Hacker (10 page)

I stared at Gib, absolutely amazed. I shouldn’t have been at all surprised, I know. I’d seen him in action often enough. He didn’t fib all the time but when he was in trouble he was very, very good at it.

‘So we were hoping that you’d let us use a PC at the back of the class maybe – if no one else is using it,’ Gib finished.

‘But I’m teaching a class.’ Rosa frowned.

‘Oh, we won’t make a sound. Will we, Vicky?’

‘Not a sound,’ I agreed.

‘I don’t know about this …’

‘Oh, please,’ Gib pleaded. ‘We won’t make any noise. Honest. ’Cause otherwise we’ll both fail computing this year.’

Rosa scrutinized us both so carefully that my face began to grow hot. Could you tell someone was lying just by looking at their face? I began to think you could.

‘If you’re both sure you’ll not make any noise …’ Rosa began.

‘We won’t,’ Gib and I said eagerly.

‘And you’ve got to leave when the class is over …’

‘We will.’

‘All right then,’ Rosa said reluctantly. ‘But mind – no noise now.’ We shook our heads. ‘You can use the table at the back with the two PCs on it.’ Rosa pointed to the table.

Just then a man in a blue pinstripe suit and a woman in a white dress came into the room. They directed curious glances at us before they sat down.

Who wears a suit on a Saturday? I thought curiously.

‘Come on then, Vicky,’ Gib whispered. We sat down at the indicated table.

‘Get cracking before we’re found out,’ Gib hissed in my ear.

‘Help then,’ I hissed back. ‘Find out the name of the file that contains the dictionary for the spelling checker. That’s important. Then make sure you can type it out.’

‘Why do I have to do that?’

‘I’ll tell you in a minute.’

‘You’ll have to tell me what to do,’ Gib replied.

Impatiently, I rummaged through my pockets to find something to write on. I found a piece of clean (I think!) but crumpled tissue and scribbled down the necessary commands. Gib gingerly picked up the tissue and laid it out flat before he started typing.

‘I hope you haven’t blown your nose on this!’ he said with disdain.

I didn’t bother to answer. I watched him type. Talk about ponderous! I started typing myself. Connecting up to the live system was no problem. That was just a question of typing in the right data to Dad’s connect program which was on the memory stick that I’d rescued from being taken by Eric. No, the problem would be logging on to an account on the live system when I didn’t have a password.

Still, I had an idea about how to do that, but I needed to write a command file to do it for me. It wouldn’t work with me typing directly from the PC. The bank’s network system would suspect something strange was going on and disconnect itself from my PC if I tried to do it all manually rather than via a command file.

As we typed, two more men entered the room. Curious, they smiled at us. I smiled back. I carried on typing, peering intently at the screen as I did so. I wanted to make sure I got my command file absolutely right.

‘I’m ready,’ Gib said quietly after a few minutes.

I looked at his screen. He’d searched through the hard disc on the server which was set up for use by all the PCs in the school, just as I’d written down. There were a number of error messages until he found the right file. On the rest of his screen I saw:

> show helpdir: dictlarge

a

aardvark

aardvarks

aardwolf

aardwolves

aba

abaci

aback

abacus

‘Why did you want me to check the dictionary?’ Gib whispered.

‘I can’t log on again using the
TEST
account ’cause that’s only on the development system. And as the bank disabled Dad’s account on the live system, I’m going to have to use another account.’

‘Which one?’

‘Eric, the Systems Manager’s user account. It’s the only account I can use where I know the privileges have been set up to do what I need to do on the bank’s computer.’

‘But you don’t know the password,’ Gib pointed out.

‘This is the good bit,’ I said softly. ‘I’ve written a command file to make sure we log on to the live machine at Universal. It enters
SYSTEM
as the user name and then pulls out a word from the dictionary you found, to try as the password. If it doesn’t work, the live computer will give out an error code which my file will read and then it will try the whole thing again with the next word down in the dictionary. And if my command file works as it should, the bank’s computer shouldn’t lock me out after three false tries.’

Gib gave a low whistle. ‘That’s good! Will it work?’

