Note: Technobable ahead. And sarcasm. Lot of sarcasm! I think we know who Corvus is. Jeesh, everybody's trying to corrupt poor Elizabeth. :P
Fun starts next chapter.
Edit: Oh my god, I hate the draconian HTML filtering on this site. To whoever decided it would be a good idea to filter out IPv4 addresses but not IPv6 addresses: Finch says you're inept.
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One Year and Six Months Prior
I came home after work on Wednesday to find another cardboard box on my doormat. This one rattled when I shook it and was heavy, as though it was filled with something metal. There was no label. I hefted the box, balanced it on my hip, unlocked my front door, and stepped inside my apartment.
I wasn't too surprised to find a certain handsome man sitting brazenly on my couch.
"Hi, John," I said, closing the door behind me. "Testing my door lock again?"
"Yes," he said. "You should really get a better one, Ellie. Even you could pick your own front door."
"Great. If I ever forget my key, I'll be able to get back inside in no time." I set the box on the dining room table with a solid thump. Bent down, unbuckled my shoes, slipped them off. Wiggled my toes. "So what'd you get me this time?" I shook the box again. "It'd better not be covered in cute kitty faces like the helmet."
"The helmet suits you, Ellie," he said. "You look like a cat person."
"First a schoolgirl, now a cat person?" I rolled my eyes. "Mama and I had a shoe-loving German Shepard when I was growing up, thank you very much." I fetched the scissors, sat down at the table, and sliced through the tape on the box. When I saw what was inside, I broke out laughing.
The box was filled with old door knobs and locks.
I said, "You have the weirdest sense of humor, you know that?"
"I've been told as much," John said. He stood and made his way over to the table. Sat next to me. He reached out and pulled the box a little ways towards him. "We need to talk."
"About what?"
"About the kinds of consequences you'd have to face if you were caught doing some of the things we've been doing."
I put my hands on my hips. "John, we've already gone over this. I don't care about getting caught. I should be dead right now."
"You shouldn't say that, Elizabeth."
"I'll say it if I want to, and I want to say it. I should be dead. Far as I'm concerned, I don't have a life to worry about anymore. I want to help other people, John. Like you do."
"You won't be able to help people much if you get arrested for breaking in to somebody's place and hacking into their computer." He pulled the box a little further away from me. "I want you to really think about it, Ellie. Know what you're getting into. How much can you help from a six by eight in Sing Sing?"
Annoyed, I snatched the heavy box right out of his hands, hugged it to my chest. "You're like the guy who wrote mIRC, you know that? You let me have all sorts of fun for a month or so, then you pop up a blocking dialog box and say, 'Sorry, I'm somehow still a poor developer even though millions of people use my software, so no more fun until you gimmie money or stare at this guilt-inducing message for fifteen seconds every single time you want to chat.'"
John looked confused.
"You've never used mIRC?" I asked him.
"No."
"You need to get out more."
"Actually, it sounds like I need to stay in more," he said, eyes twinkling.
"Ha-ha. Look, really, John. I've thought about it. I've thought about it a lot ever since you brought it up at Landis. Sure, I hadn't realized that we were doing illegal things at first. But I know now. And I'm fine with it. You can't stop me. I'm a die-hard criminal, livin' in the 'hood."
John's only response to that was a raised eyebrow. "You could be throwing your life away."
"What life?" I scoffed. "I'm a geek. My Mama's the only family I have. Don't exactly have a lot of friends. What am I gonna do when I get older, anyway? Graduate, make a lot of money, settle down? Marry some asshole who wants my body and my money, pop out a bunch of bratty kids, have them all move away, die a lonely old lady with too many computers instead of too many cats?"
"The first third sounded like a good life."
"Look, I'm helping you, and that's final."
"Is it?" Damn that smirk!
"Yes. Yes it is. If you don't let me help, I'll—I'll—I'll start following you around. I'll stalk you everywhere. I'll help you whether you want me to or not."
"You've graduated from breaking and entering to stalking? Already? I'm impressed, Ellie."
