00000111.w0rk1n6
The room was lit by the wall screen displaying an isometric building outline of the centre of London. Jish sat on the bed with a screen-mat on his lap typing messages to Bob.
>Clear screen;
>Bob list all the jobs within 5 miles of the centre of London;
A long list filled the screen while the console input window remained in the top right hand corner. It was a retro joke in black and green. A very old way to communicate with a computer but it left nothing to chance and this was the only way to own the reins.
>Remove all without known disaster recovery plan within 5 miles;
>Display on the current map;
Three building appeared in green each was paired with another building in red. Jish spent a couple of hours looking at floor plans and documents about each of the businesses. It was important to check the client as much as the target, would they pay, could they and how much leverage can be applied to them. The news results for each of the companies had shown they were almost at war over customers and prices. Work was money and money was survival. Companies acted like warring clans though they were not raiding each other, burning buildings and stealing women they were starting to employ more aggressive methods. There were rumours that large companies on the fringes of the colonies had de-evolved into small city states ignoring government control, going independent. That was why Jish had travelled into space for the first time the money out there was better but the risks were greater. Of the ten thousand stations in the Alpha-C system all were networked and under government control but the warring companies all had outlets and offices there. There was little time to brood over a failed expansion into warlord hacking he had been busted by a company demigod level hack on his first job. And the fire for revenge that burned within him had to be controlled, he was a game addict and his game of choice was manipulation of a computer system. All game players are control freaks that hate to lose, when they get as good as Jish they would rewrite the game to win. This was not cheating, it was the next logical step to start to create the game instead of playing someone else's. From inverted control to extrovert control, the talent to try to control everything. If you can not win change your universe so you can.
>Take job 1.
>Call StarChild.
00001000.Dr3am2
LiStar lay on her bed in the Hotel doing research on The Wizard. The hotel room was a red, white and brown pattern, from the walls and over lapping straight lines radiating from the bed across the floor and ceiling. The bed covers were covered in deep browns and reds, the pillows were matching red and the base of the bed was pure white. The room inspired all attention to the bed like being draw to the middle of a delicate flower. LiStar was searching every chat topic and website devoted to The Wizard. Demigod level hackers were mythical, most articles pondered their existence. Faked, copied or even claimed to be groups. Some like The Wizard did hacks on request, like a comic book hero standing up for the poor. Others were legendary monsters clearing out people’s accounts and decimating entire charities. Most of the websites had been in the classic text and picture format; his Wikipedia entry was over thirty pages long and all of it was labelled as possible myth. There was a comment written that hacker’s pages were normally not listed or only edited by the site owner. There was no real way to read the person behind the myth. She had linked hacker’s in her mind with serial killers and a lot of articles had the same notion. Single minded control freaks searching for the rush of that first kill. Like killing people and hiding the bodies hackers wanted to stop, they wanted to get out but were addicted to the high. A hacker was addicted to the power, the same sense of reward her and her sister had got from each job they did. Unlike a serial killer there was always a motive to commit these crimes; money. There was much debate that a demigod level hacker did not need money and that gathering things most people craved was no challenge. They craved the attention of clandestine police and hunter squads to play against. In winning or losing these battles they were adorned with a god like presence to control everything around them.
Disabling all phone communication to coincide with a day devoted by a charity to real human contact. Deleting mortgage arrears records from all defaulting accounts for people with children. Because a government study proved banks were more likely to press for repossession on larger dwellings with children because the occupants were less likely to have the time to mount a legal challenge. One thing was obvious these were all political moves, designed to build a public image of hero, The Wizard was hacking his public perception. Had the comedy cock on the Earth Presidents speech to further prove demigod level was real and he could get to anyone. It had been a challenge and a fair fight; it made the president a target for every hacker in the world. To copy a demigod hacker was to follow an icon. Though using the hacker’s logo for profit was a crime, this was a free gift it made him an underground hit and more dangerous. The police had given up enforcing the law but a modern cult for the clothes industry was already born.
The commercial work was even more impressive, illusive and shadowed but again detailed released on sites as advertising. Maybe they were lies, false claims or bragging it was always hard to tell. Data theft, fund redirection and immobilising deliveries on product release days. The police had found it impossible to identify or even track the money. Banks had to provide names on account but since so many business accounts were controlled and managed by computers they knew not to help the police. Let a sleeping lion ignore you. Attacking banks was against his code it seemed and LiStar knew why, that brought down Zeus. No hacker was dumb enough to have that kind of heat, locked out of the internet and monitored until the military captured or killed you. Many lawyers and politicians had tried to lobby to have Zeus given total control, end hacking. But big business and commerce had needed a free internet market and hacking was part of that. If one system controlled the internet it would be god it could control everything and the world would become the empire of the one who controlled Zeus. She knew that only military could add and upload code to Zeus and only after years of testing Zeus core programs approval. Most were point releases to give access to new types of hardware and software to the giant. She was veering right off topic but that might be the point where else does a demigod level hack to go but retire or try to fight Zeus? He was not likely to live long once his identity was know but a photo was not an identity, there was a million ways to have a new name without the power to change data in most records on the planet. LiStar pushed the screen-mat computer off of the bed, it lay like a dropped scarf on the floor.
“Room. Command; lights off.” And the room complied, which was odd, hotels were known for bad electronics. Slipping away into sleep her mind was bubbling with images and text from the websites.
Two almost identical twins were walking down a hazy street. They were giggling and joking and they were happy. The people were faceless and most of the shops were grey and devoid of signs. Everything was a colourless blur, everything was out of focus. Every now and then something came into focus but was gone. This was a timeless world, the street and the walk were endless until one event changed everything. A large evil looking car with red eyes for headlights turned round the corner growling like a dragon. The light that came from the eyes showed this grey world was really covered in blood. As it passed her feet she could see the sticky foot prints. The blood was red in a colourless world, the car wheels where rolling slower than the motion required. The fatter of the two girls starts screaming, there is no sound. The puddles of blood are vibrating to the volume of the silent scream. It’s going to happen again and no one is going to stop it again the girls mind is screaming. For a second she is both little girls, the one being grabbed for the one trying to pull her back. She tugged her thinner sister’s arm, if she stops, if they change direction, if she was thinner they will take her. As they are pulled apart she hopes her sister will be OK, she is also sick it was her and why not take the fat bitch. The world starts to spin her sister fades in to the void of grey. Nothing can stop it, nothing can ever stop this dream. The voice says: “Hello.” Its thunder turns everything blood red. The hand was cold and vice like, synthetic but moved like a real hand. They are taking her and she can feel it but she can’t stop them. She leaps at them as they are taking her slow motion but the blood pouring out of everything is filling the world. Its uphill, the air is like treacle the floor is glass like and frictionless; her face is covered by the blood. Panic of her sister dragged into the car from under a sea of blood and she can’t scream. Then she is both girls at once again screaming in harmony.
LiStar woke already screaming, the rooms walls had closed in and for about a second she was in the red world still. She ran to the toilet and vomited until her stomach was empty and bile filled her mouth. The black marble toilet emptied and refilled silently removing the subtle fizzing sound of her stomach acids attacking her bile. She sat against the cold marble bowl and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her tears mixed with the ruminates of vomit in the corner of her mouth. The dream had left a sense of dread in her mind a total void which fear was pouring into. Her heart thumped in her ears as she cleaned her teeth. Then she showered away the imaginary blood. LiStar stared into the mirror for ages, still naked after the shower, lost in a timeless void of hate, fear and anger.
A link to a Kindle copy of my book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hacker-Who-Sold-Earth-ebook/dp/B0067AU4IK
