Cyber Teen Project

Chapter 5-1

Nigel’s heart pounded so hard at the mere thought of facing Jake again that his chest began to ache. A jumbled, unfiltered stream of data entered his mind: punches from Jake, Jet, his mother, the game—that cursed game! Nigel could barely swallow, and his thoughts were confused. Am I having a panic attack?

Am I having a panic attack?After several deep breaths, Nigel’s head cleared, and he focused on finding solutions to unlocking both his and Jake’s accounts. The Dark Web came to mind, but he had no idea how to gain access to the place where the shadows lurked. He couldn"t think of any real solutions, so he did what anyone in trouble might do: call for help.

Jet was sitting at her computer (as usual), jacked into a remote section of The Colossal Machine, a premium section of the verse that hadn"t been released yet. She was helping the game developers test for bugs and other problems in their new expansion.

The Colossal MachinePretzelverse had sent her a large box full of goodies which contained a pair of bulky but functional virtual reality (VR) lenses. While the headset actually needed to be connected to her computer via wires, the immersive experience more than made up for it.

Through the eyes of the VR lenses, Jet noticed that she was on the top level of a tall silver tower. Her avatar had a long staff with a blue crystal at the end, and she could see it waving before her as if it were truly in her own hand. She activated her cloaking armor as she entered the metallic-lined corridor. To her immediate left, an oozing black sludge leaked out of several holes. She knew from experience that touching the sludge was an instant permanent death. She had many hours invested in her avatar and didn"t want to lose her place in the queue by starting over. If any of the testers died in the game, they were immediately resurrected in a starting area with no equipment, and since it had taken her approximately forty hours to get this far, Jet didn"t want to risk anything. She had limited time to play during school nights; her mother enforced a strict curfew on gaming. She had to be off The Machine at 9:45, and lights out was at 10 p.m., but it was only 7:30. Plenty of time to clear this level, gather her loot, and stash it in her hidden hovel.

She heard the chirping noise of her cell phone as she laid waste to dozens of minions the game was procedurally generating for her slaughtering pleasure. Since the game was online, she couldn"t pause. She needed to reach the next checkpoint or a temporary safe camping area before she could even look at the text messages she was receiving. She couldn"t think of anyone who might be contacting her at this hour. She didn"t have many friends. She didn’t date, either. She knew other like-minded classmates that might be testing, but most of them rarely used the phone; communication was usually handled by the in-game chat system. Her friends’ accounts were “account-linked,” which meant they didn"t need to be online playing the same game to communicate. Pretzelverse had established its own communications platform that was truly impressive. The company could have sold subscriptions to the communications system to non-gaming customers. Jet didn"t know why Pretzelverse hadn"t done this already; it seemed like a good idea to her. She snatched a small peek at her phone as she entered into cloaking mode on her avatar’s armor.

She picked up her phone. The message that caught her eye was from Nigel. It read, “Jet hlp 4 I T...STAT.” Jet"s heart skipped a beat when she read the next line: “I O U 4evr TIA.” If a non-technical person received this text message, confusion might have ensued; however, Jet knew its meaning, a call for help. The first line translated to: “Jet HELP for I"m in trouble.” The second line gave her hope, and the meaning was what motivated her to act: “I owe you forever and thanks in advance.” Although this sounded innocent enough, when a fellow gamer sent the letters “I O U” together, it was a sacred message to the recipient. It meant that at any time the IOU could be called in for a favor of the person"s choosing. Jet"s palms started to sweat at the thought of Nigel owing her. She had sat next to him in class for a long time, and she was very fond of him. Jet quickly checked her inventory and found her recall scroll, which allowed her to instantly teleport to a previous location where she had been in the game. She cast the spell, then logged off in a safe place.

Jet replied, “Where do u want to meet?”

“Public Library at 8 p.m.?”

She lived about ten minutes from the library by bike and figured she better get going if she wanted to get there by eight. She replied,“Sure, 8 by the front.”

“10-4. Bring your laptop.”

The library was practically deserted. No one could be seen as she put her bicycle in the rack near the entrance.

Nigel appeared from the shadows. He was wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans, and she could see his laptop in his hands.

“Hey,” said Nigel.

“Hey, yourself.” Jet didn"t realize it, but she had a grin on her face.

Nigel smiled briefly but regained his composure. “Should we get started?” he asked.

* * *

Nigel led them to a table just outside the library and explained the Jake situation. Jet cringed when she heard Jake"s name. Unfortunately, Jet knew Jake well. A couple of years ago, Jet"s father got transferred to a military base just up the coast from Milford as a civilian contractor. During her first day at school, Jake made several unwanted advances toward Jet, which continued for more than a month. Jet liked to study outside the school gymnasium because it provided a semi-private, quiet area to study when it was too cold or rainy to practice. One day, Jake appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her by the arm.

