Feeling elated at the day's events, Michael left school and headed towards the public library. In the car, Pandora gave him updates on the Beijing situation and went over his schedule for the rest of the week. At the library Michael sat at one of the workstations and let Pandora out to play again. She would test the network, learn what was stored on it, and absorb any new material she found. Michael killed some time going over his coursework for his online college classes until a quarter to four.
After that he left and headed towards the dojo. He practiced Aikido with an advanced class of 2nd and 1st Kyu students and was looking to test before he went off to college. He didn't practice it for self-defense or to learn how to fight; he'd never had a problem with bullies or felt he needed an aggressive outlet (he had hockey for that). It was just that with all the things bouncing around in his head, sometimes he needed a release; some place to lose himself and find his center.
He supposed he could have done Tai Chi or something, but they'd had a demonstration with a wooden bokken when he'd first joined and he'd instantly fallen in love with the beauty of the art. And really, you can only practice what someone is willing to teach, and that was the only option in the small town. After the class ended, Michael stayed to help teach the beginner's class that started.
He had been exposed to Sambo during his trips to Romania though, and had experienced different styles of fighting, primarily Muay Thai, Judo, and boxing. If he had to fight, he wanted to finish it quickly and thoroughly.
Following a shower and dinner with his parents, Michael and Pandora mapped out their plan of attack. Michael started a queue of all the different things that would go off at once. First, Pandora had located most of the monetary accounts attached to the hackers and would release a worm that would bog down traffic and play havoc with the security systems. In the confusion, Pandora would liquidate those accounts to an offshore account Michael had set up for just this purpose. Then from there, the money would be sent to one of his storage accounts registered under a false name.
Next, everyone in the contact lists each of the individuals would be receiving a Trojan which Michael hoped would help him take down the larger collective at a later date. The computers of those involved would be attacked and their personal information would be released to the public, their relatives, and workplace, as well as sites commonly traversed by hackers, complete with doctored photos and incriminating evidence.
Their log files had revealed other jobs they had been in the process of completing, as well as sites they had visited and messages they had sent. This would all be published online along with humiliating commentary about their so-called accomplishments.
Lastly, their website would be transferred to a different server that only Michael had control of, and their original server trashed. The URL to their website would show a vandalized version of their site, which they'd be unable to remove, along with a chilling notice warning of what happened to those who went against him.
As Kat drifted off to sleep that night, her thoughts were on the boy she'd met that day. She didn't think it was possible to fall in love at first sight, but Michael certainly seemed to put her in heat. Just the thought of his hands roaming all over her body got her wet and her own hand dipped under the covers. Thoughts turned to fantasies and fantasies turned to dreams.
The next day the trio sat in the computer lab at lunch munching on MREs Michael had gotten at an army surplus store for the price of nothing. There was some dance or something or other coming up soon and Kat was trying to get Joseph to ask Tammy out. Michael knew that wasn't going to go over well with the popular crowd but kept his mouth shut. Instead, Michael was reviewing the impact of last night's hack. The entire community was abuzz with what had happened. Neither government was commenting, but there were a number of Chinese banks that had reported being hacked and described the chaos left by Pandora's worm.
Kat seemed to remember that he was a fellow hacker and gossiped about what she'd heard about the attack; who people thought the hacker was and what his motivations were. Michael had to chuckle at that and Kat gave him a curious look.
She went back to trying to convince Joseph, and Michael drafted an e-mail to an intermediary who would contact the US government concerning some stolen login information related to the Chinese government. It had been stored on the hard drives he'd cracked and Michael was willing to sell it. As he sent the mail and went to his inbox, Kat looked over and got a glimpse of a full page of messages wishing him congratulations for the night before, complete with a few that included his alias "Fate" and even some with racial slurs in reference to the Chinese.
"It was you!" Kat exclaimed, staring at Michael open-mouthed.
He sighed. Michael hadn't made any attempt at hiding what he was working on. He didn't know if it was because he was feeling overconfident from the night before or if he had wanted an excuse to brag about it. Perhaps he felt something for Kat in the short time they'd shared together and he didn't want to lie to her.
Michael had expected Kat to be shocked, angry, even hurt by the revelation. When he looked up, he was completely unprepared for the look of pure, unbridled lust that shown on her face. She launched herself at him from her chair and gave him a scorching kiss that left him feeling light-headed. He didn't know what to do with his tongue or his hands so he just let her lead and enjoyed it.
She pulled away and looked into Michael's eyes and growled, "You have GOT to tell me how you do that." When the pair had caught their breath, she glanced over and said in a low voice, "Excuse us, Joseph." Then she reached down, grabbed hold of Michael's hand, and pulled him to his feet and out the door.
Michael barely managed to snag the flash drive before they were walking down the halls in the direction of the parking lot. He cast a curious glance at Kat as they both heard the bell ring, signaling the end of lunch.
"We're skipping," is all she said, very matter-of-fact about it.
As they both got into his car, Kat told Michael to drive to her place. Michael tried to be evasive and asked where she lived. Kat simply looked and him and raised an eyebrow.
Michael sighed and mumbled, "Forestview it is then..."
Kat smiled and said cheerfully, "That's what I thought." After taking in his expression, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm not mad you checked up on me or found out where I live. I actually find it kinda hot that you can do that and that you would take enough interest in me to do so."
As they got close to the apartment, Michael became nervous. He didn't want to be presumptuous, but it was better that he brought it up now rather than later. He started, "I don't have a, uhh-"
