Chapter 8

Waking up at 2 am, Barrett did his forms and tai chi, then checked his stocks and the market. Blackmon Metals’ stock price had dropped to 75.20 per share, and the 900 shares he purchased of Cummins Energy remained at 22.75 per share. However, there was news that Northeastern Energy wanted to buy a regional supplier. That was the key to purchasing more shares of Cummins Energy. He could point to the news article if there were questions about his purchase of shares. He saved it to his favorites and would purchase more shares tomorrow.

After breakfast, Barrett went to the garage and started putting the top end of Malibu together. He’d put in a mild cam and had the heads polished and ported to improve the fuel flow. That would improve the performance but not make it a race car. The auto supply store picked up the engine hoist, and after an hour and a half, Barrett cleaned up and took the dogs for a walk.

Hera and Zeus found a pink backpack in the woods while practicing search and protection training. It had an address on the backpack, so they went to the address after Barrett stopped at his favorite spot to energize. When Barrett rang the doorbell, a young woman answered the door. Barrett said my dogs found this backpack in the park and gave it to her.

She thanked him and said her daughter would be thrilled to get it back. Some boys stole it from her at the bus stop yesterday, containing all her school books and homework. They exchanged names; hers was Gabriela Rodriguez, and her daughter was Isla. Barrett gave Gabriela his number and told her to call him if Isla had more trouble, and they left.

When they arrived home, he ate lunch with Nana, and then she took him to the dojo. Barrett reminded Nana that he had to stay longer today because he left early on Saturday. Sensi Hurato put him through an intense two-hour workout. Then Barrett put on his slippers, and Sensi taught Barrett a new maneuver. Sensi called it the ghost walk; when performed right, he could move without being seen.

Sensi demonstrated the walk and then had Barrett do it. Sensi videoed Barrett’s attempts and pointed out his mistakes. The extra time was spent on the new ghost walk, and then they conversed in Chinese until Nana picked up an hour later. On the way home, Barrett thought about his special training of walking walls, doing summersaults over attackers, and ghost walking. It was like Sensi Hurato was training him to be Ninja, and then Barrett said to himself that couldn’t be right.

The next morning, Barrett checked his stocks and the market after his exercises. Blackmon Metals’ stock price had dropped to 67.90 per share, and Cummins Energy increased to 25.95 per share. Barrett bought another thousand shares and then checked the gold price. It went up almost two dollars, so he made the right move. Then he showered, dressed, and went to breakfast.

On the way to his dog training appointment, Barrett stopped by Isla’s bus stop. He had read Gabriela Rodriguez’s mind yesterday and knew where and when the bus arrived. He picked a spot half a block away and waited. Barrett saw Isla arrive wearing her pink backpack, then three boys walking towards the bus stop. He read their minds and knew they were the troublemakers for Isla.

When they reached Barrett, he jumped out, punched them in the stomachs, and then kicked them in the balls. They were on the ground, and Barrett said as he left if you bother Isla again, you won’t be walking anymore. It happened so fast that the boys didn’t know what happened until they were on the ground, puking. One boy asked who that was, and another said whoever it was warned us that if we wanted to walk again, we should stay away from Isla. They all agreed it would be healthy to follow his advice.

Barrett went to his dog training appointment, returned home, and worked on the Malibu until lunch. While cleaning up, Barrett thought a few more hours and the Malibu would be done. He could hardly wait to start it up and hear how it sounded. Barrett ate lunch with Nana, went to the YMCA, and did his swimming workout. When he left the locker room, he saw Jaycey and her mom, Mrs. Jennie Conner, by the pool.

He waited until Jaycey got onto the starting block and was ready to dive. Barrett said he’d recognized that ass anywhere, and Jaycey laughed and fell into the pool. Her mom was laughing, too. Barrett asked Mrs. Conner if she had taught Jaycey how to shift her hips that way and if she had used it on Mr. Conner. He left them laughing hard and said her husband was a lucky man.

On the way home, Barrett stopped at Best Buy and bought a midrange lightweight laptop, a portable hard drive, and six USB sticks. They didn’t have a backpack he wanted, so he’d go to Walmart for that and surgical gloves. When he got home, Barrett put his purchases in his closet and read the books on hacking he purchased on the dark web. Barrett finished the last one and wanted to order more when Rosa said dinner was ready.

