comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

80
. . . hacker’s handbook . . .
Pistons’s reality filter slipped and fizzled as she passed through the gateway, her perfect
color-coded polygons giving way to a romantic programmer’s dream of a Japanese garden, her
icon now wearing a black ninja gi. Fourteenth century stone bridges contrasted badly with the
twenty-first century koi emulations swimming in the brooks beneath them. Sloppy work, or
else they were more interested in security than historical accuracy.
Whipping out a rice-paper fan, Pistons frowned as she analyzed the icons in the node.
Intrusion countermeasures, but they haven’t detected her yet—and that fox with seven tails
was the gatekeeper for the security controls she needed. Reaching into the satchel at her side,
the hacker launched Tumblers. The agent appeared next to her as a man in a dark suit.
Whispering instructions under her breath, Pistons sent Tumblers toward the fox construct.
A little stiffly, his iconography not quite matching the surrounding node, the agent presented
one of the passcodes she’d hacked for this run to the fox. The vulpine gatekeeper’s tails twitched
in time as it processed the code before letting Tumblers pass.
Once the agent was seated at the ornate tea table, Tumblers started to run through his
script, moving the controls in a precise pattern. Pistons noted that the fox program was still
watching the agent, but she didn’t care about that now—she needed to find out who else was
lurking nearby.
Right on cue, a polychromatic Eastern dragon slithered into view, its mimetic scales and
fractal coloring a pale imitation of the real thing. A sudden wind rustled through the garden, and
the gentle ping from her Analyze program told Pistons the system had moved to Active Alert.
Tumblers didn’t even fight the IC construct that latched onto his back, paralyzing the
agent so the draconic security hacker could give the lazy kill-shot with an Attack program.
Pistons bid a silent adieu to the agent, its job well done. As the dragon passed by her again and
the fox resumed its previous stance, Pistons waited patiently for the wind to die down and the
Active Alert to pass.
Cloaked by her Stealth program, Pistons took a knife—her Exploit program—and slipped it
through the rice paper wall of the teahouse, bypassing the fox construct. A few minutes later, she
slipped back out the same way, Tumblers’ work—and hers—now complete. She took a few minutes
to patch up the rent in the rice paper—it was still there, but hidden from prying eyes.
After all, she mused, you never know when you might be here again.
Unwired
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9