"I learn fast." Reaching into the box, I picked up one of the locks. It was a simple brass doorknob with a keyhole on one side and a thumb knob on the other. I waved it around. "I take it these are for practice?"
John shrugged. "Or home renovation. You really should replace that front lock. One of those should match your front door. Some of them are actually pretty good locks."
"Uh-huh. So, we done talking about me going to jail, Mom?"
"For now." He leaned forward. "If you really want to learn how to stalk someone, I can give you some advice. First: don't call it stalking. It's more socially acceptable to call it 'tailing'."
"Since when are you concerned about social acceptability?"
"I'm not," he said. "I just thought you might be."
"Fair enough."
"To tail someone, you have to follow close enough to avoid losing them, but you have to keep out of sight too. We'll have to practice one of these days, Ellie."
He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, checked it, and said, "I gotta go. Appointment to catch."
"Is it another case? Can I help?"
"Not a case," he said, standing. He adjusted his suit jacket and walked towards the front door. "We'll meet up in a few days."
"Hey, thanks for the, um, doorknobs," I called.
"Have fun practicing," he said. I heard the front door open, then close.
I chewed the inside of my lip, wondering if the idea that'd just popped into my head was wise.
What the hell, I thought. Why not?
I stood, walked to the door. Looked out the peephole. John had just reached the main sidewalk. He turned right and walked out of sight. I slid my stockinged feet into a pair of slippers lying in the entryway. Opened the door as quietly as I could, crept outside. I did my best to move all silent-like on the front walkway as I edged past the hedges and bushes planted along the wall. I poked my head out around the corner of the building, looked left and right.
John was nowhere to be seen. There was no one on the sidewalk.
How does he DO that? I thought, irritated. I just saw him.
There was a little slip of folded paper on the sidewalk about five feet away. Looking around, hoping to spot a glimpse of Batman's cape, I walked over and picked up the paper. Unfolded it.
It read, in very elegant handwriting: "Nice try, Elizabeth. -J"
Damn him.
Sighing, I padded back to the apartment.
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This lock is a pain in the ass, I thought.
I was sitting at my desk, hunched forward in my chair. The doorknob was clamped in a little vice I'd bought for holding soldering projects back before I'd discovered that soldering was some secret, arcane art form that I just couldn't seem to master. The lockpicking kit lay open on my mousepad next to a plate of cookies. I licked my lips and wiggled my feet as I felt for the pins in the lock with one of the picks. The doorknob looked cheap, but it seemed like this one wasn't going to give up as easily as the ones at the warehouse. I was about ready to toss it back to the box on the floor and choose another knob. It wasn't like there was any shortage.
Come on, come on...I've been at this thing for fifteen minutes.
The icon flashed on my monitor right about the time I gave up on the lock. It was nearly ten o'clock at night. I pushed the picks off the mousepad, set the vice off to the side, pulled my keyboard closer, and brought up the IRC window. It was Corvus, responding to a message I had sent him a few hours prior.
« Corvus» Really? I must say I'm surprised, m'dear. I would have thought that your interest and talent in computer security would have made penetration testing a natural career choice for you.
I smiled. Typed out a response.
« elev» Yeah...I dunno. I'm good at all the theory stuff, you know? But actually breaking in to somebody's network...that's a little out of my league.
I wondered if Corvus lived somewhere in Europe or Asia. He only seemed to respond late at night, usually just before I went to bed. I had caught him online once in the middle of the day, but his responses had been delayed, and he had detached a half-hour later. I couldn't tell his location by his IP address, because it changed often. Tonight, it was based in New Zealand. The night before, it had been in Denmark...
« Corvus» I have no doubt you would excel at penetration testing.
« elev» I did okay in the security countermeasures course at the University...the only reason blue team won was because my laptop overheated at a bad time. Freaking heatsink. I was almost into their network.
« elev» IFT really flubbed the heatsink design on the I60 Thinkbook. There's a huge gap between the CPU and the copper heatsink and they just filled it with thermal goop.