‘In theory. But I’ve never tried anything like this before,’ I replied. ‘And if Eric is anything like Dad and puts numbers in his passwords then it won’t work. But according to Dad, no one follows the bank’s rules and makes up unguessable passwords, because they all reckon they’ll never be able to remember them. Dad’s always trying to get all the bank staff to use passwords that aren’t real words but very few people at the bank, if any, ever do.’

‘So what do we do now?’

‘We sit back and wait and hope that the password doesn’t begin with a “z”,’ I explained.

I pressed the enter key on my keyboard to start my file running. Immediately, the dictionary was shown on Gib’s PC and there the information began to scroll as each word was tried, just as I’d instructed in my command file.

‘How long will it take if the password is right down at the other end of the alphabet?’ Gib asked.

‘Ages. Longer than we’ve got tonight. So keep your fingers crossed.’

Gib’s frown was a reflection of my own.

‘Is that really the fastest way of doing it?’ he complained.

‘Unless you already know a user name and password on the live system,’ I stated.

‘What happens if we haven’t found the password by the time the class finishes?’ Gib said. ‘We’ve only got about an hour.’

‘Then we’ll just have to hang around the school and sneak back after everyone has gone,’ I said jauntily.

I looked at Gib, my head high, hoping he’d tell me I was nuts and there was no way he was going to hang around until possibly midnight, waiting for a password that might not appear in the first place.

‘All right then,’ Gib said at last.

My heart sank to my ankles. I reckoned Mr Guy was more than likely to make sure that this classroom in particular was locked shut once evening classes were over. After all, he didn’t want anyone running off with the school’s expensive PCs.

What should we do? Allow ourselves to be locked in the room? Then how would we get out? Deciding to follow in Gib’s footsteps, I decided we should wait to cross that bridge if and when we got to it. After all, we had every chance of getting a password that began with an ‘A’.

‘Stop looking on the pessimistic side,’ I said to Gib.

Rosa had started her class by this time. The room was about half full, and she was talking about the World Wide Web and how it worked. I knew all that already but I saw that Gib was paying attention whilst trying not to look like he was. Rosa wittered on and the minutes ticked by slowly until I was off daydreaming in a world of my own. Then a sharp jab in the ribs woke me up.

‘What d’you think you’re playing at?’ I said.

‘Shush!’ Gib looked around anxiously.

A few of the people towards the back of the class turned around to look at us.

‘Oooops! Sorry!’ I mouthed.

I turned to glare at Gib. He nodded towards my PC screen.

THE SYSTEM IS FOR THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF UNIVERSAL BANK PERSONNEL. ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS ACCOUNT MAY LEAD TO PROSECUTION.

System>

I almost yelled out when I saw that. We were in! I double-checked this time to make sure I was on the live and not the development system.

‘What’s the last word to be read from your dictionary file?’ I asked Gib, leaning across to read his screen.

‘Cabbage?’ Gib replied doubtfully.

‘Cabbage! What a silly password!’ I smiled. ‘But remember that, Gib. We may need it again.’

Without wasting any more time, I tried to find the directory that contained the batch library file. In the end I did a global search over the whole system and I still couldn’t find it.

‘Maybe there isn’t one?’ Gib suggested, watching me closely.

‘Well, I can’t find it,’ I said, angry at myself.

‘What else do we need?’

‘The transaction log file for the night the money was put into Dad’s account,’ I answered. ‘I don’t need the whole lot, just all the transactions over nine hundred thousand and under two million quid. I can always extend it later if I need to.’

‘Go on then.’

This bit was easy. I’d seen Dad do it loads of times.

‘What was Thursday’s date?’ I asked.

Gib considered. ‘The 18th.’

SYSTEM>QUERY(*FROM TRANSACTIONS WHERE DATE=18MAY AND AMT>900000 AND AMT<2000000

The data I wanted appeared almost immediately. Once I was happy it was what I wanted, I hit the key to stop the rest of the file being typed out. I then typed the same command again – but this time I asked for the results to be printed.

A message came up to tell me that the printout had started on printer 4. Our school had five high-speed printers kept in the small storage room next door to the classroom we were in. I knew I had to work fast. The chances of being discovered on the live system were even greater than being found on the development system, especially since I was using the Systems Manager’s user account.

‘Hang on a minute.’ Gib frowned. ‘That money was put into Dad’s account in the early hours of yesterday morning.’

