Chapter 260 Wicked Plans
Rina had been watching the conversation between the fake Arieh and Terry, who had no idea that the Arieh he was talking to was a fake.
She wasn't angry at her brother's attempt to kill her at all, but disappointed instead. She would have been angry if he had succeeded in killing someone close to her—something that would've happened if she were under the protection of her own security team at the time the attempted assassination had taken place. But now that she'd survived it and had solid evidence in hand, she was... oddly happy. With the evidence she had, the competition between the Rothschild family's potential heirs would officially be in the bag. Her brother had broken one of the family's strictest rules: never attempt to take a relative's life, especially one of the direct descendants. Competition, within strict limits, would grow the family, but killing a relative—even if said relative was the most useless waste of space ever—would be harmful to the family at large. It was doubly important that all direct descendants survive, as any deaths would reduce the number of direct descendants from which future generations' family heads would be chosen.
The punishment for attempting such a thing was being removed from the competition and having five generations of the perpetrator's descendants banned from competing for the position of family head. And even if the other direct descendants didn't reproduce, the position would still go to a branch family member until the five-generation ban was over, at which point the opportunity would return to the punished bloodline.
But for that punishment to be implemented required a substantial amount of solid evidence, since, if arbitrarily imposed, it would incentivize people to accuse competitors of failed assassination attempts in order to remove them from the competition. Alas, as if God wanted it to happen, Terry had just so happened to attack at the very worst—or best, depending on who was asked—time. During the attack, she had been under the direct protection of the last people anyone would want investigating them, as nothing could be hidden from ARES.
Absolutely nothing.
And even if they didn't want to investigate, Rina had since worked out a deal with Aron. The ex-bodyguard was to be handed over to be used by him in return for evidence that proved her brother's involvement in the attempt on her life.
"It really worked," Rina said in surprise.
"Told you so." Aron smirked. If all went according to plan, Terry would be spending a long time in prison and she wouldn't have a chance to personally exact her revenge on him. Thus, he had asked her permission before going with his initial plan, as he could always come up with another alternative.
"With this tech, you can make anyone think they're meeting with anyone else! And as long as you act like the person they think they're meeting, it's no different from having a polymorph spell in real life...."
"Though we can easily do that, I'm planning to limit who and under what conditions it can be used. After all, if everyone can do it, there's no telling what chaos would ensue," Aron said in a display of self awareness. The mimicry tech would definitely have to be an exclusive feature.
Exclusive to him, that is.
"But why do you want them to attack DARPA? I'm sure that if the FBI realizes you're trying to get it back by force, they'll move it to one of their black sites. Or even Area 51, and that would make it... impossi...." She stopped talking and her voice trailed off as something like an explosion hit her thoughts when she realized she had accidentally glimpsed Aron's plan.
Aron said nothing, just smiled. "The more secret the base they send it to, the better. I hope they send it to one of the joint bases they hold in cooperation with other militaries, as that'll give me exactly what I need," he said. From the very beginning, his aim had been to have the device in one of the military bases so he could gain a connection to the Department of Defense's classified, secure network.
"Why? If you wanted to hack it, I'm sure it would be easy for you, right?" Rina asked.
"The hack was already done last year, but the data transfer is where we're stuck at. The military has its own air-gapped network, meaning that nothing from that network is connected to the rest of the internet. And that means...." He didn't need to finish his sentence, as he knew she was smart enough to get his point.
And he was right, as she immediately remembered the ability of his quantum computers to instantly transfer data, no matter the file size. The moment one was connected to the military network, the US Military's restricted database would be like his own personal playground. At least, as long as he wasn't discovered, but that would be quite a stretch. Although he hadn't received any communications from the trojan planted in the military network when they had seized BugZapper, he was sure that it was smart enough to hide itself for an extended period of time. That was one of the reasons it was so scary.
"Fuck," Rina softly said, chewing on the inside of her cheek. She was beyond impressed by the long-term planning Aron had been doing. 'Looks like I'm not going back anytime soon,' she thought, and she had a very convincing reason as to why she shouldn't: she needed to make her brother think she was either dead or afraid of another attack happening when she returned from Eden after surviving his first attempt.
The two continued chatting for a little while longer before Aron bid her farewell and left, as he had another meeting with other people.
...
Arieh was pacing back and forth in his office, nervously waiting for a phone call that never came. The delay was making him more and more nervous.
Amidst his back and forth pacing, his secretary burst into the room and, without saying anything, ran to the tv and switched it to a certain channel before Arieh could even reprimand her for entering without knocking.
Just as he was about to vent his frustration on her, he focused his eyes on the tv and the words were stuck in his throat. The news was broadcasting a breaking story. Although it was from CNN, which was a channel known for saying that everything was breaking news, this story was one of the few that definitely deserved that designation.
"...rlier today, on the road leading to LaGuardia Airport, what initially appeared to be a devastating accident is now being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, sending shockwaves through the city."
The camera cut to a shot of the road ARES and Arieh's people had fought on, which was now blocked by emergency vehicles.
"More than ten vehicles were destroyed in a catastrophic series of events. Some were heavily damaged by what appears to be high-caliber weaponry, while others were consumed by raging fires caused by the fuel in the affected cars. However, the most disturbing aspect of the incident is the mysterious projectiles that seem to have claimed the lives of most of those in the vehicles."
The faithful camera panned over to display the charred wreckage left by the fighting. n0VElusB.C0m
"The projectiles, which have yet to be located, left no traces behind, as if someone meticulously cleaned the scene. That's raised suspicions that foul play was involved. Local authorities and federal agencies are working in collaboration to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible."
The station cut to B roll footage of the FBI standing next to a couple of police officers and speaking to each other about something.
"The FBI has been called in to assist the NYPD anti-terrorist division in their investigation. Special agents are currently combing through the wreckage for any evidence that may shed light on this perplexing case...."
