[Sticks]

Episode IV – Going off Grid

Spoiler:

Sometimes things happen that we are unaware of, things that could come back to bite us.

Sarah Bentley has been falsely accused of involvement in the death of her brother and dealing in hard drugs. She has been shot at by assassins on motor bikes and by an elderly man who pretended to be a police surgeon after murdering a female police officer.

She has discovered that her best friend and her family have been murdered, and possibly one other friend.

She now believes it may have something to do with files on her brother’s encrypted memory stick that she took by mistake the previous evening.

She has now hooked up with Shaun Chapman, a friend of her brothers, unaware that a taxi driver who had appeared to be her saviour was not what he seemed, has planted some kind of tracking device on Sarah and has now been shot dead. She is also unaware that Shaun’s sister, mother and next door neighbour have also been murdered by the motorcycle assassins.

All she is aware of is that as she and her brother’s friend have reached the town of Bury on the East Lancashire Railway, someone has tipped of the police that she was on board...

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Sarah for a few seconds stood there transfixed and in terror. The police were there to pick her up, and with the deaths of another police officer involved in “her case” it was most likely be blamed on her like the first one, it did not look good.

Even with the high feelings against her from the police officers, there was the realisation that the phoney police surgeon meant that even if she were in police custody, the assassins would be able to get to her with no trouble or hindrance. Such was their reach and there gall

Sarah felt her arm being yanked backwards.

It was Shaun.

He had spotted the danger too and had obviously formulated a plan.

Sarah followed Shaun as he hurried back through the crowds back to the train, telling everyone that he had left something on the train. It was a lie of course but a very plausible one.

Shaun and Sarah reached the train as the last passengers getting of at Bury had left. Shaun pulled open the carriage door and pulled Sarah on to the train.

“Change of plan” Shaun said in a hurried tone, “It’s an orange day Sarah, the train goes all the way to Heywood”

“What about the ticket inspector” Sarah asked, amazed that of all things she might be done for fare dodging as well as murder”

“If it’s the same one we’ll say we got the wrong ticket and the booking hall here was too crowded and I’ll pay for extra tickets on the train” Shaun explained, “They sometimes take fares from those getting on at Summerseat anyway”

Sarah sat down and looked out at the carriage window. Her worry now was that the police would realise that she was not amongst the others passengers emerging upstairs and order the train to stop.

But who could have alerted the police?

The taxi driver? He would have seen the train departing in the direction of Bury so he would have known, but then he was adamant that he believed her and had a distinct lack of trust for the police, but then he did try and persuade them to go to Rochdale...

Shaun’s family? The mother seemed to be angry at Sarah for disrupting their lives, and Sarah felt guilty and silently accusing the mother of her brother’s friend of betrayal.

“Once we get to Heywood” Shaun went on, “we can cut through a housing estate and get a bus from Manchester road into Manchester”

“Ok” Sarah replied in a tense and uptight manner as she stared out of the window at the platform.

The guard blew his whistle and there was the sound of the diesel train starting up. For some reason the police had not realised in time that they were still on the train

The train started to pull out of Bury station. Now they would have to worry about the ticket inspector should he come round.

The train continued through the Lancashire country side, although this part was more urban than the Irwell valley. There were not many passengers on the train, since most people got off at Bury, the other main town on the route.

It seemed good fortune that they had not seen a ticket inspection by the time, a quarter of an hour later when the train finally arrived at Heywood station.

Sarah followed Shaun off onto the long platform. She was still worried that the police might be waiting for them here or worse, the assassins on the motorcycles.

The two of them left the station and climbed up the hill to the top of the road. From there they crossed a small paved area to get to Manchester Street and a bus stop next to an old style payphone.

Shaun peered at the bus time table while Sarah looked around, warily for police cars or motorcycles.

“We want the One six three Shaun announced, “That will take us to Piccadilly Gardens, near the coach station.”

Again Sarah gave a non committal “ok”, Shaun seemed to know what he was doing so she was just going along with whatever he said.

RING, RING

Sarah jumped with fright.

The telephone in phone box next to the bus stop was ringing.

“They’ve found us Shaun, They’ve found us” Sarah found herself shrieking.

Shaun approached the phone box, but before he got there, the phone rang off

“It could have been a wrong number” Shaun observed, “There is no way they should know we are here Sarah”.

Sarah then found herself clutching at Shaun’s arm as tears flowed down her face, due to the stress of the events over the last twenty four hours

Shaun had to be right – how could they know where they were?

For a brief moment Shaun held Sarah in his strong arms and it felt good to Sarah. Shaun may be a nerd just like her brother was, but somehow she found herself attracted to him.

