Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace Read Online Free PDF Page A

Then he would dial 555-9922, just for variety. He hated to dial numbers in sequence. He could dial any couplet, from 00 to 99, haphazardly, but without hitting any number twice.
    555-9973. Nothing.
    555-9918. Nothing.
    555-9956. Nothing.
    Then he hit one. 555-9940. And things got weird. He told Hac about it. Neither of them could make much of the thing.
    Paul got a second phone line installed in his house and put up his own hacker bulletin board, called Beyond the Limit. The name came from a movie Paul saw advertised in TV Guide. He never watched the movie, just liked the name.
    Not many hackers called Paul's board. In fact, only three did, and Hac was one of them. Hac got another kid he knew in Flushing to call, too. Hac was good at meeting people.
    A year after they graduated from high school, Hac called Paul and told him he had met this incredibly elite dude who seemed to know a lot about hacking. The dude claimed a blind guy in the neighborhood had taught him to make free phone calls. Hac really wanted Paul to meet this guy. His name was Acid Phreak.
    Skulking in the lamplight, Eli is supposed to watch out for telephone company security goons and for anyone else who might want to know why these scraggly-ass teenagers are climbing over an eight-foot fence. Down on the pavement, Eli can see the whole length of 30th Street.
    It's crazy to climb over a fence onto private property when you're depending on a guy you hardly know as your lookout. If it had been anyone else but Acid Phreak, Paul probably wouldn't have done it. But there was something about Eli, this new kid, that made Paul want to be a part of whatever he's planning. Eli is a few months older than Paul, and even if he doesn't know as much about the mechanical aspects of computers and programming as Hac had been led to believe, he has other skills. He got his computer when he was fourteen, and ever since he's been calling people all over the world with his modem. Eli has friends everywhere. He's always game to try to break into different computer systems. He says he does it for "brags. "
    Paul hoists a bag over his shoulder, over his head, and hands it up to Hac. Then Hac hands it down to the sidewalk.
    That's the routine. But just as Hac's about to hand off the final bag, a man comes out of the telephone building and pauses a second longer than he should, and then gets into a car and rolls down the windows and just sits there. The boys freeze.
    "What's he doing?" Paul whispers.
    "I don't know. He's just sitting in his car. "
    Paul and Hac stand there, crazed alley cats, backs high, ears cupped, tensed on tiptoes.
    And then the worst happens.
    In the distance, they hear a siren. It's not an ambulance, whose aural signature Paul would recognize at this point in the evening. But it's definitely a siren, and it's getting louder. Closer. It's a banshee now, and it's just around the corner, and Paul, for one, has had it with dumpster diving. He climbs over the fence, as fast as he can, and follows a retreating Hac to the sidewalk. The siren's just about upon them, and they dash madly across the street, bags in tow, past the guy who's sitting in the car, now wide-eyed, watching the kids come leaping over the fence. Their sneakers hit the pavement with heavy slaps, and with barely a second to spare, they dive into a dark, safe spot in the park.
    Just as a fire truck blazes past.
    The siren is gone. They look at one another, their hearts pound. They can see the outline of the Triborough Bridge through the leafy trees. The green-and-white lights along its suspension beckon like a distant Ferris wheel, and it's an adventure again. They kneel on the handball court and rip the sacks open and paper printouts spill like entrails. The night is hot and the streets are hopping and you can probably even see stars. They don't look up.

TWO
    Most of the dumpster's bags are full of garbage or containers of half-eaten Chinese food. But one bag is worth the trouble, because inside is a