Identity - 1. Chapter 1

“But why? Why don’t you listen to what I think before you go and make decision that important?” Kai pleaded with his mom as the movers began taking their furniture out of the house.

“What can I say Kai? I need to do this. It’s a great opportunity for me. It’s a chance to give us a better life. I told you all this already. They made me an offer I just couldn’t refuse,” Julianne explained once again to her still skeptical son.

Julianne was slowly getting annoyed justifying again and again to her sixteen year old son why she had decided three weeks ago to accept the position of marketing director at her new firm. She had been approached by a head hunter and she accepted the job, even though it meant she’d need to move from the cosy suburbs of Denver to Montreal a city in a whole new country where all the signs were in another language and not everyone spoke English.

“You know, you’re asking me to leave all my friends behind? That I’ll have to change schools?” Kai added.

“Kai, I know you, and I know your friends have computers and cell phones, you’ll be able to keep in touch with them, you’ll be able to chat with them, and you’ll call each other. They’ll still be there for you. And don’t forget that you’ll make some new friends really quickly,” Julianne said hoping to cut short the discussion once again.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” the blond teen pouted.

Julianne was starting to get irritated by her kid’s bad attitude. But part of her completely understood what he was going through, she was just hoping he’d give the move a chance.

“Will you just give it a try? You might actually like it over there. It’s not as bad as you may think,” Julianne said one final time.

Kai knew that it was futile to keep arguing and went back to his room to finish packing his clothes.

She watched as her son trudged up the stairs back into his room. She knew he was upset, but she was sure she was doing the right thing.

Kai entered his once welcoming room and saw that it was now nearly bare. His TV set, gaming console and all of his DVDs were gone. So were the framed posters of his favorite movies, which had been rolled up and neatly packed away along with his other belongings.

Desperate to talk to someone before he left Denver for good, he belly-flopped onto his air mattress, opened his cell phone and called one of his friends.

“Hey!” Kai said when he heard his friend answer, ”whatcha doing?”

“Nothing of high importance. Are you all done packing? Is all your stuff gone yet?” his friend Marcus asked.

“Ya, well everything is in the boxes except for our air mattresses and we’ll leave those behind,” Kai said, pausing before continuing. “This is so weird man, the house is empty, it feels so unreal that we’re moving. I can’t believe that I’m leaving my home.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I can’t believe that you’re moving that far away either,” Marcus replied.

“This really sucks cocks, I’m leaving everything behind, all my friends, school, the swim team, everything,” Kai complained.

By now, Marcus had heard Kai complain endlessly about the move. Marcus had been on the receiving end of Kai’s whining since his friend learned the news from his mom over 2 weeks ago.

“Kai, I know it’s hard for you, but your mum’s right. I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you make it seem. You know, yes, you’ll be switching schools. So what? It’s not the first time that you changed schools. Also, I’m sure they have a swim team over there too, right?” Marcus asked.

Kai knew that Marcus was right. His future school indeed had a swim team. “Yes, they do have a swim team,” Kai said dejectedly knowing that his whole argument was falling apart if even his best friend didn’t support him.

“Then it shouldn’t be any problem, you’re a straight-A student, you’ll most likely, be one of the best swimmer on the team, just like here, and therefore you’ll be one of the jocks and the girls will be at your feet and the guys will envy you. I’m telling you, you’ll have no problem fitting in at that new school,” Marcus explained.

“Ya, well you know, I can do without having the girls at my feet. I wouldn’t mind if it were the guys though, especially if it’s the guys swim team,” Kai let himself say out loud.

“And Kai? You know that we’ll still be in touch, we’ll call each other, we’ll email, chat, everything. You’ll like Montreal, give it a chance,” Marcus said as he overcame the sadness he felt over impending departure of his best friend so he could make Kai feel better about his future home.

At that moment, Kai heard his mom yell that lunch was ready.

