Chapter 15 ~ Mouse Problems

***

Luke sat at one of the desks in the front of the bank on Monday morning. It belonged to one of the bankers, but he wasn't in today, so Luke decided to do his work there. He was hoping no one would bother him, and so far he'd been successful. This was especially helpful as today, as they'd planned another hit.

Luke was ready to send the go ahead text to Gunner as soon as he got the signal from his partner. He knew this was the last chance they had to make another attack like this. Luke had talked to the board again about the security updates which would roll out tomorrow. If they wanted more easy money, they had to act fast--which was another reason why he procrastinated so much on figuring out what they should do. The longer he waited, the more vulnerable they were.

Ashton walked out onto the floor, both hands in his pockets. His face was blank as he stood in front of his teller lane and readjusted the namecard, making sure it was facing out. That was the signal. Luke pressed the send button on his burner phone, shoving it into his boot so that no one would be able to find it.

He smiled at Ashton from across the room and the smaller boy nodded before disappearing behind the counter again. Luke sighed, thinking about his friend. He had thought about little else this weekend besides the scene he walked in on at Ashton's house on Friday: Ashton and the captive cuddled up on the couch together. She wasn't tied up or anything, and Ashton was holding her in his arms.

It's not that he was jealous...

Okay, after an entire weekend of denial, Luke was maybe finally ready to admit it. Maybe he did have some sort of feelings for the dark haired lad. And maybe that was why he left in a bad mood as quickly as he appeared, but then turned around to take care of his sleeping friend because he knew he would be upset with himself if he didn't. He set a new cup of water and some ibuprofen tablets on the coffee table and wrote a note explaining that he would tell the office Ashton was sick. After seeing the empty bottle of whiskey next to the couch, he knew Ashton probably would be anyway.

The two hadn't talked much about what happened that night, but everything was fine. They were able to move past the awkward and continue being best friends.

Best friends. Luke wasn't sure what he wanted from their relationship. He really loved their friendship, that dynamic was what he was used to. So then why did his heart speed up whenever Ashton looked at him, why was he willing to do anything to make him happy?

Luke was thrown from his thoughts when Niall ran up to him.

"Luke, do you hear me? They're attacking again," He shook his bosses shoulders to get his point across. Luke had been stuck staring at the floor while the alarm went off, and Niall didn't know what to do.

"Yeah, okay okay, just calm down." Luke was obviously calm, pretending to seem upset. He should be, since he was the one who ordered the attack.

"Your father is here..." Niall admitted.

"WHAT?"

"He's in the break room, I'm sure he'll be out--"

"LUCAS!"

"--Here soon." Niall finished lamely, sighing as Luke got out of his chair and left the employee in the dust.

"What's happening?" Mr Hemmings demanded. The entire bank was in chaos, customers were being herded outside by security, the employees behind the counter were standing backs to the wall, watching the computers but not allowed to touch. If they did, that would imply they were part of the scheme, because no one except Luke had any computer knowledge, so it was better if people just didn't interfere with anything.

"I don't know, it seems to be another just like the previous one," Luke shrugged helplessly.

Suddenly, one of the computers lit up with a message.

"THIS ISN'T THE LAST OF US. YOUR FIREWALLS ARE A JOKE."

"What does that mean, Lucas?" Hemmings Sr bellowed.

"Uhm, they're mocking our defenses."

"You were supposed to update our defences, make a better..." he looked at the computer. "--firewall. That's your job, you incompetent fool!"

Luke grimaced at the scolding delivered in front of his coworkers. It was one thing for his dad to yell at him in private, but to do it in front of everyone was unprofessional. And embarrassing.

"How can we stop it?" Mr Hemmings asked.

"We can't?" Luke shrugged. "Unless we can figure out where the breakin is coming from, we can't do anything."

"How do we do that?"

Luke rolled his eyes.

"I don't know, dad, how do you think we should do that?" Mr Hemmings face turned beat red and he scowled at his disappointing son.

