The sergeant flipped another cigarette out his window. He reached for his thermos and poured another cup of coffee. Being on a stake out on his own time wasn't the most relaxing way to spend time away from work, but Sergeant Brown had a hunch. Ever since he almost blew a gasket at the fools from the NSA when they opened fire at the Jeep at Javan's house, his mind had been working in overtime. Somehow, it was all linked together ... the Jeep, the disappearance of Daniel, and then Teri and finally Javan. And just for icing on the cake, the owner of the Jeep hadn't shown up to work.

Finding the Jeep had been a fluke. He had quickly noted the tag number while it was making its getaway. Later, back at police headquarters, he put the Jeep on the department watch list and listed it as wanted for questioning concerning a missing person report. Some of the officers work part time security jobs at the airport. While on routine patrol in the Economy Parking area, an officer found the Jeep. Now it was up to Sergeant Brown.

Another Marlboro Light cigarette hit the pavement as the hefty sergeant stepped out of his unmarked patrol car. He looked around quickly and stepped to the rear of the vehicle. The coffee was having an effect on his bladder. He fished out his dick and took a piss. As he shook the last drops off, headlights from an approaching car flashed across his face. He quickly zipped up and moved out of sight between the cars. The approaching vehicle slowed and stopped right in front of the sergeant's car. The occupants got out and the driver left. Just as they were making their way toward the Jeep, the sergeant made his move.

"I see Daniel Simon isn't quite as missing as some people think," he said loudly.

"This guy doesn't know anything," the guard commented to his partner who only nodded in agreement. They helped the half-conscious man back to his cell and roughly threw him on the cold concrete floor. The metal door was slammed shut and bolted.

"Did you see him jump when they hit him with the cattle prod?" one guard asked chuckling to himself.

"On that was nothing. You were out of the room when Marco literally beat the shit out him. The fucker fell on the floor and messed himself. It was the funniest thing I ever saw."

That was the last thing the guard remembered as the knight stick hit him over the head. The other guard was quickly subdued, handcuffed and silenced with a strip of duct tape across his mouth.

The swat team members moved silently through the complex and in less than ten minutes, all the rogue NSA agents had been arrested. The paramedics were quickly called in.

Sergeant Brown puffed away at another Marlboro Light cigarete as he watched the stretcher come out of the door. After Daniel, Cody, Teri and Timmy had explained what was going on with Javan, the sergeant knew his stake out had paid off handsomely. Not only was Javan saved, but the rogue NSA agents had been arrested. He looked up into the moonless night sky, watched the jet roar overhead and smiled to himself.

A few minutes later, the swat team escorted their prisoners out of the door. Most of the men were able to walk on their own, but a few had to be helped. The sergeant walked over and stopped them before they were put into the waiting van. One of the swat team members held up a cattle prod.

"Looks like these guys were into torture." The sergeant looked at the cattle prod and then looked back up at the leader of the rogue agents ... the same one he had the confrontation with in Javan's driveway.

"It's a good thing all these swat team members are here, 'cause if they weren't, I'd stick that cattle prod straight up your ass and super glue the button to the on position!" Before the man had a chance to respond, the sergeant hit him hard in the groin with his knee. The leader buckled and fell to the ground. "You're doin' hard time fucker. Nobody, and I mean nobody gets away with this kind of shit in my town."

Timmy came walking back from the flight deck smiling. He joined his friends around the conference table as Amy was serving the evening meal. Tender slices of pork tenderloin adorned each plate along with red skin potatoes and baked apples. A Caesar salad was beside each plate as well. The fine bone china, sterling flatware and crystal goblets spoke of the regal transportation the Concorde truly was.

"Ray says we should be back in London by eleven, UK time, and that's a full hour ahead of our original schedule. We'll have plenty of time to get to the Camel before it closes." Timmy positively beamed with the news. He wanted to help his new friends and he had done it in first class style. It wasn't his intention to flaunt his considerable wealth, but time was of the essence and the Concorde had filled the bill perfectly.

