RIZE - ver1.0

Brian Stiller was quite an old man. Really. At 73 years of age, he still ran that small confectionery in the small alley. Stiller's, it was called, quite matter of factly. Never once in his 50-year experience as a shop owner had he thought of shutting it down. Quite ironical to growing old.

Though rickety, Stiller was a man of culture and very kind.

The only person he knew after his son departed was this young lad working for him at the shop. He found him right around the street. Hurt badly.

Bruises all over the body and two broken fingers. Eyes were swollen.

He had been unconscious. Seemed to be knocked out.

Stiller thought of him as a random punk who got beaten up in a brawl.

He tried to ignore him but his personality went over his intelligence. He took pity on him and treated to his wounds.

When the guy woke up, he asked him what had he been doing on the street ,but to no avail. Lad was a blank slate. Said nothing except repeating one date. "It's happening on 28 September",.... It's happening on 28 September",.

Since then he had the "lad" work for him and took care of him.

Stiller tried to gather info but what he got in a 5 km radius was a complete vacuum. Guy was a black hole.

All he knew, was his name,

Alex Parker.

...

4 months ago...

Wake up.... ..Commander.... Commander wake up !!!

The loud scream woke Alex up from his peaceful slumber.

He painfully opened his eyes to see a skinny figure of Martin standing beside his sleeping couch. He had his hands on his hips. Somehow, it strongly reminded Alex of his mother.

"Huh?"

"Were you having a fit or something?", asked Martin, who was bearing a very strange expression on his fragile face.

"What ?", asked Alex, still felling sleepy.

"You were continuously grinning like that freakin' old waitress at Malkin's.", blurted out Martin instantly, as though he was holding his words just for the moment.

"Shut the hell up.", Alex scowled back at him.

"Did you get that goddamn PC working?", Alex asked Martin.

"Work in progress sir. Would be done in an hour or two", Martin replied with a gusto.

"Right".

Alex hauled himself out of bed with all his strength and sat straight upright.

He tried to remember what he had been dreaming of last night, but what he remembered was just a blank gray screen...

...

"Hey commander, get your ass here into the room this instant! You gonna love this!"

Alex, who was was combing his hair next room, quite elegantly, stopped in his action.

He dashed out of the room and was beside Martin just the next instant.

"Did you get that thing workin'?"

Martin turned his chair graciously towards him and gave a triumphant look.

"Aye Aye sir,

the baby is fully repaired".

"Good work Marty, I gotta make sure to get you one of those hamburg steaks at Malkin's."

Alex said with a hint of a smile on his face.

"Rather not by that waitress", replied Marty jokingly.

"Righto."

"Now a word of buisness. What did those guys at the company say about it?"

"That's why I called ya, take a look at this."

Alex squinted his eyes at the monitor as Marty switched it on and opened the certain site.

"What!, just a goddamn year ?!, they gonna release it in an year ?!".

"Yo"

With a visible hint of a laugh on his face, Alex asked, "Can you 'can' the code?"

"Yeah, but it would take some time. Get me that hamburg steak first."

"Send me the file on my wireless, will ya?"

Marty nodded his head as he started his work on the code.

"Then I'll be on my way."

Alex came out of the room with a big smile on his face."

"Those imbeciles at the company will love when they see their code all over the internet. They will know that it was a wrong idea to fire me. "

He put his beloved jacket over himself and exited the small apartment.

The weather was also celebrating in his stead.

He pocketed his wireless as he descended down the stairs onto the road.

A small walk later, he had reached Malkin's.

Outside the shop, he extracted his wireless out of the depths of his pocket and called a certain number with a definitive gusto.

Just 4 rings later, the call had been picked up.

"Winky, did you get the SSD?", asked Alex, trying to sound very serious.

"Yes", a small voice replied from the wireless.

"Good, now return immediately to the apartment"

With a sigh of satisfaction, he disconnected the call. The day seemed to be too got for him.

He was just entering the restaurant when a gentle "ting" stopped him in his tracks.

He switched on the wireless's screen and opened the most recent notification.

He clicked "download", with very nervous hands.

As the completion bar was reaching 100%, happiness was welling up inside him.

At last he clicked "open" with shaking hands.

As he read the code, his happy face turned pale. A minute later, only two words escaped his shaking lips,

"Holy shit."