“Never assume that you’ve won until you have” Tech said “always assume there is a way out for your opponent, even if you can’t see it.”

 

Chase was 11 years old, and he sat across the table from his father. Dad had the dark side of the board, and Chase had the white side.

 

“I know” Chase answered, but at the moment he knew Dad had no way out, he could see it in his head.  Confidently he moved his queen into the position of attack, it was perfect; she was protected by four different pieces and was controlling most of the board “Check”

 

“I see” Stuart said with a smile, moving his king out of harm’s way, Chase moved his queen and immediately regained check,

 

“Can’t win Dad” Chase grinned

 

“Really?” Tech remarked, once more he moved the piece out of harm’s way, and Chase was about to regain chess once more, but he stopped , Tech had moved his piece into the protection of another, he couldn’t attack just yet, still this was a minor setback, not failure

 

“That’s not going to save you” Chase chuckled as he moved his knight into the perfect position to take out his dad’s protection, he would end it in two moves

 

“Please” Stuart replied,

 

Chase stared at his father’s hand, expecting him to reinforce his king’s protection, but instead, it glided across the board to its side, picked up a lonely bishop, and moved it five spaces fight next to Chase’s king

 

“Check” Stuart said enjoying the moment

 

Puzzled, Chase looked at the bishop; his Dad had put it right up to the Chase’s king

 

“Well that was stupid” Chase thought as he was about to move his king and kill the bishop, but then he stopped, the bishop was protected, on the far right was a rook right next to his queen,

 

“Oh no” Chase said

 

“Oh yes” Stuart responded with an evil chuckle

 

Frantically Chase scanned the board, with that one move  he had trapped him, both squares where the king could move were guarded by pieces arranged through the battle in a way that Chase would never have seen, and didn’t. His Dad had been planning this.

 

“NO!” Chase exclaimed slightly over-dramatically as he scanned the board five times more, searching for something, anything, to stop what was about to happen, but it was too late.

 

“Aaaaaaaannnnnddd” Stuart said purposefully drawing out his victory “Mate”

 

The white king fell with a clack "Ugh!" Chase let out, grabbing his chest, and dramatically falling to the floor, pretending to die

 

Stuart laughed, as Chase lay on the ground, and soon Chase was laughing too

 

"Alright son, ready for another round?"

 

Are we ready to start sir?” Darla asked

 

Tech opened his eyes, it was 6:36 AM (New York time)

 

He currently sat in a leather chair, in a somewhat dim room. To his right was a coffee table, his laptop rested open on top of it. The rest of the room was somewhat bland containing nothing more than a table and some chairs, but then again it was not meant to be cozy, this room was specifically designed so that any wireless signal that was to escape its walls would be completely untraceable. Tech called it the deadline room. At the table sat Darla, she had a laptop of her own, and was awaiting his response.

 

Tech looked directly at her.

 

“Not quite yet I’m afraid. ‘Slash’” He said with a mocking, and bitter tone “Will be monitoring the satellite feeds, and I’d prefer to keep this a secret operation.”

 

“I see sir” Darla agreed “What will you do?”

 

“Tech stared ahead stone-faced for a second, then picked up the phone and began to dial.