The Story About Ken

Chapter 7

All though Ken knew that Tanisha was probably safe because of her advantage in strength compared to humans, he got a nasty feeling in his stomach. And it wasn't the burger.

"Shit. We gotta go. Roger c'mon man! Harvey.. Have you got some weapons here ?"

"No. Well, no firearms or anything like that. Besides, if you run through the security post carrying a gun, there won't be enough left of you to fire it. Let's see. I have this sling-shot. That should make a nice mark if you hit the right spot."

Ken grabbed the sling-shot and left dragging Roger behind him. They ran all the way to the security post but slowed down as they passed the scanners. Ken was afraid that the scanners would detect the sling-shot, but they didn't. They got a green light and the gate closed behind them. They quickly got hold of a cab which took them to the building where Ken lived. As the cab rolled in on the drive-way, a black hoover car passed at high speed above them. Through the door of Ken's appartment they could hear voices yelling and shouting from inside.

"Roger. When I say go, pull my card through the slot and wait until I kick the door open and then jump in. Pick up the umbrella from behind the door and knock down whoever's in there."

"Huh ? Me.. but shouldn't we wait for the police ?"

"..and let them have all my illegal stuff ? Come on. Are you ready? GO!"

Roger quickly pulled the card through the slot. Just microseconds later the access system computer had cleared the card and the tiny led on the slot turned green. Ken ran towards the door and kicked it as hard as he could. The door broke loose from the rim and flew into the hall. A man inside quickly turned and fired a dozen rounds into the door. Ken pulled the sling-shot and fired the lead ball hitting the man in the face. The man was thrown backwards throwing his gun into the wall. And before Roger had gotten into the hall, Ken had emptied the gun killing two other men sitting in front of Ken's terminal.

"Tanisha! Tanisha! Damn. Where is she ?"

"She's not in here either, Ken."

"They must have taken her out in that hoover we passed on the way in."

"Who are these guys ?"

"Let's find out and get the hell out of here. In a few minutes the police will be all over this place."

Ken searched one of the men lying over the terminal. He finally found an id card.

"Oh you won't beleive this Roger."

"What? WHAT ?!"

"These guys are from the Department of Defense's Computer Emergency Response Team. They must have thought I was the source of the Worm!"

"WERE is a better word. They WERE from the CERT. These guys are totally dead. We're in a bit of trouble now I think. Let's get out, now!"

"First we need a pair of wheels. Preferably a hoover. Do you have some credits ? No, don't bother. I have enough here for a nice hoover."

"What ? Are you going to follow them ? You're crazy!"

"That's right. WE're going to follow them."

They ran out of the building and headed for the nearest car rent-out. After a while they left in a brand new hoover car.

"Aw. This is great. I've never been in a hoover before."

"Me neither. I've only driven simulators at school. Punch in the coordinates for Carnegia Mellon University and let's fly.."

Roger punched in the coordinates and Ken released the locked breaks. The hoover car gently lifted off from the street with a low humming from the jet engines.

"Ken. Do you know why this car is humming ?"

"No. Why is this car humming ?"

"Because it doesn't know the words. Ha-ha-ha. Great eyh ?"

"Yeah. Truly a great joke. Hey! Isn't that a TV ? Turn it on. I haven't watched TV in a decade."

After trying out a few dozen buttons, Roger finally managed to turn on the TV. They tuned in in the middle of a news broadcast.

"A spokesman for the Department of Defence stated earlier today that the author of the notorious EISDN Worm program that destroyed amongst other things the Department of Planetary Colonialization's plans for the Outland II program, was arrested today in Sunville. The author's identity is being withheld, but we will bring you updates as soon as there are any developments in this case. We now go live to Mellon University, base for the Department of Defence's Computer Emergency Response Team."

"This is Lorita Shellby in front of the CERT building with Jack Brenauzcky, head of operations for CERT. Mr. Brenauzcky, how long have you had suspicions that the person you now have arrested was the author of the destructive Worm program ? And what methods did you use to track down the suspect ?"

"Well, Lorita, I can't say much about our operations in detail, but we have suspected this person for quite some time."

"So why do you act now, and not two weeks earlier, perhaps preventing some of the damages the Worm has caused ?"

"As a governmental institution we have rules which we have to follow. We can't hunt the man down and kill him before we are absolutely sure that we have the right person."

"You say a man. So the arrested person is a male ?"

"I can't comment that. All I can say is that we will hold a press conference as soon as we have questioned the suspect."

"This is Lorita Shellby live from the CERT building, for SSAT News."

Ken switched of the TV monitor.

"We got to hurry. If they've got Tanisha they'll hook her up to the mainframe and just copy everything she remembers."

"Geez Ken. Step on it will ya?!"

Moments later their tires thouched the street in front of the CERT building. It was dark. The whole building complex was surrounded by electric barbed-wire fences and the whole area was lit up. Roger powered up his small portable terminal and hooked it up to the EISDN socket in the car. The display showed the login screen of the CERT complex mainframe.

"Now let's see. I need a few minutes to get in to the system and after that we'll have about three to four minutes before we have to move."

"Move ? Why ?"

"The system will automatically check from where the call was placed and if it's not one of a list of legal locations, the system will track us down and set of an alarm. A few seconds later we'll have the complete Response Team inside this hoover."

"Great. Just fucking great."

"Relax. I'll find Tanisha before you can say anything. Now.. Give me a commonly used password."

"What ? A password ? Are you a hacker or what ?"

"I am a hacker! Relax. I'll trace the instructions passed to the mainframe after I enter an illegal password string. Then I'll find where the list of passwords are stored, and we can pick one from the list."

"So you'll be needing a password that is definitly not in the list?"

"Right. Let's try C-E-R-T. There. Just a few seconds now.. Got it. Eh.. Ooops."

"What ?! Opps what ?!"

"Well, the list is a bit hard to decrypt I think. My decrypter software just rejected it.."

"Shit. Call Harvey."

Roger unwillingly called Harvey and transfered the list to him. It turned out that Harvey already had the complete list, and a few minutes later they were logged on.

"Keep an eye out for them Response guys, Ken."

"I'll be right outside."

Ken opened the door and jumped out. The air was cold and he had to jump around to keep his temprature up. It was deadly quiet. All he could hear were some Flatline junkies surrounding a barrel of burning garbage. He turned away from them. Flatline was the most destructive drug of all times. Discovered by illegal drug laboratories years ago, the drug, together with a small electronics device, stops your heart and starts it again, leaving you techincally dead for a certain amount of time. Most people couldn't take it being dead for a few minutes and then kicked back to life.

"Hey Ken. I got her. Come on!"

"I'm coming.. Where is she ?"

"Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that she is probably not dead."

"Phew. And the bad news ?"

"She's not in that building over there."

"What are you saying ? Has she been there ?"

"Most definetly. She has been dumped of all her information and released."

"So where is she ? And they've got everything she knows on disk?"

"I'm afraid they do. It doesn't say where they released her, but there is a small town behind us. Maybe she was released from the complex and she went in to that town ? They could easily erase her memory and implant a new one, making her think she was someone else."

"Wrap it up Roger, we're going down town!"