"Right, Gus, I'm going home." Came Mike's voice from the office kitchen. "You sticking around?"
Gus pushed back from his desk, the wheels of his chair carrying him a few feet across the wooden floor.
"Yeah." He replied. "I'm just gonna have one last crack and getting into this network, then I'll head off." He ran a hand through his blonde-brown hair, listening to Mike rustling around the kitchen. "Hey, Mike?"
"Yeah?" Came Mike's voice again.
"You don't think its…" Gus sighed and twiddled his pen. The pair had been employed to break into internet networks for the last six months, and although the pay was good, and they had been assured by their employer that they would be safe from the police should anything go wrong, Gus couldn't help but have the occasional moment of doubt. "You don't think its wrong, what we're doing? Do you?"
Mike came out of the kitchen, shrugging his jacket up onto his shoulders. Mike was a tall man in his early fourties. He put his head on one side and sighed at his young friend.
"Gus-"
"I know, I know!" Gus said, sitting up, "The pay is good, the hours are flexible, we're safe from the cops and the coffees not bad but…" He trailed off at the sight of his friends face. "I'm being daft again aren't I?"
Mike laughed. "Just a bit." He said. He moved towards the desk. The monitor read 'IP ADRESS NOT RECOGNISED. PLEASE ENTER IDENTITY VERIFICATION'
"Password protected?" Mike asked.
Gus shrugged. I thought so, but if I enter any words or letters it comes up with this," he taped one of the keys and hit enter. A new message flashed up on the screen 'INCORRECT FORMAT'. The message stayed there a few moments before returning to the previous one.
"Hmm.." Mike ran a hair through his greying hair. "Numbers then? Binary?"
Gus nodded. That's what I'm gonna try." He said, pulling his chair back over to the desk and sitting down on it. His hands hovered over the keyboard, while Mike watched over his shoulder. "I thought you were going home?"
"I will, I will." Mike replied. "I just want to see how you do."
Gus shrugged and tuned his attention to the keyboard again.
"Right, now the boss said the network was of a…" He checked the post-it note stuck to the side of the monitor. "Graystone Informations."
"Try it in binary?" Mike suggested, but Gus's head was already down, tapping in a series of ones and zeroes. When he had finished he sat up, and tapped the enter button with an expression of triumph.
'IDENTITY VERIFACTION – INCORRECT'
"Damn." Said the two men together.
"Maybe just the Graystone? Or the Informations?" Said Mike.
Both of these resulted in the same message flashing up on the screen. As did Gray, Stone, and the name of the manager that Mike found on the back of the post-it note.
"You sure it's binary?" Asked Mike.
"Well I'm pretty sure its numbers," Gus replied, "or it would have come up with that incorrect format thing again wouldn't it?"
Mike opened his mouth to reply, but just as he did so, a new message flashed up on the screen.
'ACCESS GRANTED – ENTER'
"What the-" started Gus but Mike shushed him.
"C'mon man, enter."
Gus clicked on the word 'enter'. The screen went black, then was replaced with several columns of text.
"Imports…Exports…Annual Predicted Income…" Read Mike over the younger man's shoulder. "Looks more like an importing business then any kind of information firm."
Gus scrolled down the page.
"Personnel files… Effeciency Reports… what was it exactly that the boss wanted?" He asked.
Mike shrugged. "No idea. His email just said to see if we could get onto the network, and to send him a message back on how to do it. Hey, what's that flashing away at the bottom?" He indicated a small box at the bottom of the screen.
"Incoming message." Gus read. "Shall we take a look?"
"May as well." Said Mike. "But don't reply, we don't even know who's account we've accessed this on."
Gus nodded and clicked on the box. The columns of text disappeared to be replaced by a six figure identification number in the top left corner.
"Good evening Mr Six Six three three two.." Said Gus. Mike laughed and straightened up.
"Right, well, I'm gonna leave you to it." He said. "I need my dinner."
"Okay," replied Gus , not taking his eyes from the screen. There had not yet been a message from 66332. "Goodnight."
"See you tomorrow." Said Mike. He retrieved his rucksack from the kitchen and opened the door. "And don't stay here too late will you? Gus? GUS." He cleared his throat, but Gus did not look up. "Ah, whatever." He said. "Goodnight." Mike left the office, closing the door behind him.
Gus sat in silence looking at the screen. 88332 had still not sent anything. He sighed and sat back in his chair. Suddenly, one word appeared on the screen, one letter at a time, and if it were being typed.
"HELP."
Gus sat forward, hand on the desk, nose close to the screen as more words words appeared, letter by letter.
"HELP ME. PLEASE."
He looked desperately at the keyboard, remembering what Mike had said.
"MIKE!" he yelled, standing up. "MIKE!"
He heard footsteps pounding up the staircase, the door flew open.
"Shit, Gus!" Exclaimed Mike, clearly panicked. His rucksack was in one hand, his jacket hanging open. "Are you okay?"
"Look." Said Gus simply, sitting down again. "Here." He pointed the monitor where the words were still displayed. Mike walked quickly over to the desk, bent down and looked. He didn't say anything for a few moments until;
"Have they said anything else?"
Gus shook his head.
"Nothing apart from that.." he trailed off, more letters were appearing on the screen, faster now.
"THERES SOMEONE HERE. I HEARD THEM SMASH THE WINDOW. PLEASE HELP ME. I DON'T KNOW WHO IT IS."
"Shit…" breathed Mike.
"PLEASE HELP ME. THERES SOMEONE IN THE BUILDING. THERES "
The two men sat in silence as the letter 'v' made its way to the edge of the screen and then onto the next line. And the next. And the next
"Shit, shit, shit." Said mike. "Quick! Say something."
Gus bent over the keyboard.
'Hello?' He sent. It appeared on the screen in blue under the last line of v's ,but it was answered with more letter v's. Gus's eyes followed it to the middle of yet another line, where it stopped. Neither of the men moved. Or spoke. Or even breathed. They sat the in the darkening office for several minutes, before three more letters appeared. They sat forward to read.
'SHH.'