Blossoms in the Mud (Mature / Sci-Fi / Closed / Stalkers Welcome! We have cookies!)

“There has to be a way somehow. If even Doves can’t get into the document, surely the elites could…” he murmured before he remembered something. “If I can find and hack into an elite’s profile, do you think you can access the files?”

Casey nodded, “that would be the best way to get to it,” he said mentally planning what to do, once he logged in he would take a picture of the document and then quickly sign out, hopefully doing it so that there was no chance of someone seeing.

Cairo nodded. “I’m gonna need a day though. The ‘elites’ are harder to locate so I can’t simply hack in and hack out like I normally do. Unless we understand at least what is in this document, we can’t do much,” he sighed, standing up from his seat. “I should probably get back to it.” He mentioned, his tone making it sound like he was about to leave.

“Are you leaving?” Casey asked, a touch of sadness in his voice as he turned to face the ‘dove’. He didn’t want Cairo to leave, but if he was leaving, Casey had no idea how to convince him to stay.

Cairo turned back, nodding. “For the day. I still have a job, you know?” He smiled ruefully, walking back towards the other man, gently cupping his cheeks and leaning down to kiss his forehead. “I’ll be back tomorrow if you want me to be. And if you miss me… you know which code to find me in, yes?”

Casey smiles softly at him, “yes, please come back tomorrow” he said grabbing on of Cairo’s hands lightly. “I will see you tomorrow” he smiled sweetly at him.
(Totally not me looking up when Cairo said “you can call me Kai, can I call you mine”)

Cairo smiled in return, gently squeezing the other’s hand. “I will be back as soon as I can,” he added before slowly letting go. “See you tomorrow, my Casey,” he grinned cheekily after that statement as he walked out the door, closing the door on his way out. Now came the tiring time of catching the train seven stations away and back home.
’I miss him already…’ he thought to himself as he got on the train station.

(Eheheheheh~)

Casey smiled at Cairo's words, and once the other left he got up and grabbed the UsB he had been given. He plugged it into his computer and waited for it to load so that he could look at them. He wished Cairo hadn't left, after all, he had been enjoying the 'doves' company.

In the USB, hundreds of document files were present, all named by their dates and overall content. A couple stood out though. Whether it be ‘6JuneProjectPrep’, ‘8JuneProjectDeals’, or ‘19JuneProjectPricing’, all seemed worth reading and looking over. If anything, the government was known to be corrupt, but no one, not even all the Doves, knew as to how much they have actually cheated off the system.

Casey pulled up the '8JuneProjectDeals' first, out of curiosity, he hoped he could glance over all of them, but that would take a long time, so going to the most suspicious ones first seemed to be the best plan. He had the coding for the website still pulled up on his second computer, the blue numbers still staring back at him, as if edging him to try to hack them. He knew if he tried he would get caught.

Inside the document was a whole paragraph with numbers that didn’t exactly look very normal to general people.

”Following the promises made, the ‘underground world’ is currently in construction and shall be finished just in time for the announcement. This, followed by a number of tunnels connecting to the world, amounts to roughly $11,260,000,000. Payment of said amount shall be made by the end of the month. Regulations of the company states that your team and your partners, the Doves, should consider checking the status of the project before payment has been made. This is to answer your own concerns.

When looking for the way to access the underground world, enter the Asian Market and look for golden dove symbols on the walls of the buildings. They should lead you to a lone manhole covering with a similar Doves symbol. Open the hatch and you will find us waiting in the underground world.

Sincerely,
A. Faltur,
Highest Secretary of TeraLife”

"now this is definitely suspicious," he said and going back to open the '6JuneProjectPrep'. Trying to see if he could find more information on the subject, the 'underground world'. He grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down,
'underground world? Golden dove symbols? manhole covering?'
He had many questions, and needed to find the answers. He got onto the site thing that he used to message Casey,
"What do you know about the 'underground world'?"
He went back to the documents while he waited for an answer.

‘6JuneProjectPrep’ read…

”As the start of the project would be the hardest, the company has decided to lower the suspicion and the risk of potential workers appearing around town by forcing our workers to stay underground while another team fetched food and drinks for the people working underground. As this needs to be finished by August when the cryptomarket is at its lowest, we are trying our very best to get everything done and calculated for you all.

During August, the announcement that invites people in should be made and should be believable. Many people will suffer from the market drop, some may even lose their jobs and that is great. The more we can get involved, the better. By October, the company aims to have a total of a 50/50 share with the government body when it comes to cryptocurrency and a 60/40 share on cash. The Doves, the police, and the people cannot know about this. They should believe that they are working to help the people.”

