MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (28 page)

She froze the picture again and wrote down the possibilities he’d just named. That done, they continued with the next letter. The immobile Khalid on the screen came to choppy life again. They watched how his left hand produced the next letter. This one was easy: another E. She halted the video again and wrote it down.

“So now we have GEGE, GEHE, GEBE or GENE,” she said. She looked at the words for a minute, trying to make something out of it.

The next letter was a N. This time it was clearly visible how Khalid shifted his right hand a little to the right. The camera clearly registered how his finger pressed the key. The N was followed by an unmistakable A. They were looking at a frame that showed his left index finger pressing the A, all the way to the left of the keyboard. The note now read GE(GHBN)ENA.

“This is almost too easy,” Robert laughed.

“I’m not so sure. In fact, I don’t know if there’s a restriction to the number of times you can give in a wrong account number. It wouldn’t do if we disabled his account by entering the wrong code three times. That would certainly alert Khalid to the fact that someone is trying to hack his account. Besides, we’re not done yet.”

She activated the video again. It was as easy as Robert thought. They watched Khalid enter three digits, the same numbers that Robert had noticed when he was standing next to the man when he was logging on a few days ago.

“GEGENA321, GEHENA321, GEBENA321 or GENENA321,” Rebecca said. “Something tells me that this word also has some meaning, just like the word AlMaut. Probably another Arabic word. All we have to do now is find the right one.”

For the next hour, they tried various options on the Internet, but found nothing that seemed right. All the words seemed to exist in some way, either as the name of people, pop bands or geographical locations.

At nine o’clock, they went to Andy’s place. Robert called Ernest Fitzgerald, putting the phone on speaker. If the man was aware of the fact that Khalid had returned, he didn’t reveal it. He just thanked Robert for notifying him.

“We may have cracked his password for World of Warcraft,” Robert told him proudly.

This evoked more interest. Fitzgerald wanted to know exactly what they had done, not commenting on whether it was legal or not. He asked many questions, and they found themselves recounting in detail everything they’d been doing for the last hours. Several times he asked Robert or Rebecca to repeat something because he was writing everything down and couldn’t always keep up with them. At the end, he gave them an email address to send the video file to.

“Our people will take a look at it, too. We have several specialists in this kind of thing. I also want a linguist to have a crack at those words.”

He signed off with the announcement that he’d be unavailable that afternoon.

“If anything comes up, it’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning. So be careful. I can’t say that I’m happy with the risks you’re taking. Promise me to sit tight. Don’t expose yourselves. This isn’t a game. You’re definitely not equipped to deal with these people. Is that understood?”

He waited until they had all given their assent. Only then he thanked them for the information and said goodbye.

At noon, Andy came over to them. The camera still showed Khalid behind his desk, playing World of Warcraft. They had watched how he got dressed a little over an hour ago. He hadn’t even showered nor eaten anything.

By that time, all the Grimstones were online. They were each going their separate ways, doing things that were apparently unrelated to each other. Many were hanging around in the various cities.

They observed some of them for a while. It seemed they were doing nothing but some innocent trading at the auction house.

“They’re all preparing for the big moment,” Rebecca said. “Tomorrow the new expansion is in the stores, and the new world of Cataclysm is ready for exploration. Reaching level eighty-five as soon as possible is the goal.”

Robert had been reading up on all the available information on the expansion during the last few days. There was a host of information available on the Internet. Prior to the launch, Cataclysm had been open to a small group of players on the Public Test Realm. This meant that people could try out the new content in an enclosed environment and give their feedback as well. To the developers, this provided valuable information, not only on the inevitable bugs, but also on how people experienced things. The people who had been playing on the Public Test Realm had put a lot of their findings on the Internet and additionally uploaded many pictures and screenshots.

Andy had taken up the task of breaking the password. He was sitting on the edge of Robert’s bed with a laptop on his knees. Now and then he scribbled furiously on a sheet of paper. After some time, he threw them away disgustedly.

