The Annihilation of Foreverland

consisted of five satellites – each weighing approximately 10,000 pounds – positioned around the world to meet wartime requirements with a price tag just under $5 billion.
    They’d notice one missing.
    Danny went up to the fourth floor of the Chimney where the bulk of computer activity operated and streamed through a major conduit of data that was transferring updates to the outside world. He did a quick search of the Milstar program and found it linked to three locations: Los Angeles Air Force Base, Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts , and Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado .
    He was careful not to set off any alarms while snooping around each location. Since he resembled data, it only took seconds to cross the country for preliminary observations. Once he was certain, he penetrated Schriever Air Force Base.
    There were very few gaps to exploit and the multi-layered security system was covered with alarms. But it wasn’t evolving like the Chimney. Danny easily disguised himself as a top-secret document and streamed onto a secretary’s computer in one of the outer offices. From there, he leaped into the network and passed through encrypted firewalls as a variety of updates and system maintenance. He avoided any sort of forced entry that might trigger a lockdown. He needed things to be open and fully operational.
    Once he cleared security, he migrated to the central command processor and located the geosynchronized orbit of the satellites. He could take complete control of all five, if he wished, shoot all of them at the island like falling stars. But that was risky. Alarms would be triggered and there was a chance that a system override could derail his actions. They would know the coordinates and likely investigate, but that wasn’t as sure a thing as dropping 10,000 pounds of metal on the Mansion.
    Danny tucked Trojan horses into the system that would lay dormant until one of the satellites was positioned over the island. Then they would send the satellite hurtling toward the South Atlantic . At that point, there would be nothing Milstar could do to restore power in time to alter the $1 billion belly flop.
    Estimated impact: ten hours, twenty minutes.
    Danny double-checked his work. When he was satisfied, he drifted back into the network. He took his time reentering the same port al inside the Chimney, trailing an email that was downloading onto the server. He ended up in the middle of the main database that contained phone calls, emails, and documents. He filtered through the information disguised as system maintenance, integrating with the content.
    There were lists of clients, none of which Danny recognized; surveillance video showing “prospects” of teenage boys that were sometimes in hospitals, alone in poverty or abandoned in remote areas. Prospects had psychological evaluation documents attached to them, evaluating them as either viable candidates or not.
    Nothing explained what they were doing with them.
    Danny ventured out of the system, past highly secure compartments that controlled all the buildings, food storage, power and security features. He could shut down the island, if he needed to. But that wouldn’t do any good without someone coming to the rescue.
    He was about to return to the Nowhere when something stopped him. It was a large database called “Records” .
    Danny hesitated. Records would mean histories. The past.
    Who I am.
    Night had arrived in Foreverland.
    Danny hurried inside the Records.

42
    The atmosphere transformed into images. He was no longer amorphous data that streamed along the colorful conduit. The Records database took shape of something that resembled an enormous library with vaulted ceilings and hanging lights. The floor was hard and shiny and the walls covered with bookshelves. But there were no tables or chairs; there was no need to reach for the symbolic books that held the records of the island. Danny only needed to think and the information streamed into his consciousness. He could absorb and comprehend the data about everyone, but he was only interested in one person.
    [Search for Danny…] he thought-commanded, suddenly realizing something he had been missing every since he woke up.
    I don’t know my last name.
    It didn’t seem important before. He was Danny and that was all he needed. It didn’t even feel like he had a last name, like it had been erased.
    The walls shifted. The bookshelves rotated and changed positions. Three books floated off