by Newbiel
"That's a lot of if. You really think you can achieve that level of control?" Karine asked.
"Right now? No but with a lot of practice I think I will. In the meantime I need to reinforce my body. With workout, healthy alimentation and maybe with my soul I can reinforce my body. I don't know so much, but what I do know is that my bones and muscles are not built to hold that much power."
"So don't use it." Mary said forcefully. If whatever power he was talking about could harm him, she would never allow it.
"I don't plan to but sometimes life happens. It's like mom's gun. Everyday, it will stay in her purse with the safety on but if someday she is in danger, she could use it to defend herself. I plan to use this power in the same capacity."
Seeing that her wife was still not convinced, Karine chose to speak in his defence.
"Love, he is right. Everyone needs a trump card. Let him be his and don't forget we will be behind him every step of the way. He will be okay." She said, putting her hand in her hair.
Once his mother's worry had been settled they kept talking pleasantly until his phone started making a weird sound. Seeing the frowning expression on the face of their son when he looked at it, Karine could not help but question him.
"What is going on sweetie?"
"Someone is hacking my computer." He answered.
Chapter 80: :
Getting his laptop back from his room he sat down in his chair, his mother looking from behind his shoulder with attention. As the hacker was already in his computer he created a separate phantom space on his own hard drive to work without being noticed. After that he launched one of his watch programs to see what the hacker wanted to take from him.
Looking at the increasing number of windows that their son opened in front of their eyes his moms were awed to see him work. His fingers were swift on the keyboard and program after program got launched.
"Can you stop the hacker?" Mary asked with concern.
"Yes I can, I will not tho." He answered, his eyes focused on the screen.
"Why?" Karine asked, surprised.
"I want to know what the hacker is looking for. Relax, all of the important and compromising stuff is not on any of my computers. Let's just say that even if someone publishes my twitter Dm's, I'm absolutely not worried."
"Is this the only reason sweetie?"
"No there is more, if I start to fight back it could send some alert. The best course of action at the moment is to observe and find out who wants my data. The hacker is good, he breezed through my firewall as if it was not even there. Even if it's a basic one it's still impressive." He said a little impressed.
"Why are you doing nothing? In every movie I watch, the hacker always typed without interruption on his keyboard in front of a line of code." Mary asked curiously.
"Mom, it's because it's a movie not a real representation of hacking. Real hacking is done by built programs and counter hacking is done in the same way. The only time hackers are coding is to build a program to force their way into another program. If in the middle of an attack you are typing like in the movie it means you are trying to code a program to counter attack. Doing this on the moment is suicidal, it is a hundred times more efficient to just shut off the internet or your computer." Nathaniel laughed, shaking his head at the stupidity of it all.
It was presented that way in movies and series to appear more spectacular for the viewers, not to be a real representation. Even if he could understand where they were coming from, it was still dumb for him.
"Oh." Mary said, blushing a little.
"Ah, I know what the hacker is looking for. He's looking for my album." Nathaniel said looking at what the hacker was downloading.
"Sweetie, you need to stop it. It could be bad if your album is leaked on the internet. Our revenue from the sale would be hurt by this." Mary stressed.
"Hum, I have a better idea mom." Nathaniel said, adding a dormant program inside the file that was being downloaded.
In truth, he was not overly concerned for his album, he was more curious about the hacker. A plan was starting to take form in his head and he flashed a crafty smile. Once the download had been completed the hacker started to erase every trace of his passing. It was done smoothly and with great efficiency making his eyebrow rise. If he had not a program monitoring incursion he would have no idea that he had been hacked.
"Well, this is over. I think I can now consider myself as a real singer. Someone just hacked me to steal my album." He said humorously.
"This is not funny Nathaniel! It could have a wide range of consequences for our company." Mary answered sternly. The last time that it did happen the company action had dropped a couple of points and their prestige took a serious hit. If that happened with the grandson of the CEO it could be catastrophic in terms of reputation.
"I don't think the hacker wants to diffuse it on the internet. He could have hacked my mail or my twitter to fish important information but he chose not to. The person was only interested in my songs. This is not the usual MO of someone with bad intentions." Nathaniel said.
"So what? What are you going to do now to ensure the album stays only in his hands?" Mary asked.
"I embedded a dormant software within the file. When he listens to the song it will activate and I will have the address of the one who hacked me. After that I'm going to pay him a visit."
"Nathaniel this is a serious matter, I can't let something like this slide." Mary said, sternly.
"Can you give me two days to take care of it? Please mom." Nathaniel asked with puppy eyes.
"Okay but no more! You have 48 hours, after that I'm going to launch a lawsuit." Mary answered begrudgingly. She could not resist her son when he was looking at her that way.
"It's because of the memories of Marc that you became so good with computers?" Karine asked.
