Reborn in 1994: Internet Empire

1: The Wolfpack

A frantic young man burst through the door of his home, as he rushed down the stairs into the basement. There he met with his team of hackers, who were hurriedly clicking away at keyboards; the glow of computer screens lighting their faces in a bright light blue. The lanky young man, closest to the door of the dark room addressed him first. 

       “Matty! Finally! There are people trying to break through the firewall!”

       Matty quickly took off his suit and threw it onto the rack. He sat in his black gaming chair and bumped his associate out of the way so he could take over. 

       “Liam, what the hell happened?!” Matty yelled as he started typing lines of code at incredible speeds. The only other person was at the other corner of the room, furthest away from the door. This young lady, covered in tattoos yelled at Matty from her desk, not taking her eyes off the screen.

       “Some outside group is trying to get past our firewall! They already broke through our initial encryption!”

       “s**t!” Matty cursed in frustration. “Dev! Hold them back as much as you can!” 

       The young woman named Dev turned back to her computer and began typing. 

       “If they get past our firewall, that’s it! State secrets leaked in the blink of an eye,” she yelled, completely focused on her lines of code.

“I’m not letting that happen!” Matty replied. “Damn, and I was about to land that job too.”

“Oh! The job interview! How was it?” Liam asked, clearly losing focus on the task at hand.

“It was going great, until a couple of nimrods started calling me, telling me to go ASAP.” Liam laughed nervously, then grew quiet.  

       Suddenly, Matty seemed to go into a trance. The glow of the computer screen seemed to light his eyes a faint green, as his fingers raced across the keyboard. Liam watched as Matty single-handedly countered the enemy hackers. Soon, the numbers on their computers started to look normal. With that, the tired hacker leaned back on his chair and let out a tired sigh of relief.

       “Was it a rat?” Matty asked, this time directed at both of them. “They could’ve bound a rat to any recent app or software download.”

       “Most probably. It’s the only way they could’ve gotten past our encryption,” Liam said.

       “Did they get past the firewall?” Dev called over, desperately trying to catch her breath.  

       “No, they didn’t. They were really close though.” Liam said as he leaned back on his chair.

       “Didn’t you run the codes that I jotted down for you earlier?” asked Matty, still analyzing the code in front of him. Dev rolled over to them using her chair, kicking the opposite table as she did. 

       “We did, but these guys are really good. I have no idea how they were even able to get past our first line of defences.”

       “I see. Dev, we need a new set of encryptions just as a precaution,” said Matty. 

       “Yes booooss~,” she said, as she began sluggishly rolling back to her original position.

       Matty returned to his own computer and proceeded to type several lines of new code.

       “This doesn’t look like any code I’m used to, boss,” Liam said, slowly sitting back up.

       “Why? Lemme see, lemme see!” Dev said, as she quickly rolled back to them. She pressed up against Matty from behind and squeezed her face in between them. 

       “I designed this recently. I discovered this while playing around with several types of encryption. To cut it short, the only way anyone is getting through this firewall is if they have an insider who feeds them information.”

       The gravity of the situation had started to linger in Matty’s mind. His face slowly grew grim. Liam and Dev looked at Matty worryingly. They were both taken in by Matty when they were both suffering through the hardships of poverty. When they were discovered, he immediately saw their potential as hackers. They were kind of like his little siblings. They looked up to him. Seeing him in such a predicament was unsettling to them. When Mathew did start speaking again, his words were directed at himself. 

       “Who are they? Now that I think about it, what if they do have someone on the inside?”

       Liam was right. They almost got through the firewall, and it would only be a matter of time before they actually breached the system. 

       “So boss, what happens if they get through the firewall?” asked Liam, as he watched his mentor-type down lines of code at wicked speeds.

       “They won’t get through,” replied Matty, his focus not shifting from the computer screen. 

       “How can you be so sure, boss?” Dev asked. 

       Matty looked at both of them and gave a sly smile.

       “Because it’s me they’re up against.”

       Their eyes lit up as he said this. They grinned at their mentor as their eyes looked back to the computer screen. After finally piecing together what Matty was doing, they couldn’t help but watch in awe. 

       “That is so tight, boss! Liam exclaimed. 

       “No way these guys are gonna get us now!” Dev added with glee. 

       Matty chuckled and directed his attention back to Dev. 

       “Aren’t you supposed to be doing something?”

       She smiled in embarrassment and slid back to her spot in the room.

       The three comrades worked until late into the afternoon, not knowing that there was definitely something brewing, and it was headed their way. 

----------

Meanwhile, in a remote location on the other side of the world, a group of individuals sat in a room lined with computers. 