‘So?’

‘So yesterday was Friday, May the nineteenth, not the eighteenth.’

‘Why didn’t you say that before I started printing the file out?’ I asked, annoyed.

It was too late to stop the printout. I typed in the command again, this time specifying:
WHERE DATE
=19
MAY
.

‘I think I’ll print out the files for the whole of this week, starting from Monday,’ I said thoughtfully.

‘Why do you want to do that?’

‘It doesn’t hurt to be thorough, and I might as well. We might find something interesting.’

‘But it’s just more paper to wade through,’ Gib complained.

‘Then I’ll wade through it,’ I retorted. ‘You don’t have to.’

‘Keep your voice down. And I never said I wouldn’t,’ Gib said, ‘though it’ll probably be a complete waste of time.’

‘It can’t hurt though,’ I argued.

I printed out the full transaction log files for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well, praying that I’d get a chance to finish all this before the class came to a halt.

My screen messages showed that my printouts had finished printing just as Rosa was finishing off her lesson. Her class began to pack up and wander out.

‘I’ll have to log off now,’ I whispered to Gib.

‘Did you do everything you wanted to do?’

‘Almost. I’ll have to ask Dad about the batch library file on the live system. I don’t understand why I couldn’t find it,’ I replied.

I logged off the bank’s system. Gib and I switched off our PCs and stood up.

‘Thank you very much,’ I said to Rosa as we made our way out of the classroom.

‘Yeah, thanks,’ Gib added.

‘Did you finish your homework?’ Rosa asked.

‘Oh yes, we did.’ Gib said quickly. ‘’Bye.’

He grabbed my arm and almost pulled me out of the room.

We stopped off in the storage-room for our listings. Each listing ran to several pages. We gathered them up and scarpered.

When we got home, I let Gib take the listings to his room. He took both the printout from the development system which we’d done the previous night and the new printouts from the live system. I let him. I wanted to read them but I knew I was too tired to make much sense of them. I went to bed after cleaning my teeth and fell asleep immediately.

* * *

‘Mum, do you want some help making lunch?’ I offered after Sunday breakfast.

It was the strangest breakfast we’d ever had in our house. No one had anything to say. Dad ate in virtual silence, smiling at me very occasionally (smiles that didn’t quite make it to his eyes), and Mum didn’t say much at all. ‘Do you want more bacon, Gib …? Pass the orange juice, Vicky …’ But not a lot else.

And as for Gib. He could hardly keep his eyes open. At one point, his head nodded so far forward I thought his nose would end up in his beans for sure.

‘We’re not having lunch here today,’ Mum replied. ‘Beth and Sebastian have invited us all round to their house for lunch.’

‘We’re not going, are we?’ I asked, dismayed.

‘Yes, we are,’ Mum said. ‘I think we could all stand a change of scene.’

‘Couldn’t we go some other time?’

‘No, we couldn’t.’ Mum frowned. ‘Vicky, what’s got into you this weekend?’

‘Nothing.’

I thought of Dad and the maths test and the envelope in my jacket pocket that I still hadn’t given to Mum and Dad.

‘Hmm!’ Mum said.

We set off for Aunt Beth and Sebastian’s house at about one o’clock. Gib was just as reluctant to go as I was – we wanted to go through the listings – except he’d had more sense than to say so out loud.

‘Oh, I need to check something with you later,’ Gib said softly from next to me in the back of the car.

‘You two all right back there?’ Dad asked.

‘Fine, Dad.’

‘Yeah, of course.’

‘How are you feeling, dear?’ Dad smiled at Mum.

Mum didn’t return his smile. ‘Tired,’ she said, looking straight ahead.

Dad nodded. I looked out of the window.

We soon reached Aunt Beth’s. She and Sebastian lived in a semi-detached house with three bedrooms, just a few miles away from us.

‘Hi, everyone,’ Aunt Beth said, smiling, the moment she opened the door. ‘Come in, come in! I’d almost given up on you.’

Every time I went into their house I always noticed how quiet it was. And spotless. It was obvious they didn’t have any children. Not a magazine, not a piece of paper, not a book was out of place. There was no dust or dirt or grime anywhere and every free centimetre of space was filled with a plant of some kind. It was like wading through an equatorial rain forest.