Runaway Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

laptop computer, and
hooked it up to one of the science lab's phone lines.
          Earlier that afternoon he had visited Gen-A-Tec's website and downloaded
the company prospectus. He now pulled it out of his pocket and laid it on top
of the junction box where it would be handy. He had memorized most of the
important corporate officers, the cheese who would have unlimited access to the
computer system and had written down their e-mail addresses—that were also
thoughtfully supplied by the same prospectus.
          Before driving out here, Roland had logged on to Gen-A-Tec's e-mail host
and asked it what version it was. When the host answered he quickly logged off.
Now, as he crouched behind the hedge, he began looking for several notorious
security holes in that particular software version; holes that sometimes went
unpatched by lazy dick-smack systems administrators. But he didn't really
expect to find any, because Gen-A-Tec seemed so security-conscious. He was sure
this systems boss had probably patched them all over, but he was wrong. Roland
was surprised and delighted to find several unpatched holes in the software.
          "Bust on, Super Daddy," he murmured to himself as he picked
one, wondering at the stupidity of having full-boat security and
leaving such easy access through systems defects. He accessed the Gen-A-Tec
home page, but instead of signing on with them he went through one of the
security holes. It let him slip past all of their warning alarms and access the
company e-mail system. "Kickin' ass," Roland smiled as he crouched in
the bushes and worked. But he was also slightly let down. This systems
administrator was whack. Their security was a joke. He liked to ply his trade
against the best, but this SA wasn't going to present him any challenge.
Bummage.
          Roland quickly went through his next few cracker steps. He needed to
access his ISP—where he had already set up a phony account using a stolen
credit card number. "Man, what don't I do for the Strockmeister?" He
smiled as he thought of the overweight attorney. When he first met Herman he
thought the dude was a complete drudge, but Herman had slowly won him over with
his passion for causes and his fairness.
          Roland's mother, Madge, had found Strock while Roland was fielding
grounders in the federal joint, convicted of computer crimes. Strock took his
case on appeal and got it overturned. In exchange Roland had volunteered his
hacking services. The two became an unlikely pair, as different emotionally as
they were physically, but they shared a blistering intelligence, and now there
was very little that Roland wouldn't do for Strock. He thought Strock was the
bomb—finer than frog hair.
          Roland dialed into his ISP using one of the phone numbers from inside
the Gen-A-Tec phone block, then logged on to his new phony Internet account. He
had already composed a special e-mail message. The Gen-A-Tec e-mail host was
only supposed to pass e-mails on to the recipient it was addressed to, but the
hole Roland was using allowed him to add a few commands that the host would
automatically execute. He sent an e-mail request to send a complete list of
Gen-A-Tec's password files to the bogus account. All he had to do now was
settle back and wait.
          The late afternoon sun was hot on his skinny shoulders, but Roland
didn't mind. He was thinking about pussy now, wondering how he was going to open some
clam after work. He was thinking about cruising the bars, looking for cream,
maybe making a trip out to Berkeley to flash his new sash out there, let his
awesome purple headdress vacuum up the skank, throw those college girls a
sausage party.
          While he was pursuing those fantasies his computer beeped and he looked
at the screen that flashed: you've
got mail . He opened
the e-mail and, sure as shit, there was the Gen-A-Tec password file. Among
other things, it had pairs of user names and encrypted passwords for the