Lieutenant Dan’s Hack

Man!  The last month here has been hectic and tense.  I’ve been trying to figure out how to hack into Bella Juarez’s computer.  I knew she owned and ran an IT company as her day job so hacking her computer would be a challenge.  I decided to get warmed up with some easy targets by hacking a couple of the suspected terrorist cells that I knew were a problem.  I planted a really hot chick on my Facebook wall and when they downloaded and opened it on their computer, the image launched a backdoor, also known as a Trojan Horse.  These guys weren’t the best and brightest but it gave me an opportunity to watch their computer activity a little closer. 

I was sitting at my computer when my dive buddy Lieutenant JG Shaq Harman walked into my office.

“What’s up, man? Are we still playing Ghost Recon tonight?  Pizza or Thai?”  Shaq asked taking the seat in front of my desk. 

“Yeah, I’m up for it. You know Thai’s my favorite.  I’m trying to figure out how to get into a computer so I can take a look-see and figure out what this tango’s up to.” 

“Who’s computer?  That terrorist cell or those unfriendlies we’ve been watching for a few months?”  

“Bella Juarez, she’s unfriendly all right.  She’s spilling every damn secret we have here including what we do with our private playtime,” I said.

“Oh yeah,”  Shaq smiled in understanding, “Captain, Badass and Master Chief start twitching every time someone says that name.  Shit, I thought Badass was going to have a seizure a couple of weeks ago.  So, what’s all the fuss? Some book she wrote?”

“Some!  It looks like from her website she’s writing a series, BlackOps Brotherhood. And twitching?  Badass had a shit fit when he heard what she’d done to him in her second book.  Apparently he’s the hero,” I said rolling my eyes.    

Shaq started laughing.  “Hero, huh?  Ain’t we all?  What was the scandal with Master Chief over all of that?” 

I laughed this time, “Master Chief has an account with BookStrand. They’re a romance e-book site, kind of like Amazon, only smaller.” 

“Come back with that?  An account did you say?”  Shaq asked wide-eyed.

“Apparently, Master Chief is a romantic, an erotic romantic.” 

“Now that’s fifty shades of fucked up!”  Shaq said screwing up his nose.  “Hey! Hack his computer. Let’s find out what he reads.” 

“I’m miles ahead of you, buddy.  I put a username and password capture program on his laptop when I did maintenance a couple of weeks ago.  He hasn’t been anywhere interesting lately.”

“Check now,” Shaq urged. 

My dive buddy is like a brother to me but he gets me into so much trouble sometimes.  I should’ve known better than to listen to Shaq.  I should’ve listened to the voice in my head that screamed, STOP! ALTO! Danger Will Robinson!  Did I listen?  Nope!  The temptation was too great and I just had to take a peek.  One little peek wouldn’t hurt, I reasoned.  It was just a peek…

“Bella’s book is supposed to be up for pre-order. I can’t remember when it was coming out, but I know it’s soon.  I guess we could take a look and see if he’s ordered it yet,” I reasoned. 

“Well, yeah.  You’re supposed to be watching her right?”  Shaq said being a good enabler. 

We managed to justify what we were about to do.  Despite the voice in my head telling me not to go there, I opened the password capture program utility.  I saw I now had the username and passwords for his bank and TriCare accounts, his personnel records, but nothing from BookStrand yet.  I opened up the remote terminal window to his computer and watched him surf.  He was reading his email and I wanted to stick hot pokers in my eyes when I saw what he was reading!

“EWW! Master Chief’s due for a colonoscopy on Tuesday!” 

“I could’ve lived my whole life without that picture in my head, Master Chief’s lily white ass sticking out, waiting to be probed.  I’ve been traumatized. That’s some serious PTSD!”  Shaq said shaking his head.

“Wait!  He just logged into his BookStrand account!  I knew her book was coming out soon.”

Shaq jumped to his feet and stood behind my desk.  We watched as Master Chief looked through the BookStrand site.  Sure enough, he found Bella’s book and we found out it would be up for pre-order VERY soon!   He logged out of the site and out of his computer. 

“Did you get it?”  Shaq asked with a wide grin. 

“Yeah, let’s log back in to BookStrand,” I said as I brought up the window with the password capture information. “Jasmine22?” 

“What did you say!”  Shaq roared.

“Shush!  Dumb ass! Shut the fuck up!  He’s not that far away!”  I snapped.

“Jasmine22, junkie4romance.”  I said as I logged in not believing what I was saying.

