Backstage at the Capital City Stadium, Aveline’s final concert ended and the performers and crew busied themselves putting away things so they could all go home. Many people scurried about at the end of a concert just trying to keep track of everything before it got lost in the chaos.

Bastian, carrying his oversized tablet, pushed past people as he searched for Viviane in the hustle and bustle. After a few frantic minutes, he found her. He wanted to show her the evidence of the data theft from the National Laboratory by unknown hackers. Feeling the gravity of the situation, Bastian heard his heart pumping in his ears as his eyes darted around trying to avoid people as he raced up to Viviane.

“Viviane!” Bastian called out trying to get her attention. “Please, take a look at this! It’s very important and it concerns you!”

Viviane looked serene and still glowed from her concert debut. She heard Bastian calling for her, but did not sense his urgency at first. “Yes, what is it?” she asked as Bastian ran up to her with a wild look in his eyes.

Bastian whipped out his over-sized tablet and held it up for her to see. He replayed the theft of data from the National Laboratory to Viviane. He spoke to her in an urgent and quick manner.

“Earlier during the concert, hackers hidden somewhere off-shore somehow breached the network perimeter of the University and National Laboratory. They were able to copy the research data from the Laboratory’s Transportal and upload it to some cloaked location in the dark net. It appears they stole all your research data, too. Look here!” Bastian pointed to the stream of data and with his finger, he pulled out a file folder from the stream. He opened up the folder on his tablet and inside the folder was an ID photo of Viviane attached to pages and pages of lab notes and Transportal data.

Seeing that her research had been compromised and linked to her, the bottom of her stomach fell and her face turned white. Her expression was half-pained and half-awed.

“Oh my! Someone’s really stolen the Transportal logs and archives from all our research! With that information, anyone would be able to replicate our results.” It was a worrisome prospect.

Aveline, who wandered around since the end of the concert looked for Bastian. She spotted him talking to Viviane. Aveline saw Viviane standing so close to Bastian that they touched each other, even though Viviane leaned over just to see his tablet. Seeing this coziness between Viviane and Bastian caused Aveline to fly in to a fit of jealousy and she marched right up to Bastian and demanded some answers.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Aveline sounded mad. “Why are you talking to her so soon after the show when I usually come looking for you?

Before anyone could answer Aveline, Luc burst in having rushed over as fast as he could. He ran right up to Bastian and Viviane.

“Viviane!” Luc called out trying to get Viviane’s attention. “Are you alright?”

Aveline was all confused. “Who are you?” she asked this new uniformed fellow.

Luc ignored Aveline and her question, too.

Viviane, seeing Luc for the first time in a month, was quite surprised. “Hello, Luc! What are you doing here?”

“I called him here,” interrupted Bastian.

Now, both girls were confused and simultaneously said, “Why?”

“Because I’ve been secretly monitoring you,” Bastian told Viviane, “and because I’ve placed an illegal surveillance tap on the University’s network while I’ve been hacking around the dark net for information about criminal plots against you and the University.”

Both Viviane and Aveline could not believe what they just heard and were flabbergasted. Again, they spoke in sync, “You have?”

“Yes,” said Bastian, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it. I was worried that your past might bring trouble to us so I was trying to find out more about your history.”

That was all Aveline needed to hear. She was unimpressed. “Seems like she did! She’s trouble, Bastian, get away from her!”

Luc interrupted. “Never mind all that! Just show me what you got, Bastian.”

Bastian re-told the story to Luc about how Viviane came to them and how he was curious about her so he began to search into her past. He discovered everything about Viviane except events in her past before she was twelve years old. Starting at twelve, Viviane was an orphan and placed in foster homes until she grew up.

Bastian also replayed for Luc the theft of data as recorded by his tablet. Luc saw for himself that the data had been transferred to someone hiding in the dark cloud. He then confessed to Luc about the illegal surveillance taps he put on the University’s network which allowed him to keep any eye on their Internet traffic.

“I didn’t know who else to call because I was using illegal means to carry out my surveillance. If I get caught, you’ll put in a good word for me, won’t you?” Bastian asked Luc for this personal favor sensing that he had pushed his luck too far this time.

