From: joshua@dmccorp.com ()
Subject: Uninvited Guests
Date: 19 Apr 1994 02:40:53 GMT

Copyright 1994 Joshua Lellis

PLEASE SEND ALL THE EMAIL ABOUT THIS STORY,
critics, good or bad, or neutral,
to:

joshua.lellis@yob.com
Thanks.

UNINVITED GUESTS


   It was the fourth time that week it had happened. It was not a very
likeable thing to the operator who monitored the board. He was po'ed. He
lived a very normal life, none of this hacker crap.
   He never even did anything bad in his life. He had kept to himself,
never once complained about the room they stuck him in was rat infested.
It was terribly kept, and scratched into the wall next to the monitor
was: Bad Angels, Class of '23.
   That was 1923. This was way beyond that. The room was, to put it
plainly, old. The cockroaches under his feet cracked  with the slightest
vibration. That's how the old operator got his nickname. "Cracker."
   Cracker, or Old Cracker, as the younger operators called him, was
operating his board, a nice government funded board. It did have lots of
juicy government secrets on it. About how they ran from it during
Operation Brightblade, back in '98. About the secret selling of
information to the dealers in South America. Cracker had seen it all,
read it all, documented it all on his rusty old computer next to the
Bad Angels.
   And now Cracker had visitors. Hackers. Uninvited guests into his
world. Cracker's world. A world where the Bad Angels had entered, and
they were never seen again, were they?
   Cracker spat his coffee all over his "neat" desk as he saw the
first one come in under a name he never expected. Laurence Lionheart.
It was a legal name, but what Laurence did was unusual.

GOVERNMENT FILES
> dir
SADOC  55543   02-13-97
OBDOC 440322   05-23-98
DEDOC  30000   12-26-94
GEDOC   5554   11-14-92
ACDOC1203004   01-01-99

END OF LIST
> list GEDOC

ACCESS DENIED

> list GEDOC

ACCESS DENIED

> superuser

PASSWORD REQUIRED
User: Laurence
PW: ***** **** *******

> list GEDOC
----------------
More next time...
Article: 2511 of alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Uninvited Guests 1.2
Date: 20 Apr 1994 00:50:47 GMT
Organization: At Home
Lines: 94
Message-ID: <2p1u97$io7@uuneo.neosoft.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.64.239.1
Summary: Neoclassic Cyberpunk Tale
Keywords: cyber, punk, joshua, lellis
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]

Copyright 1994 Joshua Lellis
joshua.lellis@yob.com
Uninvited Guests 1.2
By Joshua Lellis
See Uninvited Guests message

   The old High School echoed the words which flowed through it. The words
that came from the government run bulletin board. The government
run bulletin board which was supposed to be able to keep the
President out, should the need come. It had been awhile since they actually
did that. President Lance had been corrupt, very corrupt. He would
sell his soul to Satan should he get anything out of it. He'd sold
secrets, nuclear secrets, secrets that had been used multiple times
in the Phillipines during the civil war. Lance had sold his soul to
Satan, and the Phillipine people used the information for thermonuclear
war. The legend had it bluntly when they said that the night sky is
still lit up on July fourth. Lance had turned the little affair around,
trying desparately to change everything, make it so that it looked as
though Lance was innocent. The government was corrupt now, and the
last shed of hope they had had been assinated the summer before, when
the campaign went into full swing. The government screwed over the
reports. Cracker had seen them, seen them with his own eyes. The eyes
he used now as he blinked at the screen, in awe. Laurance had gotten
past the restrictions, the ones that would keep him out of the files
which Cracker protected. The files that, for some reason, were
stuck on Cracker's bulletin board in the middle of a small
Arizonan town.
   Cracker once went to the boss, asked him straight out and plainly,
"Why the hell do I have government secrets on my board?" The answer
never came, boss man was dead. Killed.
   Cracker would talk to Laurance, find out what the problem was,
find out why Laurance was looking at the file GEDOC, and why
Laurance knew the password for superuser.
   Cracker had went through a user search quickly, attempting to find
what Laurance did around the governmental building. Janitor. Cracker
jumped from his chair and flung open the door. He took a jog down
the corridor, a corridor which years ago held the Bad Angels, a
corridor which years ago held High School teenagers, many of them,
all of them with pimples on chins and hidden stashes of problem in their
lockers. Everyone has a problem. Laurance, the hacker Laurance, obviously
had a habit for trying to break into computers, specifically,
government computers.
   The jog was quick down to the Janitor's Lounge. A lounge that at this
hour of the morning, was closed. Cracker mumbled a curse to himself
as he ran back to the monitor. He took his seat and watched as
Laurance took his next step.

> mailer
YOUR OWN MAILER
> l mail
1 -- 4023 to 3210 Re: Stop coming on to me
2 -- 3210 to 4023 Re: Stop flirting with me
3 -- 1984 to 7562 Re: Government security
4 -- 7562 to 1984 Re: Public Key, Private Key?
More (y/n)?
> n
> read 1
4023 to 3210 Stop Coming on to me

That's enough, George. You come towards me again, I'll hurt you...
I got that new pair of cutters, I don't want to have to use it on
you....

Lana

   Quite enough, Cracker thought to himself. Cracker logged in under his
real name, looked at his alias, and prepared to intiate a chat.

> page node 1
Paging .... 1.... 2.... 3.... 4.... 5....
Chat accepted
> chat mode
cracker: Hello, Laurance, how are you?
laurance: I'm fine, Cracker, haven't seen you in awhile.
cracker: Yeah, I know. It's that damn program I'm working on.
cracker: Heard you worked on the prelims.
laurance: The prelims were kindof hard to do, Crack.
cracker: You're a janitor, Laurance.
laurance: Sh*t.
cracker: You're in trouble, now, buddy, I'm tracing you.

END CHAT MODE
> look
Laurance - Node 1 - action - Reading Mail
Darryl   - Node 2 - action - GEDOC
Cracker  - Node 3 - action - Look

   Cracker mumbled to himself, "Darryl, GEDOC?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
And with that cliffhanger, I'll leave you till next episode.
Copyright 1994 Joshua Lellis
joshua.lellis@yob.com