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‘
What about police? They trace us back they have enough to get warrens?’ Nobody said it in exactly that way, but that was the question on most of their minds. The only reply I could give was that if I could get through I could get their records and make it look like what they’d suffered was a spambot triggered attack. That’s oversimplifying things to rather gross degrees, but what am I supposed to say?
 

It was risky and stupid and in hindsight it shouldn’t have worked. Still. We had already burnt enough time. While I’d been sitting pretty friends, mine as well as others, and allies were separated from family and home. I said as much, which shut everyone up. What followed was hectic and insane. This is the only way I can come close to portraying it.
 

 
blocked
” INCOMMING! “Doesn’t matter?” “He’s in!
Keep going guys!”
Why
are you here?
Never-
BOTTLENECK
-give up!
KILLTRACE
“Guys keep going! He’s got the lists!”   
PATHFINDER
BAAAANZAAAAIIIIIII!!!!
What  do  you  want?
“
Frak
I’ve been made!” “This is madness.”
 

I
want to
talk
.
“Second box cracked!” It’s
working! “Don’t let us down!”
PING!
 

“
Come. Let’s
dance!
” Who
are
you? “Files uploading now!” FFFFFUUUUU!
 

I’ve been  
infected
!    “Holy mother what was that?”
 

They  
say  you’re-
 

“
Half our network’s toast.”       -a  
bad
 
man
. WOOO!
 

RUN
 

We have only just begun to fight! Are you a
bad
man?
 

You’re
looking
for someone.
PING!
Why won’t
you
talk to
me
?
KILLTRACE
 

“
Skippy get out of there!” Just
talk
, nothing else. “Skippy!”
VOODOO DOLL
 

Almost done Miko. Did we do it?
 

“
Never
seen this kind of security.” “Got it!”
 

Please
?
 

DISCONNECT
 

 
I had the lists. Mom worked her magic. Don’t know how, but she managed to take what I’d given her and get everyone out. I don’t believe it worked. My friends, Their friends, and lots of other people had been freed. It worked. My God Almighty it Worked.
 

Through all the noise, confusion, and adrenaline I saw something out there. Probably a lonely sysadmin, but shades of AI and Ghosts in the Machine tickled at the back of my mind as I lay in bed that night while everyone else was high fiving and celebrating. Only in movies and badly written stories were wars won in a single engagement. We had the intelligence we came for and showed them that their best wasn’t good enough. I’m sure others were also thinking along these lines. I’m not the smartest guy in the room, just the one with the biggest virtual guns.
 

Later I tried figuring out how I would fare in a head to head ‘fight’ against someone else with a quantum processor in case Red Queen got a clue and got one of ‘Six’s sibling machines and decided to level the playing field. Maybe that voice I ‘heard’ in the dark and c onfusion of that run was another such as myself. If so who’s side were they on? I couldn’t exactly risk dismissing it as nothing, but worry would get me nowhere.
 

So, with that on my mind I pulled Deep Six out and browsed the web awhile. If whoever it was had been able to talk to me they knew my address. Granted the thing shifted enough so that it wouldn’t have done much good, but, I don’t know. Actually I suppose I do, but I can’t put it into words that make sense to anyone not fascinated by how the Internet is structured and addresses handed out.
 

I was in the middle of working on my mailbox when it happened. Black window with green text opened on top of what I was doing.
 

 
> I remember you from before. You did something they thought was impossible.
 

My blood turned to ice in that instant. Rational thought failed me.
 

> How do you think?
 

KILLTRACE
 

Show all incoming traffic. She’s got to be bouncing through to get here. I can't get a consistent return path. Address keeps changing.
 

> Sorry buddy. I won’t let you get away.
 

LOAD PROGRAM: Manticore
 

Gotta be hell on her signal. Even if she's wielding one of ‘Six's siblings that might give me enough advantage for Manticore to work.
 

> Talk Then.
 

> In a bit.
 

PROGRAM Manticore HALTED.
 

> Clever. You write that yourself?
 

> No.
 

UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
 

 
Halt Process. Halt! I'm running a user account with no root level privileges and can only run system commands either by SUDO through terminal, which requires my root password, or logging out then logging back in under root account. My password is generally something lengthy and difficult to guess because it uses a garble of letters, symbols, and text. Even so she managed to wrinkle in and delete a good portion of my system. Had I either rebooted, or been forced to restart I'm pretty sure I'd have been faced with a reinstall. Thankfully I managed to kick her out before she, and I'm using that pronoun arbitrarily, could force either of these situations.
 

> Fair’s fair I guess.
 

Even if she were part of the loyal opposition I had to give her credit for managing that trick.
 

> You like it?
 

> It’s
 

LOAD BACKUP
 

Always ALWAYS keep a backup handy. Make several to store both locally and elsewhere. Not everyone faces global electronic warfare, but all sorts of daily nastiness can cause months of work and records to be lost.
 

> Interesting.
 

> We’ve traded shots and we’re both standing. Truce?
 

> OK fine. I just don’t like that someone I don’t know managed to find me so easily. That and if you’re who I think you are you’ve had my nerves on end all night.
 

> Understandable, and I’d likely be in the same state in your position. I take it they have friends of yours?
 

> Mine and others. Same with you?
 

