Installment 4

            Wow. I never thought I’d make it this far.

            Actually, I thought I might make it this far when I started -- but after yesterday, I’m not so sure anymore. I think they’re afraid that by writing this, I might get someone to believe me, and if that happens, they’re in major trouble.

            Hmm. That’s a thought. Get someone to believe me…

            I’ll deal with that later. Right now, I’ve got to continue my story before I run out of battery or someone shows up again. Luckily, I don’t think they’ll find me down here -- it’s just a matter of when I have to go.

            Travis grabbed Larson, and we all headed into the room next door. It contained a computer sitting in the corner -- a brand that I had never seen before, I noticed. Travis pulled out the chair and gestured for me to sit. I swear, he looked excited.

            “Here you are, your majesty!” he said with a mock reverence. “Behold your royal throne!”

            No one thought this was funny, including Larson. Travis apparently realized this after no one laughed, and with a sigh, gestured again to the seat. I reluctantly sat down.

            Let’s get something straight: I didn’t want to do it. Really, I didn’t. But there was something about the knowledge that I was about to try my hand at hacking into a government system that…intrigued me. But the thought that Travis wanted me to do it also annoyed me. So I guess it was with mixed feelings that I stared at the computer screen.

            Travis placed a CD in the disc drive. It was labeled “Travis’ System” in permanent marker. I began to question whether Travis’ “system” was any good at all. I mean, he didn’t act like the kind of guy I would expect to design a government computer program.

            I looked up at Travis. “Okay. What do you want me to do exactly, and why?”

            Larson seemed just as interested in the answer as I was. Travis noticed this, but pretended not to, answering me directly. “I can’t just tell you, kid. That would ruin the whole thing. But there are a couple things you should know: Number one, if you purposefully do badly, I’ll know.”

            I wanted to ask exactly how, but I refrained from interrupting.

            “Number two, if you do really well, it might just prove you innocent.”

            “What?” I burst out. This made no logical sense at all.

            “And number three…You can do whatever you want to get in. Seriously, anything you want. This is just a copy, so you’re not touching the real system. You can even use your username, if you want, though that might be a serious mark against you.”

            “He’s innocent until we prove him guilty, Thatcher,” Larson interjected. Travis rolled his eyes.

            “Sure,” he said airily, then pointed at the screen. “Get going, kid!”

            “Okay, okay,” I muttered.

            I waited for a moment or two before I began. To tell you the truth, I was a little bit stunned. Travis had just proven himself to be smarter than I thought.

            He had just offered me a deal that was impossible to resist. To start with, I didn’t trust him. But he had just told me that if I did well, I might clear my name. How could that possibly happen? It made no logical sense. And supposedly if I did terribly, then it would be a mark against me, since Travis would say that I was purposefully doing it. So it appeared that my best bet was to do my best -- except for the unfortunate, but as I saw it likely, possibility that Travis was lying through his teeth.

            In the space of a few seconds, I decided that it was a risk I would have to take.

            First thing I tried was heading to the program files on the disc. All I found was a single program to run. I assumed that this was the correct program, so I double clicked and waited for the program to load. To my surprise, the computer was ridiculously fast, and the program instantly appeared. The first…

            Wait a second. If I tell you what happened on the program, you might be able to track some remnant down…no, that’s a bad plan.

            Forget that. Let’s not describe the program itself.

            Well, I’ll say this: Travis Thatcher, despite my first impressions of him, was a genius with the electronic realm. I consider myself fairly good with computers, but after trying to hack into the system, I was forced to admit that Travis was three times better than I was. To start with, the system itself was extremely complicated, involving lots of passwords right off the bat. I was able to get through some of the safeguards by going online, downloading a few oddball programs, and finding a few passwords on out of the way blogs and forums, but after a while it would block me off again. I couldn’t find a way through, no matter how hard I tried. I had never hacked into anything professional before in my life, so I learned as I went. Funny thing is, it didn’t seem like any program I had ever seen. Most systems designed to protect something use a password and are done with it, but this was set up more like…like a maze. Some information was there to lead you down deeper, and deeper, until you found yourself trapped in the middle. I suspected that this was Travis’ way of catching any perpetrators. The longer they stayed in the system, the better it was for him when tracking them down.

