In a nearly vacant apartment building, just south of the “waste management facility” for a small suburb west of Chicago, a black computer screen glowed gently, the green type providing just enough light to illuminate its user´s face. But the 15 year old it showed was not working on any book report. Close inspection of the strange code he was typing would reveal that he was moments away from cracking into the security database for the large majority of important government files. A small noise from outside the door startled him, and his typing slowed. A loud rap from outside the door confirmed his suspicions; he quickly exited the program, pressed the five key code that would clear the device´s memory, and hurriedly magnetized an entire shelf of floppy disks as a chorus of male voices began to shout wearily outside the door. He scrambled out the window seconds before the door fell off its hinges and kicked up a cloud of dirt and dust as it fell to the shaggy carpet. Eight or ten lightly armed police officers burst through the door, each one looking more exhausted and haggard than the next. One glanced at the alarm clock next to the bed and moaned.
“C´mon! It´s two in the morning; I don´t want to go chase this kid! Besides, it isn´t like he´s a huge threat to society or anything.”
“Really!” Police Chief White entered the room to face the officer. “This kid was about to hack into the most important network in the United States government, and he isn´t a threat?!”
“Who is he, anyway?” asked a second officer in wonderment.
“I don´t know, you tell me.” Chief White gestured towards the glowing screen. It was flashing the words: I AM LYÆUS. Everyone in the room knew instantly that it was merely a pseudonym, or a “handle,” as hackers called them. But they had ways of finding out Mr. Lyæus´s real name.
But Lyæus heard none of this, because he had already run four blocks and was hiding in the dingy, rusty, peeling 1982 Volkswagen beetle that he had parked in the K-mart lot for just such a purpose. He sat in the driver´s seat for several moments, and then reached under the wheel, groping for the right two wires. He started the car, slowly pulling out of the lot. His adrenaline was still pumping from his third attempt at breaking the security database, and his mind was racing. This was the only hack he hadn´t completed. And he well knew that a fourth try, even if successful, would be his last. They would catch him, and throw him behind bars, considering that he would never find a lawyer willing to fight for a 15 year old hacker with a 3 page criminal record for little or no payment. But Lyæus was an arrogant young man, and he was determined to crack that system, if only for pride. His thought process shifted to the more pressing issue: money. He couldn´t stay here, which meant that his current means of supporting himself (working at the pizzeria across the street) was out of the question. Pulling onto Lincoln Boulevard, Lyæus decided to head farther west, to look for a job. He drove until the gas ran out, and then started walking. After two or three hours, a bus pulled up to him and stopped. He got in and paid the fare with the little money he had saved from his last paycheck. If he could just get that database without being caught... his train of thought was interrupted by a middle aged man with a long waxed mustache and a pot belly who motioned for him to sit down next to him.