Hack.A.I. (The Hack. series Book 1), page 12
“You didn’t tell me how you are feeling?” Nate asked.
“Oh, I’m okay. I’m tougher than people think. They didn’t call me Wonder Woman at school for nothing.” She flexed her arm, but like Popeye before his spinach, her arm didn’t budge.
“Oh, did they?”
Her eyes widened as she nodded in agreement, emphasising, "Yes, they did. Might have had something to do with my elaborate cosplay outfit at the Halloween ball,"
“Right. Does it still fit — the outfit?”
Cassie attempted to lock eyes with Nate, intrigued by his smirk, but he hid his gaze.
She giggled a little and bit her bottom lip.
“It is strange how they knew you were on that train, don’t you think?” Cassie replied, snapping herself out of it.
“I guess a facial recognition camera had put me there.”
“They have facial recognition cameras in Temple Meads?”
“Not just Temple Meads, they have them everywhere. They don’t tell the public because there would be uproar.”
“Wow, that’s awful.” Cassie scowled. “Who did you piss off to make them come after you so badly?”
“I honestly don’t know, but I’m going to find out. After we get this done.”
“Hm, after all the trouble this morning, I completely forgot about why we were here.”
“Not the best first date I know.” Nate scratched his head, smirking again.
“I’ve had worse.” She returned a smile. “Have you seen anyone come in or out?”
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s empty, and this is the only entrance, too.” Nate returned to the business at hand. “According to the maps, the garden is enclosed, but I think we can access the house if we can get across the rooftops.”
Cassie’s head swung violently towards Nate. “We are going in?”
“Of course. Why would we come all the way down here if we weren’t going in?”
“I thought we were just scoping it out.”
Nate snorted and gestured his head for Cassie to follow him.
They walked down the street and cut down a main road going behind the townhouse, Nate intensely eyeing all routes.
Nate suddenly stopped when he turned a corner and saw a yard that someone had transformed into a pebbled car park for a closed community of apartments, with all the apartments surrounding it.
“Well, that simplifies things.”
“What does?” Cassie said, the confusion peaked in her tone. She followed his eyes to understand what he was staring at.
“Can you climb?”
“Uh, no, did you see me earlier? I mean, I can climb the stairs easily.”
Nate laughed.
“It will be nothing like that.”
“Okay, what’s it going to be like?”
“Well…” he paused, taking a deep intake of breath before speeding up his explanation. “I’m going to run flat out towards that shallow wall, using my momentum, kick off of it and reach to grasp that porch above it, pull myself up, leap out towards that street lamp, grasp it and in one motion swing up and try to land on that wall that looks as if there are chess pawns stuck on it.”
A millisecond into his explanation, Cassie’s mouth had dropped open, and it hadn’t closed until he finished.
“I can’t do that. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not Lillian Leitzel.”
“Who?”
“The queen of aerial gymnasts? No?”
Nate laughed.
“What?” Cassie frowned.
“How and why would you possibly know that?” Nate asked, still laughing.
Cassie frowned deeper, suppressing a smile.
“I read about her in a coffee shop book once.”
“Of course you did.” Nate rolled his eyes with a smile. “Okay, I’ll climb up and see if there is anywhere I can help you up?”
As they spoke, an older lady stepped out of her apartment, shuffling her small dog behind her. She stepped down into the courtyard and locked onto Cassie and Nate. Her matured face was full of deep concern at their presence.
“May I help you?” She said, her voice full of condescension as she approached them, her dog yapping suspiciously at them both, tugging her backwards.
The older plump lady, that Nate would guess was in her early sixties, was wearing modern skinny jeans, rolled up at the bottom with a knitted lilac vest top over the top of a white shirt. Her matching pearl necklace and earring set seemed to age her more than the deep lines on her tanned face.
“Uh, we are just admiring the area. We have been thinking about moving here.” Cassie improvised, hooking her arm into Nate’s.
The woman's face scrunched up, as if tasting something unpleasant.
“We don’t want any of your kind around here. Thank you very much.”
“Sorry?” Cassie replied, her face stunned.
“Oh, not like that dear, don’t be so sensitive. I meant youngsters like you. This is for older retirees, not young families. Besides, we have plenty of black individuals living here. Mr Sinclair, for instance, number eight. Lovely man.” She justified, turning up her nose to them.
“That’s alright then, as long as you know a black person. That makes it all better.”
Taken aback by Cassie’s flippant tone, the older lady shook her head and snorted before dragging her dog past them, still yapping.
Cassie’s eyes followed her until she was completely out of view.
“What a miserable old hag!”
“You get them. You dealt with her well, though, Cass.”
“I’m used to it.” She looked back at the courtyard. “Come on, then Spider-man, let me see you get up there.”
Nate tightened the straps on his backpack gave a nod to Cassie and run at a sprint towards the shallow wall, leaped at it like a hurdler then bounced off the one foot towards the pillar, reached out his long arms and grasped the twelve foot roman-pillar porch roof, pulled himself up and continued his run, grabbing the streetlamp that hung off the side of the building, swung off it and threw his body like a pole vaulter towards the three-foot wall that guarded the apartments roof terrace, catching the smooth top which caused him to lose grip momentarily but he regained it quickly.