"That's what your job is, Lucas, it's why you're paid to be here. So get to it," he grabbed Luke's broad shoulders and pushed him toward one of the computers.

Ashton clenched his fists at the way Mr Hemmings was treating his friend. He knew their relationship wasn't great, but every time he had to witness something like that, it upset him.

"I don't know this, dad. I know how to install security, I can update your employee photo on the main system, I can fix your computer if there's a bug on it...but track down someone who probably lives miles from here and has the capability to bypass all our systems?" Luke shook his head. "I can't do that." He lied.

Of course he knew who was responsible for the break ins, it was him. He was the computer genius for Young Guns, the one who disrupted servers, stopped cameras when the gang did something they didn't want the cops to find out about, and he was the one who wrote the program that hacked into the banks security. It was very easy for him to do, and he was more than capable of it.

But his father didn't know that. They didn't take "hacker" classes in his IT school, this was all something he learned on his own when he realized how much he hated his father. All the man ever did was tell Luke how much of a disappointment he was, so Luke thought why not try to take him down? So far it seemed to be successful.

"Well then what good are you?" Mr Hemmings mumbled, pacing around in front of the employees. No one knew what to do. Luke sighed, sitting down on the chair in defeat. Or at least that's what it looked like to everyone who didn't know different.

"Uh, sir?" A small voice piped up from the back.

Everyone's attention was drawn to a tall kid named Alec Benjamin. He had only been working for the bank for less than a year, and no one had gotten the chance to get to know him very well.

"What is it? Can't you see we're in the middle of something?"

"Dad," Luke warned. It's one thing for his dad to yell at him, but Luke didn't want someone else to get in trouble when it's him his dad is upset with.

"I just..."

"Alec, it's okay, what did you want to say?" he knew the kid wouldn't speak up if it wasn't important. As a boss, Luke thought it was important to have a decent relationship with his employees. He hated the way his dad treated him and even though he hated this business, he knew the people who worked there were real people and tried to take the time to make sure their work environment wasn't bad.

Alec smiled slightly at Luke.

"Uhm, it's just that I was part of this club in college," Alec looked like he was still in college. He was young, with a round baby face free of stubble and big, blue eyes. "And, it was a hackers club. W-we would watch YouTube videos that would teach us how to hack."

"What's your point?" Mr Hemmings barked.

Alec flinched.

"I think I can trace the location of where the attack is coming from."

Mr Hemmings eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"Why didn't you just say so?" He pushed through the crowd and grabbed the small boys arm, pulling him forward. Without so much as a glance toward his son, he pushed Luke off the chair and offered it to his new savior. "Get to it, boy! Try to figure this out, because no one else here is capable." Hemmings sent a scathing look to his son who ignored it. Luke was standing by Ashton who subtly slipped his hand into Luke's, squeezing lightly to let him know he was there. It made Luke smile for the first time that day.

Then he was faced with a different issue.

If Alec was actually able to hack into their program, he'd be able to find out who was behind all these robberies. That would not be good. Luke would go to jail, Gunner and Eagle would too, and even worse, so would Ashton.

If something happened to Ashton and it was his fault, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

"It'll be okay, your defenses are strong. He can't get through." Ashton whispered in his ear. Without his permission, it sent shivers down his spine and he tried to make it not seem obvious.

"You're right. We'll be fine."

They hadn't anticipated any of this. No one had ever challenged their attacks before, they were used to everything running smoothly.

"We should get those cops here," Mr Hemmings said.

"Who?" Luke questioned.

"The two detectives who have been investigating. We should call them and tell them we're on to something,"

"I don't think we need--"

"Did someone call for the best detectives New York City has ever seen?" Michael Clifford called out as he strolled into the bank, holding his hands up like a celebrity walking the red carpet.

Luke and Ashton shared a look, rolling their eyes.

"Great, now what do we do?" Ashton shrugged.