“Junkie4romance? Are you serious?”  Shaq asked in shock.  “Who knew?”  He shrugged. 

I looked around and found his bookshelf.  Holy Shit, Batman! Master Chief was a FAN GIRL! And an avid reader!   I guess all those lonely deployments had taken their toll after thirty years.  He must’ve had a hundred books in his bookshelf.  I shuddered when I found myself wondering if I would be this way in another twenty years?  Gawd!  I hope not!

“Who’s that one there, Heather Rainier? He must have twenty books by her. What’s that one, His Tattooed Virgin? Divine Phoenix?”   Shaq glanced at me with concern.

Heather Rainier and Cara Covington were at the top of his list!  He also had a Corinne Davies on his list.  I watched the covers of the books scroll past.

“What the hell is Steampunk?”  Shaq asked and I shrugged, I didn’t know what the hell it was. It looked sort of science fiction-ish. I had to admit, it looked interesting.  Steampunk I might be able to read. When I got a look at the cover of the book, I was really interested.

“How many guys is that chick with?”  I asked turning my head trying to figure out what the hell I was looking at. 

“Looks like two or three guys to one girl!”  Shaq exclaimed, “What kind of kinky shit is Master Chief into?”  Shaq asked screwing up his nose.  “That’s some weird shit!”  He said pointing to the screen.

“I don’t know about that.  I guess it depends on your definition of weird…”  I said with a shrug.  I started to think maybe I needed to read some of these myself, you know, for research purposes.  I looked at Shaq and frowned, “Should you be criticizing the weird shit people are into? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle, black?” 

“Seriously? I’m not weird, you are!”  Shaq said.

We looked back at the screen and then each other. We still couldn’t believe what we were seeing in Jasmine22’s Bookshelf. 

“Look in that deep archive, right there. Cara Covington?  Man, he sure likes cowboys doesn’t he? Wait!  Right there!”  Shaq said pointing.

“Love Under Two Navy SEALs!”  We both exclaimed at the same time.

“What kind of no good shit are you two up to this morning?”  A voice from hell said from the doorway.

Oh shit! Shaq and I both nearly jumped out of our skins at the sound of his voice. FUCKING BUSTED!  It was a voice we still heard in nightmares.  Master Chief not only works with us, at one point he trained us during our initial SEAL Qualification Training or SQTs and had been one sadistic son-of-a-bitch.

“Morning, Master Chief,” Shaq said. 

“Morning, my ass. You two are up to no fucking good.”  Master Chief snarled.

“No! Not your ass, please, Master Chief!” Shaq begged.

“What kind of no good shit are you two useless fuck sticks up to this morning?”  Master Chief asked.  "And stay away from my ass!  It's off limits to you!"  He said pointing at Shaq.

As Shaq and Master Chief were talking, I had slowly moved my mouse and clicked to close the BookStrand window for Jasiman22’s Bookshelf.  I moved to close the password capture window and noticed Master Chief was eyeing me.

“Stop right there!  What the fuck are you up to?”  Master Chief growled at me. 

Master Chief knew.  He always knew when we hadn’t done what we were supposed to do or when we were doing something we shouldn’t have.  It seemed as if he had eyes everywhere. Even now, after all these years he could still tell.

“I was following up on some tangos, Master Chief.  I have to brief the Captain later this afternoon.” 

“Uh-huh,” Master Chief grunted, looking between me and Shaq suspiciously. “I know you two motherfuckers are up to no good, it’s written all over you.” 

“Master Chief, you busted us.  We were looking at porn,” Shaq said hanging his head. 

“You know that’s illegal on a government computer, boys.  Don’t let me catch you doing illegal shit like that, again,” Master Chief said reprimanding us. 

“Yes, Master Chief,” I said closing the password capture window. 

Master Chief laughed and shook his head.  He turned around and called out as he walked away, “You cocksuckers are lying to me, don’t think for one second I don’t know what you’re up to.  Bella’s book will be ready for pre-order QUICK. Keep an eye out.  If you can pull your head out of your ass long enough to see.” 

Shaq and I exchanged nervous glances. Whew, that was close.  I felt like I had just dodged a bullet. Believe me, I’ve dodged bullets and didn’t feel like I was feeling now.  This time, I actually saw all twenty-seven years of my life flash before my eyes.  I sat back in my chair waiting for my heart rate to get back to normal.  Shaq resumed his seat. 