"Yes and no. I was always good with computers but since we did not have one in our home I played a lot with the old ones in school. When Marc got his CIA training at the farm, he did computer training but he was never good with it. He was an old fashioned man with no interest in technology. To give you an example, he exited the farm with a B+ evaluation and that's why he was labeled as an assassin and not an agent. But when I inherited Marc's souvenir, I learned everything that he learned in the past, even what he did not understand himself like hacking skills." Nathaniel explained.
"Oh, I understand." Karine said. It did make sense.
A beeping noise suddenly interrupted their conversation coming from Nathaniel's laptop.
"Seattle. The hacker is in Seattle." Nathaniel said with a wolfish smile.
*****
Seattle. 18/10/2012. 19:00.
Lina Campbell was taking the bus home after leaving work. She was a twenty two year old young woman with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. With her 5"5", her way to dress and her withdrawn attitude she was the kind of woman who did not gather attention even if she was kind of cute.
Looking through the window she was in her own little world, listening to music. In her Ipod the first album of Nathaniel Lyndon was playing in a loop. Since she had hacked it the day before, she had listened to it non stop and the more she was listening to it the more she liked it. It was crazy how she had come across that singer. She was listening to her usual Kpop playlist when Youtube started playing the new song of Nathaniel Lyndon, the original soundtrack of 'Now you see me'.
She had loved it from the start and had listened to it more than twenty times in a row when she got curious and started looking into the singer. She had subscribed to his Twitter and Youtube account right away, After that she had looked to see what other music he did and was sad to find only one other song with Taylor Swift. She had not listened to it as she was not a fan of hers and did not like her usual songs.
Not satisfied, she had then started to look him up on the internet to find more until she came across a newsletter saying that his album was going to be published the same day as the release of the movie, ear
ly december. After listening and watching all of his videos she could not wait any longer and decided to have his album now. Even if Lina was not that good at interacting with people she was insanely good in terms of computer skills.
Scouring the web it was not difficult to get her hands on his professional email address. After that, she put a spybot on it to monitor and to warn her the next time he was going to access it. The moment that he did she just followed his digital footprint on the internet until she had his IP address. Once she had that, it was a piece of cake to hack into his computer and get what she wanted.
Even if she knew that what she had done was bad, she had made sure to not dwell in his personal life or his work related files. She had even reinforced his firewall before leaving his computer to make sure that nobody else could hack the way that she had anymore. Even if that was still not okay, she could reassure herself that beside her, his future album was known to no-one else as she would not share it with anyone.
Seeing that it was her stop, she descended from the bus and started walking in the direction of her apartment. Looking at the shady neighborhood she couldn't help but sigh in her heart. She was missing their old home with their beautiful garden. Everything was simpler back then. She was a student at MIT, her future boundless, until her mom started to get sick. Slamming the memories down, she quickly dried the few tears on the corner of her eyes and realized she was in front of her apartment.
Getting her keys, she opened the door and entered her home. Her father was home, still in uniform and busy cleaning the living room.
"Hi dad." Lina said, taking her shoes off.
"Hi kiddo, how was work?" He answered with his powerful voice that always succeeded in easing her worries since she was a little girl.
"Good enough. How is mom?" She asked anxiously.
"Not that great today. She took her pills and is sleeping for now." He said with a sad smile.
"Alright, I'm going to my room." She said, more at ease.
"I'm going to make dinner and then I'm off to work. I will put it all in the fridge, make sure your mother eats when she wakes up." He said.
"Don"t worry dad, I will." She answered.
Entering her room, she shut the door and took off her jacket that she threw onto the bed. Sitting behind her desk, she turned on her computer. Her PC was something to be proud of for her. She had made it entirely herself spending less than two hundred dollars in cash. She was working on a custom service for a huge brand in Seattle selling and fixing damaged computers. She managed to build hers using defective parts that she scavenged from damaged computers. It was not an easy thing to do by a longshot but even if it was a hard time she had no other choice. With her mothers illness and medical bills their budget was tight to put it mildly.
Tipping her twelve character password, she was going to open one of her manga sites when her screen turned completely dark.
"Crap, my hard drive is acting up again." She swore.
She was tired from work and wanted to chill in front of a manga before eating and even that was not possible for her. Pressing a few commands on her keyboard there was no reaction on her screen which stayed black. Seeing there was no result, she was going to reboot her computer the hard way when finally something happened. A green line of text began to appear on her screen with a robotic voice sounding from her speaker.
'Shall we play a game?'
Jumping out of her skin, Lina knew right away that it was not the hard drive that was lagging. Someone was in her system and trolling her. That particular phrase was coming from the movie WarGames from 1983 and it was a classic. It was the moment when the MC got his first contact with the AI. The AI wanted to play chess when he wanted to play a global thermonuclear war. It was such an iconic moment in the film that she could not miss it when confronted with it.
Throwing herself on the outlet to cut the power, a new line of text appears on her screen.