"Timmy," started Daniel. "Thank you very much. I can't tell you how much this means."

"It's not me you should be thanking. It's that bloody sergeant. I've never met an officer like him."

"I wish you could have seen your face, Teri," smirked Cody.

"What?"

"My dear, when he called out, you looked like a deer caught in the headlights."

"No worse than you."

"Ok, you two. He scared the shit out of all of us," said Daniel. Then he took a bite of pork and turned to Timmy. "This is delicious." Teri reached across the table and slapped his arm.

"Didn't your momma teach you any table manners? What kind of childhood ..." She stopped in mid-sentence, realizing her blunder. "Sorry," she said quietly.

"It's cool, Teri. We're aboard a Concorde Jet crossing the Atlantic on our way to London. We're enjoying a wonderful meal with good friends. As far as Stan is concerned, I'll put his precious little black box at the café and we'll even go to Belfast." He looked at Timmy who nodded in agreement while taking a bite of salad. "But we're gonna figure out the purpose of these black boxes, we're gonna figure out how Stan knows our every move and we're gonna find that fat bastard and send his hairy ass to prison for the rest of his life."

"Here, here," chimed in Cody holding up his glass. "A toast!" Everyone stopped and raised their glasses. "A toast to ..." Cody blushed but continued, "... the man I'm falling in love with." The ring of crystal against crystal rang through the luxurious cabin.

"Amy told me she changed the sheets, so if you're so inclined ..." Timmy chuckled as both Daniel and Cody blushed.

"Can I watch?" asked Teri just before she broke out in a fit of giggles.

"No, you can't," said Timmy with a very serious face. She turned to look at him. "You'll be busy." Now it was Teri's turn to blush.

The Concorde glided smoothly down to the runway. The foursome hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel to retrieve a black box for installation at the Electric Camel. The mood that had been light became somber as their thoughts turned to how to get the box installed without being caught. Lying just a bit deeper in their thoughts was the ever present question of what the boxes do. That question was accompanied with the unwavering desire to find Stan and put a stop to all of this. Daniel was particularly keen on finding Stan and finally bringing him to justice for what he had done. Kidnapping ten and eleven year old boys and making them have sex in front of a camera was bad enough, but then to actually torture and kill one of them while filming it was just plain sick. The man had to be stopped at all costs.

As they rode toward the hotel, Daniel found himself thinking about Timmy; the Timmy from Daniel's past. He had been especially fond of Timmy and maybe even loved him. Even before Daniel was kidnapped, he knew in his heart that he was gay. And in a weird twisted way, Daniel almost wished he was back there in that terrible place with Timmy's arms wrapped around him telling him everything would be ok.

He looked around the cab at his friends. They all seemed to be lost in thought too. As he looked at each one, his guilt for getting them involved grew. He looked at Teri and saw her long dark hair. He could barely see her beautiful face as she looked out the opposite window, but it was a face he knew well. He loved his best friend in all the world with all his heart. Looking in front of him, Daniel could see Timmy's spiky black hair. Another wave of memories passed through his mind. He desperately fought to keep his emotions under control, but he was rapidly losing the battle. A single tear rolled down his cheek as memories of Timmy's warm reassuring hugs caressed his conscious mind.

The tear didn't escape Cody's notice. He took Daniel's hand into his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Daniel turned to look out the window so Cody wouldn't see the second and then the third tear roll down his face. Despite how hard he tried, Daniel just could not help but feel guilty for involving so many people in something that was so intimately connected to his past.

Cody let Daniel's hand go and moved his arm around Daniel's shoulder. As he pulled him into a hug, Daniel relaxed into it and quietly sobbed. He buried his face in Cody's chest and wrapped his arms around his new found love. Cody rubbed his hand on Daniel's back and gently stroked his hair with the other. All the while, he whispered his reassurances to Daniel.

The cab pulled up to the Trafalgar Hilton. Timmy glanced at his watch and smiled. They still had plenty of time to get to the Electric Camel. After asking the cabbie to wait, he turned to look at his friends.

