~~ Dallas, Texas, 2072 ~~
Luna Samson perched in her chair, her fingers flying over the keyboard, rock music blaring. She sent out three worms, then slid her trojan under the fourth rabbit. She waited, then hit the garbage file while her opponent, a man known to her only as Digger attacked two of the worms simultaneously. "Fuck," she breathed as he managed to catch her, but not before she snagged some of the garbage files. When he came back at her, her fingers flew faster, and the timer finally dinged. "Tie between White Rabbit and Digger. White Rabbit managed to snag some of the files to complete the task, but Digger managed to locate the intruder. Congratulations you two. Please write up your review and submit it within the next hour."
"Yes, Sir," she murmured into the headset. She quickly wrote up the review, the tactics she employed, and how he countered them. She added a postscript that she hoped to have the opportunity to learn more from him in the future. Her parent's oft-repeated phrase, never stop learning came to her mind.
~~ Gretna, Nebraska, 2072 ~~
In a small, single-wide manufactured home on a half acre of almost-worthless land on the edge of town, Hank Urre sat at an old, scratched-up wooden table with the same ten-year-old laptop he had taken to college and taken with him when he failed his sophomore year, typing up a review of the exercise. Hunched over it and typing with four fingers, he worked slowly, using some online tools to help with his grammar. Luckily, there were some rich people and a construction company that wanted to live further out than he did and so they laid high-speed internet out past his house. It was nothing for the internet company to splice him in, so even though it didn't look like much, his freelance computer work didn't suffer. Sometimes, it was computer security, as in the interview he had just concluded. Sometimes it was software development, both security and non-security related. Sometimes it was just bug hunting. It all paid the bills, which he tried to keep as minimal as possible.
Lifting the coffee-stained cup to his lips, he took a sip. He grimaced as he did so. It was cold again. He glanced down at the clock on the corner of his laptop that was sitting under a small, ASCII version of Tux the penguin. Had it really been four hours? No wonder it was cold. He got up and walked to the sink, dumping the coffee and beginning the process of making a fresh pot. Glancing up, he looked at the small hanging monitor that was his network display. It was more habit now than worry. His servers were all running steady and the power draw was minimal due to the way he had scheduled the load work on them. Several minutes later, he was back at the laptop and typing again, including some compliments about the innovativeness of his opponent and the methods they used. A couple of hours later, he was done and had sent it off, then sighed and turned his attention to the next opportunity on the principal bug bounty board that he was a member of.
~~ Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2072 ~~
Vince and Annabelle stared each other down, "I like them both," Annabelle finally offered. "He's a bit more steady on the firewall than she is."
"He seems good on server-side defense as well, although it almost didn't matter at the end. That trojan was sneaky. I'm going to have to remember that one to use it later," he said. "I've never seen one used in quite that way."
"Offer him the position first?" Annabelle pondered. "Maybe get him settled in, then see how it shakes out? We can technically afford to hire both, but I'd rather have him in place and building. The hardware we currently have is going to reach capacity faster than we're getting attacked, but it will be coming."
"Thinking pair programming as well," Vince responded. "One build, the other test, then switch off?"
"Good idea," Michael murmured, staring at the ceiling for a long moment. Then, snapping his fingers, he looked at her and pointed, "Let's do this... Let's freelance her through a shell. I can set one of those up in a week or so. A, it keeps her on the hook so no one else snaps her up until the hardware is ready, or b, she picks her way through the deception and we hire her on the spot for being so clever and just figure out a way for them to work together earlier."
"So, let's start by sending him the offer letter, thinking one fifty a year plus moving expenses of fifteen?"
He chewed on his lower lip. Turning to his laptop, he began throwing commands at the browser as he pulled up the guy's resume. Soon enough, he was zooming in on a satellite image of his property and the run-down single-wide trailer. "Oh, Jesus... Come on, kid, you've gotta be kidding me..." He rubbed his face in his hands. "One fifty, moving expenses are a blank check, but pre-approved. Have him get with Mindy first and submit receipts. And set him up with an apartment in Gerald's old complex. Would you look at this shit?" He gestured at the screen in frustration. "There's a fucking amazing security professional living in that. And where the hell even is Gretna, Nebraska?"
"The place that our new security man is," Annabelle responded as she continued editing the offer letter. "There we go."
Vince glowered at her. "There's a slave that's getting her snark on and needs some spankings. I should have Michael take care of that...," he grumbled.
"Michael thinks it's adorable... as long as I'm not aiming it at him." She stuck her tongue out at him, then pushed the button to send him a copy of the letter. "Now, you can check the letter, if you agree, let's get it sent to him while I work on the one for her." He only made a couple of minor tweaks and then they sent it off.
In Nebraska, Hank's email dinged with the offer letter. He opened the email and read it. Then he read it again. It was on the third read that he realized that he hadn't misread the offer. It was more money than he'd ever dreamed of making and they wanted to put him in a fully-furnished apartment too. "Holy shit...," he breathed. "I did it. Eight fucking years... I did it..." He howled in excitement before sitting down to compose his acceptance. That took about a half hour, even though it was only two paragraphs long. He went through ten drafts. He sent it and looked around. "You know what? I'm ordering a pizza today." He picked up his phone and dialed a number he'd not dialed in over two years. Sausage and mushrooms sounded really, really good right about now.
"He accepted," Annabelle squealed, "Now for her..." It took her a few minutes to write up a specific contract-to-hire with the move to Minneapolis in four to six months. When she sent it off, it took a few moments, then she got the email back of acceptance, and that she'd brush up on her skills for when the hardware was ready. "Clever girl..."
~~ Gretna, Nebraska, 2072 ~~
The U-Haul on his old beat-up car looked small, but he stuffed it full of his computer equipment all carefully packed. He looked around the single-wide one final time, everything was changing. He collected the last of his things, then climbed into his car. It was a long drive to Minneapolis and would take him most of the day. As he pulled away, the single lightbulb on his porch flickered, then went out. The end of his old life and the beginning of a new and better one.
The miles and hours passed by under the tires. Gas and food were periodic stops along with bathroom breaks. What was initially a five-and-a-half hour trip was turned into a seven. Between driving slow with the trailer and needing to stop for gas often. Finally, he arrived in front of the Moorwind building. He dialed the number he had been given, "Mindy, this is Hank... I'm here in front of the building."
"Excellent, go ahead and come on in. I'll meet you at the receptionist and bring you to meet Annabelle and Vince."
He entered and felt out of place, most of them there were wearing nice suits and he was in comfortable clothes. He looked around, then approached the desk. "Welcome, Mister Urre." She beamed and handed him a badge with his picture. "Mindy will be right down. How was your drive?" The woman was cute, but not his type, she was too... sunshine and happiness.
"It was pleasant, ma'am. Thank you for asking." Hank offered, trying to be polite. Then turned thankfully when Mindy appeared.
"Hank, glad you made such good time. I'll introduce you to Vince and Annabelle, then give you directions to your new apartment, how does that sound?"
