Exploited
Page 43

I sat up and stared at Rose. She spoke breathlessly. Passionately. It was the first real emotion I had ever heard in her voice.
“So they’re a bunch of criminals,” I deduced.
Rose’s face flushed red, her eyes flashing. “No! They’re not criminals. They’re crusaders! They wake this world up by exposing the real criminals!”
I held up my hands in a placating gesture. “Wow, okay. I get it.”
Rose shook her head and sat down at her desk. “No. You don’t. But maybe you should. Maybe that’s the way you can help Charlotte. And help a lot of other people too. Make the right people pay for what happened to your dad and sister.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. “By contacting the Lomaxians.”
“Not contacting the Lomaxians. But using their methods to do it yourself.”
I didn’t know what to say. It was one thing to change my grades. To take a few dollars off a bill. But to go full-scale cybercommando? I wasn’t sure I was cut out for that.
Rose waved me back over to her desk, pointing to her screen. She had pulled up a tech article about the Lomaxians. It detailed their latest exploit. How they had discovered hidden communications between high-ranking government officials involved in a child pornography ring. They sent the information to the authorities. They got some very bad people locked up. Even if the methods they used were illegal, they had done a good deed.
“And they never get caught, Hannah. They’re simply doing things the authorities can’t. Catching the bad guys.” Rose turned off her laptop.
I had to admit, what she was suggesting appealed to me. It filled me with a self-righteous fire. I was tired of feeling powerless. I was ready to do more. Be more.
“How do I contact someone in this group? Aren’t they all completely underground?”
Rose grinned, a wide, toothy smile that took me aback. I had never seen her like this. “You’re talking to one of them now,” she whispered.
My eyes widened. “You’re a Lomaxian?”
Rose nodded.
“Can I become a Lomaxian too?”
“Maybe you could become your own thing. A warrior for the cause. I could show you how. We could do it together. We could carve out a tiny piece of justice for those who deserve it.”
“Freedom for all, right?” I laughed, feeling giddy.
And just like that, Freedom Overdrive was born.
—
Rose had helped me get started. She had been my mentor. She showed me the ropes. And then things got complicated. More complicated than either of us felt comfortable with.
Emotions became heightened, and what had started as an intense, necessary relationship devolved into anger and accusation.
We stopped talking. I got a new roommate the following year of school and Rose transferred out of Virginia College. Without a word, she disappeared from my life.
I had tried to track her down on more than one occasion when I was feeling lonely and weak, but she didn’t want to be found.
We had been close, as close as two people can be, but it meant nothing in the end.
I hadn’t heard from her since the day she left our dorm room all those years ago.
Now she had decided to blow back into my life, expecting me to be the open book I used to be. Things had changed.
I had changed.
I didn’t need Rose anymore.
Or so I thought.
“They’re not talking about Freedom Overdrive, Hannah. They’re talking about you.”
That gave me pause and had me giving her my undivided attention. My anger, my bitterness, took a backseat.
“What are you saying?”
“Someone used your name in open chat. Hannah Whelan is Freedom Overdrive. I had to jump in and shut that shit down real fast. But someone knows.”
“Are you sure—?”
“Yes!” Rose yelled, her usual calm all but disappearing. “How did this happen, Hannah? How could you let yourself be exposed?”
—
“If you’re going to do this, Hannah, you have to protect yourself at all costs. That means you can’t tell anyone.”
Rose’s eyes were the most intense I had ever seen them.
“Not your mom. Not Charlotte. Not anyone.”
“Except you,” I said.
We sat cross-legged in the middle of our dorm room, our voices hushed. Excitement sizzled and popped inside of me.
“Except me. If you want this to work, you keep your mouth shut. You keep your nose to the ground. You are normal. You are aboveboard in all other things.” Rose clenched her hands into fists on her knees.
“Why me? Why are you trusting me like this?” I didn’t get why a girl who had built herself this top secret world had decided to let me in.
Rose didn’t answer me immediately. The noises from the hallway seemed far away.
“Because my instincts about people are never wrong. I’m not wrong about you.”
Rose gripped my hand in hers, so hard it hurt. “Don’t ever let me regret it.”
—
“I haven’t told anyone. I haven’t done anything wrong,” I protested.
I hated having to defend myself to her. To anyone.
I wasn’t some dumb kid who needed supervision. I had come a long way from that naive girl Rose had helped to mold.
What she was suggesting was ludicrous. It made absolutely no sense. I was always careful. No one could find me unless I wanted them to.
“You’re mistaken,” I said dismissively. But I felt panic. It blossomed in my gut even as I tried to tamp it down.
“I know what I saw. Don’t speak to me like I’m an idiot,” she snarled.
“What you’re saying is impossible,” I argued.
“Is it?”
Rose sounded sure. Too sure.
There was only one connection between my two worlds.
“Who have you been talking to?” I demanded, my voice icy hard.
I heard Rose’s quick intake of breath. “You think I would say something?”
“There’s no other way—”
“There’s a hundred other ways if someone is smart enough,” she snapped.
“I don’t have time for this crap,” I muttered, concerned in spite of myself.
How was this possible?
I had been so careful.
Painstakingly so.
I started to doubt. There wasn’t room for questions. For second-guessing.