"Somebody want to get the, ah, item and then we can go. Oh, Daniel, are you ok?"

"He's fine," said Cody. "Teri, can you run up to the room?"

"Sure. Be right back." Teri dashed out of the cab and returned a few moments later. She handed a book bag to Daniel explaining that the box was inside. Timmy told the cabbie where they were going and they took off. A few minutes later, he dropped them off at the Electric Camel.

The Internet Café was packed with all kinds of people, but it was mainly a young crowd. Teri offered to get everyone a mocha while Daniel snooped around to find the room with the Internet connections. The bathrooms were down a short hall and Daniel figured that was the best place to start. Sure enough, he found an extra door in the hall. He tried the doorknob but it was locked. As few moments later he plopped down at the table with his friends and sighed.

"Did you find it?" asked Cody. Daniel nodded. "Well?"

"There's a door in the hall where the bathrooms are, but the door's locked."

"Not a problem," said Timmy. He stood up. "Be right back." Daniel watched as the spiky haired youth made a bee line for the hall.

"What's he know that I don't?"

"You got me, Daniel. But you'll have to admit, he certainly has been resourceful up til now."

"That's true."

"This is a pretty cool place," commented Teri.

"Speaking of cool places, how did you like the bedroom on the Concorde?" asked Cody. Teri blushed and didn't even hesitate in her answer.

"I have no idea what it looked like. I was too busy." Cody and Daniel burst out laughing just as Timmy reappeared at the table.

"Did I miss the joke?" he said as he sat down.

"Oh no, you were the main course," Cody said which caused another round of laughter. Teri blushed a dark red.

"I suppose that has something to do with our extra curricular activities during the flight?" Timmy asked with a grin. Cody and Daniel laughed again. "I might want to remind you about the all the moans and groans we heard coming from your bedroom." The laughter was replaced with two blushing faces. Desperately trying to change the subject, Cody spoke up.

"So what do you think about the door?"

"I think it's now unlocked. You two hurry back," Timmy said. Daniel and Cody left immediately for the door. Finding it unlocked, they stepped inside.

"Lock the door behind us. We don't need any visitors while we make this installation," Daniel said. Cody locked the door. "Ok, help me find the internet source. I'm guessing it's either a cable or a DSL modem. Surely to God they won't have a T-1 in here."

"You never know. You take that side of the room and I'll take this one."

"Ok. They've got a nice set up here."

"Yeah, they really do." They searched behind the row of servers and mass of wires and connections. Finally, Cody spotted a modem on his side of the room.

"Got it!"

"Great. Let's get this damn thing installed and get outta here," said Daniel as he pulled the black box out of his book bag. "Oh shit."

"What?"

"She forgot the network cable. How are we gonna installed it?"

"There has to be some spare cables around here somewhere?" Just as the words left Cody's mouth, they heard an alarm go off.

"Shit! One of the servers just went down," Daniel cried, recognizing the sound. He quickly went back to the row of servers and looked. Sure enough, one had a red blinking light. He quickly hit the reset button and the alarm ended.

"Is that gonna fix it?"

"I dunno. We'll have to wait until it reboots."

"I don't want to wait for anything. Let's find some cables." Daniel nodded in agreement. They quickly scoured the room.

"Nothing!" exclaimed Cody.

"Me neither. Well Radio Shack boy, have you got your soldering iron with you?" chuckled Daniel. Cody laughed.

"We don't need a soldering iron."

"I know. We need a cable."

"We've got the next best thing," Cody said as he walked over to the work bench. "Some cat 5 cable, a couple of connectors and a crimp tool."

"Cool. Let's do it." They worked quickly and had the cable made up in less than a minute. They moved back over to the modem. Daniel plugged in the new cable to the input on the box.