« elev» And what idiot made the fan SLOW DOWN when the cooling mode was switched from passive to active? For heaven's sake, with throttling disabled, it needs more cooling, not less! /rant rant rant :(
« Corvus» I discovered the same flaws in the I60 myself. I heard that the engineering team for that particular component of the laptop was never allowed to work on IFT's future Thinkbook models.
« elev» Serves them right. I had to modify the heatsink to get mine to work under heavy load. It's a good laptop besides that, but that's really a killer flaw.
« Corvus» What sort of modifications did you make?
I glanced over at the little black laptop on my bed, thinking of all the times I'd taken it apart to get at the heatsink, then reassembled it to test it under load. I'd done it so often, some of the screws on the bottom were starting to strip.
« elev» Copper shim, plus some thermal adhesive. A metal spacer between the mounting frame and the heatsink to force it against the CPU. I also took some copper sheeting and made my own heatsink for the southbridge chip.
« elev» I was worried that it would put too much pressure on the CPU, but it's held for two years.
« Corvus» Very impressive. Such ingenuity is hard to find nowadays.
« Corvus» I truly think you would excel at penetration testing. Your imaginative mind would find it quite interesting.
« elev» Flatterer. :) It's kinda hard to get into the field though...practicing on other peoples' systems is a no-no. You can get in big trouble if you get caught.
« Corvus» Very true.
I leaned back in my chair and thought of John, with all his warnings of doom and gloom about the consequences of getting caught hacking into somebody else's system. I found it ironic that I was chatting about the legality of penetration testing (which was distinguished from hacking by only the thinnest line) just hours after telling John that I was fine with being a criminal.
« Corvus» I have a cluster of old servers I am not using. I could set them up as a sandbox for you, if you would like.
« elev» You mean, for me to hack?
« Corvus» Yes. I think it would be a good way for you to get a feel for penetration testing. It would be a very good career for you, m'dear. An exciting, challenging outlet for your skills in a completely legal environment.
I rolled my eyes. This guy sounded way too much like John. But I considered the offer and found that I rather liked the idea.
Maybe it would teach me a few tricks that would help me help John.
« elev» Wow, I'd like that. But aren't you worried I might, I dunno, break in to the rest of your network? Use your boxes to send out spam or torrent a bunch of TV shows or download a ton of lesbian furry bondage porn?
« Corvus» They are completely isolated machines, m'dear. Believe me, you will not be able to access any of my systems beyond the sandbox. But you are most welcome to try. As for using the machines to nefarious ends, I trust that you will utilize professional respect and common sense and use them only for educational purposes.
« elev» That's rather trusting. You don't even know me.
« Corvus» I know a surprising amount about you, m'dear. I highly doubt I'll see any requests to pornographic web sites in my firewall logs. I'll give you an IP address or two in a few minutes...
I checked my email while I waited. Went out to the kitchen, heated a cup of tea. Added honey. When I returned to my desk with the steaming cup, there was a small backlog of messages on the chat window.
« Corvus» Here are two IP addresses for you to examine:
« Corvus» 203. 0. 113. 19 and 198. 51. 100. 221
« Corvus» If you have IPv6, you can also access them at 2001:db8::3 and 2001:db8::17
« Corvus» These systems are yours to penetrate. I have deliberately introduced several vulnerabilities that should allow you to root them, although it take some creative thinking.
« Corvus» They'll be online for several weeks at the least, so you can take your time.
« Corvus» Have fun, m'dear.
I grinned, wrote the addresses down.
« elev» This *does* sound fun! Thank you.
« Corvus» It is my pleasure, m'dear. I look forward to seeing your progress. If you get stuck, I can offer some hints...but not before a week or two of trying. You'll have to work for them.
« Corvus» Keep me appraised of your progress.
« elev» I will... :)
I started a port scan on the first IP address just before I signed off. I turned off the monitor, but left the desktop running so it could scan Corvus' server overnight. The soft drone of the cooling fans lulled me to sleep.
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