Honor

By Michael Cuddy

Chris and Michael are ordinary college students. After Chris is suspended. Michael goes to check on him. Little did he know what he is walking into and suddenly Michael is drawn into a world that involves: computer hacking, phony business deals, kidnapping, The FBI, Homeland Security, gambling, and a whole lot more. You have to wait until the end of the story as not everything is as it appears to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Cuddy
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370333813

Michael Cuddy

I am the father of two kids. After doing the same thing for the past twenty years. I wanted to do something else. I had the idea for this book for a while. Then one day I just sat down and wrote it out. And with the help of my wife and brother in law. We ended up with a book. So it's never too late to pursue other options.

Book preview

H O N O R

Copyright 2017 Michael Cuddy

Published by Michael Cuddy at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This e book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter One

My story starts like pretty much every other kid’s does today; I had an abusive father and a mother who worked all the time. However, they didn’t last long. My parents ended up getting divorced when I was younger. Life in the inner city was hard at times but great at times too. My mother would take me to museums, and Central Park. She tried to raise me the best she could. Now my father on the other hand, he forgot who I was. I seen him around the streets, but I was not allowed to talk to him. Not that he would acknowledge who I was anyway. I was left at home a lot, so, I got into video games and computers at an early age. Back in the early nineties it wasn’t uncommon to play games, however it wasn’t the coolest thing either. Kids like me were not very popular in school. I got picked on and bullied and as such was beat up a lot. Life in the city was not an easy one. Mom worked all the time. So there were times I would have to steal food for dinner, which I wasn’t proud of but if I bothered my mom at the diner where she worked she would be fired. Her boss was a real jerk. He took home the leftovers or made them serve them again the next day rather than letting his employees take any home. They even had to pay for anything they ate or drank while on the clock. She worked long hours for little pay and only half the tips she earned. Because he even took half for the privilege of working there. This guy was a real scumbag to say the very least.

Now here it is twenty years later and look at me, I have a multi-million dollar home with a garage full of cars, a wife, more beautiful than I probably deserve and countless friends. I must say it’s funny how people wanna be your friend when you have money, however not so funny when you don’t. Yes, sir, I am living the American dream all right. The only problem is that I am not in America, I am in a sovereign country. Now the reason behind this is because me and a few colleagues of mine found a way to make a lot of money very fast. There were very high risks but also very high rewards. Before you go thinking too long on it. I should tell you that no it wasn’t the stock market or lottery. Something older than both of those and easier than both as well. To put it simply we were bank robbers, art thieves, and gamblers. Did we kill anyone? No. Did we steal from the working man? No. I am about to tell you how and why we did what we did. Because life is about numbers and if you put numbers in the right places amazing things can happen regardless of your education or background. happen regardless of your education or background.

As I said before, I was not very popular in school. I was kind of a loaner. I went to school and came home and played video games. Then the internet entered my life and a whole world of possibilities opened up before me. Though as you probably are thinking we couldn't afford the internet. This lead me to discovery after discovery including learning how to tap into the neighbors. So I learned the basics of tapping lines and how that worked until WiFi became widespread and then no more needlessly messing with actual lines. The computers I started on were either hand me downs or second hand presents from relatives for the odd occasion when I actually got something. After a short while when those systems and games became dull and outdated the internet bloomed and the systems and games went online. This opened up whole vast new battlegrounds and tactics involving real people that you could talk to and work together as a team with to accomplish tasks too hard for any single player. It was amazing how social I could be and truly come out of my shell.

At this point you may be asking yourself, If we were poor how did I get online to play these games? Well, for that we will have to get into my darker past. Basically you need money to buy the service and to acquire the necessary hardware. As a result I started out either conning the money or stealing whatever system I wanted to play on. Being young my first attempt was when I tried playing the homeless person on the street and get money, however I soon learned the downside to that is most people don’t even look at you so it can take a lot of time to make any money. Instead of this, I chose the simpler and faster route, and just stole what I wanted. All through my teen years I played online making friends and did good in school, because I could use the internet for homework and socializing. If you are smart and if you can get the book the teacher uses to teach the class. You can actually go online to that publisher and download all the tests and homework. Pop quizzes only affect a small portion of your grade and as such won't weigh it down drastically.

So I graduated effortlessly enough and had a GPA good enough to get offered my choice of scholarships. I could only see one path for myself though at this point in my life and I chose to go with the school that had the best Computer Science program. It was the best decision for a computer geek like me. I was learning computer programming and how different systems worked and interacted. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was absorbing so much. The work was hard and the professors were really strict. They were always going on about the internet and cyber crime. Constantly saying we aren't as safe as we think we are. The way we saw it though was that the internet was a world without limit and could be used for whatever we wanted. We loved it and though occasionally problems can arise from this limitless new world what are the chances it's going to happen to us and after all we are in school and can handle it. At least that is what we believed to be the case.

Chapter Two

Then one day we were sitting in a new class waiting to meet the professor we would be learning from for the next few months and the oddest thing happened. Everyone's cell phone started ringing at the same time. Everyone looked around as they checked their phones. How is this possible you ask? The question coming from the new professor whom also proceeds to ask, Who can answer that? One of the students pipes up nonchalantly, You sent a signal that activates the ringers on our phones. Yes, but how did I send that signal?The professor asked and after waiting a while continues with, No one? No one really? You are supposed to be the brightest minds and you don’t know how I did that. He pointed to a female student at this point and asked, You, what is your name? Amy, she replied. OK Amy, he said as he walked over to his desktop and pushed a couple buttons. Then proceeds to tell her, In two seconds your mother is going to call you. Her phone rings as if on queue. As she looks at the professor confused she goes on and answers the phone, Hello, oh, hi mom, what do you need? No, I didn’t call you, you called me. OK mom I got to go I'm in class. Setting the phone down and looking clearly puzzled and somewhat shaken she proceeds to ask again, How did you do that? To which the professor replies, "Simple. I simply looked all of you up on the campus website. Found all of you on Facebook. Searched your profiles for information by looking through your stats and reading through your posts. Not everyone posts their number which is smart but