“Get your hands off me, Creep!”

Jet shoved Jake back hard enough for him to lose his balance. As Jake stumbled, Jet spun around to flee, but another slightly shorter boy blocked her path. She attempted to run past when Jake grabbed her arm and started pulling her toward the gymnasium. She wriggled and almost broke free.

“Hold on to her, Donnie!” Jake yelled.

Before she knew it, she was in a darkened room. She had been so focused on Jake and his intent that she realized, too late, that the boys were carrying her to another area inside the gymnasium.

“Watch the door!” Jake said as he slammed it. Jake hurled her into an area that resembled a storage room. As she tried to get up, he pinned her down to the floor and immediately started kissing her.

Repulsed by his touch, she started screaming.

Jake backhanded her and quickly cupped his hands over her mouth. “If you do that again, I"m going to hurt you really bad, b***h!”

He groped for the buttons on her blouse, but they wouldn"t come free. Jet bit her lip and sobbed.

Is this really happening? Jet thought. At that instant, she heard voices.

Is this really happening?“What are you doing here with the lights off, Young Man?” Mr. Robinson asked Donnie.

When Mr. Robinson got no response from Donnie, he pushed him aside and started flipping switches for the main gymnasium and adjacent hallways.

Startled by the change in ambient light, Jake stood up and attempted to flee toward the opposite end of the room where another door was barely visible.

Jet heard a loud crash. Jake was trying to move several tables that were placed in front of the door. Seconds later, the door of the storage room was flung open; it was Mr. Robinson.

Jet’s vision blurred as the tears flowed.

“Jet, are you okay?” Nigel asked. He had a worried look on his face. She shook off the bad memory.

“Yes, I would love to help you with your Jake problem, Nigel,” Jet said.

Nigel let out a small but meaningful smile.

“Since Jake doesn"t want to give his information to Pretzelverse to help unlock his account, I"m thinking of finding an exploit of some kind to break into the account system. I read somewhere that there is malware, rootkits, or other software that can help me,” Nigel said. “But I don"t know where to look for them.”

Jet didn"t like hearing desperation in Nigel"s voice. To her, Nigel had always appeared confident during their encounters at school.

“I think I have a solution that doesn"t involve hacking and poses less of a risk than what you"re proposing.”

Nigel thought for a moment, then asked, “What do you have in mind?”

“A lot of people answering phones at companies give out information to people claiming to be someone else all the time,” Jet explained. “After assembling a voice modulator circuit, you or I could sound like anyone.”

Nigel was stunned. He never knew it was that easy to fool people.

“Have you done this before?” Nigel asked.

“Well, it"s complicated!”

Nigel didn"t want to press the subject.

“How do I get my hands on a modulator device?”

“I know someone who knows someone.”

“Well then, let’s get started,” Nigel said with excitement in his voice.

Jet smiled in response. “It all starts with a pretext, a scenario that the person on the other end of the conversation must believe in order to obtain information or convince them to do something.”

“A believable story,” suggested Nigel.

“Exactly! You catch on quickly,” Jet said. She winked at Nigel.

“Since we can’t just make up a believable story on the fly, we need to set some goals. We need to ask ourselves some questions,” Jet continued.

“What kind of questions?”

“We need to get Jake off your back. That is our main goal,” Jet said. “Then we need to figure out the other details, such as the person we will be contacting and what information they will require. When you created Jake"s avatar, what was his age?” Jet asked.

Nigel had painted a picture of a twenty-three-year-old college student attending nearby Milford State University. Unfortunately, that persona required some documentation they didn"t have. Nigel would need to submit two forms of documentation, such as a driver"s license, a utility bill, or a tuition bill. None of this was available, and forging one would take an enormous amount of effort.

“That is true for most people,” Jet said as she smiled at Nigel. She didn"t want Nigel catching on that she liked him, but she couldn"t help it—they had chemistry. “We can find just about anything on the Dark Web servers. We just need to work out the details on price,” said Jet.

“Should we go inside?” Jet asked. “There is little Wi-Fi signal here.”

“I have an amplifier,” Nigel said. “My friend, Milo, makes the best antennas.”

“Cool.”

“So you know how to access the Dark Web?”

“Sure,” Jet answered.

“Really! Can you show me how?” Nigel asked.

Jet explained that a special piece of software called a Virtual Private Network (VPN) was necessary to maintain anonymity. A special web browser was also required. Once Jet tested the connection, she demonstrated the use of a browser called MORP. “The Multipoint Online Remote Privacy was developed by the U.S. military to protect covert communications,” Jet explained. “The software is also used by criminals, freedom fighters, and privacy-concerned citizens.”