“f**k! What happened?! We were so close!” one of the men yelled out in frustration. “I swear everything was lining up perfectly!”

The man picked up his mouse and slammed it onto the floor. 

“Hey!” yelled out a figure, who was just entering the dimly lit room. He was older than the rest of them and emanated an intimidating aura that gripped the entire room instantly. As if on command, everyone in the room stood to attention. 

This old man walked over to the man who just prior had thrown at fit, and stood next to his computer. Without speaking, he held a cigar to his lips and lit it. 

“Tell me what happened, young man,” he said as he blew smoke right into the terrified hacker’s face. 

“I’m sorry Mr. Locke! We weren’t able to get past the firewall!”

“Hmm...”

The old man took a few steps back and pulled out a small handgun. Without missing a beat, he shot the young man in cold blood. The group jumped at the explosion that came from the compact barrel but then froze again. The man’s body flopped lifelessly back into his seat; his eyes open and his mouth agape. Blood splattered all over the floor and drenched the woman sitting just next to him.

“You...” he said again, this time addressing the woman. “Clean this up.”

“Y-yes sir!” she yelled and proceeded to drag him out of the room. The metal door clanged loudly as it slammed shut. 

“Everyone in this room must continue to do the task that I have given.” The man wiped the blood off of his gun and returned it to the holster behind his back. “Whoever this counter hacker is, ‘The Wolfpack’ will take care of him. Then he should be of little concern moving forward.”

“Ashtray,” the man said, again directed at another woman who was standing just next to him. Without batting an eye, she stuck out her hand. The old man pressed the burning end of his cigar onto the palm of the woman’s hand. She winced slightly but forced herself to remain perfectly still. 

The old man proceeded to walk back to the entrance to the room. 

“Oh by the way! If it so happens that you all still fail after we have eliminated the nuisance hacker… then ‘The Wolfpack’ will be coming for all of you as well.” 

He burst into maniacal laughter as we walked out of the room. The steel door slammed shut, echoing through the room. With that, the silence turned into the clacking of keyboards yet again. 

----------

A few hours after the breach, Matty looked through several job openings online, as apparently being a government-employed hacker barely paid the bills. He wondered what it would have been like if he was born earlier. With his skills, he could have made millions, even as a consultant to a company. A regretful sigh escaped his mouth, he decided to check his phone. It seemed that Dev and Liam went out to get some food. There wasn’t much in Matty’s run-down home anyway. 

He went up from the basement and looked for his spare extension cord. The basement was too cluttered with wires, so he decided while they were out, he would clean things up. He bent over and looked in one of the boxes that sat in the corner of his living room. As soon as he stood up, he felt something cold and metallic press against his back. He froze. 

“Don’t move, and listen well.”

On instinct, he put his hands up and stood as still as he could. Instantly he knew he was on the receiving end of a gun. 

“Listen, kid, I didn’t know that we were sent here to kill someone as young as you. But anyway, I have to take care of business. You understand right?” he said incredibly calmly. 

Matty took a big gulp and gathered his courage. 

“Yeah, I get it.”

He thanked the stars that his two companions were out and didn’t have to share in his fate. However, he was not about to let some assassin get the best of him.

“One last request… What time is it?” Matty asked, hoping the assassin would take the bait. 

“Uh, it’s-”

In an instant, Matty whipped himself around and slapped the gun out of the assassin’s hand. The latter staggered a little, and this was the moment Matty took advantage of. Without missing a beat, he threw a powerful right straight punch right into the nose of the assassin. He pulled back his right hand and let out a harsh right haymaker right into the jaw of the gunman. The man was now in a daze, and lay on the floor, almost lifelessly. 

“Right! Now I gotta-”

He heard a loud bang ring from his open door. When he looked up, he saw a man holding a gun that was pointed right at him. Matty looked down and saw that blood was gushing from his stomach. He put his hand on the wound and found it odd that he barely felt anything. However, his movements suddenly became incredibly sluggish. In a last-ditch attempt at fighting for his life, he tried to reach for the unconscious assassin’s gun. Another bang rang from the door, as his head flew back toward the wall due to the incredible force that the bullet exerted in piercing his skull. Everything started to fade, as he fell onto the floor. He tried to listen to the conversation of the men during his final moments. 

“Hmph, serves him right. No one can f**k with the Wolfpack.”

The wolfpack? He wanted to know more, but his senses started to fail him even further as his eyes started to close. As his eyes closed, the world behind his eyelids began to expand, as he drifted into an abyss that he was unfamiliar with. But for some reason, he was sure, it was definitely not death.