TWO

PWNED

Lara ground her teeth when a message popped up on her screen from a hacker by the name of Dark Dayz.

“Sweetheart, if you want me that badly, all you had to do was ask.”

She scowled as she disabled his Trojan backdoor, a program that had a payload to take over her laptop via remote access.

Nice try, asshole.

She quickly typed out a reply in the Internet Relay Chat channel. “I only want your head. I’m going to hang it over my fireplace once I’ve hunted your ass down.” She hit ENTER before tabbing back to her main screen. The backdoor she’d found into the airport’s website was still working.

I bet Kinder Corp left this here on purpose.

She and Dark Dayz were both looking for the same thing: the passenger manifest for flight 21B. The one who got to it first would win the final round of the preliminary competition.

Her opponent was trying to slow her down, but she was holding him off by filtering most of his crap behind her firewall. Meanwhile, she’d launched a denial-of-service attack against him. It was taking a bit longer than the tactics he was using, but he’d be dead in the water when it overloaded his server.

She narrowed her eyes at her screen as another message popped up on it.

“What can I say? I’m a sucker for a girl who knows what she wants. Go on then, I’ll roll you over in the clover if you insist.”

How does he know I’m a girl?

It wasn’t his hacking that was irritating her. It was the constant messaging that was getting on her nerves.

She tapped out a reply, a smile hovering on her lips. “Well, that’ll be five seconds of my life that I won’t get back, won’t it?”

“Baby, I can make you scream for at least ten seconds.”

She snorted with laughter and then forced herself to remain focused. She wasn’t going to let this guy win just because he was flirting with her. She’d taken down all of her opponents so far. If she knocked him out of the competition, she would make it to the final challenge.

“Baby, you make me scream just by existing, like any cockroach would.”

She watched the cursor blinking on the chat box, but no new messages appeared. He was taking a long time to respond. So far, he’d been as quick as a whip. She frowned and tabbed back at her main window. Her connection speed was running at a snail’s pace. Someone was hitching a ride on her internet connection.

Son of a bitch, he’s using my access to reach the backdoor!

She was so close! She still had a chance to beat him to the manifest.

“Honey, I’m kinky, but even I draw the line at cockroaches.” As Lara read the words, her backdoor crashed and her internet connection shut down.

No, no, no!

She checked her connection. She only had local access.

Fuck! Not now. Did he do this?

She checked her computer. It wasn’t over-working at all, and there were no signs of a malicious attack. Next, she checked her wires and the router to ensure the cables were firmly plugged in and all the right lights were glowing green on the hub. Once she was certain that the problem was coming from outside her apartment, she jumped out of her seat and snatched her cell phone off a nearby table, quickly dialing the number for her internet service provider. She drummed her fingers against the wall as she waited for the call to be answered. It eventually clicked.

“Hello, my name is Myra. How may I be of assistance?”

“My internet just went down. I need it back up, right now. It’s urgent.” Lara glanced back at her screen, shaking her head. This was going to take too long.

“Can I have your twelve digit account number please?”

“Are you kidding me?” Lara yelped.

It’ll be on the bill, she thought as she started rummaging through a pile of unopened mail. “Fine. Just gimme a second.” She dropped the cell on top of the old cabinet and rifled through the drawer.

She scanned the letters, quickly finding an unopened bill from her internet provider on the top. A triangular logo with the word VIACON beneath it was emblazoned on the envelope.

She quickly ripped it open and scanned her latest bill.

Her heart sank as she read the bold red words:

FINAL WARNING. AMOUNT DUE: $259.09.

It wasn’t Dark Dayz after all. It was her ISP shutting down her delinquent account.

And the ‘Worst Timing Ever Award’ goes to…

She picked up the phone. The last thing she wanted was a lengthy conversation about how she couldn’t pay her bill.

“Oh, it’s working now. Thanks anyway.” She hung up the call and stared at her laptop screen.

Maybe I’ll get through anyway. I won nine out of ten rounds.