"Unplug the cable going to the routers and plug it into the output of the box. I'll plug the new cable into the modem," directed Daniel. "A momentary burp in service will never be noticed." They worked as quickly as they could and made the installation in under five seconds. Daniel surveyed the routers. They each blinked in succession as the burp made its way down stream. Finally, the last router blinked and then maintained a steady green light indicating a good connection to the modem.

"Cool. Let's get outta here." After closing and locking the door, Daniel and Cody joined Teri and Timmy at the table.

"How'd it go?" asked Teri.

"No problem.. You guys ready to go?"

The weary foursome caught a cab back to the hotel. Once in their room, the fact that Timmy and Teri immediately headed for her bedroom didn't even raise an eyebrow. They all were asleep in a matter of moments.

"NO!" Cody was instantly awake. He looked over at Daniel who was thrashing around in the sheets. Cody put his hand on Daniel's shoulder and gently shook.

"Daniel, it's just a dream, baby." Daniel's violent movements settled somewhat and with a few more soothing words from Cody, he eased back into a restful sleep. Cody, however, found himself wide awake. He glanced over at the alarm clock. It's red numerals glowed in the darkness. 3:43AM. Cody groaned and rolled back onto his pillow. Would these dreams taunt Daniel the rest of his life? What exactly had he been through? Cody knew what Stan made the young boy do all those years ago, but having never experienced it first hand, there was no way he would ever completely understand. He wanted desperately to make it all better. Daniel rolled over facing away from Cody. Sliding his arm gently under Daniel's pillow, Cody spooned up against the person he was head over heels in love with. He wrapped his other arm around Daniel's chest and pulled himself in close. The reassuring warmth of Daniel's body, the feel of skin against skin and the quiet snoring sounds slowly serenaded Cody back to sleep.

The smell of eggs and bacon reached Daniel's nose and resolutely pulled him into consciousness. He yawned and stretched his youthful frame. The furnace sleeping next to him was slowly stirring as well. Cody had kept him warm all night. There was no memory of the nightmare.

"Mornin' mates, hungry?" asked Timmy as he walked into the bedroom.

"With the smells floating through the air, I'd say I'm hungry as a bear," said Cody.

"Good. There's a full traditional English breakfast waiting to clog your arteries."

"Traditional?" asked Daniel as he swung his legs to the carpeted floor.

"You've got that right, mate. Scrambled eggs, potatoes, grilled tomatoes, cheese, toast with lots of butter, griddled cakes and tons of bacon."

"Griddled cakes?" asked Cody as he joined Daniel on the edge of the bed.

"Ah, pancakes as you Yanks call them," said Timmy.

"Aargh," moaned Daniel. "Just what I need. Cholesterol city!"

"Hey, you're in England. And when in England ..."

"Do as the English do," Cody said completing the sentence as he stood up in all his throbbing 'reaching for the sky' morning glory. Timmy was gobsmacked at the sight of the naked young man. He greedily took in the flat stomach and the irresistible piece of human flesh that was straining to reach Cody's navel.

"Despite the fact that I slept with a girl last night, you should really cover yourself first thing in the morning. There are some of us bisexuals that would go for tube steak instead of cholesterol." Cody chuckled and blushed at the same time.

"Hey, that's my boyfriend you're talking about," protested Daniel as he stood up beside Cody. Daniel's morning wood proudly stretched straight out and bobbed slightly with each heartbeat.

"Whoa! I could easily be persuaded into doing two at the same time," he said with a giggle.

"Some other time, Romeo," Daniel said as he grabbed Cody by his erection and led him toward the bathroom.

"We'll be out for breakfast in just a minute," Cody giggled closing the bathroom door. Timmy chuckled as he repositioned his own manhood to a less noticeable position. Grinning, he left the bedroom to join Teri for breakfast.

As Teri stuffed a fork full of eggs in her mouth, she turned to look toward the boy's bedroom. Then she looked back at Timmy and grinned.

"You hear that?" she asked. Timmy grinned and nodded his head. "God! I bet even the people in the next room can hear all that moaning." Suddenly an evil grin crossed her face. She stood up from the table and walked over to the bedroom door.

