D.E.M. - DEUS EX MACHINA. Lee Ness

D.E.M. - DEUS EX MACHINA Lee Ness

D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina/Ness 3 Other books by this Author FICTION HOPLITE - PART 1: LYSANDER (Olympian Book 1) HOPLITE - PART 2: THE GENERAL (Olympian Book 1) HOPLITE - PART 3: TRAINING (Olympian Book 1) NON FICTION THE SPORTS MOTIVATION MASTER PLAN GROWTH: USING THE MINDSET MODEL FOR SPORTING SUCCESS

D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina/Ness 4 CHAPTER 1 AWAKENINGS The screen filled with a CCTV recording that she watched without breathing. Over and over the scene played, as it burnt itself on her consciousness. The mother stood just outside the train station toilets, browsing at the shop displays. The child exits the toilets and spots mum a few metres away. As he takes a step in her direction, a man emerges from the toilets and grabs him from behind, covering his mouth and sweeps him away in the opposite direction. The scene cuts to a composite of the mother glancing around then disappearing into the toilets and back out again. At the same time, a grainier CCTV picture shows the boy being bundled into the back of a van. Rachel stopped the loop and sat back in the chair, old experiences and memories overwhelming her. This was too close to home in more ways than one. This was her neighbourhood! How could this happen? The mother s face was frozen on the screen, with all the emotions that it entailed like ghosts in the static of the image. Guilt, terror, anger, hope. The image was too much and Rachel clicked off it and switched back to the live news. The ticker tape at the bottom of the news feed said a child abduction gang was operating in the area. She d heard of these gangs before. The gang shipped the children off to other parts of the country, or even to other countries, and sold them. The police were searching said the newscaster. She was listening but not taking anything in. Rachel slammed her clenched fists into her thighs and then leapt up, threw on a pair of sweat pants and a hooded top and ran out of the flat. She slammed the door behind her but didn t lock it. Time was short, she had to be able to do something, anything, to help. There were a few people milling around chatting at the police cordon. A stony-faced policeman stood on the other side. Excuse me, is there a search or anything that you need help with? Rachel asked. The policeman looked at her and curled his lip. Go home Miss. There s nothing to see here. I just want to help find the boy, Rachel replied Step back, miss. Rachel put her hands on her hips and scowled. Go home miss. We re doing everything we can. He turned slightly away from her, the conversation over. A man in a suit came by, ducking under the cordon and flashing a badge at the police officer. He received a nod in return. Hey you, what are you doing to find the boy? Rachel asked. The suited man turned in annoyance. Are you a reporter? No. Just someone who wants to help with the search. She pointed at the first policeman. But he won t say anything. The policeman shook his head and walked across to a colleague further along the cordon. He said something and then pointed back to Rachel. We re doing everything we can, said the suited man and turned away. How many do you find? Rachel demanded

D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina/Ness 5 The man hesitated and half turned back to her. It s a simple question. How many do you find? The man looked to be about to say something and then shook his head and turned his back on her. Hey. Hey, Rachel shouted as he disappeared through the train station doors. The two uniformed policemen were walking toward her, one of them had his notebook and a pen in his hand. Rachel spat out a frustrated sigh and wandered away, her head spinning. A news van pulled up, with aerials and a huge satellite dish on the roof. She stared at it as an idea formed and she started to run. Back at the flat she kicked the door shut and rushed over to the computer. She hammered the keyboard, her fingers a blur. The gestation for creating a new virtual person was only minutes. In that time she created accounts for everything, YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, all anonymous. One minute nothing, the next a complete persona appeared in the ether. The PayPal account was important, she was going to need money, a lot of money. It didn t take long to trace the social media accounts of the missing boy s family. The boy posted a lot of innocent personal information and the mum wasn t much better. Rachel rolled her eyes, people these days were clueless. She downloaded pictures and videos of the boy, Danny, created a montage video of him and she was good to go. Now it was time to breathe life into it. This could get dangerous so her own anonymity was everything. She was taking on an organised gang of criminals. Rachel monetised the video, linking it to the PayPal account and pushed it out to all the new social media accounts and to as many boards with as many tags as she could think of with #FindDanny on each one. A few minutes later she had a dashboard of all the feeds on a second monitor. She sat back and watched the dashboard on the left hand monitor, biting her fingernails, a long-forgotten habit resurfacing. Danny had been missing for five hours now. Time was critical, but she had to be patient. The numbers grew exponentially faster. Still, she waited. The timing of the next phase was critical. She had no idea how to judge it, but she just knew it would feel right. The BBC site now linked her video and the subscribers to the YouTube channel shot through the ten-thousand mark. Her campaign was now included in the main news story. It was time for phase two. Rachel uploaded the next video. It was similar to the first, more footage of Danny, but this time she d included an overlay. REWARD Danny has now been missing for seven hours. Half the PayPal account will be paid to anyone who finds Danny and hands him over. The whole amount will only be paid on proof that the gang have been stopped from doing this again. Rachel shook her head as she thought about the obstacles the police put in the way of people wanting to help. Her campaign had only taken two hours so far and she now had tens of thousands of hits with the number growing all the time. Her YouTube views had now topped five million globally, with over a hundred thousand subscribers. There was some serious money in the PayPal account. Both videos now had a redacted screen shot of the PayPal account balance with the reward message. Rachel ran both hands through her hair as she watched the screen. This had to work. The familiar theme tune for the evening news show caught her attention. Danny was the lead story, but her campaign was second lead. She was called the social media vigilante. She

