Stand By Me Darling

A gust of wind blew from nowhere making Talia’s ponytail all messy and fixing her hair, she observed her great grandmother. Her reaction was not good as Talia could sense she doesn’t want to talk about it.

Ah, stubborn old people! Can’t they just be open?

She didn’t even think that both of them might not want the other to know their secrets for some reason. Her grandpa and her great grandma both weren’t uncomfortable with each other, but they were trying to keep secrets only from Talia.

"Gigi ma, I’m not trying to pry into the secrets you’ve kept. I know you are trying to protect us by keeping certain secrets. But with how carelessly King Titus revealed the truth to me and how Belfauger is powerful enough to kidnap a Prince with no repercussions; I wanted to know for the sake of avoiding future confrontations. I don’t wish to know the reason for the bad blood between Belfauger and our family. But I want to know if I should be wary of him in the future. I don’t think that is presumptuous of me to ask that." Talia didn’t back off and carefully expressed her intentions.

"And grandpa, why did you ask Belfauger to kidnap Edward? Is he your friend?"

"No, he’s not. Listen to me MaryAnn, for I will never repeat what I’m going to say. But I’ve left some clues in my will in case some of them might bother you in the future. Arnold Belfauger belongs to a secret cabal which I once was a member of and he’s an acquaintance. We people... we don’t become friends. We do deals. He owed me one and I asked him to put the fear of God in Prince Edward’s childish heart. Now or in the future, neither Artie nor you need to be acquainted with such people who covet power even if they approach you themselves. Just keep them away and they won’t bother you much."

"Yes, I understand, grandpa." Talia nodded.

If it was someone else, she’d have laughed when they said ’secret cabal’ but it is her grandpa saying that and she believed him. They used to go to these odd gatherings when she was little, but then her grandpa stopped going to such gatherings anymore. She remembered few of them and they are still the richest ones in the world. Are the rich and powerful people from those gatherings part of this ’secret cabal’ her grandpa is speaking of?

And she had found some odd activities in the dark web where random information that may seem insignificant, would start a domino effect resulting in the rise and fall of nations and world economy. Seven years back, one such campaign was started against the Northern Star which she successfully stopped, and that’s how she became much better as a hacker. Was that organised by that ’secret cabal’?

Odd information that circulated in the dark web actually toppled the governmental structure of a country rich in resources and that country is now suffering from civil wars due to the lack of strong leadership and the common people are scrounging for their basic necessities. Is that the doing of that ’secret cabal’ too?

Whatever! I have no intention of becoming one of those who lurks in shadows to gain power and further their agendas. Nor am I curious about those people. I’ve always used my hacking abilities for defense and securing what is important for me. And that’s how it will be in the future too.