NO! She was just frightened, it was not the time or place for mushy thoughts like that!

Shaun let go of Sarah as bus was coming.

Without thinking Sarah reached for Shaun’s hand, and instinctively they both held hands.

Momentarily Sarah was confused, was she really attracted to Shaun? Lauren, Shaun’s sister had warned her that Shaun fancied her and for some reason Sarah had decided to go braless because she wanted to please him. So maybe, Sarah fancied Shaun, just as much as he fancied her.

She could not help wonder what Trevor would have thought about it

Stop thinking like that!

Shaun hailed for the bus to stop with his free hand, but it was stopping anyway to let passengers off. It was a single decked bus.

The two of them let go of each other’s hand, and for the moment the spell over Sarah was broken. Shaun paid for the tickets in cash, since according to him that was almost difficult to track.

The bus was pretty full with commuters going into Manchester, so Sarah and Shaun stood in the aisle with other commuters as the bus continued into the city.

Neither of them felt like speaking and at Shaun’s insistence, they made sure their faces were turned from the bus’ on board CCTV cameras.

Every time the bus either passed or was passed by a police car or a motorcycle Sarah felt anxious

The bus pulled into Middleton bus station and a large number of passengers got off

Shaun motioned for Sarah to go to the back of the bus and Sarah meekly did as she was directed, again Shaun’s authoritative tone somehow appealed to Sarah, but she did not know why. The two of them sat in the back right corner of the bus; with Shaun insisting that Sarah sat by the window seat.

There were still people getting on, including a woman with a pram, but they seemed to be more to the front of the bus.

Sarah gazed at the woman with the pram, and for an instant wished she too had a baby, maybe a baby with…

NO! Snap out of it! How could she even think about such things with her brother in the morgue along with who knows how many of her friends, murdered at the hands of they motorcycle assassins.

Shaun put an arm around Sarah and leant over to whisper to her, “You do realise we are going to have to go off grid”
“What?” Sarah asked in puzzlement
“You’ve never heard that term before?” Shaun asked with incredulity
“Is it something to do with the electricity supply?” Sarah asked in all innocence.

Shaun shook his head and gave a small moan

Sarah immediately felt bad, it was obviously something she should know, but she had never heard the term, not even from Trevor.

“You know how they tracked you down via your mobile?” Shaun asked

Sarah nodded

“And how they cut Lauren off at the dentists?” Shaun went on
“Yeah”

“Every aspect of our lives is controlled and monitored by various computers and databases some owned by the government and some owned by private corporations. Our government and the American government have the ability to link all these together to track anyone, anywhere” Shaun explained in a menacing tone to underline the gravity of what he was saying

Sarah had heard this mentioned in passing before, but then it had been a So what issue then

Shaun continued “You switch on a mobile phone and you send out a signal to say where you are. Even if your phone does not have a GPS chip, they can triangulate where you are from known cell towers. Every time you use a debit or a credit card in a shop, online or in a hole in the wall, you let the powers that be know where you are and what you are doing. Every time you use a store loyalty card like Nectar you let the powers that be know where you are and what you are buying. Tie that in with CCTV and other means of tracking like those Oyster Cards in London say and the government can use these as implements of the state to carry out covert surveillance and control all of our lives”

Sarah felt shocked by what Shaun was saying. He sounded almost as paranoid as Trevor with his talk of conspiracies, but what was terrifying was that whoever the killers were, it seemed that what Shaun was talking about, these implements of the state as he put it was right and these killers were controlling them.”

Were these killers government assassins?

What had her brother stumbled across

“So” Shaun went on, “The only way to defeat these people is by what we call going off grid”

Sarah shook her head slightly in puzzlement

“It means Sarah” Shaun explained further “We avoid doing anything that might trigger an entry in any database. We only use cash and we never use any ATMs. You do not use any mobiles and if you have to make a phone call, you use a payphone in the street and don’t stay on longer than a minute and then you get as far away from it as possible. You do not sign any document, petition or register. Effectively we have to be ghosts. We have to disappear from the system so they can not detect or track you in any way shape or form. That is going off Grid”

Sarah gulped and the magnitude of such a venture. It seemed impossible to her.

The very bus they were on had CCTV and would have taken a picture of their faces as they boarded the bus.

The streets were full of CCTV cameras, some owned by private companies, some used by the police.