“Yeah, you’re right. Hey listen, I have to get going, lunch is ready. I’ll talk to you when I’ll arrive in Montreal tomorrow, alright?” Kai asked.

“Sure thing bud!” Marcus responded.

Kai hung up the phone. He jumped up onto his feet and raced downstairs where he was greeted with a freshly baked pizza covered with pepperoni-and bacon, just the way he liked it.

The rest of the day went fairly quickly. Kai, whose earlier conversation with Marcus gave him some energy, helped his mom finish packing and oversaw the movers as they did their job.

Both Julianne and Kai were bored by the time the evening arrived. They had finished packing their luggage early and since the movers having taken just about everything, having a cosy night watching a show or a movie in front of the TV wasn’t an option. At least, both Kai and his mom had their own laptop, but without an internet connection, there was little they could do with their computers.

Kai easily could have watched an episode of his favorite TV show that he had downloaded onto his iTunes account but decided otherwise, so he simply took the time to talk one last time to his friends and went to bed early.

As for Julianne, she certainly had more than enough work to do on her computer, but her new job had granted her a week off for the move and she had vowed not to work at all during that time. She decided to open a book and began reading and she too went to bed about at the same time as her son.

Julianne’s cell phone alarm woke her up after a much too short sleep. She got dressed and walked across the hall to Kai’s room. He was still sleeping, although only half of him was on the mattress while the other half was on the floor. Somehow, though, the sheet covered his essential parts. She thought he looked so cute and peaceful she almost didn’t want to wake him. But, after watching him sleep for a minute or two, she kneeled down and gently woke him up with a light kiss on the forehead.

“Wakie, wakie, wakie, time to get up, time to get up!” Julianne whispered into Kai’s ear. When he finally woke up she smiled and said, “Good morning sweetie.”

“What time do we have to leave for the airport?” Kai asked still a little groggy with sleep.

“Well, the plane leaves at 12:50 and we should get there at least three hours before that. So I called the taxi for nine thirty,” she replied.

“Okay, umm, can you get out so I can get up and get dressed?” Kai requested as he didn’t want his mom to see him naked.

He had just enough time to take a quick shower, get dressed, brush his teeth and zip up his luggage when the doorbell rang. Kai helped the driver put their three bags in the trunk, while Julianne did a last look around the house to make sure that they had everything that they wanted to bring with them to Montreal.

Once they arrived at the airport, they printed out their boarding passes, checked their bags and went through security. Only then were they were finally able to sit down and eat a good breakfast. After they finished eating, Julianne started to read a book that she had bought a little earlier at the bookstore while Kai made use of the airport’s WiFi network to check his emails.

Soon enough they boarded the plane to face a new beginning in a new city, leaving behind their life in America, full of both good and bad memories.

**

Travis was enjoying one of the very few days that he was able to take off and be entirely away from his office uninterrupted by calls. On this morning, he simply got up, walked down the stairs inside his expensive modern villa in the mountains and poured himself a cup of coffee. Then he sat down to read the paper, starting with the sports section and then the comics.

His wife, who had taken the day off from her teaching job to be with Travis, came downstairs an hour later. Travis greeted her with a warm kiss as she passed by her husband.

“Umm, we should take these days off together more often honey. I like the effect it has on you dear,” she told him as she went to make her own coffee.

She sat at the table and started reading the front page of the paper. But apparently some people didn’t get the memo sent by Travis the day before saying that he didn’t want to be disturbed because as soon as his wife had picked up the paper, Travis’ pager started beeping.

His wife gave him a menacing look. Travis felt like he needed to set things straight before his wife got mad at him.

“I’m not responding. They know that I don’t want to be disturbed. Whatever it is it will have to wait twenty four hours or be done without me,” Travis reassured her.

That easily, they ignored the interruption and went back to reading the paper. A couple of minutes later, Travis’ cellphone rang. He took his cell out and looked at the caller ID.

