidbits I’d found on her computer while the Captain and Shaq were discussing what kind of strategy Shaq was working on.  As I watched the files download, my duty cell phone rang so I picked it up and answered. 

“Lieutenant, we have a major problem here.”  One of my comm guys said on the other end, “Our server’s been breached.” 

“What!”  I shouted into the phone. 

“I don’t know, Sir.  I’m trying to figure out where, it just started.  But it’s downloading all of our classified personnel records and the back brief files from some of our recent missions.  And they’re specific ones,” Chief Petty Officer Camacho informed. 

Holy Fuck! I shoved my chair away from my desk and ran down to the comm center.  I stood behind one of my technicians who was busy trying to shut down the intruder.  As I watched what was happening, it suddenly hit me what’d happened.  This virus was infiltrating our entire network and if we didn’t shut it down quickly, it could breach the Headquarters Naval Special Warfare and maybe even Special Operations Command networks because we were connected to them all.  I remembered that Bella owned an IT company.  The thought struck home like an RPG, exactly what’d happened.  It was a honey pot or a trap.  Bella had let me into her computer and she’d been waiting for us all along.  Once we were inside, she’d been able to reverse what we’d done and had breached our systems through my virus. 

“Shut it the hell down!  Now!”  I ordered

“Shut it down, sir?  The server?” 

“Yes!  Shut everything down connected to a network!  Right fucking now, Petty Officer!  Unplug it from the wall if you have to!”  I shouted. 

“What the hell’s going on?”  The captain asked from the door way. 

“Shut down all the computers in the building, Sir.  Right now we’ve had a security breach.” I said leaving the room.

I ran down the passageway ordering everyone to shut down their computer.  As I passed Master Chief’s office I saw him staring at his screen, white as a sheet.  He hadn’t even noticed I’d walked into his office and was standing behind reading what was up there. 

Pedicure?

“What the hell does that mean?”  I asked. 

Master Chief moved so quickly that I didn’t have time to move out of his way.  He knocked me backwards as he picked up his computer and threw it against the wall.  Well that one’s turned off now. Our chief medic, who was in the office next door, ran over to see what‘d happened. 

“Have you lost your fucking mind, JJ?”  Doc demanded looking at the damage on the wall and the computer laying on the ground.

Master Chief slowly turned around and looked at me.  Oh shit!

“Doc, you need to shut down your computer.”  I said. 

“Why?”  Doc asked.

Master Chief didn’t move and I decided to get the hell out of Dodge before he picked me up and threw me against the wall.  I rushed out of the Master Chief’s office and into Doc’s office to shut down his computer.  I walked to Doc’s computer as he followed behind. 

“Let me save what I was working on,” Doc said as he sat down.

Doc moved the mouse to wake-up the screen that’d gone black.

Position two.

“What the —“ Doc whispered in shocked fear as we both read the message on his screen.

“What does it mean?”  I asked. 

“None of your fucking business!”  Doc snapped as he reached around and unplugged his computer. 

I rushed into the Captain’s office and Friday was shaking head. 

“Did you get a message?”  I asked

Friday was speechless as he nodded.  I hurried into the Captain’s office and saw his message just as he was shutting his computer off. 

Checkmate

“Do you want to tell me what the fuck just happened?”  The captain asked in a harsh whisper. 

“Uh—“ 

“Sir, the Admiral wants to speak to you.”  Friday said from the door. 

The Captain glanced at me.  Now, I was really scared so I decided to make my exit while I could still walk.  I remembered my computer was still on so I hurried back to my office wondering how the hell I was going to fix this. I moved the mouse so my screen would come up and when I looked every ounce of blood in my body ran cold.  There was a message on my screen, too.  I shut down my computer and leaned back in my chair, defeated.  Shaq came in and slowly sank to the chair in my office. 

“What did yours say?”

“Nothing.”  Shaq whispered. 

It was unnaturally quiet in the building.  I had to think and think fast but at the moment I was having a hard time focusing.  Master Chief walked in and took other seat.  We sat there for a while in silence.

“What the hell’s going on here? Did someone die?”  Badass asked from the door.

It was reserve weekend and all of our reservists were scheduled for duty.  No one in the room answered.

“What happened?”  Badass persisted. 

“Bella.”  Shaq finally said. 

I told Badass what’d happened and how it had all gone down.  When I finished, Badass broke out in laughter. 

“Bend over boys and grab your ankles, I won’t be alone! She just fucked you, too!”  Badass laughed as he pumped his fist in the air.

“Do you think this is funny?”  Master Chief snapped. 

“I think this is fucking hilarious!”  Badass said wiping his eyes,  “it’s not so bad. You’ll survive.  I did.” 

Suddenly there was a chime on our phones so we dug them out and checked them.  It was an email notification from BookStrand for Bella’s latest release Dominant Deception.  Apparently all of us had BookSrand accounts now. 

“LIEUTENANT!”

I closed my eyes and shuddered.  More to follow, I hope.

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DOMINANT DECEPTION

Book Three in the BlackOps Brotherhood Series

Navy SEAL Captain Jack “Rock” O’Malley is playing a deadly computer game with a hidden enemy.  Jack must look outside his SEALs to an unlikely savior.  Anna Santiago keeps her head down as a quiet system administrator hiding a painful past.  Anna buried her outgoing, confident personality along with her husband and daughter but Jack sees behind the glasses and is drawn to the irresistible Anna. Both fight the pull of a powerful attraction.  Can Jack keep his relationship with the unwilling Anna professional?  In fighting an enemy he can’t see Jack drags the reluctant Anna into his BlackOps world.  They’re sucked into a cyber-rabbit hole of dire consequences.  Jack and his SEALs discover that his beloved Anna is the terrorist’s next target and is faced with a choice that could end his military career and possibly his life.  Can Jack and his SEALs keep Anna alive before the terrorists stalking him decide its GAME OVER?