The sheer idea that these items could be implements of control and terror was hitting home, and then Sarah’s mind went back to the night before and her failed trip to Manchester

“I think I did that by accident last night” Sarah whispered
“What do you mean?” Shaun asked quietly

“When I went into Manchester last night,” Sarah continued “I didn’t put my phone on at all Shaun. I only used it when I was in the taxi and we were passing Bury Market on Angouleme Way, as or the ATM I tried to use one at Victoria but it swallowed my card”

“They were waiting for you” Shaun replied

Sarah looked into Shaun’s eyes, “But if I had had my phone one” she started

“They would have caught and killed you last night just like they did to Trevor” Shaun interrupted

“But Vicky?” Sarah protested, “I killed Vicky and her family”
“How do you work that one out Sarah?” Shaun asked, “Because that’s a load of crap”
“Shaun, they obviously thought I was round her house which they probably tracked down because I listed Vicky along with Jessica and others as friends on my Myspace page”

“Sarah” Shaun said with some force, “You have not killed anyone, those b*****ds working for the shadow government have”

“And all because of this stupid thing” Sarah said angrily and in tears as she pulled out her brother’s Ion Key memory stick

“Sarah” Shaun said softly as he took the memory stick, “If they think this is worth killing for, then that’s all the more reason to expose this conspiracy. I mean did Woodward and Bernstein quit?”

“Who?” Sarah asked in a confused tone.
“You never heard of Woodward and Bernstein?” Shaun asked with incredulity

Again Sarah shook her head, “Are they friends of yours?” She asked in all innocence

Shaun slightly shook his head and handed Sarah back the memory stick, “You are so funny sometimes Sarah, that’s what I like about you” he told her, “They were only the reporters on the Washington Post that broke the story of Watergate that brought down Richard Nixon the thirty seventh president of the United states of America”

Then without warning, Shaun kissed Sarah on the lips.

Sarah grasped Shaun’s right shoulder gently with her left hand and closed her eyes.

Sarah had never been kissed before like this, but in the circumstances it seemed all so wrong, so why was she going along with it.

The bell on the bus rang out to indicate it was stopping and once again the moment between the two was broken and the two separated.

“I’m sorry” Shaun apologised
“I liked it” Sarah admitted coyly and then without warning was overcome with the emotion of guilt, “I’m sorry Trevor, I’m sorry Vicky” Sarah whispered before dissolving into tears.

Shaun put his left arm around Sarah, “I don’t think they would mind love” he told Sarah gently, “We will bring to justice those who killed them” he said with determination.

The two of them sat on the back of the bus as it drove through the suburbs into the Manchester City Centre and then finally into Manchester Piccadilly Gardens

Shaun then lead Sarah by the hand to a coffee shop so they could use a toilet, and because Sarah had not eaten since the day before.

Sarah had never been in this chain before, in fact she seldom went into these places as she assumed they were all about beatniks listening to old jazz records wearing black berets.

After Sarah came out from using the coffee stores toilet, she joined Shaun as he was buying a medium latte for himself and for Sarah a hot chocolate and two sausage baps.

The two of them then sat down opposite each other at a table.

Sarah glanced at the receipt, the amount looked huge to her, but then she really only ever ate in the subsidised canteen at the college in Bury to save money.

“Will we have enough for the coach?” Sarah asked

“We should do love” Shaun replied as he tucked into his sausage bap, “I have a dummy email account I haven’t used for a while which I can use to book us on one of those Mega Buses using my notebook and the WiFi they have here”

“Won’t they trace your computer?” Sarah asked, “And how are you going to pay for it if they can track credit cards like you said they could”

“Not really” Shaun replied, “All they would trace back to here is the IP address of this shop’s WiFi, As for paying”

Shaun stopped and swore quietly, and put his hands to his face, “Both I forgot Megabus only use credit cards, not PayPal. Going off Grid is harder then it sounds. Shame, it would only have been a tenner for the pair of us, I see what the cost is on National Express site, given the number of hits on that site, I doubt they will zero in on us”

“How do you know that” Sarah interrupted, “That it would be a tenner”

Shaun stopped eating and looked Sarah in the eye, guilt all over his face. “Trevor emailed me two days ago and asked me to look it up. He didn’t say why. He just wanted the cheapest way to get to London. He said that was not his final destination just that once he got down there, then he would go to wherever he was headed”

“And he never told me” Sarah said angrily, “His own sister” she added raising her voice.

“I didn’t know he hadn’t said anything Sarah” Shaun answered back, “I assumed he was booking your holidays and I could not work out why he did not look that stuff up himself”

Sarah shook her head in disbelief, “Shaun, what was my brother into?” Sarah asked point blank holding up her brother’s memory stick

“I don’t know” Shaun replied, “I’ll have a look at the National express website after we have eaten, so we can get away from here sharpish, just in case”

Sarah just sat there shaking her head in shock and had to be told to eat by Shaun.