Considering that there was a lot at stake and I was new at this, it didn’t help that Travis was breathing down my neck, although once when I made a particularly difficult vault into a password-protected folder, he whistled.

            “Not bad, kid,” he said in an approving tone. I confess that I felt a certain level of pleasure at that.

            Don’t tell anyone I said that.

            After a while of trying to get around the files and folders, I got frustrated. I couldn’t figure out how to make it into the heart of the system, and I didn’t know what it was trying to protect anyway. I suspected that it was another program -- a program within a program, but then again, I didn’t have any evidence to support that theory.

            So eventually, after taking hours on it, I sat back in my chair and heaved a sigh of annoyance. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to clear my head, ignoring Travis’ huff of impatience and Larson’s quick inhaling.

            Then an idea came to me.

            I leaned forward and exited the program. Then I reopened the program files, and found the system. This time, however, instead of opening it, I right clicked, and…

            Deleted the system.

            There was a few moments of stunned silence in which I had just enough time to wonder whether I was about to be arrested. Then, Travis began to laugh.

            He laughed like a lunatic, causing Larson to look over incredulously. Finally he stopped, although humor remained in his voice.

            “Delete it!” he said smiling, placing his hands on his hips. “Just delete the system!”

            Larson had one eyebrow raised in an “Are you kidding me?” expression. Obviously Travis and I were the only ones who got the joke. And luckily for me, Travis had taken it as just that -- a joke.

            I had foiled his attempts to conform me to his agenda. Do well and hack the system, or do badly and make him think that I had done it purposefully. Instead, I had cheated and bypassed the exam entirely. And for some reason, Travis Thatcher seemed completely okay with it.

            “Look, kid,” he said amiably. “That was an interesting move right there, I must say. But you’ve left us with a problem, see. We probably should arrest you…but we’re not going to.”

            Larson glanced over. “What? Why not?”

            Travis patronizingly rested an elbow on Larson’s shoulder -- a fairly decent feat, considering that Larson was taller than he was. “Come on out with me, officer, and I’ll explain a thing or two to you. And as for you,” he pointed at me, “You stay here.”

            I was just relieved that he wasn’t going to arrest me. Then again, maybe it would be better if I was arrested. At least then I might get a decent explanation.

            Travis and Larson left me alone in the room. After ten minutes of just sitting there, I began to wish that I hadn’t deleted the system. I would have liked to have taken a better look through it while waiting.

            What Larson had said earlier popped in my mind. “Have you ever heard of a program called Back Door?” Then that made me think about my theory -- a program within a program.

            What was this Back Door? Just a computer program?

            But then why was there this extensive system to protect it? And why was an attempt to steal it -- or even a possible attempt to steal it -- a matter of “national security?”

            I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear her come in, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when something touched my shoulder. I whirled around to face…a girl.

            She was just as startled as I was.

            “Don’t do that!” I sighed, slowing my breathing down. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

             “Sorry,” she whispered, glancing around the room. When I answered, I found that I was whispering as well.

            “What are you doing here?”

            She shook her head, her light brown ponytail flipping around. Her eyes were blue, she wore jeans and a dark green jacket, and there was a purple backpack slung over her shoulder. She looked like she was around my age.

            “Is your name Nathan?” she asked, keeping her voice down low. “Nathan T. Dalton?”

            “Yes,” I answered. “How did you get in?”

            She glanced at the window looking out into the alley, and I saw that somehow, the latch had been undone.

            “Follow me,” she said softly, turning toward the window.

            “Why?” I asked. “Who are you, anyway?”

            “Clara Stone,” she replied, throwing her backpack out the window before her. “And unless you want to deal with Travis Thatcher and an accusation of international espionage, which I really don’t suggest, you’ll come with me.”

            More as soon as I’m somewhere safe again.

-Nathan T. Dalton