“Can’t we get him to log on again?” he asked. “Maybe if we have another recording, it’ll become clearer.”

“We’ve been thinking of that, too,” Rebecca said. “But short of barging into his room, we can’t think of a way to force him to log off.”

“We could accidentally trigger the fire alarm?”

Seeing the sudden interest on Rebecca’s face, Robert put up a hand. “Easy now. we shouldn’t force our hand. Remember what Fitzgerald said. Let’s keep our heads down.”

Finally, at four o’clock in the afternoon, Khalid interrupted his gaming. Their interest in watching the immobile figure at the desk had waned long before that moment, so it could happen that they were alerted by the sound of his door opening and closing.

They all held their breath until the sound of footsteps had receded down the stairs.

“Go!” Rebecca commanded Andy. “Hurry or you won’t catch up with him!”

Their friend was already halfway to the door, putting on his coat at the same time. He winked at them and was gone.

He was back forty minutes later. All three crowded around the computer screen that showed how Khalid got out of his thick winter coat and seated himself at the desk again. Andy quickly brought them up to date: “He went to the big supermarket at the
Hooigracht
. He bought milk, orange juice, bread, cheese, tomatoes, and a whole lot of candy bars. On the way back he stopped at the tobacco store he always visits and bought a carton of Marlboro Light. He didn’t talk to anyone but the girl at the counter of the supermarket and the shop keeper of the tobacco store.”

Instead of turning back to the computer, the man on the screen started to prepare a sandwich. He shoved the computer aside and put a plate in front of himself. Robert realized again how weird it was to spy on someone who was totally unaware of the fact that he was being watched. When he had made a double cheese sandwich, Khalid took a large bite and turned to his computer. With the same deft movements as before, he logged on to his World of Warcraft account. As soon as he was finished, Rebecca saved the file.

This recording wasn’t as good as the first. The computer had been turned slightly, deteriorating the angle of the camera. The motion of the left hand had become practically undistinguishable. The other hand, the one they were most interested in, was still visible.

Like they had before, they watched the process in extreme slow motion. Robert felt disappointed that it didn’t become any clearer what the third letter of the password was. Rebecca and Andy didn’t share his disappointment. “I think we can discard the letter N on the basis of what we just saw, so that does bring us a little closer,” Andy said.

“Crossing off the N may be more important than just reducing the possibilities by one,” Rebecca added. “I looked up the policy on password protection. You can enter two wrong passwords before your account is disabled. After that, you have to reset your password, for which the linked email account is necessary. We can’t afford that, not only because we can’t access Khalid’s email, but simply because we can’t give away what we’re doing.”

Andy interrupted her. “We only have three possibilities left now. So we should be able to hack into his account without risk!”

“Nothing is without risk,” Robert said. “I’m not so sure as the rest of you about this. For now, our friend is doing some battlegrounds.” He nodded in the direction of the screen, which showed how Drimm was just emerging out of the cave at the beginning of Alterac Valley. “I think I’ll join him.”

He sat down and started WoW on his own computer. Shortly after, he was in the queue for a spot in Alterac Valley.

While Robert was doing battlegrounds, sometimes fighting in the same team as his neighbor, Rebecca and Andy immersed themselves in the possible meaning of the password again. They scouted endless Internet pages and rewound the two recordings of Khalid entering his password again and again.

At dinnertime they ordered pizzas. While they ate, they discussed the next steps.

“We won’t have much opportunity to hack into his account the upcoming days,” Rebecca said. “As of tomorrow morning, he’ll be playing WoW more or less nonstop. My guess is that he won’t rest until Drimm is at level eighty-five.”

“We can do it at night,” Andy suggested.

Robert scowled. “We can also let the police do it. What will happen if those terrorists find out about this?”

Both Rebecca and Andy looked at him in surprise. “Are you scared?” Rebecca asked.

