John sighs as he walks into his room, slightly weary from his school day. Once again it had been necessary for him to cut some slime ball down to size. While fun, it took a bit of effort on his part. Turning on his computer, he sees a request for help in one of his many email inboxes. Grabbing a fresh pack of gum, he puts a stick in his mouth and chews. Setting off, he reviews the info given to him, verifies its legitimacy, and enters into the system. After all he had some more slime balls to take care of.
Templeton sits in his room quietly, surfing the web. Finding something of interest, he decides to investigate it. Some scummy manager is abusing the women working underneath him. A perfect case for Peck. Finding the staff directory with great ease, Templeton starts emailing a woman from the company from an alternate email. He soon cons her into giving him info on how to get into the security system by here telling him the codes.
Happily, he moves on, not tripping any of the systems internal alarms. He moves to a file filled with video footage from the hall where the abuse sometimes happened. There the ease of the journey ended. Someone else is already in the file, doing what, Templeton could not tell. Whatever it is they were keeping out all other comers. Perhaps they were there to delete the footage, which would explain the block entrance to the file. Taking a deep, calming breath Templeton dives into the coding.
John frowns when he notices that someone else is trying to get into the file. He pushes back while copying the video onto prepared disc and into a backup file on his computer.
'Whoever is hacking me is pretty good.'
He silently praises the hacker trying to get past him, shifting into his less often used set of skills to keep the other out. When the other hacker is continually stopped by new blocks in code, they send a message. Interested in what they might have to say, Smith clicks on the message.
Don't delete the video.
The plane sentence throws John for a second, then he quickly replies.
Wasn't planning on it.
Then why are you here?
John appreciates the use of full words with are and you. It is refreshing for someone to spell words properly while messaging.
To copy the video, then send it to the police and publish it online.
A pause and then the video finishes downloading on both systems.
I'll cover your trail.
Raising an eyebrow at the suggestion, John thinks it over. It would be helpful to have another eye while erasing tracks. Why this person would trust him so quickly is slightly suspicious… Checking in the file he finds that the other hacker had used the second message as a trojan horse in order to make his own copy of the video. Deciding to let it slide, John sends his reply.
How about we work together to do that?
Instantly, another message come through.
Deal
Templeton smiles as helps the unknown with covering the trail. He got to show off his skills and he had secretly downloaded the video for himself. Because, while the other hacker may have been telling the truth, he might not have been. After completing the sweep of the system, clearing out any traces of either of them being there, Templeton gets a message.
You are pretty good. The sly trick of making your own copy of the video showed your skills. If you want to work together again email me here- hannibalselephants *************.
Templeton thinks it over, deciding to email the hacker if the company they both just hacked got into trouble within the week. He is surprised the other hacker caught his trick, but then perhaps he had given in too quickly to not be suspicious. Next time he would do better.
When it showed up on the news the next day, Templeton sent out an email from his real account.
Noting the new piece of mail in his true email's inbox, John opens it. He sees that it is from some email named winkyface ***************.
Hannibal, if that's what you want to be called, if all the hacking missions are against companies and people doing criminal acts or other things that a wrong that are overlooked by law enforcement, then, yes, I would like to join. If not, I do not.
Popping in a piece of gum in his mouth, the newly dubbed Hannibal grins.
Sure Face. All the missions that I do tend to carry that theme. Thanks for the use of a code name.
Right back at you.
Chewing thoughtfully Hannibal begins setting up another account for money from missions. If he was going to have a partner, they were going to be a partner in every aspect, including getting a cut of the money.
A few missions in, all which happened in the span of a week, Face found that Hannibal deserved the name. His plans were crazy and creative, just like the use of elephants to fight the Romans. Occasionally, Face wondered what he had gotten into, but then he would go on another mission and finds that he never felt more genuinely himself.
In that same time span, Hannibal found Face worthy of being his partner, able to use his charm to get several layers of security secrets out of most office workers. Hannibal was glad to have a team mate and, if he was not reading things wrong, a friend.
To say that Face was shocked when found out that the jobs they did were payed for and that Hannibal was putting aside half for him a separate bank account is a understatement. Face flipped out upon realizing that he had earned quite a bit of money. Hannibal had enjoyed the shocked messages filled with surprise. He loved surprising people. After asking if Face wanted legal control over the account, he hand that his partner of several missions was a minor and was unable to have an account moved into his legal name.
[Just how old are you?]
(Tell you if you tell me yours. )
[Fair. 18]
(15)
[Ahh. I see.]
(Shut up Hannibal.)
[No Face, I don't think I will.]
Later Hannibal put the money in a account under a false name and gave all related information for it over to Face so he could do with it as he pleased. While not under Face's real name, it was in all senses of the word his. Soon Face took over the accounting aspects, by figuring out what to charge people and splitting the money evenly between the two of them. Hannibal trusted him completely, knowing that Face would not betray him. This trust leads them to exchange real first names.