'Knock, knock, Lina.' The robotic voice said again before the computer turned off and the screen became completely back.
Lina was starting to freak out. That last line was really scary. When she was on the internet and visiting some dark web site where hackers tended to chill off she never used her real name. Seeing that someone managed to get inside and force her way was something she always thought was not possible considering her security.
In her mind, she was thinking non stop about who could hold a grudge against her but she could not find any answer. Beside some hacking of a few manga and music she had never done something out of line. She was hanging in forums deep in the dark web more to talk with people who have the same passion as her than for the love of hacking in itself.
Something about that last line kind of stuck with her. She was sure it was coming from another movie but she could not place it right now. That's when someone knocked two times on the front door.
Chapter 81: :
Putting his phone back inside his pocket Nathaniel laughed out loud. Even if that was not a very nice thing to do, he wanted to give a lesson to that young hacker. The fact that he called someone six years older than him 'young' was not lost on him and made him laugh again. His life was really weird sometimes he thought, shaking his head.
Waiting for a couple of seconds to compose himself, he then knocked twice on the door. He did not have to wait long before a forty year old man opened the door. He was wearing a police uniform with his gun still on his hips. He was not that tall towering around 5"8" but he had a severity around him that forced people to take him seriously. He was looking at Nathaniel with piercing, scrutinizing eyes.
"What do you want?" He asked with a powerful voice.
"Hello, I'm Nathaniel Lyndon, I wanted to see you because I have an offer for you and your daughter. Can I enter?" He said.
"That depends on what your proposition is. If it's for medical reasons or a loan you can stuff it where the sun doesn't shine." He said virulently.
Since his wife's illness and their financial difficulty, they were receiving an increasing number of mail and phone calls to 'help' them with revolutionary treatment or loans that could 'change' their life. It did not specify however what change their life would change to.
"Seriously, do I look like a sales rep?" Nathaniel laughed.
Looking at his blue jeans, white T-shirt and tennis shoes, it was not the habitual suit that salesmen use to wear. He could see that even if his attire was simple, every single item was of really good quality.
"No you do not." He said begrudgingly. "Come in."
Opening the door wide he let Nathaniel enter before closing it again. Leading him to the living room he invited him to sit while he took the chair in front of him.
"Do you want something to drink?" He offered.
"No I'm good, thank you." Nathaniel refused politely.
"So what are you here to propose exactly?"
"It is a job proposal to be exact. Maybe you should call your daughter here as I have one for both of you." Nathaniel said, putting his bag near his right leg. Looking attentively at Nathaniel, he could see that even if he was quite young he had a competent air around him. He was not looking like someone who wanted trouble and with him and his gun on his belt he was sure that if he did, he could stop it easily. If only he knew.
"Lina? Come over here please." he shouted.
A few moments later, a pale looking Lina appeared in the living room looking equally scared and shy. Seeing Nathaniel sitting on her couch, her mind went blank and her mouth opened in a silent 'o'.
"You are Nathaniel Lyndon!" She blurted out.
"Yes, I said that already." Nathaniel said offhandedly, smiling.
"Wait, you know each other?"
"No dad, he is really famous, he is a singer and actor." She said to her father, then she realized something. "Wait, this was you with my computer!"
"You really want to talk about computers here with your father present?" Nathaniel arched an eyebrow.
Understanding what he was saying Lina
realized that he was right, she wanted everything but that. Her father was a very strict man and he would not approve of her hacking habit. He would even go as far as putting her in jail if he were to know about this. Hearing them talk about computers, he quickly chose to talk before they could go deeper in the topic. He was insanely bad with electronics opposed to his daughter who was a genius in that domain.
"So now that she is here, what is your offer?" He asked.
Taking two contracts out of his bag, he pushed them in front of both of them.
"I want both of you to come work for my company. In two different occupations of course." Nathaniel said.
Taking the contract, the father and daughter pair started to read through it. For her father, it was an offer to come work as a security agent with a much better pay than what he was getting with his current job. In fact the offer was more than what he was making with his second night work as a security agent for a night club and the overtime as a cop. His work hour will be more flexible and his health assurance will be upgraded.
The contract of Lina was vastly different. It did not mention the number of hours that she would have to do in a week and her salary was not that great, in fact it was the same exact thing that she was making at her current job.
"I'm sorry but can I ask you how old you are?" The man asked. Nathaniel appeared way too young to make propositions like that and it was starting to look like a scheme.
"Of course you can, I'm sixteen." Nathaniel said truthfully.
"Sixteen? How can you make that kind of proposition! Your place is in high school, not messing with peoples life young man." The man rebuked sternly.
"Look at the name of the company. This is the Lyndon label, my family's company. Here is my ID if you want proof." He said, giving his ID card.
Taking the ID card he looked at it intensely. He was familiar with them and with decades of experience as a cop he could easily discern fake ones and this was not one of them.