As soon as the pair had finished, eating Shaun pulled out his notebook computer and switched it on.

“I just hope they aren’t looking this way” Shaun muttered.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shaun closed down the notebook computer and then looked at his watch.

“We need to go now” He told Sarah as he put his computer in his bag, “There’s a coach down to London at eleven which seems to be only nine pounds”

Sarah looked at her watch; it was not that long to go. She picked up her bag and followed Shaun out of the coffee shop, again looking for motorcyclists just in case the assassins had found her.

Sarah then found herself following Shaun at a quick pace as they headed through the streets of Manchester, finally arriving at Chorlton where the central coach station was.

Sarah followed Shaun into the booking hall as they queued to buy tickets.

Again the queue seemed to move slowly, especially as there was an Indian lady in front who seemed intent on not understanding anything the lady on the booking desk was trying to tell her

Finally another desk opened up and Shaun and Sarah moved over to that desk and Shaun asked for two tickets to London on the eleven o’clock service.

“That will be fifty six pounds” the lady on the desk told Shaun

“But on your website” Shaun began to complain
“That’s on the website if you are booking in advance sir” the lady on the desk told him, “Buying from here you don’t get those deals”

Shaun glowered at the lady at the desk.

Sarah pulled out the last remaining thirty pounds from her purse that she had been given by the lady at the night club the previous evening and offered it to Shaun.

“Put your money away Sarah, I’ve got it” Shaun told Sarah and pulled out his wallet

Sarah put the money back in her purse and felt guilty

“And we need a name and address sir” the lady at the desk said.

“Why?” Shaun asked

“Anti terrorism legislation” the lady said without batting an eye, “It was bought in last year. All cash sales need to be recorded”

“Patrick Brown and this is my girlfriend Emma Tupper” Shaun lied, “We both live together in Tooting” he added
“Address?” The lady at the desk pressed.
“Shaun gave a number on a street
“Postcode?” The lady at the desk asked
Shaun then rolled off a SW17 post code

The lady punched in the details and then printed out the tickets and handed them across.

Shaun took the tickets and lead Sarah out into the concourse where the coaches were loading and unloading

“Is that a real address?” Sarah asked

“Yeah” Shaun smirked, “It’s a kebab shop I once knew when I did a course in London a few years back. I always thought it might be useful should I ever need to give a false address”

“I liked the way you told her I was your girlfriend” Sarah smiled
“Jobs yours if you want it Sarah” Shaun replied

“Really?” Sarah asked in surprise as she stopped walking

Shaun turned around and then put his hands on Sarah’s shoulders, “Sure, why do you think I kept coming round to your place”
“To see Trevor?” Sarah asked cautiously

Shaun shook his head, “That as well” he admitted, “You caught my eye, because you were so different from your brother, but I just never found the courage before to speak to you and you’re only seventeen”
“In some cultures Shaun we would be married with kids” Sarah replied cheekily then just for a tease, “I think you would be an excellent dad”
“And you would be a wonderful mother” Shaun reciprocated and then he kissed Sarah and held her in his arms, and the two hugged each other and kissed.

The two let go of each other and found the bay where their coach was supposed to be, where they joined up with other fellow passengers.

A number of them were students or pensioners. Shaun looked at his watch and told Sarah to wait in the queue whilst he got something from a stall nearby that catered for travelling people.

As Sarah was waiting for Shaun to return could not help but look up at the ceiling at a CCTV camera nearby that seemed to be pointed in her direction and wonder if the killers were already in it, sending the motorcycle assassins to kill her and Shaun.

The camera seemed to grow in menace as she stared transfixed at it. It seemed as if the camera was getting closer and closer ready to devour her

“Sarah” Shaun said sharply

The spell of the camera shattered and Sarah turned around to face Shaun

“I wouldn’t stare at those things if I were you Sarah” Shaun chided Sarah, “You don’t know what facial recognition software is out there examining every feed from every camera”

“Oh sorry” Sarah said, feeling ashamed, “I told them where we are haven’t I”

Shaun hugged Sarah again, “Maybe not, there’s thousands of those things dotted across the region” Shaun said quietly

Shaun released Sarah and then handed her a pair of sunglasses and a green woollen hat. “Put these on” he told her, “It might help disguise your appearance a bit”

Sarah took the items and put them on. Now she really looked the part of a wanted fugitive, something that both thrilled her and sickened her.

Shaun put on an almost identical hat and sunglasses

Then it really hit home that these two were on the run from what could be some covert government agency trying to cover up something that Sarah’s murdered brother had stumbled across. But what?

