Sleek.
It had been all over the local news this morning.
Hell, it had even made some of the national publications.
The Ryan Law attack wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but to me it was revenge nine years in the making.
“Seriously, Kyle, can we not talk about this right now?” I waved him away, trying not to get annoyed. He was just an eager beaver.
I should be more understanding. Flattered, even, that he thought I was someone he could learn from.
Kyle wouldn’t really look at me. My reprimand had clearly stung.
I should have more patience with him.
After all, I had been that way once.
—
I sat there, my mouth hanging open, hardly able to believe what I was seeing.
Rose clicked the mouse, opened up a command screen, and typed some stuff that I didn’t entirely understand. The next thing I knew she was in the school’s grading system.
I thought I was pretty tech savvy. I could build a website, secure firewalls. I knew how to code Java and make pretty little applications that did all sorts of things.
But this sort of backdoor stuff was all new to me.
I had no idea that I had been sharing a room with a bona fide hacker.
“Damn, Whelan, youareflunking,” Rose said, grimacing at the sight of my less-than-stellar grades.
“Yeah, well, it’s been a tough couple of months.”
I chewed on mythumbnail, shredding the skin between my teeth.
If we were caught, we’d be expelled.That was the last thing my mother needed on top of everything else.
Maybe I should rethink this.
This was some serious crap.
What worried me most was that beneath the fear was an excitement that thrummed through my body. It made me light-headed. I wanted to chase the feeling to wherever it led me.
The mixture of terror and anticipation was an addictive cocktail.
Heady and overwhelming.
“How did you get in there? Won’t they know you’ve breached their security?” I asked nervously.
Rose scrolled through my grades and started changing things. Nothing too noticeable. She didn’t make my Fs turn into As. She was smarter than that.
A D here. A C– there.
Nothing towarrant suspicion.
“Are you kidding? Virginia College’s online security is a joke. I’ve been hacking into their system all year.” I watched as Rose turned the 45 percent I had gotten on my statistics midterm to a healthier 69 percent. Just above failing but still in trouble.
“Why are you hacking their system to begin with?” I had to sit down. This was all too much. I felt guilty. Really guilty. This was wrong. I shouldn’t be taking such a huge chance with my future like this.
