The Adventures of Griffin
Copyright© 2026 by A Well Traveled Man
Chapter 2
After checking out of the motel and getting breakfast, Griffin went to see the truck and trailer for sale. It was an F-250 like Dad’s, but a 4x4, and the trailer was an Imagine brand. They were in great shape, and Sean (his alias) asked the lady why she was selling it. Mrs. Kay Hastings said it was her late husband’s toy. He used it for fishing, and unfortunately, he died of a heart attack while fishing between a young woman’s legs. But don’t worry, it’s been thoroughly cleaned and the mattress replaced.
They bartered back and forth until they finally settled on 45k cash. The registrations have just been renewed, so he could wait to register it when he finds a place to settle for a while. After the paperwork was done, Sean hooked up the trailer, drove to the nearest shopping center, and parked. Then he walked back to the house, got the SUV, and parked beside the trailer. Griffin transferred everything to the trailer and parked the SUV. He wiped down the areas he touched and left the key in the ignition.
Griffin drove to a Walmart and got plastic storage bins and trash bags. He put all the illegal shit in the plastic bins and opened the outside storage. Mrs. Hastings hadn’t emptied them, and her late husband’s things were still in there. So, Griffin put his illegal stuff behind it to keep it from being visible. Then he emptied the clothes from the closet and dresser into trash bags, wondering why she didn’t get rid of them. Once done, he returned to Walmart and bought bedding, towels, and food.
Then he drove to a laundromat and washed everything, including his new and dirty clothes. Two hours later, he was on the road, stopped at a truck stop for fuel, dumped the waste tanks, and filled the water tank. He found a generator and filled it along with a 5-gallon gas can. Then he parked, locked up, and went inside. He was surprised to see it like a miniature Walmart for truckers. He ate a late lunch, then bought two ballcaps, gloves, sunglasses, and a trucker’s atlas.
He was heading west and was looking to stop in Texas, Arizona, or Colorado for a while. As it got dark, Griffin pulled into a rest stop and parked away from the facilities. It would be safer and less noisy with people arriving and leaving. He started the generator and put a frozen dinner in the microwave. While eating, he thought about how to contact Dad without the CIA and Mom finding out.
The phone Dad gave him was compromised, and his work extension was probably monitored. A letter to work was risky, with the postal service marking it at the point of origin. Emails were risky too, but he had to tell him about Mom bringing her phone to the cabin. Then the idea of a messaging service came to mind, and he needed to research it. He finished dinner, then went to bed.
The assault team leader called CIA Special Projects Manager Rob Green and reported that Griffin Steele wasn’t anywhere to be found, and that they had searched two towns. He told Rob that they were an assault team, not investigators, so they were heading home. Rob yelled, “Wait,” but the line was dead, and he was pissed. He couldn’t send any more teams or personnel without raising red flags. Then he thought of a PI he’d used before and called Joe Horn.
Joe answered and asked Rob what kind of illegal activity the CIA wanted him to do. Rob laughed. “It’s nothing illegal.” It’s a locate-and-detain for a pickup job. It’s a 15-year-old boy on the run, and we need to locate him. Joe said he smelled bullshit, and everything you are requesting is illegal unless you’re his parent. You’re doing a special project, and this kid is needed. Well, count me out, and he hung up. That enraged Rob, and after destroying his office, he drank bourbon until he passed out.
Griffin woke up sensing danger and looked out the window. A police vehicle sat with its lights off, and an officer got out with a flashlight. When he got close enough, Griffin read his mind. He and his cousin ripped off travelers and made a killing selling the goods. Griffin exited the trailer while the officer was checking the truck. He waited in the dark until the officer reached the trailer door and knocked him out. He had a silenced .22 automatic tucked in his back.
He pulled Officer Norton into the woods and stripped him. After giving him a beating he’d never forget, Griffen handcuffed him to a tree. He took Officer Norton’s pen and wrote on his back, “I rip off tourists with my cousin Jack.” Then he searched the clothes and found a switchblade, a .38 snub-nose revolver, along with his county-issued gear. Griffin took his gun belt and clothes to the police cruiser, then drove into the woods until it got stuck between trees. He wiped down the areas he touched and returned to the trailer.
Griffin got it ready to travel and took off down the highway, wanting to be miles or a state away before his department discovered him. He crossed the state line and saw an RV park advertised on a billboard. Griffin pulled into the RV park at 7 a.m. and registered under his alias Sean Harper. The pad had full service with internet, so he parked and connected the services. He was about to disconnect the truck and realized he didn’t have a trailer tongue lock.
He was sure the previous owner had one, so he checked the drawers in the trailer by the entrance and found one along with one key on a ring. The lock keys were in it, so it had to be for something else. Griffin disconnected the truck and locked the trailer tongue. Then he returned to the trailer and searched for what key fit. Under the kitchen seat was a safe and several firearms. He opened the safe and knew he wouldn’t need money for a while. It was full of cash, and he wondered what Mrs. Kay Hastings’ late husband did for a living.
Griffin went online and researched messaging services. After reading their restrictions, he gave up and had to find another way. He turned off the laptop and drove the truck to the office. Griffin asked if there were restaurants or a market nearby. The clerk gave him directions, and he took off. There was an RV store on the way, so he stopped. They had everything you would need for an RV or travel trailer. Griffin bought a tool kit, a digital door lock, and racks to hold a motorcycle on the bumper.