"What are you gonna do?" asked Timmy. She looked back and her evil grin grew even more. Then she turned to the bedroom and yelled.

"If you guys would do a sixty-nine, both of your mouths would be full and I could eat my breakfast without having to listen to a bunch of moaning!" Timmy burst out laughing. A few minutes later, Cody and Daniel joined them for breakfast.

"And you're still hungry?" Teri said giggling. The boys blushed and Daniel smacked her playfully on the back of the head.

"So we're going to Belfast, huh?" asked Timmy while munching on a piece of bacon.

"Right," answered Daniel. He got up from the table and went into the bedroom. A moment later he came back out with a map. "Says here we're supposed to go to the Revelations Internet Café."

"We'll need a place to stay," commented Cody.

"And a car," added Teri.

"Let's finish breakfast and make some calls," said Daniel.

"This would be a lot easier if we had a computer," said Cody.

"You make some calls. I'll line up a jet and while I'm out, I swing by my flat and pick up my laptop," offered Timmy.

"Good idea. Thanks, Timmy," Daniel said as he reached for another piece of bacon.

After breakfast, Cody got on the phone. Daniel packed their belongings while Teri did the same. An hour later, they were all packed and reservations had been made at the Europa Hotel in downtown Belfast. Revelations Internet Cafe was located just down the street from the hotel at Shaftesbury Square. The three friends sat down on the couch to wait for Timmy.

"Hey, Daniel. While we're waiting, let's take a look at one of those boxes," suggested Cody.

"Good idea." Daniel reached for his bag and pulled out a box. He put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Cody studied it a moment. He picked it up and turned it over.

"There's not one screw on this thing."

"Yeah, I know," said Daniel.

"Well he had to get the electronics inside," Cody said as he continued to examine the box. "Oh, wait a minute. I think I've found something." He held the box over for Daniel to see. "Right here, look at the end plate." Daniel looked closely.

"There's a hinge." Daniel pushed on the top part of the end plate. It moved and they heard a clicking sound. When Daniel released the plate, it popped open.

"Cool. Now let's get the circuit board out." They worked a few minutes and finally got it out. Teri came over and looked at it as well.

"So, what does it do?" she asked. Both Cody and Daniel examined the circuitry.

"Looks like some kind of loop back circuit," Daniel said. Cody looked closer and suddenly grinned.

"It's a data blaster," Cody said smiling.

"What the hell is that?" asked Teri.

"This box, when triggered, will flood data upstream and choke the Internet," Cody explained.

"Choke?"

"Yeah, it will send more data than can be processed and that will shut the backbone routers down," Daniel said.

"Right. You see, Teri. The Internet is made up of a bunch of servers all connected together through a series of routers that are all connected by fiber optic cable. The routers and the fiber optic cables are what is commonly referred to as the Internet backbone. Without it, the servers can't talk to each other." Realization hit Cody hard. "Oh my God! This guy's either a raving lunatic or a brilliant genius."

"I don't understand," said Teri as she sat back down on the couch.

"He's got us taking these boxes all around the world. When they're all installed, he can activate them and shut down the whole fuckin' Internet!"

"Temporarily," added Daniel.

"Yeah, but if he hits critical points in the backbone at the same time, it'll take quite some time for the net to come back up. Think about it. Financial transactions. ATMs. Telecommunications. Even electric power grids. Anything that's controlled through an Internet connection will be effected."

"And we're just happily going around installing all this shit," said Teri disgustedly.

"Not happily," grumbled Daniel. Cody sat back on the couch and grinned. "What are you so happy about?"

"We just did one of the three things on our list. We know what the boxes do. Now all we have to do is figure out how that asshole Stan knows where we are all the time. Then we can find him and as you said, Daniel, send his hairy ass to prison."

"Who's got a hairy ass?" asked Timmy as he closed the door behind him.

"You do," giggled Teri.

"I do not."

"I've seen it," she said blushing.