At the Campbell house, dinner was interesting. Jennie told Marcus that they saw Barrett at the YMCA this afternoon. Marcus asked Jennie how he was doing, and Jennie said he was fine. But Barrett saw Jaycey on the starting blocks and said he’d recognize that ass anywhere. Marcus laughed and said Jaycey has an ass like you had when we met. So I would agree with Barrett on that subject, and you still do, and they laughed.

Then Marcus said it reminded me that the US Attorney General’s formal dinner is in two weeks. Jaycey can bring a date, and Barrett would certainly liven it up. Jennie asked Marcus are you sure that’s wise? He could piss some people off. Marcus laughed and said Barrett was the grandson of Madeline Thompson, so he knew how to act. Besides, he’s been to foreign embassy dinners and has met the President.

Dinner at the Rodriguez’s was interesting, too. Gabriela asked her daughter Isla how school was today. Isla said it was fine, but something strange happened at the bus stop that morning. Gabriela asked her what had happened, and Isla said those three bullies had been walking towards us when something weird happened. All of a sudden, they were on the sidewalk throwing up, and a tall man was walking away.

Then the bus came. I saw the three bullies holding their privates, and the tall man disappeared. Gabriela said a tall young man with two German Shepards returned your backpack yesterday and asked Isla if it could have been him. Isla said she didn’t see the tall man’s face, but he didn’t have any dogs, so that’s for sure. Whatever that tall man did to them scarred them by the looks on their faces.

Then Barrett got a phone call while eating dinner with Nana and Rosa. It was Jaycey, and she said you don’t say anything about my ass and they laughed. Then Jaycey said her dad asked me to invite you to the US Attorney’s Formal Dinner as my date. It’s a formal event a week from Saturday, and you’ll have to wear a tux. Barrett looked at Nana, and she said yes, we could get you one by then. So he told Jaycey that he would like to attend and to text him the details.

Then Nana said we’d have to go to a tux shop in DC, which I know of there. So clear whatever you had planned for tomorrow morning, and we will leave after breakfast. Barrett asked if it would be easier to cancel and save the hassle. Nana said no. Meeting and talking to the nation’s most powerful attorneys in the same room is an opportunity.

The next morning, we drove to DC instead of working on the Malibu. Nana pulled into an industrial area and parked at a warehouse with Benard’s on the front. When we went inside, we saw tuxes everywhere. Claude recognized Nana or Madeline and welcomed her back, and the fun began. Nana told Claude about the event, and she wanted me to be the best-dressed person in the room.

Claude said he could do that, took us to a private room, and measured me from my head to my feet. Claude told Madeline that with Barrett’s body size and height, Tom Ford would look best but be expensive. She said do it, and we want a pair of pants not tailored because he’s fifteen and may grow some more. Claude said tuxes don’t come with two pairs of pants, unlike suits. But we can order an extra pair from Tom Ford.

Nana told him to do it, and I put on the tux. Claude marked it for alteration, and I got a shirt, tie, belt, and shoes. Then she told Claude the time we needed it, and he said that wouldn’t be a problem. Arrangements were made for a final fitting on Thursday, and we left for home after Nana paid the ridiculous bill. Nana told Barrett he would be the talk of the dinner and wear the tux again with a shirt of a different color for a new look.

Nana stopped at a McDonald’s drive-thru, and Barrett ate lunch in the car on the way to the dojo. Sensi Hurato put him through a demanding two-hour workout. Then Barrett put on his slippers, and Barrett did the new maneuver Sensi called the ghost walk. When performed right, he could move without being seen, but Barrett wasn’t there yet. Sensi videoed Barrett’s attempts and pointed out his mistakes. Then they conversed in Chinese until Nana picked up an hour later.

Friday at 2 am, Barrett did his forms and tai chi, then checked his stocks and the market. Blackmon Metals’ stock price had dropped to 60.19 per share, and Cummins Energy increased to 27.25 per share. Barrett then checked the gold price. It went up almost a dollar, so he made the right move. Then he showered, dressed, ate breakfast, and went to his garage.

