by Wai Chim.
The green glow of the screen hummed in the blackness of the room. Numbers and symbols scrolled upwards, spewing nonsense. John gazed on, his eyes vacant, twirling a pair of scissors around his fingers.
The green glow of the screen hummed in the blackness of the room. Numbers and symbols scrolled upwards, spewing nonsense. John gazed on, his eyes vacant, twirling a pair of scissors around his fingers.
There was a bright green flash
and a pixelated box rose up and spread out across the monitor. ‘UPLOAD COMPLETE’
it said simply. A wry smile crept across John’s face, first on one side then
the other.
‘It worked,’ he murmured. The
softness of his voice didn’t quite mask the sense of excitement that was rising
in his body. He leaned forward and peered at the screen as the cascading rows
of nonsense trickled down to reveal the pleasant blue hue of a desktop screen.
John’s fingers moved swiftly,
striking keys with marked precision as he quickly navigated through his options.
In and out in two minutes and 13 seconds
flat, that was his method. Not a second more or less to avoid arising
suspicion. Just long enough for any typical user to log in and open an email
program. Or to pull a file from a remote machine. Or in John’s case, just
enough time to gain access into the main network and upload his homemade
weapon.
It was packed into a neat 25 byte
file that would sit harmlessly on the system’s mainframe, copying files a
single byte at a time, sending them through the stretches of fibre optic cables
that ran under the city’s streets until that single byte of information
travelled up the five stories of copper wires and telephone lines and reached
John’s personal old school wireless router – still just an N generation as he
hadn't bothered to upgrade to the newest model when it was released two months
ago. And that single byte of information would be beamed through the airwaves
of his tiny studio and somehow be set
into a marked place on his hard drive, like a single wedge of a jigsaw puzzle
that went up to millions and trillions of pieces.
It was a simple idea but a
complex enough feat that not very many attempted it, which explained why John’s
services were in high demand. Companies from all walks of life were willing
to pay him hundreds of thousands to break into the rival’s secure server system and
draw down top secret files, formulas, schematics, diagrams, mailing lists,
customer information - anything that John managed to get his
hands on. Most of the time, he didn’t really know what sort of loot he would
get, whether it was the information equivalent of gold bullion or cheap trinkets,
trash and rubbish – but more times than not he managed to plunder something
worthwhile enough that his services were retained for another go around.
Two minutes and 13 seconds later,
John tapped a final key stroke and the screen went black. Perfect, as usual. Too easy. Sometimes, he wondered about
going further, about changing permissions, maybe going into password protected
firewalls just to see if he could. But he knew it was too risky and he'd left
those amateur hacking days behind. He'd done it all once. Just to show
that he could.
It all seemed like a lifetime
ago.
A blue bubble bounced eagerly on
his screen, interrupting his thoughts. John swallowed and put on a nervous
smile as the video screen crackled to life.
‘Jonathan?’
The connection was bad, her image
staggered but she was still a beauty to behold. He sucked in a breath and she
leaned forward towards the screen, her dark silky hair cascading smoothly off
her shoulders as she frowned into the lens. ‘Jonathan? Can you hear me?’
‘Yeah, babe.’ His voice cracked
and he swallowed and quickly readjusted the camera above his screen. His room
was too dark so he was sure she would see nothing more than a grainy green
silhouette, nothing like the lightness and beauty that lit up his monitor. ‘I'm
here,’ he called out to her.
She laughed a little
breathlessly. ‘It looks dark. It's late. You sleep no?’
To his ears, her broken English
was musically sweet. It had taken him awhile to get used to her turns of phrase
and funny ways of pronouncing words - her 'dark' sounded more like 'dork' at
first but he had persevered, every giggle and blush of apology spurring him on.
He wanted to encourage her, to lift her to beautiful heights so that she would
be ever grateful.
And be his.
‘Not yet babe. I've been working.’
He put a hand out to the screen, yearning to brush the pink cheek that he knew
would be soft. ‘How are you? I've missed you.’ It had been almost 5 days since
they'd last 'talked' and John had been a little worried that maybe she was
really cutting him off this time.
She batted dark eyelashes and
glanced down shyly. ‘You so silly boy. You make funny of Natalia.’
‘No, of course not. I'd never
make fun of you.’ His heart soared as he did his best to reassure her. She
needed that a lot, it seemed, which he was always happy to oblige. ‘I just was
worried. That you weren't going to come and see me anymore.’
She dropped her gaze and he could
hear a quick sharp inhale of breath.
A cold fear gripped his heart as
he leaned forward, his voice raspy, accusing. ‘You’re not coming are you?’ He
swallowed the rage that was building up inside, churning a fire in his belly.
She looked into the camera, her
eyes wide and frightened. ‘No. Jonathan. I want to come. I want to see you. You
believe me no?’
‘I thought we’d settled this. You
were going to buy tickets yesterday.’ His hands seized the edges of the monitor
as if to tear the image from the screen. ‘I gave you the money. You said you’d
go to the travel agent. You promised.’
‘Of course I go!’ her voice rose
to a feverish pitch and he could see the blush creeping up her neck in little
red splotches. She placed a hand over her throat as if she could sense their
presence. ‘I go. I buy ticket yesterday. But,” she hesitated and her head
dropped. ‘It’s Papa, Papa is old. He is old. I cannot leave him.’
‘Natalia,’ John’s voice softened.
‘Natalia. You don’t need him. I’ll take care of you. I promise.’
She nodded eagerly. ‘Of course,
darling Jonathan, of course. I know, I love you, you love me. We will be very
happy together. But Papa, he is alone. Mama, she is gone and Papa is alone. And
he has a store. I have to help him run the store. He is too old.’
Natalia’s doe eyes were
melancholy, her brow slightly wrinkled and she pouted at the screen. His heart
melted. Even though she was adorable like this, all feminine and demure, John
realised he would do anything to make her smile.
And then her face brightened and
her perfectly shaped eyebrows lifted. ‘Oh Jonathan, I have the best idea.’ Her
voice was breathy with excitement as her thoughts took form on her lips. ‘My
cousin, Darya, she no work now. She can help Papa at the store when I go. She
is a good worker. She work very hard.’
John heaved a sigh of relief. ‘That
sounds like a wonderful idea, Natalia. I’m sure your cousin would be happy to
help.’
Her nose crinkled. ‘Yes. Yes. Only
trouble is, she need money to work but poor Papa cannot pay. He is old and the
store not so good but is his life.’ She cocked her head to side, her look
playful and wanting as she bit her lower lip, feigning confusion and trouble.
John nodded, used to the game
now. There was only ever one thing in
the way. He sighed deeply and heavily at the cute pixelated girl on the screen.
‘Yes, of course. I’ll help her, my dear. I’ll help her.’
Natalia squealed in delight,
clasping her hands together and bouncing up and down so that John couldn’t help
notice her ‘assets’ strapped in the tight ribbed singlet that she wore. Her
eyes were shining as she gazed adoringly into the camera.
‘Oh that is such good, good news.
I tell Darya and Papa right away. You send money for her work. Then I come - to Australia!’ She held her arms out to a
virtual hug.
John smiled sincerely. ‘I can’t
wait, sweetheart. It’ll be magical.’ He brought his fingers up to brush her
face again.
Natalia bent over and gave the
camera a big sloppy kiss. ‘You are my knight in shiny armour.’
Image Credit.
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