D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina/Ness 6 rolled her eyes. A message popped up on the Facebook messenger from her personal account. Hi Rachel. No user name showed. Rachel stopped breathing and gripped the arms of the chair. Had she accidentally been logged onto her own account? Had she somehow accidentally given away her name? Of course not, she hadn t even posted on that account. She d allowed everyone else to do the work. How the hell had her name become public? Wait this wasn t public, this was a direct message. She started her reply half a dozen times, different ways of denying her name, but deleted them all. Whoever this was already knew her name. She took a deep breath to control her racing heart and settled on a straightforward reply. Who is this? That s not important. I have Danny. Rachel s mouth dropped open and her hands froze above the keyboard. The stakes had just got very high. She hadn t been prepared for this. What do you want? I want to help you. Then give Danny back. She was getting angry, she needed to calm down. Don t worry I will. He s fine. I m not part of the gang. Then why not give him back? Rachel replied. Because of the ransom. What do you mean? Why haven t you handed him over? The keyboard ought to be getting hot from the speed she typed. I thought I d wait. I was interested to see how high the money would go. You were doing such a good job earning it for me. She stared at the screen. Who was this psycho? Why contact me now? Rachel typed. The news thing is a little too much attention for my liking. It s time to close it down. I need to move on. I m sending you an email now. She switched across to the other monitor and clicked on the email attachment. There was a photo of Danny, across the road from a police station holding up a card with an email address on it, exactly as she had instructed. Incredibly, Danny had a big grin on his face. Rachel hovered over the keyboard then started to type again. As soon as I have confirmation from the police, I ll email back the PayPal details. You can have all of it. You don t need to do anything else. I only put the comment on there about handing over the gang to increase the hit rate. Messenger chimed. Oh, it s too late for that Rachel in more ways than one. I ve already carried out your instructions. The gang won t be doing this again. The email pinged now and she opened up the next attachment. In it was a picture of two figures, tied to chairs with burlap sacks over their heads. The front of their shirts were covered with blood and it had pooled in their laps. The image was too terrible for her and Rachel spun her chair and vomited onto the wooden floor. She had gone cold and was shivering. Why would you do that? I meant for you to report their location to the police. Maybe you should have been a little clearer. ;) How did you find me?

D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina/Ness 7 Think about it Rachel. You ve just offered a lot of money to find someone that the whole police force can t find. Didn t you think that a person who could achieve that could find you? Rachel s head spun. She was in way too deep and needed to get out of this fast. Her hands shook as she tried to type. Where do I send the money? Keep it. Use what s left of it to pay off the rest of your debts and keep the bailiffs at bay. She couldn t help herself. She typed the question, even while she feared the answer. How did you know about the bailiffs? The email pinged again. The attachment was a picture of the door to her flat. She reeled. Clasping her hand to her mouth as she retched again. It was never about the money, Rachel. It was always about you. I could use someone with your skills. I ll be in touch. I know where you live. D.E.M.

D.E.M. - Deus Ex Machina/Ness 8 CHAPTER 2 AUTHOR'S NOTE - PREVIEW Author's note I hope you enjoyed this preview, please download the rest of the book from Amazon, itunes or any of the e-book retailers. Alternatively you can buy the paperback from Amazon. If you do, please take a moment to rate it as this really does make a difference to an independent author. If you have a little more time to add a few words to help fellow readers understand more about the book, then you have my gratitude. For information about my other books, please visit my website http://leeness.co.uk Or my Smashwords page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/leeness If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me on: leeness.author@gmail.com