It took a while but eventually, Cairo reached his home and when he saw the text, he raised a brow.
”It’s the underground place I mentioned TeraLife building to lure suffering people in to work for them. What about it?”

Casey frowned at the document.
”How long have they been playing this? Do you know?”
He opened the last of the suspicious documents, he had forgotten that Cairo had said something about the underground world, the events after that conversation were quite distracting after all.

”No idea unfortunately. I just know that it’s been some time,”

‘19JuneProjectPricing’
”Following the previous visit and the previous document amounting the total payment to be $11,260,000,000, the company have found more parts that needed more money involved. These included; the air conditioning systems and the sound systems. This, and the addition of the first ‘salary’ the workers will get, adds up to $11,578,000,000 in total. Meaning that an additional $318,000,000 must be paid after the original payment has been made and dropped to us.

We look forward to hear from you soon,
TeraLife”

”the cost of this thing is….crazy” he typed after reading the document, he wrote down the numbers on his paper. How anyone could get that much money, he had no idea. But it made him trust them even less.

Cairo went quiet for a moment before he typed something back.
”Usually the money the government uses comes from the increased taxes on electronics and such. I’m not sure about the numbers, but I’m sure it’s a lot that they have gotten from people’s wallets without people actually knowing. The 20% increase in taxes in electronics ten years ago are probably being used now.”

”well wherever they got it, whoever they are giving it to, it’s still a lot and there is no reason the government should have that much” he replied. Casey sighed and ejected the USB before tossing it back into the pile. Most of the USBs were junk, or practically empty, mostly so that no one would find anything if they went through his stuff.

”I know what you mean,” Cairo replied while he was making his afternoon tea. ”How do you plan to expose the government though? Clearly, just posting the contents won’t do anything I don’t think. The government would just probably take the post down and arrest you,”

”true, but if I could find a way to broadcast it from the governments server or something, where everyone could see or hear it, that’s would work…right?” he asked. He liked having this professional conversation, it made him feel important.

”Yes. Any announcement made from the government unit is easily believed by the people and no one would question it. Maybe you could go as far as to say you are a government officer who wants to save the people,” Cairo added, smiling softly as he was ‘texting’ Casey. It felt nice being able to talk to someone about such a matter.

”so like, that works…uh…anyway less serious topic, you will be coming over tomorrow right?” he typed, trying to sound casual, and probably failing. “I need coffee” he muttered standing up and going to his kitchen to fix him a cup.

”Yup! Did you want me to bring something specific or something like that? ;)”
Cairo knew what he was talking about. That kiss earlier was still tickling his lips after all. Oh how great it would be if he could experience that and more again over and over…

Casey came back to his computer, setting the coffee down a good 4 feet away. He looked at the screen and blushed, not sure what to say.
”well yourself, and ya know, whatever you’d normally carry around” he typed, trying to act casual, figuring that the handcuffs were something Cairo carried around often.

( ;) )

Cairo stared at the screen for a good moment before he smiled.
”So you do like being restricted like that… I wonder how cute you’d look in a collar.” He typed back as he knew what Casey was referring to when he mentioned ‘what he’d normally carry around’.

( ;) )

Despite Casey being flustered and blushing by this he typed back,
"well, you will just have to find out then"
After sending it he just sat there for a minute, covering his face and blushing.

”Don’t be too cute though. I can’t promise that I won’t do anything.”
The officer sat there in disbelief for a long moment, blushing and smiling at the screen. ’I should probably get his number tomorrow…’ he thought to himself, trying not to think about Casey be restricted like that… and yet his mind went wild.

Casey looked at the screen, blushing more.
"oh? Guess I will just have to be extra cute then ;)"
He tried to focus on like anything but thinking about what Cairo would do in that situation, but he failed.

Cairo simply stared at the words the other typed down, not believing what he was seeing. Even amidst an economic crisis, some things were just too good to be true. It was hard controlling his mind now that it had slipped down such a lane. Being at an age like twenty-one too after all…
”I guess I’ll just have to sleep the night away and hope time passes quickly then. How does some… breakfast in bed sound, my dear Casey?”

"as long as you're involved ;), you can give me anything to eat in bed"
Casey responded, having no idea where his level of cockyness came from, but the fact that he couldn't see Cairo, probably helped him be brave enough for it. He sat at his computer, blushing like crazy, wondering how the hell something like this happened to him, someone who never really talked to anyone, nor got out.