Then the coach arrived and began loading up. Shaun stowed some of their bags in the luggage bay of the coach but kept onto his notebook computer and then ushered Sarah into the coach.

So far no motorcycle assassins or police officers

Sarah and Shaun sat at the back of the coach next to the onboard toilet and Sarah had the window seat.

Then the doors closed and they were on their way as the coach pulled out of the Chorlton Street coach station.

“The first stop for this coach Sarah is Manchester Airport” Shaun told her as he peered through a time table after the coach had left the coach station, “When we leave there the next stop will be Milton Keynes at half past two, so after we leave the airport I will have a closer look at that memory stick of Trevor’s”

“OK” Sarah nodded as she kept a wary eye out of he window, looking for motorcycle assassins

Maybe they had done enough to shake them off, but who were they?

The coach travelled through the streets on Manchester and headed past Moss Side and Sarah could not help wondering if she would ever see her village of Tottington again, especially as Shaun had bought single tickets and not returns

More to the point, would the people of Tottington will ever accept her back, especially if the police were convinced she was responsible for his death and into dealing with methamphetamine.

As the coach got onto the M56 motorway several motorcyclists came up from behind the coach and started driving passed.

Sarah gasped and looked at them in terror; however they drove off after overtaking the coach.

“You ok?” Shaun asked
“Every time I see a motorcyclist I keep expecting it to be them” Sarah explained in a terrified whisper

“That’s because you were shot at by them?” Shaun asked
“Maybe” Sarah admitted.

The rest of the journey down the motorway was without incident and the two of them sat in relative silence as they held hands.

The coach pulled into Manchester airport and a number of people got off, while some got on.

Sarah stared at the newcomers intently; afraid that either the police might come to arrest her or worse, the assassins may have tracked her down using those “implements of the state” Shaun had referred to and would take her out here in public. Since sending one of them into a police station brazenly posing as a police surgeon showed how ruthless they were

After what seemed like an excruciating wait, the coach started up again and headed from the terminal, leaving Manchester Airport behind.

Next stop would be Milton Keynes

“So will we get another coach to this Leeds Castle when we get into London?” Sarah asked.

“I’m not sure” Shaun replied, “As we are not due into London until twenty past four, given what traffic is like, it may be getting on so I will have to see what the time table is like for coaches there. We may have to take a train to get down there” Shaun then paused, “There is one complication, Mam only had so much cash and I had been counting on getting a cheaper ticket than what we were sold.”

Shaun had a point about the money side of things, and Sarah thought back to her abortive trip to the night club the previous day when she was trying to get money to pay of debts by becoming a stripper.

“Shaun” Sarah ventured, “Maybe we can find a strip club or something down in London” Sarah suggested, “And I could...” she tried to continue

“NO!” Shaun interrupted angrily

“I don’t like it either” Sarah said defensively, “but it’s what I was prepared to do to try and keep the house Shaun, and you say we’re short of cash”

Shaun put an arm around Sarah, “There has to be another way love” he said quietly, “I don’t want all those sleazy men in grey overcoats gawping and leering at you”
“But we need money” Sarah protested, “And you’ve done so much I need to do something to pull my weight”

“I’ll try and come up with something” Shaun said quietly, “Anyway” he went on, “Didn’t you say that strip club in Manchester would not touch you because they said you were under age?”

“I thought in London they would care so much about that” Sarah replied

Shaun gave Sarah a hug and the two rested their heads together.

After a while the coach got onto a motorway and Shaun pulled out his notebook computer and switched it on. Within minutes the small computer was connected up to the internet through the coach’s mobile WiFi connection.

Sarah glanced at it, “Will that give us away?” she nervously asked
“I hope not” Shaun replied, “Not the way I configured it a while back, now pass me that memory stick”

Sarah pulled out the metal memory stick and handed it to Shaun. “I think it’s called an IronKey” Sarah told Shaun

Shaun pulled off the top of the pen drive and examined it. “These are top of the range for encrypted memory sticks Sarah, so you have to be careful with these things” Shaun commented, “These are password protected and on some models like these you only have a certain number of tries before it locks up completely and destroys the data. A few years back a previous government got it’s personnel to use them for transporting data so that if any walked, the tabloids didn’t find out what was on them.”

“But I have no idea what the password is” Sarah told Shaun

Shaun continued to examine the memory stick, “The typical password some tried in the past usually tended to be names of those who were close to them, or birthdates. Any decent hacker who researched their target would have a fighting chance of cracking the password”

“Do you think Trevor would have done that?” Sarah asked

Shaun shook his head, “Trevor was just as hot on password and data security as I am, I don’t think he would have been that stupid”

“He gave me one but I never changed the password” Sarah told Shaun as she looked at the memory stick in his hands.