> Something like that. Are you working with Legion?
 

> In a manner of speaking. I don’t trust them since they’ve been more than a bit tight lipped, but for the moment I’m still alive and they’re offering the best chance I have at getting dug out from this mess.
 

> Why not hand your shiny computer over? That would get them off your back wouldn’t it?
 

> Maybe, maybe not. They’ve done many illegal things, enough to put people away for several lifetimes if convicted. What would another count of kidnapping and or murder be on top of everything else? They'd get what they wanted, plus assurance I wouldn't spill the beans on them.
 

> Valid point. You have no reason to trust me, but even if everything goes as well as you hope; the records you pull get people freed by the dozens, and people get arrested as a result. You do realize this won’t end things.
 

> Never thought it would.
 

> I can do nothing more right now except wish you the best of luck. If things work out as I fear I will do what I can to help right matters.
 

> Thank you Juno.
 

> Juno?
 

> Greek Goddess of guiding, or something like that. Beats calling you Raphael.
 

> Sorry, theology was never my strong suit, but I suppose
 

Juno is as good as anything else you might want to call me. Would you leave me a way of getting in touch with you, or should I have to spend hours breaking through your friend’s security again?
 

Sticky. Though ‘she’ did make a good point about not being able to trust her. Eh. Getting an email account at a random spot wouldn’t be hard, and if this person were able to not only find their way through Legion’s local security but also get past my box I definitely want this person on my side.
 

> Fine. You can find me at [email protected]
 

> I will keep in touch. For both our sakes I hope our next meeting is social instead of business.
 

> Groovy. just one question before you go. > Only One?
 

> What was with the little girl act earlier? If you’re the same person that tried getting in touch mid-run that is.
 

> That? Oh! I thought it might have gotten your attention and separate me from general noise and traffic.
 

Made sense in a way. Still, the attitude shift was somewhat disconcerting in it’s own way.
 

> Take care of yourself Richard.
 

> Here’s to hoping I’m not walking into a trap.
 

DISCONNECT
 

Part 7
 

Dirty Deeds
 

 
Being illegal for Joe or Jane consumer to have a quantum processor was the one huge drawback to the sort of power I had at my disposal. I knew when I'd bought 'Six that in addition to upgrades being mind bindingly expensive that no matter if I was an otherwise moral and honest person I was looking at years if not decades of prison time. Never mind the fact that I’m already guilty of electronic terrorism, or whatever new buzzword they’ve coined for breaking into networks I’m not allowed into.
 

This thought crosses my mind while I look over the apparatus my 'friends’ were showing me. To me it looks little better than a hockey helmet attached via cabling down the back to a bit of motocross body armor that has a segment in the back molded for my laptop to fit along with some arm and leg pieces that looked like they might have originally been from other sports. Can’t blame whoever threw this one together for taking ideas from places that already needed mobility and protection, but I was somewhat stumped on what the point of it was. Oh-Kay then. I’ll bite. Whatisit?
 

Miko looked supremely smug and self-confident when she told me that is why and what I’ve been kept in the dark about. According to her excited chatter after putting all that on and connecting ‘Six up it’ll up not only my response time while making with the digital chaos, but supposedly there would be some sort of sympathetic feedback and some other technobabble terms that left my eyes glazed over until they put it in English; I’d have the sort of reaction timing needed to dodge bullets, strength to toss people around like rag dolls, and all sorts of other movie hero mojo. Alright then Miss Crazyhead.
 

I’ve no clue where the thing came from, but considering the matte olive drab paint I’m guessing military was involved somewhere. Next I suppose I have to wonder why all the hush-hush, other than me writing them off as insane. So I turned to Miko and asked.
 

Those that had been held against their will were freed. We saw it all on the news spun as 'a feat of international cooperation that has brought down a series of international terrorist cells.' I suppose, as far as that goes it's a correct assessment, but something feels wrong.
 

Even taking Deep Six into account that had been too easy. Miko told me this, and that I should get ready for their counter to what we had just done to them. The ‘suit’, and I use the term in the loosest possible way, was apparently shown to me so I would understand why I’d been here as long as I have. Hopefully it wasn’t going to come to that, but if it does half of what the hoopla claims then I might try it on anyway. Later though. Right now I’m shelving neuro-interfaces, Legion, and the rest. My job now is to find it and try either preventing Bad Things from happening again, or finding a way to make Bad Things from going away if they did happen.
 

It had taken days, and I only found what Red Queen was up to after it was banging on the proverbial front door.
 

 
'Six informed me that several of Legion’s larger servers have gone dark and worse, several people suddenly either late for expected meetings, or outright calling for help as people came to drag them away to points unknown. Legion has a decentralized network, so even those moral losses did little to impede traffic, but these people weren't just anyone. They had been, if not leaders in the strictest sense of the word, people others looked up to and respected. Something stinks, and I'm getting to the bottom of it.
 

I was in my room when I started connecting the dots, so I didn’t hear the first signs of the break-in. When I realized what was going on I started to look for an exit, any exit. Don’t give me that look. These are not my people, and I was pretty sure I was their main reason for showing up. Sure Miko and the others were important in their own ways, but I figured I was what they wanted, and with me not there they’d have less reason to stay than they would otherwise.