Cardiff goes for fear

it’s all well and good for Riyadh to tell them to dump their phones and take off, but now Cardiff doesn’t have a phone
and wants to know just what the fuck is going on
cracking phones is no big deal, they all do it – but to crack one of theirs?
different story
so now he’s walking through the city streets in the middle of the afternoon
satchel hung over his shoulder and no phone
he could get one no problems, set it up alright
but something gave him the feeling that he should hold back on that
instincts
or something
maybe just plain fear
Cardiff goes with the fear because hey, he still has no idea what’s going on, so to say he had instincts might be getting a bit too egotistical
they were good
he knew they were good
Ree was better
but there was some scary shit in the net
stuff you didn’t touch unless you were too stupid to know otherwise
they stayed well away from that stuff
ice so thick and bright it looked like pure sunlight
stick your fist in that and something was more than likely to bite off your arm
he seems to be going nowhere special
stopping at print shops and checking out printed Media
cruising past the usual young people’s haunts
game stores
tech vendors
fast food
but he’s making his way to a particular place
one of the random terminal cafes sprinkled around town
usually people used these for listing personals and stuff
shit you didn’t want to get fingered for as it was all pretty much anonymous
cops could ask the clerks – have you seen this dude
but most of the time they wouldn’t know even if they had seen you
there were elite places
and they’d hung-out there often
but you didn’t get up to tricks there like some kids did
because the feds were all over those places
just in ways you couldn’t see
well, ways your average dumbshit hacker-kid couldn’t see

so Cardiff cruises on into this well to do establishment
nice coffee and muffins and stuff
the staff and the patronage are on this constant false sort of familiarity
where even if they haven’t seen you before, they’ll sort-of act like they have
nice people
ignorant
at this point, fake nicities and ignorance are totally fine with him
there are terminals lining the walls, and a few tables set up with four, eight systems on them
you know, for the communal thing, whatever the fuck that was
he goes up to the counter and orders a latté, then asks for a terminal, takes the one he’s allocated without question
first thing that pops up is mail which he pokes around in while the coffee comes
some girl brings him coffee and does the friendly shoulder touch thing which is nice
he smiles at her, they chat about absolutely nothing, then she walks off
when Riyadh had told them to meet at ‘that place’, she had meant a chat-room
though computers were mostly run on Neural Interfaces, text based chat had somehow endured the passing of time
something of a nostalgia and ultra-retro brand of cool had been made of it
so the chat-clients tended to all translate Neural input to text
Cardiff opens up the most pedestrian looking shit-heap embeded chat-client site ever to exist
except that it isn’t a shit-heap
what it is, is solid ice
not that anyone would know it by looking at it

Riyadh’s already there

Riyadh> what took you so long?
Cardiff> paranoia – went for a walk
Riyadh> no kidding
Cardiff> wtf do you expect me to do when you tell me to trash my phone?
Riyadh> where’s Mel?
Cardiff> no idea, i’d call her but i don’t have a phone
Riyadh> just trust me – you don’t want it. you didn’t get a new one did you?
Cardiff> figured i’d wait
Riyadh> smart move
Cardiff> …
Cardiff> really?
Riyadh> trust me

Melbourne has joined Starchat! – Welcome Melbourne! Rules are at .t&d! Enjoy your stay!

Cardiff> hey
Riyadh> hey
Melbourne> am i late?
Riyadh> not really, i’ve been waiting here for a bit but i’ve been doing stuff
Melbourne> where are you anyway
Riyadh> at 3build
Cardiff> you sure it’s a good idea to be at such a known place?
Riyadh> nope, but it’s the best i could do on short notice – i’ve got a few modules running so we should be relatively safe
Cardiff> relative to what, being roughed up by feds at gunpoint?
Riyadh> you’ll shut that mouth of yours once you hear about this shit you know
Melbourne> what is it Ree? i mean really?
Riyadh> –
Cardiff> …
Melbourne> …
Riyadh> when i ran your account i found absolutely nothing at all, it didn’t make a lot of sense
Riyadh> then when i looked closer at the traffic, there definitely was a hack there
Riyadh> but it hadn’t come in from outside
Melbourne> what do you mean?
Riyadh> the nodes had been generated from your phone… going out
Cardiff> fuck off
Riyadh> no shit – look at this
dataping Riyadh–>Cardiff/Melbourne
Cardiff accept
Melbourne accept
pingreturn link established
data at local WNI – please send download pulse

Cardiff’s mind fills with the images of Riyadh’s data, as does Melbourne

Cardiff> holy fucking shit
Riyadh> i told you
Melbourne> i don’t understand – how could this happen
Cardiff> i don’t know Mel, but someone got their hands on your phone
Melbourne> that’s impossible
Riyadh> it’s not your fault Mel – look at that code, it’s unbelievable. whoever can do that probably has the resources to get to your phone
Melbourne> but when damnit?
Riyadh> maybe in your sleep – even in class, i don’t know, could have been anytime
Melbourne> they were in my fucking house??
Cardiff> we don’t know that Mel, but it was definitely done from your phone – when you look at it though
dataping Cardiff–>Melbourne/Riyadh
Cardiff> it’s pretty freakin tight. the whole process took about 600 milliseconds – i mean all they had to do is walk past you with a bug and it could have scrambled your phone
Melbourne> i would have known!
Riyadh> Mel, i don’t think any of us would have known – it could have been any of us – for all i know there were tracers in our phones too
Melbourne> but there weren’t any tracers in my phone
Cardiff> look it doesn’t matter – the point is it’s been done and there’s pretty much nothing we could have done about it
Cardiff> Ree, this is pretty fucking scary
Riyadh> i know
Cardiff> i mean, a bug that can pack that much code, and that fast – shit i don’t think even i could build you one
Melbourne> why me?
Riyadh> i don’t think it was aimed at you so much as all of us – i think you were just the first
Cardiff> hang-on – what makes you think that?
dataping Riyadh–>Melbourne/Cardiff
Riyadh> check out what i found when i traced the out-hack
Riyadh> Mel your phone was reshuffled, but not by the bug
Riyadh> the bug constructed a node in the net and retrieved the hack-data
Riyadh> it was so streamlined and so fast i don’t think i would have seen it if i was looking straight at it
Melbourne> then how did you find it?
Riyadh> that’s the thing that doesn’t make sense – the code is so tight, whoever coded it could have shuffled it so hard i wouldn’t have been able to put it back together again if i tried for the rest of my life
Cardiff> but theydidn’t even cover their tracks
Cardiff> –
Cardiff> at all
Cardiff> –
Riyadh> what?
Melbourne> what is it Card?
Cardiff> i think i know what this is
Melbourne> what?
Cardiff> a handshake
Riyadh> what the fuck kind of drugs are you on Cardiff?
Cardiff> a really tricky one, but a handshake all the same
Melbourne> i don’t get it
Cardiff> or maybe it’s been designed to get us to handshake someone else
Riyadh> but i mean… but
Cardiff> Mel – what was the text you had in your archive?
Melbourne> it was nothing – it was just like, node coordinates i think – 1378F8x double S or something
Cardiff> wasn’t there a filename as-well?
Melbourne> yeah um… Inverse.coredata

and that’s when a system sends a WNI pulse to it’s owner
sitting in the chair next to the one on which it rests
on a plane
thousands of miles away