Nate pulled himself up and over the chess-pawn wall, ducking low and glancing quickly to see if the residents with access to the terrace on either side of two apartment blocks had noticed him through their one-paned glass doors. Seeing both apartments were empty, he gave Cassie a thumbs up and searched around for something to help her up.
He spotted a ladder resting up against the wall of one apartment.
Despite reaching the top of the ladder, there was still too large of a gap for Cassie to reach the wall's summit. Nate leaned over the small wall and lifted her up from the ladder with one arm as her legs dangled below her.
She accidentally kicked the ladder over when Nate began lifting, which left an ankle breaking thirteen foot drop to the uneven ground below.
“Thank you.” Cassie exclaimed, their faces a breath apart. “You are stronger than you look.”
“You are heavier than you look,” Nate retorted, feigning a back injury.
“I’m joking!” He said, after seeing the look of absolute shock on her face.
“Cheeky bastard! Summer is over. I need to get the winter bod ready.” She laughed, punching him lightly in the abdomen.
“There is nothing wrong with your body, believe me.”
They met eyes and smiled.
“Shit!” After a quick glance over her shoulder, Nate pulled Cassie down to the floor with him holding a finger over his lip.
Outraged with him initially, she calmed when he pointed out the batty old woman returning from her dog walk, police officer in tow.
The old lady pointed at the spot where Cassie and Nate stood moments ago.
The officer seemed to nod along in agreement with the woman and he glanced up at them momentarily, causing them to dip their heads out of sight. Thankfully, he hadn’t noticed them and continued to look around.
They watched him for a little while longer until they saw the older lady thank him and wave him off.
“Thank god for that.” Cassie said after they watched the lady drag her dog back into her apartment. “What now?”
“We need to get up there.” Nate pointed behind her at the five story buildings rooftops, some seventy feet in the air.
“Why the hell did I agree to doing this?”
“Something to do with me, maybe.” Nate’s smirk spread across his face.
“Ha, you should be so lucky. I just wanted to get out of that dungeon.”
“Like a pretty princess, guarded by the dragon.” Nate teased.
“Well, this pretty princess could still kick your ass, pretty boy!” She pulled a fierce face you would liken to an angry dormouse and lifted her clenched fists.
“Not like that, you won’t. If you hit somebody while holding your thumb like that, you will be in the ER before they will, with a broken thumb.”
“What? That’s how you hold a fist, isn’t it?”
“Uh, No. More like this.” Nate adjusted her fist to a correct fist.
Cassie threw an air punch like a boxer. “Pew, Pew.”
“You are so cute!” Nate said with a smile.
“No, you are supposed to say that I look fierce!”
“Come on, Miss Fierce, I think those platforms lead up to the rooftops.” Nate joked.
Cassie followed, staring at her fists, testing the correct form.
They climbed the varying sized platforms that led up to the rooftops and scuttled along the semi-gradient summits until they reached the suspected IP address’s roof.
Nate hung his head over the roof’s second steeper section overlooking a balcony for the top floor bedroom and down to the lovely communal gardens below at the properties rear.
"I'd bet any money that someone left the door unlocked," Nate said, pointing at the glass door leading into the bedroom. “If we hang off this bit and drop, we should land onto the balcony.”
“Okay, I thought you were pretty nuts for wanting to come up here, but now I know you are goddamn crazy.” a draft blew her hair wild atop the higher viewpoint.
“We had no other choice,”
“Uh, yeah, we did. Back down there.” Her hand pointing down towards the grounds.
“There’s no excitement in that. Come on, trust me. I will go down first and then I’ll catch you.”
“What if I fall over the edge or over shoot it?”
“You won’t, trust me.”
She gazed into his eyes and nodded curtly.
“Perfect,”
Nate hung off the slight gradient roof’s edge, the harsh clay tile supplying him with plenty of grip. When he had fully extended his legs down and hung by his hands, his legs were overhanging the drainpipes, and then he let go. He slid down the roof quickly and crashed onto the balcony, feet and butt first, his back clattering with the stone handrail.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he lied, rubbing his back where the handrail caught.
“Okay, I’m coming.” Cassie gingerly lowered herself down, struggling to get a little more grip with her soft moisturised hands.
“Ahh…!” She had leaned backward too much and her hand lost its grip on the tiles and she plummeted back and outwards towards the garden.
Nate swiftly caught Cassie before her head collided with the handrail, mirroring the anticipation of a rugby ball descending from a kick-off.
“That’s twice that you’ve saved me today.”
“Don’t worry, I’m keeping count.” Nate smiled as he put her down from the firefighter’s carry.
Nate tried the balcony door handle and, to his great relief, it popped open towards him.
He stopped Cassie from entering before him and pulled a little dragonfly drone out of his backpack.
Using his phone, he got it activated, and it flew out of his outstretched hand and hovered above it.