“I don’t think he would have done that” Shaun replied

“So how do we hack into that? Sarah asked

“With great difficulty” Shaun answered, “Some years ago a number of other encrypted memory sticks that the US government approved we shown to have been hacked due to a vulnerability” Shaun went on, “Unfortunately it is not one that this brand suffered from, which is probably why Trevor went with this brand, although they can cost up to about eighty quid”

“What?” Sarah said angrily, “We were barely able to pay our bills and Trevor was wasting money on memory sticks”

After a moment Sarah then asked, “So we can’t hack in to see what Trevor was working on?”

“That is what the manufacturers would like us to believe” Shaun said cryptically.
“What do you mean?” Sarah enquired

Shaun looked out of the window at the passing cars on the motorway, “The rumour was a few years back, that the National Security Agency in the US insisted that companies using encryption or manufacturing encryption and encrypted devices would not be granted a license unless they put in what used to be called a backdoor. Some say it was part of the US Patriot Act

Shaun put the cap back on the memory stick and showed Sarah the stick close up, “Do you see that number?” he asked

Sarah peered at a barely visible string of letters and numbers engraved on the memory stick. She had never noticed them before.

“That Sarah” Shaun explained, “Is this memory stick’s serial number, and somewhere in either the company’s system or the NSA system will be details of this memory stick’s backdoor”

“And you can hack into them?” Sarah asked with incredulity

“Who do you think taught Trevor to break into remote computers?” Shaun said with pride
“So you’re the one to blame” Sarah retorted and pulled away from him as best she could, “It was his hacking that got him killed along with Vicky, her family and who knows who else?” she said accusingly

“Sarah, it was a long while ago and it was just basic stuff” Shaun protested, “The rest Trevor figured for himself. Initially my hacking was actually at the request of mates who owned the machines we hacked. Originally we were meant to be white hat hackers”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked

“What I used to do along with Trevor was to test the security of systems” Shaun explained, “We looked for weak points in systems and helped those who ran them, mostly charities or pressure groups to improve their data security”

“I find that hard to believe Shaun” Sarah went on, “My brother was always claiming how he was trying to hack into the CIA or MI6 or some other place like that”

“Yeah” Shaun admitted, “Your brother did seem to have some odd ideas after a while, but like I said, I visited him so I could see you Sarah. I left the security system testing when your brother started going off on his bizarre crusades and concentrated on repairing systems. Anyway Sarah, there is no way we could get through the NSA systems nowadays, nor would I even try, it would be too dangerous, but the manufacturer might be another matter. We might even find this Doctor H character”

“But if Trevor had never had got into hacking in the first place” Sarah went on, “none of this would have happened”

“If he hadn’t come to me Sarah” Shaun replied, “He would have gone elsewhere. He was interested in hacking before I gave him those basics and I hoped I would get him to channel it into a security testing business I hoped to set up so we could make some real money and learn about some real cool systems”

“No way he would settle for that” Sarah admitted, “He was always into strange causes and conspiracy theories”
“And he got me into some of those conspiracy theories too” Shaun told Sarah, “It seemed the best way to keep in with your brother”

“I know” Sarah interrupted, “So you had an excuse to see me” she said rolling her eyes, “you could have just said Shaun, I don’t think Trevor would have cared” Sarah went on, “I ended up missing out on our end of Totty High disco because I could not get a date. I had my brother tell them I had the flu”

“I’m sorry” Shaun apologised, “You’re parents were still alive then and…”

“Say no more” Sarah interrupted again, before going quiet.

“I miss them so much” Sarah whispered before bursting out crying, “All I had was Trevor and now he’s gone as well” Sarah sobbed

Shaun put his arm around Sarah and hugged her.

Shaun glanced at his notebook. The Wifi connection from the coach seemed to have gone down and so he commented that it was off.

“Oh no!” Sarah cried out tearfully, “They’re onto us”
“What do you mean?” Shaun asked with concern in his voice

“They have the ability to kill cell phones and land lines” Sarah said, looking at the notebook in terror.

“It’s just the coach’s Wifi” Shaun reassured her, “They are notoriously unreliable sometimes. We’re probably in a dead spot”

Shaun handed Sarah back her brother’s IronKey and closed down his notebook, “I suppose there is not much I can do here Sarah” he told Sarah softly, “I want to be at someplace with a more reliable connection if I want to penetrate a corporate system. They may be easier than the NSA, but it won’t be by much, since they trade on data security”

Shaun put away his notebook in his case and then turned to Sarah, “So what should we do now?” he asked as he turned in his seat to face Sarah as best as he could.

