The DigiStore

How can one feel so much love and so much bitterness towards one person. Crag looked at Suoi lying on the ground, in a pool of her own blood and a lone tear rolled down his cheek. The tear was hot as it came from the anger that was boiling inside of him. He looked at her, at blood-sodden dress, at her hand reaching weakly for help, at her eyes heavy and expectant. He looked at her and turned away.

He looked at the DigiStore, his chance at a real life and another tear rolled down his cheek. The tear was cold like the dream he had always nurtured in his frozen heart. A dream that once featured Suoi. A dream that was sure to come to pass.

Many years ago, when Lord Khrima had accepted him into his home, Crag had expected to a fresh start. He wanted to continue the fight. But most importantly, he wanted to love and be loved. He wanted to create and share happiness. He wanted to be able to live again. That was when he fell in love with Suoi.

Lord Khrima, however, had other plans. He saw Crag as a weapon. Crag had been a hacker. He delighted in exposing the fraud in the banking sector. Soon, he had everyone against him, the Feds, the hackers who wanted him to join them and the cartels.

No one liked him. The Feds believed he had ulterior motives despite the fact that he always sent them his findings. Perhaps it had to do with his refusal to reveal his identity and work directly with them. His fellow hackers expected him to attack the system. They didn’t have faith in the banking sector. Every weakness was an avenue to wreak havoc. When Crag began to snitch on them to the Feds, they knew he wasn’t one of them. The bad guys simply felt he was bad for business. No one trusts an honest thief, especially one that didn’t have a price.

Lord Khrima was his saving grace. He tracked down Crag before the SWAT team swooped on his apartment and smuggled him into China. There, he was introduced to the dying order of the Dragon Warriors, a secret cult that was dedicated to fighting injustice. Lord Khrima and his daughter Suoi were the last surviving members of the cult. He expected to be grafted in. Instead, he was relegated to being a sidekick. He was only needed to help track the lost DigiStore.

Now, with the DigiStore in his hand, he had the ultimate bargaining chip. He would turn it over to the Feds, get witness protection and get to live a fairly long life under another identity. Or he could sell it to the highest bider, move to a non-extradition country and spend the rest of his life fishing, writing codes and raising a family. Anything was better than returning to the mansion to live as a slave, as merely a tool to achieving an end.

Suoi looked at Crag and she ached to say something to him. She wondered what was running through his mind. She had been badly wounded when she arrived at the vault. She thought she had killed everyone but someone was still breathing. Just as she turned, someone had shot at her. Crag appeared behind her, shot the shooter and collected the DigiStore from her.

She looked at him as he examined the DigiStore and wondered what he was going to do with it. It was her father’s property, stolen from him when members of the Dragon Warriors were murdered in London. It contained a list of all the criminal masterminds and governments agencies. There were transactions, bank records and private keys of cryptocurrencies. Everything needed to restart the Dragon Warrior was in it. She closed her eyes.

“Crag…”

“Suoi.”

“Help me up.”

There it was, the little things that pissed him up. She couldn’t even add a please. He turned to look at her and his gaze fell on her blue eyes. Immediately, her eyes caused old emotions to stir within him. He rarely saw her this way, in her weakness, in her vulnerability. He remembered how he watched her play through the window. Her rich laughter, her ever flowing hair. He looked at her again.

He walked to her and lifted her slowly on her side.

“You have to get me back home. I have to…” He put a finger on her lips and brought her face close to him.

Her eyes gasped in horror as her head grew closer to his body. She wonder how strangulation would feel. She was too tired to fight. Perhaps it was good to simply end things this way. But the DitiStore… He planted his lips on hers and tried to explore her mouth. Her mouth was cold and unmoving.

Crag stood up and began to walk away.

“Crag…” She called out weakly. “You’ll need the password.”

Crag first decision was to keep moving. He was a hacker. He could always break in. But then, he thought of how hard it would be to crack open a DitiStore, the most advanced storage device in the world.

She noticed she had his attention and smiled weakly. “At the base of the drive, there is a red button. Push it twice, wait for five seconds and then twice again. The password is Shermirin Sudieku Sarara.”

“That’s all? What about this fingerprint space here?”

“Hit the button at the base and then I’ll use my finger.”

Crag pushed the button twice, counted five seconds and then pushed it twice. “Your turn.” He directed the DitiStore towards her.

“Crag, I might be young and not worthy to be called a superhero, but I am not naive.”

The blast was loud and bright.

This is my entry for the RANDOM FICTION CONTEST #2 by @honeydue

Thanks for reading

Blessings

[Image source: Pixabay]