Barrett finished the Malibu and started it after putting in new fluids. It required minor fuel injection and timing adjustments, but it ran great. He texted Bob, “In god we trust, but everyone else pays cash,” and laughed. Bob called laughing and said he guessed it was done. Barrett said yes, but he had better hurry. Several girls in the neighborhood wanted it and offered to take me around the world, but it was not travel. Bob laughed and said he would come by tonight after work.

After cleaning up, Barrett ate lunch, skipped swimming, and set up his new laptop for hacking. First, he deleted all the junk programs and then adjusted the bios and startup programs. When it was ready, after all the updates, Barrett loaded the hacking programs he had purchased on the dark web. Then, he inspected the programs to ensure they had no reporting or backdoors.

Then Barrett checked the wifi hacking program, which showed four signals available, and his house was the strongest. But the next one was almost as strong, so he ran the program and got the password in two minutes. Now, he needed to go around and hack into wifi signals at spots where he could spend some time without being suspicious or out of place. Barrett would need quite a few because, according to the chat groups, they will put the spot under surveillance if you’re tracked.

The last thing Barrett did was turn off the GPS locator on the laptop before turning it off. He left it plugged in to charge the battery, checked the time, and had enough time to go to Walmart. Barrett grabbed some cash from his stash in the closet to buy more prepaid credit cards and maybe a prepaid phone for emergencies. The trip was short; he got the backpack, surgical gloves, and two prepaid credit cards. Barrett decided to buy the prepaid phone at a convenience store, wearing a disguise and away from home.

Bob arrived thirty minutes after he returned and loved the Malibu. After paying him in cash and getting the pink slip, he told Barrett he had a new job for him. Bob said they would occasionally get intel from China, Russia, or another country and have it interpreted. Bob wanted Barrett to interpret it to verify it was accurate. They had an incident where the interpretation was wrong, and it caused major problems.

So Bob got Barrett a login, password, and email address for the Department of State. Bob would text him to check his email if they needed to verify something. He assured Barrett it wouldn’t take much of his time. Barrett agreed to do it if Bob got him e-dictionaries on all the languages and e-books on slang terms if possible. Bob agreed and was impressed Barrett thought of it because the interpreters never referenced one. They just left a space and said it was an unidentifiable word or phrase.

The next morning, Barrett checked his stocks and the market after his exercises. Blackmon Metals’ stock price hadn’t changed and was 67.90 per share, and Cummins Energy increased to 27.05 per share. Then he checked the gold price, which went up by almost a dollar, so he made the right move. Then he showered, dressed, and went to breakfast.

After breakfast, Barrett put on his hacking backpack and took Zeus and Hera for a walk. He was looking for yard sales and hacking spots with Wi-Fi. They stopped at the special place in the park, and Barrett stood there until he got lightheaded. Then Barrett sat at a park picnic table and checked the Wi-Fi signals in the area. He found three, and one that was the strongest belonged to the park, so he hacked into it.

Then they went to Fountain High School and sat in the football bleachers. While Barrett hacked into the Wi-Fi, they watched the cheerleader practice. Brianna and Anya, two cheerleaders, came over and gave attention to Zeus and Hera. Barrett read their minds, and they were more interested in him and loved dogs.

Introductions were made, and Anya asked Barrett why he didn’t attend their school. Barrett told them he had already graduated and was taking college courses online. Brianna asked Barrett to wait for them and walk them home. Barrett told them he’d love to but had an appointment he couldn’t miss. Anya asked what it was, and Barrett said that before we discuss personal grooming tips, we should get to know each other first.

They laughed and agreed to meet tomorrow for lunch and to swim at Brianna’s house. There were no yard sales, but they had a good walk and returned home. While eating lunch, Barrett told Nana about tomorrow’s lunch and swimming date at Brianna’s house. Nana told Barrett to be careful and promised he would, but he said Brianna’s mom would be there, too.

On the way to the dojo, Nana stopped at the CVS and told Barrett he needed protection in case something happened. Then Nana got the young female sales clerk to help them select the size and style of condoms for Barrett. They ended up getting a three-pack of extra large and xx-large. Nana and Barrett laughed when they left the store at the sales clerk’s embarrassment helping them.