“What is that? It’s so cute.”
“It’s a drone. I’m gonna make sure no one is home. And check for an alarm. They always have an alarm.”
Nate spent a few minutes zooming the drone around the building, going in and out of each room. Most doors were open, allowing the drone's camera to relay to his phone.
As it scampered through the house, each room resembled that of a rich person's idea of a palace. High ceilings, white marble with gold streaks on all the bathroom floors, stone ornaments, stiff furniture with dark primary coloured material.
“It’s empty. Just find the alarm now.”
“Don’t they pick up your drone?”
“No, it’s too small. The sensors only pick up large movements.”
He flew it back down the several floors towards the house’s front entrance.
The wall had a white box resembling a calculator attached to it.
The camera highlighted the alarm and a suggestion appeared on another screen for the type of alarm. Nate clicked on the pop-up and several recommended default codes came up for emergencies.
“What are they?”
“The owner or the police can use the default code to turn off each alarm in case they forget their code. You prove your credentials and they give you the code. The issue is that each alarm is fitted with a different one, so I'm going to have to try a few.”
He moved the little drone backwards and forwards, nudging each button until he heard the confirmation beep.
“You are so good at flying that!”
“I’ve had a lot of practice.”
The first code failed.
“Five-eight-one-one,” Nate vocalised, his tongue poking out of his mouth. The second failed.
Relief hit them both when the sixth code that Nate wasted ten minutes trying worked and the wonderful sight of ‘Alarm Disabled’ flashed across the screen.
“And we’re in.”
They both gingerly stepped in on the top floor.
Directly above them was an archway leading into a grand bedroom. The humongous bed is given room to lounge around in with the dark polished chestnut stained bedside cabinets on either side.
A pink velour lounge chair sat in the far corner of the room, while the walls were wallpapered with a grain and wheatgrass design resembling bugs in a garden.
Realising there was no useful information, they quickly moved on.
The long corridor connected the two top floor rooms with a lounge chair at either end and stairs dropping to the floor below at the bottom end.
A quick glance told them that next door was another bedroom, likely unused as it appeared unlived in and damp musk filled the air.
Careful to not alert any neighbours, they stepped lightly down the stairs onto the fourth floor, which was another two bedrooms with en-suites. The first room they came upon still looked unused and very showroom-like. But, the second room showed signs of heavy use, with clothes on a chair in the corner, a laptop and phone charging lead on the floor beside the bedside cabinet, and cup stains on top.
A shallow balcony overlooked a small van sized courtyard filled with sitting area and plants.
Plush, and heavy-quilted the bed looked inviting, especially after Nate’s forced start.
A quick glance in the drawers confirmed this room was just used as a bedroom, so they moved on.
More interesting than the two above, this floor contained three rooms. A lounge, dining room and study.
The walls painted Royal Navy and beige and the hard mahogany floors throughout.
Surrounding them, on the walls in the study, were ceiling tall shelves of unread old books, dust gathering in the harder to reach walnut shelves.
“It’s so strange,”
“What is?”
“Well, this place looks perfect for a lovely little family, but there are no photos or anything.”
“No, you’re right. It’s probably some rich MP's second home.”
Nate entered the study, and spotted a MacBook resting on the desk.
They felt a rush of cool air brush against their skin as Nate opened the macbook.
“Hey, why don’t you keep looking? This may not be the only computer in the house. I’ll get access to this one now.” Nate suggested to a rather offended Cassie.
“I want to see you work.”
“Do you mind not watching? I can’t concentrate with people over my shoulder.”
“No wonder you haven’t worked with anyone.” Cassie replied.
Nate smiled awkwardly at her offended eyes, then she walked on.
He plugged in his own laptop and opened up a tracing software that could view the MacBooks files without it leaving a data trail. Then he opened up SQAI.
Within two minutes, she had collated a file of information on the owner and began looking for any passwords on data leaks. Then any weaknesses in the system.
SQAI found the correct password combination after a few minutes and multiple attempts, all thanks to the hint.
“I’m in.” Nate called over to Cassie, who had traced high and low the shelves for a secret bookcase.
“What are you looking on the shelves for?”
“I don’t know, a safe room entrance or something.” She shrugged.
Nate’s smile spread slowly across his face.
“What are you smiling at?” Cassie said sternly, walked over and leaned on the desk.
“Nothing.”
She gave him a curious smile and allowed it to pass.
“So, do we know who it is?”
“Not yet. They have used false names and initials rather than full names.”
“How did you get in?”
“I found an Apple password leak for the serial number that matched the hint.”
“Nobody has breached Apple, have they?”
“Well, not that they know about, no.”
“But you have?”
Nate closed-mouth smiled.
“Holy shit, you really are good.”
“Uh… well, I can’t take all the credit. You were here too, doing…something.”
Cassie craned her head at him slowly to see Nate staring at the screen, ignoring her, his lips twitching as he suppressed laughter.
“You’re a dick!” She laughed.
He spent the next few minutes dragging up files, trawling for information that may be useful.