Sarah looked down the coach to make sure the coast was clear, and then had a playful thought.

Sarah gently took Shaun’s free right hand, as his left was around her shoulder, and she pulled his hand under her top and up to her left breast, so she could feel his fingers on her left nipple. Then she guided his hand so it was on her right breast and let go of his hand and pulled her hand out.

“Go on” she whispered, “have a feel. I want you too” she added in a serious tone

Sarah felt his hand lightly caress her right breast before withdrawing his hand from her top and gently pulling the bottom of her top down.

“Do you like them?” Sarah asked cheekily

“Oh Yeah” Shaun admitted,

Forgetting where she was for a moment, Sarah crossed her arms and grabbed at the bottom of her top. For one moment she so wanted to pull it off and hold her body against Shaun’s like that, but Shaun guessed what was on her mind and gently grabbed Sarah’s hands
“I don’t think we could get away with that here” he said before kissing Sarah quickly, before adding, “maybe later” and then he kissed her passionately.

Sarah felt really embarrassed at what she had almost done She was so glad that Shaun was such a gentleman, maybe he was marriage material?

MARRIAGE MATERIAL? – Why was she thinking like that at a time like this– Suddenly Sarah felt guilty at what she had done, and in public too, no matter that fortunately nobody had seen them. What was getting into her?

For much of the journey the two of them sat hand in hand, sometimes in silence.

If only Shaun had been more forthright Sarah kept wishing, then she would have had a boyfriend and not been the butt of some accusations a few of the school bullies had made up about her orientation.

On the odd occasion a motorcycle passed the coach, and Sarah could not help but watch it, just in case.

It seemed all too easy now getting away like this.

Would the police still be searching for her around the Bolton Street railway station, or even in Ramsbottom.

How many more of her friends had been murdered?

Occasionally she would look at her brother’s memory stick and try and guess what her brother would have picked as a password. If Shaun was right, it would not be the obvious ones people chose, so a password of her name or that of their dead parents would definitely be out. Too easy to crack according to Shaun

The coach arrived at Milton Keynes and people got on and off, and still they were ignored.

Again it was all too easy and Sarah kept waiting for “The other shoe to drop”

The coach reached the outskirts of London and it seemed to Sarah that they had go away with this “Going off Grid” Shaun has mentioned.

Shaun made sure Sarah was wearing the sunglasses and the woollen hat as the coach pulled into Victoria coach station.

Sarah also noted that there were several police officers wandering the coach station, some of them armed officers.

“They’re onto us” Sarah whispered to Shaun
“They could be just routine anti-terror police” Shaun whispered back, “This is the principal coach station in London so they are bound to think it might be a target”

Sarah just held her breath as the coach pulled into the bay. She was expecting the police to board the coach as soon as it stopped, but they seemed to be patrolling.

Maybe they were waiting for them to get off before they were arrested.

Nervously Sarah followed and the other passengers as they filed out of the coach. At Shaun’s insistence Sarah looked down and not out at the police officers patrolling outside, as this would attract their attention.

As they got out of the coach, they walked hand in hand to the luggage bays where the driver was unloading the coach. Other passengers were there, looking for their luggage too. Sarah just kept looking at the bags in the coach’s luggage bay, fighting the temptation to look up at the police officers. They had to act as natural as possible and blend in.

Shaun spotted their bags and pointed to them so the driver could see them. The driver handed the bags over and Shaun grabbed them and ushered Sarah away.

Neither of them noticed a man in his late fifties with a short hair cut talking into a cell phone as he watched them, out of site.

The two left the coach station and looked across at the Victoria railway station.

“Is this the station for trains to Kent?” Sarah asked
“I believe so” Shaun replied, “Unfortunately I doubt we have the cash reserves to get down there by train and there next coach is not until tomorrow”

“What about my money?” Sarah asked and pulled out the thirty pounds she still had from the previous evening.

“That may still not be enough” Shaun replied, “Well not for the train anyway. It may help with the coach, but we would have to find somewhere to stay”

“How far is Soho from here?” Sarah asked

“Forget it Sarah” Shaun said sternly, “You’re not becoming a stripper”
“I’ve got a body” Sarah protested, “The least I can do is to use it to…”

“No!” Shaun insisted, “Besides, we need to drop out of site. Parading naked in front of perverts is not the way to do it. Remember that is the essence of going off grid. We drop out of site and out of the radar of whoever killed Trevor and set you up”

“If only I could get hold of my bank account” Sarah said in frustration, then looking Shaun in the eyes reminded him about the forty thousand pounds she had been told had be paid into it.