“It’s the office,” he said with a sigh.

Mrs Travis looked up and told her man: “Maybe you should pick it up, it might be important.”

Travis, however, was quick to dismiss that very option. “Not a chance in the world. I haven’t taken a day without dropping by the office, or doing some kind of paperwork in over six months,” he said.

Mrs Travis was obviously happy with his answer. “Aww, honey, come here, give me a kiss.”

“I said that I would take this day off with you and there’s nothing that’s gonna prevent me from doing that today,” he responded and then gave his wife a long kiss.

“You said that we’d do whatever I’d want to to today,right? So, does that mean that you’re gonna take me shopping?” she said teasingly.

“I got a full day just for you and you want to go to the mall?” Travis repeated incredulously.

“Okay, it’s a bad idea, but what about taking a nice walk in the park, then maybe a romantic dinner followed by a movie?” she replied. Then she gave him a seductive look and added, “and then, who knows?” She said as she walked over to him and planted another kiss on his lips.

“Maybe we could do that part first,” Travis answered.

“Uh-huh, nope, we’ll keep the order, I get to choose,” she replied.

“Alright, we’ll do it your way,” he said with a smile.

After finishing the paper, they went back upstairs to their room and changed into more suitable clothing. Not being very hungry despite the fact that it was already lunch time, they decided to get going and simply catch an early dinner later in the day.

They were about to head out when the doorbell rang. Travis was going for the door when heard his wife yell from upstairs: “Honey, are you getting it?”

“Yes, I was about to,” he replied.

The smile on Travis’ face immediately faded away as he opened the door to see a man on his front porch that Travis guessed was CIA. Travis surmised that the intruder was most likely a rookie. The man wore a starched white shirt and neatly pressed black dress slacks. He was barely in his mid-twenties and looked very nervous, so he had to have been freshly out of The Farm, where the CIA trained their young recruits.

“Sir, I know you specifically said that you didn’t want to be bothered today, but a matter of importance came up that requires your presence at the office,” the young man blurted as fast as he could.

Annoyed, Travis responded. “What did you say?”

Puzzled, the man repeated himself. “A situation of high importance that requires your presence came up.”

“No, I meant before that,” Travis said, trying to make himself clear.

“That you specifically said that you didn’t want to be bothered today?” The young guy timidly said as he looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but on that porch.

“Exactly, and I still don’t so, I suggest you to leave now,” Travis responded, coming close to shouting at the young man.

“It’s about the Troy complex,” the young guy quickly said as Travis slammed the door shut in his face.

Travis realized that was unusual. There weren’t many people down at Langley who even knew about the existence of that particular Troy complex. Travis knew about it only because, years ago, he was the liaison with the private contractor that was running the facility before the CIA took full control of all the activity there. In spite of what his head and heart was telling him, Travis reopened the door to see that the agent was still standing on his porch.

“What about the Troy complex?” Travis asked.

“I’m afraid that I don’t know much about the situation aside from that it might have been compromised overnight,” the agent answered honestly.

The stairs creaked as his wife tried to tiptoe without being noticed to see what was happened, but Travis heard the noise. He had the sinking feeling that his perfect day with his wife was not to be.

Once she saw the look her husband gave her, Mrs. Travis knew that all their plans had been thrown into the trash.

“You can go and we’ll catch the movie when you get back,” she said.

“I won’t come back late, I promise you. I’ll be back by your side by dinner time,” Travis said before heading out, followed by the agent.

Within twenty minutes Travis was going through the security inside Langley.

“They’re all waiting for you in the situation room sir,” the young agent said whose name Travis discovered was Jordan Becker.

Travis walked into the situation room, followed by agent Becker. The room was already crawling with people hunched over their computers. He could see a row of pictures being flashed onto the bigger screen on the wall.

“Alright, can anyone tell me what’s happening and why I was called here on my desperately needed day off?” Travis said as he glared at his chief of staff.