“I don’t know why I let you talk me into shit like this. You get me into more trouble,” Shaq said, shaking his head. 

“Fuck you! Get out of my office! You’re the one that started it!”

Shaq laughed and before long we both were rolling because we were laughing so hard.  I guess we should laugh now because it was going to get worse before it got better.  If Bella’s book was coming up for pre-order, it meant the book would be coming out pretty soon.  This was not going to be a Merry Christmas for some of us.  Bella’s first book had become unofficial required reading for our  group.  The cat was out of the bag and Badass was already in orbit because he had made an appearance in book one.  As a matter of fact, a few of us had cameos in book one, including yours truly.  I shuddered to think about what was in book two, Hostile Home Front.  Things were going to get hostile all right.  Poor Badass…

Rapid Dominace is in avilable at BookStand and Amazon

Hostile Home Front on pre-buy from BookStrand

Bella's Watch List Saga Continues …

Undisclosed Location US Navy Special Warfare November 15, 2012/1243 Zulu

I was settling into my desk and cuddling up to a hot cup of coffee because the weather had turned cold in Texas.  Just a few days earlier, some of us guys had run the Rock and Roll Marathon for fun through the streets of downtown San Antonio; it had been almost eighty degrees that day.  The weather was like that here, unpredictable.  As I logged onto my computer, I waited for my email to download and I also opened up Facebook to check on some of the people I had been told to watch.  It was the usual list of suspects, a couple of unfriendly foreign nationals, a few people we suspected of being involved in a terrorist cell, and of course my new pain in the ass … Bella Juarez. 

I had created a bunch of fake profiles and friended all my tangos so that I could keep track of what was happening with each of them.  Bella had been making some noise about something new coming up.   Other than the pictures of the tied up guys (which scared the shit out of me), she'd been pretty quiet.  I logged on to my fake profile Mary Smith and started snooping.  This chick was making me paranoid, I never knew what to expect when I logged onto her page.  I almost cringed when I saw that she had run the half marathon on Sunday along with us.  Jeez!  Was I going to have to start looking over my shoulder now?  Really?  There had been a lady right before the cutoff who had a bunch of firemen line up for a picture.  Me and the guys had laughed about it, joking that we would offer to pose too, if she was collecting dicks in uniform.  I'll be damned if she didn't have that group of firemen on her wall!  Just as I was about to log off and start with the rest of the day, Bella made a post.  I followed the link to her web site and as I read, my heart stopped in my chest. 

Holy fuck! Is she crazy!   She can’t be talking about this! 

I jumped out of my seat and hustled on down to the captain’s office. 

“Hey!  Where’s the fire, boy?”  Master Chief called out as I blew past him. 

“I’ve got to see the captain, she’s at it again.  This one is serious, because she took aim at Badass!”

“Say what?”

“Get out of the way Master Chief!” 

We both almost ran down the hallway to the Command Suite and fought for the door when we got there. 

“What the hell?  Did something happen?”  Friday asked, he was the captain’s admin.

“I’ve got to see the Skipper, right now!”  I said.

“Come on in Dan,” the captain called out. 

I almost leaped into the office; we needed to come up with a plan and quick!  Badass was scheduled to be in today for his usual weekend Reserve duty, and he was the one who'd go ballistic when he found out what was about to happen to his world. 

“What’s up, Lieutenant, you look worried,”  the Captain said taking a drink from his cup. 

“Bella Juarez, she’s about to release another book and this one’s about Badass and his OP down in Victoria!” 

I was grateful that I wasn’t standing that close to the captain because his coffee went spraying everywhere. He choked on what had managed to make it into his throat.  I guess I should have waited to break it to him until after he had swallowed.

“What!”  Master Chief yelled. 

“Are you fucking serious!”  The captain yelled in between coughing bouts.

“Yes sir, and she’s going into detail on this one, all about his work in Virginia, the work down in Victoria and even his personal relationships. And--” I started. 

“And!”  The captain screamed. 

“And!  What the hell do you mean and?” Master Chief demanded.

“Sounds like a shit storm brewing, what’s up?” 

I turned and looked at the door and started to shake in my boots because Senior Chief Gavin “Badass” Walsh had just walked in.  Holy hell!  Can this day get any more fucked up?  Badass had one hell of a reputation in the SEAL community, and he wasn’t known as Badass because he was the diplomatic type.  Senior Chief Walsh was also one mean son of a bitch.  The Captain shook his head. 

“Sit down Badass, the shit storm is all you,”  the Captain said.