Aveline fumed to hear that Bastian might have run afoul with the law. “You see? I told you not to go hacking around the dark net! I told you you’d get into trouble!” The thought that Bastian had finally crossed the line upset her a great deal. “Now you’ve been caught and you’ll probably be arrested and taken away! Oh no! What I am going to do without you?” She turned to Luc and pleaded with him with big, round eyes. “You’re not here to arrest him, are you, officer?” Aveline confused Luc’s STS military affiliation with local police, even though STS Agents did have police authority in these situations. “Please don’t! He’s not a criminal. He wouldn’t hurt anyone!”

“Well, good thing you called me, old pal.” Luc said to his longtime friend.

Turning to Aveline, Luc reassured her. “Don’t worry, little lady, no one has to know.”

“If you spotted this theft, the UEN’s monitors probably spotted it, too,” Luc explained to Bastian. “They just don’t know it yet because they don’t know what to look for. All they need is a tip and let them take the credit for it and no one will care about what you did.”

Bastian had a brilliant idea! “I could trip the intrusion detection alarm for their network. That would get their attention and get them to start looking in the right place!”

Luc agreed. “Yeah, that would work, but remove your illegal surveillance monitors first, OK?”

“I’ll do that right now.”

Bastian’s fingers swiped all over his tablet as he deleted his illegal surveillance taps from all over Capital City’s network. As his last act, he tripped the alarm for the University’s intrusion detection system from an anonymized location setting off a chain reaction of events alerting the UEN’s government network monitors to pay attention to what was happening at the University and National Laboratory. Bastian was sure that, once they knew what to look for, the theft of the data would be soon discovered.

“There, it’s done.” Bastian said as he lifted his last finger away from the screen of his tablet.

Luc looked satisfied. “OK, government Internet monitors will catch on pretty quick now that they have something to do.”

Luc turned to Viviane now. He had some sage advice for her. “I don’t think you should go anywhere near the University or the National Laboratory right now. You no longer work there and your identity has been stolen. Is there anywhere you can stay and hide out for a few days until this settles down a bit?”

Viviane looked over her shoulder making sure no one was listening to her. She lowered her voice before replying. “Well, I have been staying at the hotel all this time.”

Not good enough for Luc. “No, you’ve got to stay somewhere new. Where you haven’t been before.”

Bastian had another brilliant idea. “There’s a portable building near Sound Stage 19 we use as an office when we’re rehearsing. She can hide out there.”

Luc liked that idea much better. “Great. Viviane, you stay there for a couple of days while I figure out what’s going on.”

Luc took Bastian aside for a moment. “Bastian, my old battle buddy, we’ve got to catch up one of these days. I’ve thought about you on and off for the past several years. How come we never talked?”

The answer was obvious to Bastian. “We’re men.”

“Yeah, we are,” agreed Luc and he nodded his head.

Just like that, the years that separated these two men melted away as if they had never left each other. That was the way friendships between men worked. They could pick up where they last left off as if no time passed and their friendship undiminished.

“Listen, Bastian, I know you’re not in the forces anymore, but I can’t be here knowing what I know. You protect Viviane for me like you were back in the service, OK?”

“You bet. I’ll stay with her at the portable until I hear something or until something happens.”

Unbeknownst to the two friends, Aveline and Viviane were not going to be left behind and snuck up on the two men to eavesdrop on their conversation. Aveline heard Bastian saying he would be staying with Viviane inside the trailer. Aveline did not approve and she let him know it.

“No, you’re not!” Aveline blurted out startling Bastian. “If you do, I’m coming with you!”

Just then, an urgent communiqué came over a secure military channel through Luc’s sleeve-embedded computer. “Attention all STS Agents. Incident at Renard University and National Laboratory. All on-duty agents please respond.”

Luc was right. “See? I told you they’d catch on pretty quick. I got to go.”

Luc had a word with Viviane. “You can trust Bastian. He and I go back to our days in the Air Force together. He’s a solid guy. I can’t be here to protect you, so Bastian will in my place, OK?”

It was all so serious now. Viviane did not want a bodyguard and she did not want to hide away and live in fear, but that was what she now faced. A shadow of concern fell across her face. “What’s going to happen now?”

Luc did not hold back. “I don’t know, but as they say, the doo-doo is about to hit the fan.”

Bastian remembered that saying differently. “Is that how it goes?” he asked.

“I won’t swear in front of the ladies here,” said Luc.

“Thank you! Hmph!” At least Aveline was happy about that.

Luc then left and stole away. He disappeared back the way he came like a ninja into the shadows of the night.