How am I going to find out if I got through?

She scowled at the screen.

Screw it. Desperate times…

She needed to win this contest. She felt as if it was her only chance. Hurrying back to her desk, she searched for wireless connections within range. She knew that Hub454 belonged to her neighbor.

“Sorry, Mrs. Barrow. I’ll pay you back,” she muttered as she hacked into the wireless connection that belonged to the old lady next door, hitching a ride on her internet.

Back online, she quickly navigated her way back to the flight manifest. She breathed easy when she found the data still in place.

She quickly copied the file before closing the backdoor she’d opened.

I’ve got it. I’ve won.

After taking a moment to settle her rattled nerves, she opened the file to ensure it was the right data. The flight manifest for 21B had fifty-seven passengers. She scanned the names as she scrolled down the file. It looked good.

If Dark Dayz had been hitching a ride on her internet, he must have lost his connection at the same time. She grinned.

That knocks him out of the running.

Her eyes widened when she reached the bottom of the file. There was a web address:

WWW.PWNED-U.COM/21B.

She frowned before copying and pasting the URL into a browser. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as the page loaded.

It was a white page with a giant smiley face emblazoned across it. Beneath the face were the following words:

YOU JUST LOST, SWEETHEART. NICE PLAYING YA! – DARK DAYZ.

White-hot anger burned in the back of her throat as she stared at the screen. She clenched her mouse so hard that the plastic made a cracking sound.

It was bad enough losing to a guy as irritating as this one, but losing because her ISP had dropped her internet connection was just bullshit.

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm herself down. The anger dissipated, followed quickly by a sense of loss.

That was it. That was my shot, and I blew it.

She turned her chair away from the screen, gripping the red plastic edges of her seat with whitened knuckles.

What am I going to do now?

She stared at her apartment. Everything in it was shabby and secondhand, but this crappy little place was the closest thing she’d had to a home since her parents died. She couldn’t lose it.

She jumped when her computer pinged. She swung the chair around and stared at the screen, widening her eyes when she encountered another black envelope addressed to her.

This is going to be the one that tells me I’m out of the competition.

With a heavy heart, she reached for her mouse. She didn’t want to open the envelope. She didn’t want to know her fate.

She exhaled slowly, trying to boost her courage.

Just do it.

She gritted her teeth and clicked. The envelope opened to reveal another red letter with golden words.

DEAR LARA,

CONGRATULATIONS…

She widened her eyes. She could hear her heart beating, and she found it difficult to breathe as she continued reading.

…ON WINNING A PLACE IN THE GRAND FINALS OF THE KINDER AWARDS. THERE WILL ONLY BE TWO HACKERS IN THE FINAL ROUND GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD FOR THE GRAND PRIZE. TWO HACKERS WILL ENTER, BUT ONLY ONE WILL LEAVE. AS ONE OF THE FINAL TWO CONTESTANTS, YOU ARE INVITED TO THE EVIL EYE CAFE, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, ON THE 23RD OF THIS MONTH. THE COMPETITION WILL BEGIN AT 15:00 PST. BRING YOUR BEST GAME TO THE COMPETITION BECAUSE YOU WILL BE FACING DARK DAYZ IN THE FINAL ROUND.

GOOD LUCK.

JACK KINDER

KINDER CORP

She froze in pure shock as she read the message again. A part of her didn’t believe she had won.

I made the grand finals.

A smile broke out across her face.

I made it to the fucking finals!

She jumped out of her chair, panicking about the future.

What do I need to do to win? Think, think.

The next round was in three days. She didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. She scanned the note again. There were no hints about what the competition would entail, but all of her other challenges had been to hack in somewhere and retrieve something. It was a sure bet that the final hack would be something more difficult—maybe a government agency or a military system.

She opened up her browser. She needed to know about the systems Kinder Corp used and to find the chink in their armor if she was going to beat Dark Dayz. She narrowed her eyes when she thought of him.

This time, his ass is mine.