“Me?  I’ve been laying pretty low, in fact, I can’t think of anything I’ve done that would make waves,”  Badass said and quickly added, “lately.”

“No, someone’s about to bend you over and fuck up your planet, boy,”  Master Chief said. 

“Seems like someone just wrote your unauthorized biography,”  Captain said.

“Are you motherfuckers on crack?  No one knows shit about me and I don’t talk to anyone other than my baby and you guys,”  Badass said. 

I went over to the captain’s computer, called up Bella Juarez’s website, and found the page with Hostile Home Front.  Everything was there, the front cover for the new book, a summary of the story and an excerpt – an adult excerpt.  The captain started to read and when he finished, looked up at Badass with his mouth open.

“What?”  Badass asked. 

Master Chief came around the corner and read it, too. 

“Holy crap on a cracker!  I sure don’t want that damn movie in my head!”  Chief said pointing at the screen.

“Say what?  What the hell are you guys talking about?”  Badass asked as he stood.

“Come take a look,”  Captain said as he stood and Master Chief moved away. 

Badass sat behind the captain’s desk and started to read.  I shuddered with fear for Bella Juarez as I watched Badass’ face go from surprise, to shock and then pissed off. 

“Who the hell is this woman!”  Badass roared as he shoved away from the desk and pointed at the screen.  “And where the fuck did she get that information?” 

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out.  We’ve been working this for the last couple of weeks,”  I said. 

“We need to shut this down, Captain!  This is a threat to national security, and it’s a threat to our Ops.  How the hell did she find me out?”  Badass asked. 

I kept my mouth shut, Badass, Master Chief and the captain were all some heavy hitters in the SEAL community and didn’t get where they were today by being soft and gentle.  All three of them were Badass, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be in their way.  I briefly felt sorry for Bella Juarez.   My job was to report what I found on the Ops I was assigned to follow; that’s exactly what I did.  I didn’t dare add to the current crisis. 

“Well? How the hell are we shutting her fucking face?”  Badass demanded.

“Rock, I think we oughta wait and see where this goes,” Master Chief said. 

“Are you crazy?”  Badass whispered turning white as sheet.

I had never seen Badass so … scared.  I also couldn't believe that the Captain would seriously consider Master Chief’s suggestion but much to my surprise he was thinking about it.

“We really won’t know what’s in the book until it comes out.  Based on this excerpt we really don’t know if there is something that’s related to national security or an ongoing Op,”  the Captain said taking his seat.

“What!”  Badass yelled. 

“We can’t go around shutting people down just because they take aim at us Badass, you know that better than anyone,“  the captain said.

“This damn woman just laid open my life!  You can’t seriously be considering this.  Shut down the fucking publisher!  Crash the servers!  Do something!”  Badass demanded. 

“Aw, come on boy. It ain’t that bad, maybe it’s just all bullshit,"  Master Chief said. 

“That looked pretty real to me!”  Badass said. 

“Really?  Do you really go at it like that, damn what are you on?  You’re fucking like a bunny!”  Master Chief said. 

We started laughing; well, all of us except for Badass who didn’t see the humor in any of it.  He turned around and walked out. 

“Keep me posted, Dan,” the captain said chuckling. 

“It should be going up for pre-order pretty quick here, let us know when,” Master Chief said. 

“Pre-order?  You know the system, do you, JJ?”  The captain asked.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do, Rock.  Is there a problem?”  Master Chief said with his don't fuck with me look. 

The Captain laughed all over again.  It was hell keeping a straight face, but I managed.  Thank God for my training.  It was the only thing that kept me from dropping and rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.

“No problem, just wondering who your favorite author is up there,” Captain said.

“None of your fucking business!”  Master Chief snapped as he stomped out. 

There were a lot of tempers flaring today, and Bella Juarez was causing quite a stir here in our  Black Ops world.  We were supposed to be hidden and Bella was exposing us to the light of day.  I was wondering who was next on her hit list.  At this point we had to wait and see what Bella had coming for Badass.  Based on the excerpt, it wasn’t going to be pleasant for him.  There were some serious details in that glimpse we got today.  More to follow; the book was coming in December.

I wonder, can I breech Master Chief’s account up at Bookstrand and find out who his favorite author is?  Or, should I start digging deeper and see if I can get into Bella’s computer and dig around for an advance copy of her upcoming books?  What should I do?

I pondered these questions as I walked back to my office.  Where should I start?

Bella's on the Watch List

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