He stopped at a Taco Bell drive-thru for lunch and returned to the trailer. After lunch, he installed the trailer door lock. Then Griffin remembered the laptop the intrusion team had and went to the outside storage. While going through the plastic bins, he finally found it among many other goodies. The goodies were in duffel bags he never opened. Griffin put everything back and would go through it later. Returning to the trailer, he hacked into the laptop.
Griffin was glad he had befriended Barry, a senior programming major at the university. Barry introduced him to hacking and taught Griffin everything he knew. Then Barry gave him a list of chat rooms and his precious login to the dark web. He schooled Griffin on the safe way to buy and get products delivered from the dark web. Although he had never had the opportunity to log on to surf the dark web, now he does, and it’s something he will do soon.
Once inside the laptop, he checked the programs and icons on the desktop. Griffin saw logins for the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security and wondered who the intrusion team was to have that kind of access. Then he checked their bank app, and it showed the payment of 250k from a Cayman Islands Bank account. That had to be from the CIA Special Projects Manager, Rob Green’s operational bank account. Griffin thought he needed to start programming his toolbox, as Barry called it.
Barry gave him a worm and an email program to alter and refine. He said they were his first, and everyone needed their own style and to set up the functions of their tools. A couple of ideas popped into his head, and he began programming. The first one was internet forwarding, and it would use a computer he’d hacked to access the internet. That way, his IP address would be the hacked computer, not his. While programming, he thought it would work for emails too.
The program would erase after use, leaving no trace of its intrusion. But it would leave backdoor access should he need it again. Universities were prime targets due to their extensive use of computers and free access for students. Griffin programmed until he was hungry and saved his work. While eating dinner, he thought about a name for the program and decided on “Uninvited.” He thought it would be funny to use Mom’s university or practice and let her deal with the fallout. He finished dinner and went to bed.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Griffin, still unknowingly dressed, locked the trailer and went to a park by the RV park. He stopped, and then everything went dark. The only senses he had were hearing and feeling, while the rest were gone. Griffin was lying on a hard surface, and there were people around him speaking a language he didn’t understand. Then, a sharp stick in his arm, and he lost the rest of his senses.
Griffin woke up lying on the grass in the park and sore all over. It took several attempts to get up, and he slowly made his way back to the trailer. A hot shower made him feel better, and he thought about the last time it happened. It was over a year ago, and Griffin wondered why now and what had been done to him. There were small marks all over his body, a first, and the back of his head hurt.
He ate breakfast and thought about his situation. He was alone now and free to do what he wanted. The one small problem was that the CIA wanted him for some project, and he was sure they wouldn’t give in easily. Mom would sell him out in a heartbeat, but Dad was the total opposite. Griffin wondered how their relationship was now that he was gone. He would bet Dad was pissed, and Mom couldn’t give a shit. Her patients and students came first, so their home life must be interesting now.
After breakfast, Griffin continued programming on “Uninvited” and noticed the change right away. He was fast before, but now his fingers were flying across the keyboard. He was also writing code he didn’t know before, but now he did. When he was done, he reviewed the code he had written earlier and made several changes. Once done, Griffin started on the basic worm program and totally rewrote it. At the end, he realized he needed a cloud account for the worm to send the data.
Griffin saved his work, grabbed some cash, and went to Walmart. He bought four $500 prepaid Visa cards and told the cashier to ignore the purchase amount. On the way home, he saw a Best Buy and got a 5 TB SSD. Arriving back at the trailer, Griffin signed up for a cloud account using his alias, Sean Harper. He added the cloud address to the worm program, saved it, then made dinner. While eating dinner, Griffin thought about when he should move again and decided to stay one more day. He finished dinner, then went to bed.
Sensing danger, Griffin woke after midnight, dressed, and quietly exited the trailer. Two men tried to gain entry to his F-250 with a lockpick. Two strikes to the back of their necks rendered them unconscious. He then put them into a deep sleep with pressure points and searched them. One had a 9mm Glock, and the other had a Taurus .38 Revolver. They had a large bag with their tools beside the truck.
Their Chevy Impala was parked next to his truck, so he beat them up and paid extra attention to their hands and balls. Griffin put them into the trunk, drove a mile away, and parked off the road in some trees. He wiped the areas he touched, walked back to the trailer, disposing of the keys along the way. Arriving at the truck, he picked up their lockpick gun and tool bag, then returned to the trailer and fell asleep.
During breakfast the next morning, Griffin examined the thieves’ tools, and they were professional-grade. They had everything from Slim Jims to key fob readers and starters. That caused him to wonder how he knew where they were and what they were doing. It must have been another gift, and Griffin decided to leave a day early. He secured everything in the trailer, disconnected the services, and raised the levelers. After hooking up the truck, Griffin pulled out of the RV park and headed down the highway.
He stopped at the next truck stop he saw and got fuel and lunch to go. While checking out, there was a guide for the best RV Parks in the US. They were listed by state, so he bought that too. Griffin pulled into the next rest stop and ate lunch while reading the guide. He was looking for a place to settle for a while, close to a large city with high-speed internet. But the location needed to be rural enough for him to see trouble coming.
Griffin was in Missouri on I-44 and had to make a choice soon on where to go. He chose to drop down to I-40 through Oklahoma and stop in New Mexico for a while. A highly rated RV park outside Albuquerque looked nice, but it was miles outside town. Once there, he could explore for a private spot to park. His next stop would be in Tulsa at the River Spirit Casino Resort. They had a RV Park, and he could try playing poker and visit some shops to upgrade his wardrobe.