“Banks have improved their security a bit since I last hacked into one with Trevor” Shaun told her
“Was that one of your client?” Sarah asked

“Not that time” Shaun admitted, “I was looking for a place for a bank account and I wanted to do one of my own security checks and found their security sucked. Needless to say I went with another bank”

“So could you hack into my bank account and get at that money?” Sarah pressed
“If we did that Sarah” Shaun explained, “They would find us on a back trace in no time flat. Like I said, security around bank computers has increased and they are forever on the lookout for cyber attacks.”

“Then there’s only one way for us to make any money so we can stay somewhere for the night” Sarah insisted.

Shaun placed both his hands on her shoulders, “I’m not happy with that Sarah. You’re far too young”

“Shaun I’m almost eighteen” Sarah retorted
“It’s not in this part of London anyway”
“Do we have enough to go there?”

“Sarah why this obsession about being a stripper?” Shaun snapped.

“I went into Manchester last night because my friend Vicky said it was the only way someone like me could get money at the time and we really needed it just like we do now” Sarah whined defensively.

Shaun sighed and to Sarah it seemed that he was finally coming around to the only plan she had for making money so they could try and find out what was in Kent and who this Doctor H was, but that did not mean that he had to like it.

“Yardoz forty nine” Shaun suddenly called out.

“What?” Sarah said with incomprehension

“It’s a contact on Twitter” Shaun replied, “I stayed with him a while back. He lived in London at the time”

“Does he still live down here?” Sarah asked

“I could find out” Shaun smiled, “He’s always on line. Some people told me those who are on Facebook are sad, I sad they ought to think of those on Twitter”

“What about this going off grid thing?” Sarah then asked, “If we are not to leave this electronic trail you mentioned wont they track us down and possibly him?”

“He uses a special proxy server” Shaun replied, “and if I use a cyber café nearby we already have an agreed procedure we worked out should we ever find ourselves in this situation.”

“Oh” was all Sarah could reply. She had no idea what a proxy server was. She just used whatever computer was to hand and had never had to worry about such things before.

Shaun grabbed Sarah’s hand as they headed towards a cybercafé that he knew of.

To Sarah it seemed as if this were a second home to Shaun, but by his own admission had done a course a few years back. What in Shaun never said. To Sarah, this was an alien world. She had never been anywhere more exotic than possibly Bolton. Even when their parents were alive, they never really went away on holiday, as according to her late father there was so much to see and do in their own back yard, so why add to your carbon footprint.

So this was the first time she had ever left the Grater Manchester area and her first time in the capital city of London.

They entered the cybercafé and Shaun paid a sum of money to the person at the counter to look at one of the computers. He wanted to save the battery on his notebook.

Sarah followed behind.

Shaun suddenly stopped in front of the computer terminal and swore

Sarah was confused and was just able to sneak a peek at the screen in front of them.

It was on the BBC News Site and was leading on the slaying of four people in Ramsbottom.

Sarah watched as Shaun clicked the news story and to her horror saw the story.

Shaun’s younger sister and his mother and a neighbour had reportedly been shot dead and the car they were in blown up by a grenade. There was even the report of the execution style murder of a taxi driver.

As Shaun scrolled down through the story there was a picture of Sarah herself. Wanted for murder of her brother and possible involvement in what was obviously the most vicious feud between two warring drug gangs. What was even more shocking was that the picture of Sarah was one of the topless shots Vicky had done, where Sarah had covered her breasts with her hands. That shot had been on her memory stick.

Whoever sent the press that photo had killed not only her brother but Shaun’s remaining family too.

There was no way Shaun would want to help her now, since she was obviously responsible for the deaths of Shaun’s younger sister and mother.

Shaun had been the only real chance of having a decent boyfriend and it had been ruined.

“I’m sorry Shaun, I’ll go” Sarah sobbed, turned and hurried out of the cybercafé leaving Shaun behind

As tears streamed down her face she just wanted to keep walking and she had no idea where she would end up. All she knew was that Shaun would now hate her for the rest of her life for what she and possibly her brother had caused to happen to his family, and rightly so. What ever her brother Trevor had stumbled across, Sarah was now doomed to bring death to those who knew her.

Maybe if she could find this River Thames and throw herself in. Maybe she could jump under a tube train and then it would be over

Suddenly someone gripped her shoulder from behind firmly.

Sarah was terrified

Had the police finally tracked her down to London so quickly? The people at the coach station at Chorlton Street Manchester must have been suspicious.

Sarah turned around and looked up into the steel grey eyes of a man in his late fifties, with cropped grey hair.

“Going somewhere Miss Tupper?” the man said in an American accent, “Or should that be Miss Bentley?”

To be continued…