He answered without hesitation. “Yes, I am. Scared to death, if you really want to know. And you should be scared as well. We have every reason to be afraid.”

It was Andy who nodded first. “Robert is right. Maybe sometimes we forget what we’re doing, who we’re dealing with. We mustn’t take any unnecessary risks.”

After these words the spirit left them a little. They all went back to what they had been doing, Rebecca and Andy watching the recording and arguing over the password and Robert playing battlegrounds.

At 22:00 hours Robert alerted them to the fact that Khalid had just logged off. The others had just agreed the password was most likely GEHENA321.

“He’s going out again,” Robert said urgently. “Look, he’s putting his coat on!”

Andy looked out of the window at the cold December night. It wasn’t raining for a change, but an unfriendly wind was blowing through the streets. He sighed, obviously not pleased at the prospect of going out.

“I’ll go after him,” Rebecca suddenly announced. “I need some fresh air. You guys be prepared to enter his account as soon as he has a distance of five minutes away from the house.”

She left the building twenty seconds after Khalid. Two minutes later, she sent them a text message saying that her quarry was going in the direction of the city center. Shortly after, she ordered them to give the account a try.

Robert took a deep breath and sat up straight in his chair. He positioned the computer again, so everything was right as it should be.

“We have two tries,” Andy said encouragingly. “Maybe even three if we want to take the risk.”

“Yes I know. So what’s our first try?”

“GEHENA321,” Andy spelled.

Robert slowly entered this into the box, careful not to make a mistake. He glanced up at Andy, who had been looking on, for confirmation. At his nod, he clicked on the Enter button.

The information you have entered is not valid. Please check the spelling of the account name and password. If you need help in retrieving a lost or stolen password or account.

“Damn!” Andy exclaimed. “I was so sure it was GEHENA!”

Impatiently, Robert drummed his fingers on the table top. “What’s your next bet, mister Code Cracker?”

“That’s difficult. I was so sure the middle letter was an H!”

“We crossed off the N, so that leaves us with two possibilities. Tell me which one it is.”

Andy shook his head. Clearly guessing, he said: “B. The word is GEBENA.”

Nodding, Robert entered the word and added the three digits at the end. He pressed Enter again.

This time, they both cursed as the error message came up. “One more chance left,” Andy said. “Let me think for a few moments more!”

At that moment, Robert’s mobile rang. It was Rebecca.

“I think he’s going to the train station,” she said. “Have you cracked the code yet?”

He quickly explained how they were having no luck at all. Rebecca agreed that GEHENA had been her personal favorite as well.

“Did you consider double input as well?” Robert asked.

“What do you mean?” the others both asked at the same time.

“Well, you guys were so busy with the password and Internet that I presumed you took a look at that as well. I’m talking about the possibility that he pressed the same button
twice
.”

Their silence told him enough. Andy was looking at him as if he was seeing him for the first time. With a jump, he was at the other computer, where Google was still open.

“My God!” he exclaimed. “Look at this!”

Robert walked over as well, holding the cell phone in the air. “What? What?” Rebecca’s thin electronic voice could be heard asking again and again.

On the screen the answers to the question
What is the meaning of the word gehenna
were displayed. Robert immediately saw what Andy meant.

“It’s GEHENNA instead of GEHENA,” he told Rebecca through the phone. “In combination with the word Death as account name, this must be it!”

He read the search results out loud: “
Gehenna: Place where the dead are judged, the abode of the wicked
...”

“What are you telling me?” she asked.

“Apparently, the word Gehenna is derived from the ancient Greek language,” he explained. “What’s more important, it means ‘hell’ in a lot of languages and is used in a lot of books. Also in Arabic, by the way.”

“Okay, I’m convinced.
Account name: Death. Password: Hell
. That must be it. I think you should try it!”

Swallowing, Robert sat back behind the computer again. He carefully typed each of the individual letters. At some point he brushed another key by accident. To make sure he hadn’t messed up the word, he started again.