"Oh, Luke and Ashton, hello!" Calum called, waving emphatically at the smaller of the two. Luke nodded at him, while Ashton frowned slightly. For some reason that action made the blonde smile.

Michael and Calum walked over to Mr Hemmings and asked him to get them up to speed about what happened. They spoke in quiet whispers while the employees watched Alec type rapidly on the keyboard.

After a couple of moments, Alec let out a joyous whoop.

"What's happening?" Mr Hemmings asked, peering over the boys shoulder. All that was on the screen was a bunch of code, so he didn't understand what was going on, but it made him seem important to be looking at the screen with his personal hacker.

"I made it through the firewall, I'm about to pinpoint a location."

"He what?" Luke hissed. Niall looked at him in confusion. "I mean, that's great, I didn't expect it to happen so quickly..." Niall nodded, seemingly appeased with his explanation. Thankfully no one else heard him.

Luke sucked in a breath, his mind frantic with what to do. He couldn't disrupt anything right there, people would find that suspicious. What could he do to stop the computer?

"The Wi-Fi," Ashton whispered, nodding back at the router that was connected to the wall behind them. It was sitting on a small shelf close to the ground right near the door to the break room.

That was a great idea. Alec wouldn't be able to discover the location if he didn't have connection.

Luke took half a step back, grateful that he and Ashton had been at the back of the crowd of employees. The rest of the group was looking hopefully at the computer, so he was able to slip away unnoticed. Ashton stayed back with everyone else so it wouldn't be too obvious.

Luke looked at all the wires. He wasn't sure what to do. If he turned it off, someone would realize that something had happened, that it had been deliberate. He needed to do something that couldn't be traced back to him.

"Ash, can I have a serrated knife?" the taller man tip-toed over and whispered. Ashton nodded without hesitation and discreetly bent down to grab the requested knife from where it was hidden in a garter around his calf. He pretended he was just adjusting his pant leg while he slipped the palm sized knife into his hand and stood back up. He crossed his arms, poking the knife out from underneath his armpit where Luke was able to grab it.

"I'll distract them," Ashton told him, slipping through the crowd to walk over to Calum.

Luke took a moment to rub his nose, pretending like he had to sneeze.

Calum grinned as Ashton came over, asking a short question about the case. Michael was busy talking to Mr Hemmings, so no one noticed Luke as he walked back over to the router and set to work cutting the wires, trying to use the serrated edge to make it look like a mouse had chewed through it. He must have cut through the important wire, because he heard a couple gasps and groans.

Luke straightened up and walked back to the crowd.

"Shit," he tsked, looking at the blue screen that displayed the words, "NO INTERNET CONNECTION".

"What, what happened?"

"The Wi-Fi must be out, sir," Alec said and slumped his shoulders. "I lost it, I lost the location."

"Damn it!" Mr Hemmings shouted, pounding his fist on the table. "We were so close!"

"How did this happen?"

Luke looked around and let out an ear piercing screech.

"MOUSE! THERE'S A FUCKING MOUSE!" To make his fear more believable, he scrambled over to a chair and jumped up on it.

A couple people gasped and everyone was looking down at the ground, picking up their feet and hoping there wasn't a rodent underneath them.

"God damn it, Lucas. I didn't see anything!" Mr Hemmings bellowed, trying to calm everyone down.

"Dad, I saw it. It was small and grey and it had this horrifying pink tail," reluctantly Luke got down from the chair and Ashton rushed over to him rubbing his arms comfortingly.

"Did anyone see anything?" Michael asked, walking over to where Luke had been standing.

"No, but I did find this," Niall said, lifting up the "chewed up" wire that connected to the router. "There must be some critter living here."

Mr Hemmings muttered a couple curses.

Michael scanned the crowd. Something wasn't adding up here. How had the mouse been out in the day? Mice are nocturnal. They also don't often come out when there are crowds of people. It's more likely that they would show up to work one day and find the power or internet out because a rodent had chewed through the wires while the building was empty.

