Once he’d spun this VR scenario with the bank as a castle, he had noticed something interesting. Toward the back, and outside of the main fortified walls, was a smaller building, a humble village chapel. Many people came here, including townspeople, clergy, knights, and merchants. Which meant Jay could get in there, too.
It hadn’t taken him long to identify the real-world equivalent of the building, and he realized that it was indeed a part of the computer he was trying to penetrate.
Banks strived very hard to provide convenience to their customers. These days, convenience meant access. They couldn’t make the access to the money itself too easy or the money wouldn’t be safe. That was the very problem that Jay had been fighting. They could, however, make it easy for customers to access things like bank balances and account histories.
This chapel housed that information, behind a
If he was right, this chapel would give him access to the information he was after. It wouldn’t be in the same form, necessarily, and it wouldn’t have as much information as he would have liked, but it should have enough for his purposes.
He hoped.
Jay walked toward the small gate in the side of the castle wall. A pair of monks sat at a table outside, welcoming people. As he neared the table, he heard people giving their passwords to the friars. The silver-haired one on the left would nod if the password was right, and the person would be allowed to go inside the chapel to pray — although in the real world they were accessing their banking records. Not withdrawing their money, just checking on its status.
This whole process of finding the security hole had been a perfect example of why VR worked better than just peering through a flatscreen or at a holoproj. His instincts, his eyes and ears, all worked better in an environment like this than in one of pure text.
He stepped up to the table.
The older monk spoke. “And your account number, my son?”
Jay gave him the number of the account he was tracking.
“Your password?”
Jay spoke the Sanskrit word “om,” drawing it out as Saji had taught him. She had told him once that some Zen masters believed that the word contained all the sounds in the universe happening at once.
In the real world, tens of thousands of passwords slammed into the on-line banking program simultaneously.
In the VR world, time stopped. The monks froze, and everyone in the village stood motionless. A woodcutter near the smithy paused in mid-stroke, splinters of firewood to the left and right of his axe, hanging in the air. The flames in the blacksmith’s forge stood out as sharply as a three-dimensional marble statue.
Only Jay could look around. Only Jay was free to move.
And then time clicked back in, reality’s hiccup over.
The silver-haired monk nodded, as though nothing had happened.
“You may pass, my son. God be with you.”
Jay bowed his head, a smile on his face. “And with you as well, brother.” He entered the small gate to the chapel within the castle.
He made his way to a vast array of pigeonholes alongside one wall of the chapel. Huge Roman numerals marked the account numbers of each of the bank’s members.
He paused the scenario for a second and made an adjustment.
The account numbers were now in Arabic numerals. Much easier to follow. He located the pigeonhole with his account number. Within lay a single sheet of parchment that contained a summary of all the account activity for the last few months.
He picked it up and scanned it. There was the name of the account holder: Otis E. Levator.
He smiled at the name and turned his attention back to the details. It sure looked like Mr. Levator had been getting some serious cash from CyberNation over the last few months.
Jay grabbed the parchment and headed for the exit of the chapel. Time to change scenarios and track down old Otis. He left and headed out beyond the castle wall. Once he was back in the forest, he modified the virtual world around him.
One of the joys of being a net demigod was the ability to wave one’s hand and change reality. Too bad it only worked in VR.
This new environment was also a forest, but one far different from the majestic old oaks of Sherwood. Jay had also traded in his Robin Hood outfit for a frayed flannel shirt, a pair of raggedy denim overalls, and worn combat boots. A pack of six bloodhounds bayed beside him, straining at the leashes he held in his hand.
Jay took a handkerchief from his pocket. It looked a lot like the parchment from the previous scenario. He waved it under the dogs’ noses, giving them the scent.
The hounds sniffed the handkerchief, whuffled, and got more excited.
“Let’s git ’im, dawgs,” Jay hollered, and set them free of their leashes.
The pack took off, following the scent, with Jay chasing after the baying hounds.
This scenario was an old favorite of his, running through the Alabama backwoods like some old moonshiner chasing white lightning thieves from his still. He smiled at the image.
After a few minutes, the dogs’ barking changed in pitch.
He moved faster, pushing through saw-grass plants and low bushes. Ahead he could see the dogs surrounding a small shack.
He called up the ID program for the shack and frowned. Someone had been clever. This little shack wasn’t Otis E. Levator’s home after all. It was a mail delivery box at a Postal Plus — one of the tiny commercial post offices at mini-malls everywhere. They were all sterile, with a built-in irradiator that was guaranteed to keep your letters germ-free.
Another cutout.
“Thanks a lot, Otis.” To the bloodhounds, he said, “Okay, pups, you can shut up now.”
The dogs obeyed.
So what he had was some clown’s idea of a clever pseudonym. Elevator. Probably something to do with moving up in the world. But that was all that he had.
Now what?
Jay left the dogs behind and went into the shack. He did a VR shift—
Jay didn’t bother loading one of his custom scenarios. Not much point in it. He was pretty sure there was nothing to be found here. Instead, he just ran a standard VR website visual of the place, and tapped into the security on the shipping store’s computer.
The address left by the mysterious Elevator was
Well, that was just great. All that work seeing the forest for the trees, all that time hacking a bank to get
He looked up and noticed something. Hello?
A security cam hung down from the ceiling. The operator of the mail place must have had some problems with people vandalizing mailboxes late at night. That was pretty typical of a place like this. Whatever the reason, he had installed a video surveillance device.
Jay recognized it as a pretty standard device. The cam took a mid-ranged resolution video of the lobby, capturing images of everyone who came in. Usually the files were stored for a week or so before being either destroyed or archived.
Now if only the data was kept on
Jay went past the boxes and into the shop proper. The clerk was busy with some customers. Jay saw the door behind the vidcam and eased over toward it. When the man behind the counter went into the back with a
