Michael Palmer - The Last Surgeon

Perfectly calm, and relishing the chance for mischief, Reggie climbed the expansive steps and walked through the massive glass doors. Once inside the marble-tiled foyer, he marched purposefully, head held up, eyes solidly forward, toward the security desk. As he neared, he lifted his badge to eye level, then waved it in front of his body to attract the guard’s attention.

“My dad forgot his briefcase in his office,” Reggie said, again mindful to maintain eye contact.

Suspicion was his greatest adversary now, and to counter it, he made certain his voice did not waver in the slightest. This was the gamesmanship he missed most about his hacking days. Hacking into a computer was so much more than just writing code, but only people like him understood that. It was certainly possible to enter a system long distance, from his personal computer, but the direct route, working from a computer already in the system, was so much faster and more convenient. To avoid getting caught when taking the direct route often required serious acting skills. The guard kept his face virtually buried in The Examiner while holding a roast beef sandwich in one hand and a Diet Coke can in the other. He barely glanced up to check Reggie’s ID badge before waving him through.

Reggie exited the main stairs at the second floor, taking quick inventory of the layout, which he had studied on two different Web sites. It was just what he expected to find. He didn’t anticipate having to search for long before finding a cubicle that suited his purposes.

There were only a scattering of employees who hadn’t yet left for lunch. He had passed only half a dozen workstations before he found one with a yellow Post-it note taped to the side of the computer monitor. He checked inside the cubicle with the Post-it, looking for a jacket or anything that might suggest the usual occupant could be returning soon. Chances were that David Fulton, the name on the business card inserted in the plastic holder on the outside cubicle wall, was at lunch.

Time to get started.

Sitting down in Fulton’s desk chair, Reggie gave a quick flick of the computer mouse to power down the screen saver. The computer was locked, as Reggie knew it would be, and required the right username and password to unlock it. He simultaneously pressed the Control, Alt, and Delete keys on the keyboard to activate the security prompt.

He couldn’t help but laugh a little when he pulled the Post-it note off of the side of the monitor. David Fulton had written “Pword” on the yellow square and then just underneath, the characters “ABC123abc.” Information technology departments that enforced top-notch security protocols were notorious for frequently mandated password changes. Often they made employees change their password every week or two. It was smart security, Reggie would agree, but it also made it difficult for workers to remember their passwords. Instead of dealing with a help desk to retrieve a forgotten password, the office drones, most of them dealing with nonclassified material, often simply wrote their passwords on a Post-it or slip of paper every time it changed.

Taking advantage of the Post-it technique was one of the oldest and best hacker tricks for accessing secure systems. If the password wasn’t kept in plain sight on a Post-it note, chances were good that it could be found under the keyboard, or taped either to the side of a nearby filing cabinet or on the bottom of the upper desk drawer. Finding a valid password on his first attempt was a lucky break, but not an unexpected one. Still, Reggie’s pulse rose a notch. He had promised when he moved in with Junie and Sam that he would keep his skills under wraps, but using them was always going to be a rush.

Next, the username.

If the security was typical, Reggie knew, he would have three chances to get the right combination of username and password before the system would lock up and he would have to find another cubicle. He typed “David. Fulton” in the username field-a common naming convention adopted by many information technology departments to uniquely identify each employee-and then he entered the password “ABC123abc.” Bingo! It had taken less than five minutes from the moment he started his timer to access every system and file David Fulton’s security profile allowed.

“I love it,” Reggie whispered.

Seconds later, the teen had the VA intranet open and had clicked over to the bookmarked Veterans Information Search Web page. As Nick had instructed, he typed “Manuel Ferris” into the search field, then hit Return. Five matches instantly appeared on the screen, along with basic identifying information. Reggie downloaded each of the files onto his portable data storage USB key, which he had plugged into the back of Fulton’s computer. Whatever information Nick needed, Reggie felt confident, was either now on that key or simply didn’t exist.

Reggie slipped the small plastic unit containing the stolen files into his front pants pocket. Then, his racing heart nearly stopped. From down the hallway he heard a loud conversation, two voices, maybe three, followed by a burst of laughter. He was certain somebody had said the name Dave. Chances were fifty-fifty it wasn’t David Fulton returning early from lunch, but if it was, Reggie’s explanation regarding his father’s briefcase would be of no help.

Time to leave.

He stepped outside the office with no more than a glance to his right, and proceeded to walk confidently away from the central staircase and what turned out to be two men in suits.

Slowly… slowly…

Somehow, he managed to resist the temptation to look back.

“Hey!” Reggie heard one of the men shout. “Was that guy just in my cube? Hey you, stop!”

Reggie had had enough close calls in his hacking life to know that sometimes the best option was not to try and talk his way out of a jam, but to run from it. With a sprinter’s acceleration, he raced down the seemingly endless corridor, headed for the lighted exit sign. The commotion and shouts of the two men in pursuit encouraged several employees to poke their heads through their doorways or above their cubicle walls like prairie dogs.

Reggie risked a quick glance behind him to assess his advantage. The men trying to chase him down, both of them overweight and running in their suits, were not nearly as agile as he was in his loose-fitting corduroys and New Balance sneakers.

He was turning back to gauge the remaining distance between him and the exit door when a blond woman in a jacket and gray skirt, oblivious to the chase, emerged from her cubicle and stepped directly into his path. Shifting his weight in time to avoid a full-force collision, Reggie clipped the woman, spinning her sideways and down to one knee. She screamed loudly as the papers she was carrying flew up against the ceiling and then rained down on her.

“Sorry ’bout that, lady,” Reggie said. “You okay?”

The blonde nodded, clearly confused by the collision and possibly the boy’s congeniality. The delay was costly, however. Reggie’s chances of making it to the exit without getting caught had all but vanished. Improvisation was often the hacker’s best friend, and even in the worst of situations, he had never been one to panic.

Operating on instinct, he spun around to face the two men, who were now just a few cubicles away. Surprise was all he had. As he often did when playing tackle football in the yard with Nick, he dashed directly toward them. Their eyes widened.

Two doorways were all that separated them now. Reggie, arms pounding, was at full speed. The men raised their arms like Nick would have done, either protecting themselves or readying to make a tackle. Reggie waited until the outstretched tips of one man’s fingers were almost to his chest before making his favorite move. Ducking and sidestepping simultaneously, he skidded to his right, shifting past David Fulton and his coworker. Instead of open lawn, though, he was looking at an empty cubicle. Moving instinctively, he leaped onto the desk. Then, grasping the top of the wall divider with both hands, he swung his legs around, vaulting himself up and over the divider and into the adjacent office.