"We'll get an exterminator to come in sometime this week," Mr Hemmings muttered. "I guess we'll be closed for the rest of the day. Lucas," he motioned for his son to come toward him. Ashton let him go with a pat on the shoulder. "Call the cable company and have them send out a representative today to come fix this shit. This is unacceptable. I don't care what it costs, I want an internet box thing to be someplace mice won't get to it, like in the wall or in a protective case or something. Figure out what would be best."

"Yes sir," Luke said, pulling out his phone. His father was gone by the time he'd spoken, on to resolving the next crisis.

Luke called the cable company and then stood with Ashton who was listening to Calum talk.

"Mikey and I went to the beach this weekend. Do you like the beach?" Calum asked, not waiting for a response before continuing. "I bet you do, you look like one of those hot buff dudes who play beach volley ball in slow motion or something, the ones who make everyone stop and stare because they're just so--"

"Ash, are you ready to go home? They don't need us anymore, now that I've gotten someone to come in tomorrow to fix the Wi-Fi."

Ashton nodded so quickly his neck cracked a bit. Without even a glance at Calum, Ashton rushed away, taking his place by Luke's side. Luke put his arm around his best friend, glaring at Calum over his shoulder as they walked away.

"Something is off about them," Calum said to Michael as the two of them walked out of the bank.

"I've only been saying that since we met them." Michael scoffed.

"We should check the security tapes from today, see if there's anything suspicious going on."

"Good idea, I'll talk to Andrew about it,"

They asked for the security tapes, but since the internet wasn't working, they didn't have access to the tapes for another 2 days. Once the connection was restored, Mr Hemmings had someone send them over.

Michael watched the tapes, only focusing on Luke and Ashton.

"It's kind of odd that Luke and Ashton whisper something to each other, then Ashton walks over to you and Luke disappears from the frame, don't you think, Cal?" Michael asked his partner after 4 hours of watching the same half hour tape.

"Yeah, mate. Where does he go?"

"Well I called Andrew up to see if I could get the tape from the next room over, which is the break room."

"Great," Calum smiled. "Then if he doesn't go into the break room, that means the only other place he could be is in that dark spot where the cameras don't reach but the router is."

"Well, no." Michael said tensely. "Apparently they don't have cameras in the break room, something about the employees privacy, or whatever." He rolled his eyes. "And I called our dear friend Lukey up to ask him about his disappearance and he said he remembers having to blow his nose right before the Wi-Fi cut out,"

"How convenient." Calum muttered. "Wait, rewind ten seconds." he demanded.

Michael rewound the tape.

"What's he doing?"

They watch Luke's nose twitch after he whispered something to Ashton and then rub his nose and promptly walk out of the frame.

"What, we know he's guilty, Cal. That doesn't mean anything."

Calum sighed.

"I know you want to believe that, but you need to look outside of your bias." Michael scowled and his partner held his hands out in a gesture of peace. "I'm just saying, in court that would be believable, his nose started to run and he had to get a tissue. You know as well as I do that seems legit."

"It's an obvious cover, these guys are grade A cons, they know what they're doing."

"A judge wouldn't side with us and you know it."

Michael sighed, running his hands through his hair and banging his head on his desk.

He was so close, he knew it. There was something fishy here, he just had to connect the dots.

"We'll get them, buddy, I know it." Calum rubbed small circles on his back. "We just have to keep at it. We should plan more random visits to see them this week, keep them on their toes. They can't be perfect all the time."

"You're right. They'll slip up at some point. And then we'll be there to catch them when they do." Michael grinned.

***

My school actually did have a hackers club. They called it HAT—hackers against threats. I joined their social media because I thought it would be cool to learn, but they met at a time that another group I was a part of met so I never made it out. But I found out the president only learned what he knew about it from YouTube. they would watch a video and then try stuff out lol

Anyway, here's another update! Hope you're enjoying it ☺️ I swear more Lashton content will be here soon. I miss my favorite duo ❤️

~ashtonfortherwin