Introducing Roland Foster.
Because I hate bad guys with motivations which are 'For the Evulz'. A little jealousy, mixed with boredom and ennui.... does it work okay?
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Because I hate bad guys with motivations which are 'For the Evulz'. A little jealousy, mixed with boredom and ennui.... does it work okay?
Quote:Roland booted his workstation, waiting for it to log in. He was wringing his hands together waiting for it to boot up. Instinct made him glance out the window to his left...________________________________
Nothing but lights twinkling on the outer dome.
The computer came up and he swallowed his fears, chasing them down with a mouthful of cheetos. There was something soothing in the crunch. It was just paranoia. He reassured himself by pulling the latest messages from the cyber’s list.
They’d patched the driver sure... but nobody seemed to be looking at the compiler.. A wave of almost euphoric giddiness was running through his body.
They hadn’t spotted it!
Nobody would think to look in the compiler. They’d spent most of the last 2 weeks pouring over the driver code trying to find the problem a single random bit on a fuzzing test had thrown up.
They’d failed.
And sure enough, even though they rushed through a patch with the simple expedient of disabling that particular feature, there were still at least three other little glitches in there.
He thought about just who he was beating. Some of the greatest minds in Fenspace. It helped that only 4 people knew how that compiler was supposed to work. With so few eyes, all bugs were hidden deep.
That was how it had started. He’d intended just to leave everyone stumped then come riding in with the solution a few weeks later. It had been about being skilled.... about being useful.... about showing how good he really was.... about being noticed as something more than ‘that radio guy’.
A message dropped into his encrypted inbox.
Had been....
He clicked it open. No bullshit inside, it was all business. Job well done was a job well rewarded. Test was a success. Money was in that number account. Everything was just tickety-boo.
A few more little glitches like that and he’d be set, the messenger assured him.
A roar of a jet engine dragged his attention outside, something flashing away into the distance. He wondered what it was for a moment, a sudden glimmer of fear rising deep inside him.
Was someone watching?
He stared outside, shivering just a little. Nothing seemed amiss. He stared... Lights flickered on the glass dome.
Just a few more ‘glitches’ and he could stop. Nobody need ever know. Just to reassure himself, he browsed through the server logs, checking to see who’d been downloading what.
Nothing. Server logs were gone for the last 3 weeks.
“Sorry Man, I accidentally zapped ‘em,” read the message in his inbox. “Meant to clear the old ones, Nailed ‘em all. opps“
If it had been the first time it happened, it might’ve been suspicious. He set a few things compiling, submitted a genuine patch for a bug in a control module, and amused himself for a few hours trawling through the Roughriders ship catalogue.
Pull this off right, he’d have enough for his own Blackbird. Enough to actually do something. Everyone else seemed to be having fun out there...
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?