"Oh, yeah. You have," he said proudly. He walked straight over to Teri and planted a kiss on her lips. Not a peck, but a 'I think you're hot' kind of kiss.

"Wow! Hey baby, kiss me like that!" said Cody. Daniel leaned over and planted an equally passionate kiss on Cody's lips.

"Before we get all hot and bothered, we have a plane to catch," said Timmy. The four friends gathered up their luggage and checked out of the hotel. A limo was waiting outside and, once again, the driver opened the door. He deposited the luggage in the trunk and moments later they were fighting London traffic on the way to the airport. Daniel and Cody filled Timmy in on the purpose of the black boxes.

"What's this bugger planning to do? You realize that he can bring the whole world to its knees."

"Yeah. We know. But the fucker kinda has us over the barrel. I don't know how he does it, but he can tap into anything. Jevic's house was burned down and he even got the air force to stop our plane," said Daniel.

"We've gotta find him," said Timmy adamantly.

"No shit. But first, we need to find out how he knows where we are," said Daniel.

"Does the arsehole have a bug or something?" asked Timmy. The back of the limo got very quite. The friends looked at each other.

"It can't be the boxes. We left them at the hotel when we flew to Jacksonville," offered Teri.

"That's true. So it'd have to be on one of us," suggested Cody.

"Either that or he has one hell of a spy network," said Timmy. The limo suddenly swerved hard to the right. They all grabbed something and held on. Tires squealed as the limo slid sideways and finally came to a jerky stop. Instinctively, they all looked out the window. A giant SUV was beside them. The driver's window rolled down and it was Stan. He leered at them Daniel quickly pushed the button to roll his window down.

"Don't fuck up, Danny. I'm watching you all the time," Stan said. The SUV's engine screamed loudly and the tires spun on the pavement as it rocketed away.

"Damn it!" Daniel exclaimed. "You asshole!" he screamed into the cloud of blue smoke from the burned rubber. He turned to his friends. "Somebody has a bug on 'em. Strip!"

"What!?!" yelled Teri.

"Strip! Now! Take off all your clothes. All of you! The fucker has to have a bug somewhere! Now take off your clothes. Everything. Including watches, necklaces and jewelry. Do it!" No one questioned Daniel's directive. Timmy told the driver to continue on to the airport as he unbuttoned his jeans. Moments later, they were all naked as the day they were born.

"Now we can have an orgy," smirked Teri as she gazed at Cody's body.

"He's mine, thank you very much!" said Daniel. "I said everything, Teri. Including jewelry."

"What?"

"Your ring."

"Oh."

"Where'd you get that? I haven't noticed it before."

"I got it on the Internet. It was a really good buy and I ... " she stopped in mid-sentence. "Oh shit." She looked at the ring with the pretty onyx stone.

"Here, let me see that," said Daniel. She pulled the ring off her finger and handed it to Daniel. He examined it closely then handed it to Cody.

"Looks ok to me." Cody examined the ring closely. Time clicked away slowly as he looked at it intently.

"Anybody have some tweezers?" he asked. Teri opened her purse, rummaged around a bit, then handed some tweezers to Cody.

"Thanks." He poked and prodded at the ring. Finally, he used the tweezers and pried the stone off. It plopped to the floor. Carefully maneuvering the tweezers, Cody extracted a small device from under the setting.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is," said Daniel.

"Here's the bug," Cody said as he held up the tiny device.

"That asshole. I thought I was getting a really good buy. I should have known," said Teri.

"It's Ok, babe. You didn't know," said Daniel. "At least we know how he's been keeping tabs on us." Cody moved to crush the device, but Daniel stopped him.

"Wait a minute. We can use that." Cody looked up at him in question. "Let's just hold on to it. I've got an idea."

Home Page | Authors | Christmas Stories | Stories by the Writer Suggested Reading | Suggested Viewing | Links Privacy Policy | Terms of Service Send a Comment All Site Content © 2003 - 2024 Tarheel Writer unless otherwise noted Layout © 2003 - 2024 Tarheel Writer