Page 56 of Hunter's Hidden Camera
Me: “I’ll explain everything later. But right now, Ireally have to go.”
Emma: “If you walk away from me, I’m breaking up with you!”
Blanca: “I’ve been telling you, girl. Be strong, girl.”
Me: “Emma, don’t do this.”
Emma: “I don’t deserve to be treated like this.”
Me: “Emma.”
Emma is crying uncontrollably. My heart breaks for her.
The world stops. Nobody says anything. Nobody moves.
It wasn’t supposed to go down like this, Emma and me. Of course, I always thought we would eventually break up, but I had imagined that it would be a clean break, like we would split when she and I went off to different colleges. It seemed like the easiest path with the least amount of drama.
But this here isn’t clean. And the drama is unbearable. So my anxiety is off the charts.
I sharply turn away from Emma and Blanca and stomp into the comic book store. Even inside, I can hear Emma, still bawling.
In the long run, all of this really is for the best. But right now, I can’t bear the fact that I’ve caused someone so much pain.
25
Hack
As I walk through the comic book store, I pass by the racks of new comics and piled-up boxes of old comics. I head into the game room in the back, Oscar now following me close behind.
He says, “The girls are pissed, dude.”
I shrug as I keep on moving.
Carter T. Douglass is sitting in a folding chair at a card table, along with several other guys who all kind of look like him but are of different races. There’s also one Indian American girl there, wearing a white shirt, a red tie, and a black vest.
“Hunter,” Carter T. Douglass says, kind of confused to see me here.
“I need your help,” I say.
“I’d be delighted to help.”
I pull him aside and say, “I can’t tell you what this is all about. I just need you to help me with something if you can. And I know it might sound super shady, but I really can’t explainwhat’s going on. I understand if that’s a dealbreaker. I don’t wanna get you involved in something that makes you uncomfortable.”
“It’s quite all right. I’ll help you.” Carter T. Douglass gives my arm a friendly pat. “That’s what friends are for.”
I tell him that it’s urgent that I get into my brother’s computer. Carter T. Douglass doesn’t question it. He just sits me and Oscar down at a table in the corner, and he brings over the girl, who he introduces as Sruthi. He’s explained everything to her and what I need.
While Carter T. Douglass doesn’t know anything about hacking, apparently Sruthi does—but just a little.
“I’m no expert,” she says, “but I’m learning fast.”
After she graduates, she wants to work for the government to help take down terrorists by using her technological expertise.
“Maybe I can even be sent out in the field, like as a spy,” says Sruthi. “I mean, no one would ever expect a small brown girl like me to be a secret agent for the United States government. I would be perfect. Since I was born here, I have an American accent, but I can turn on a Mumbai accent just like that and fool everyone.”
As Sruthi speaks, she works on her own laptop, downloading powerful password-cracking software from the dark web.
“What’s the dark web?” asks Oscar.