“At approximately three forty five this morning, someone managed to break into the server at the Troy complex,” Mr Thorpe, the chief of staff explained.

“Can you tell me how that could have happened, how someone managed to hack into a protected server?” Travis asked.

“That’s the problem, they didn’t hack their way in, they logged in through the normal channel, they had a login and password,” Mr Thorpe explained. “The problem is, the guy who supposedly logged into the system passed away a month ago.”

“Alright, can you tell me what was taken off the server?” Travis asked.

“Kai Johnson, does the name ring a bell?” Mr. Thorpe inquired. “His file was downloaded onto an external computer.”

“What’s the worst case scenario? Using the information to recreate a kid on their own?” Travis questioned.”

“Not a chance,” Becker responded. “They would need to have some major equipment, and a full team to make all that possible. We’ve already looked into that avenue and have every place that would have the capacity to do that kind of job under surveillance.”

“Exactly, we came to the conclusion that they’re after the kid, or worse, it’s an ex-employee wanting to expose the project,” Mr Thorpe continued.

“The thing is, either way, the kid is in danger,” agent Becker said.

“I want this to be kept on a need to know basis. We are to protect the kid without him or his mom knowing,” Travis declared. “I want Mark Housego on this right now. He was running the project, he might be helpful.”

“How much do we let him in?” His chief of staff asked.

“As for now, tell him only what he needs to know until we’re sure that the leak doesn’t come from him,” Travis answered.

**

On the plane heading for Montreal, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to Kai, who was enjoying the privileges of being in business class by playing video games built into his personal TV screen while Julianne was reading her book.

At some point, the flight attendant came with the cart to serve lunch. “And you, young man, do you wish to have the chicken or the pasta?” she asked him.

“I’ll take the pasta please,” Kai answered.

The flight attendant gave him his lunch and went on her way. The food wasn’t totally horrible, but still, he soon wished that he had taken the chicken like his mum had ordered and seemed to have loved.

After the flight attendants passed by again to collect the trays, Kai got up and walked to the restroom. But he was out of luck, as the two restrooms near him were already occupied and already a small line had formed to wait for the bathrooms.

“Taking a summer trip to Montreal with the family?” A man in his thirties asked Kai out of nowhere.

Kai turned around to see who had questioned him. He saw a bald man in a suit who seemed to have snuck up behind him. Kai realized the man had most likely decided start a conversation to make the wait for the bathroom go by faster.

“Nah, we’re moving to Montreal actually,” Kai answered, deciding there was no harm in talking to the man.

“Do I sense some unhappiness in your voice? You didn’t want to leave your hometown and your friends, did you?” the man, Mr. Miles, questioned.

“Well, who would be happy to leave their friends behind?” Kai smart mouthed back to the man. “But, nah, not really, it’s not all that bad.”

At that moment, one of the restrooms had become free and Kai went in it. Right after Kai got inside, Mr. Miles went back to his seat in the second row of the first class. Minutes later, the man watched as Kai walked out of the restroom and back to his seat.

**

At the same time, in the suburbs of Denver, kids were outside playing outside, celebrating their first full day of their summer break. As they enjoyed the day, a black Mercury sedan turned onto the street. The driver drove carefully so as not to hit any of the kids running and skating on the street, but he also wanted to give his passenger the chance to find the right address. They stopped in front of the house that had just been emptied the day before. The two men, both dressed in dark grey suits, got out of the car and walked to the front door and rang the bell. After two rings and still no answer, the passenger walked around the side of the house to take a look while the driver walked back to the car. Finding nothing, he returned to the car as well.

“Everything seems to be gone,” the passenger said.

The driver waited no longer. He discretely picked the lock and opened the door. Both men went inside. A quick look around the empty house was enough to tell them that the occupants had indeed vacated the premises.

“Well, all the rooms are empty, what next?” the passenger asked as he came down the stairs.

The driver pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started typing.