comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

60
. . . systeM security . . .
The dragon is bored.
As she steps through yet another doorway made of rice paper and a richly dark wood, her eyes
settle on a scene that would awe any other person. Before her stretches a beautiful garden, surrounded
by groves of trees. Stone bridges arch artfully across arranged water features, while small
creatures rustle their way through a lush array of flowers, ferns, and other plant life. To the dragon,
it is possibly the dullest thing she’s ever seen. Uncoiling her digital scales, the emerald green dracoform
rises, floating above the imagery of nature tamed.
She catalogs the symbols as she glides past them. A heron wading through the datastream river is a
piece of noisy alarm software. A raccoon snuffling for food beneath a bush is a trace program. The dragon
inclines her head to look down at a large statue of a samurai, its blade outstretched, a particularly nasty
intrusion countermeasure intended to slice and dice anything the other software doesn’t like.
As the great dragon moves from one node to the next, she notes a change. Her commlink filters
the signal as a scent on the air, a pungent musk that tells her that something is out of place. Diving
toward the ground, the creature’s emerald scales shift, blending into the rich color of a bed of ferns
near an ornate teahouse.
There is another user in the system, a user that has absolutely no reason to be here. Even now he
is showing the Kitsune® program a virtual ID. The dragon can smell it, even from where she is hiding.
Hacking. Fakery. She sidles around the building to get a better view of what the man is doing.
The man, little more than a dark silhouette in a suit, has just settled down to work the controls
set into a table in the middle of the teahouse. His fingers spin across the readings and coolly press
buttons with the ease of a pro. The Kitsune® has not disengaged, the small fox-man stands staring
at the suited visitor. Something about the user’s badge has tipped the software. The dragon snorts:
this man is an amateur.
Amateur or not, he is about to disable some sensitive safety equipment in one of the lab’s most
secure areas. The dragon rears a bit, and flexes her ears. All around her, she feels the lush setting
changing to suit her whims. Programs across the system are now active, and none of them servile to
any but her. Before her eyes, the Kitsune® becomes more alert. It seems to realize its earlier mistake
and leaps at the hacker’s exposed back. Leaning out of the underbrush, the dragon aids the fox-man
by calmly biting off the man’s head.
Spraying bits and bytes, the man’s form slumps to the ground, dissolving into digital symbols
slipping between wooden slats. Wary, the dragon looks around the teahouse again. The Kitsune®
bows low to the security hacker and fades away. The dragon nods, satisfied.
Boring, the garden may be. But the garden is still hers.
Unwired
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9