//press enter to begin

I flip open the lid of my laptop, and click the power button far more times than necessary. As soon as the screen flickers to life, as soon as I type in my password, the backup password, and the pin to confirm my identity, a countdown begins in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

As of two seconds ago, I have exactly thirty minutes to pull off the largest hack since- since the last time I decided to hack the government, two years ago. I was underprepared, with little knowledge of the security I'd be parrying, or the policies they'd enact once I got to the main server. Now, years later, I'm about to do it again. But this time, I'm not going to get caught.

The best place to hide is in absolutely plain sight. A public center of education and technology- the school was my first choice, but a library works too. They'll have fifty computers to check; by the time they realize there was a fifty-first, it'll be long gone.

The screen stares at me, blank, blue, with black text, two paragraphs, and six words.

Program ready. Press enter to begin.

I've seen those words about ten thousand times, in practices, in hacks, when I turn it on to let them track me, but the adrenaline has never pumped through my veins quite as sharply as it is now. My finger presses the enter button, reduced to 'e  er' from years of overuse, and the oils from my sweating fingers.

Lines of the code I've written cascades down the screen. I try and distract myself with varying thoughts about the things I'll do after I'm done, or where I'll hide next, but most of all, I keep my mind off what will happen when I'm caught.

It is never an 'if', but a 'when'. I cannot hide forever, but if I play my cards right, I'll be safe when I'm taken.

I break past the first firewall at the five minute mark. With sudden interest, I begin to scroll through lower-level files, lists, and the projects that some people have heard about, fewer actually know about, and only a handful fully understand the procedures involved. I try and memorize each by name. Just the ones that interest me, ones that will serve me well in the future, or, on the other hand, could pose danger to me in the immediate future. Those are the ones I present from happening.

My fingertips drum the keys as I hack into the Central Intelligence's sister company, which deals with the criminals, miscreants, and evildoers of the Northern Republic. Seconds later, I'm in the lists hidden deep beneath the overall 'Most Wanted' category. I'm still two full minutes ahead of schedule, and my curiosity overcomes any fear I've had in the past few hours.

There are lists hidden in the bowels of the website that very few people know about. I, myself, stumbled upon them by accident, but they've been invaluable since I printed out a full twenty pages of anyone and everyone on the government's 'watch list'. Any information I can use to my advantage is information I keep close at hand.

The list I have is two years old, ancient, by technological standards, but if I can just get new records, I can-

A numbness floods through my veins. The name at the top of the list is none other than my own. A new timer begins to tick, but this one doesn't have a positive outcome. Sudden, sharp alarm pulses through my veins. I slap my computer shut, and the connection goes dead. I cancel the hack. They can't track me anymore, but from what I've heard, at this point, they don't need to. I'm not sure what happens next, but the hair on the back of my neck starts to tingle, and I'm out the doors of the library.

My eyes race through the sky, and fixate on a bird. Moving. Not metal. Safe. My bicycle is across the street. I abandon it, run in the opposite direction, away from the center of town, where there aren't cameras, computers, or phones. I stand out against the neatly paved, sharp corners of the buildings, the absolute black of the pavement, the sharp reflections of the windows beside me. In front of me. All around me.

I slip my phone from my pocket. There's no harm in turning it on now; any harm to be done, has been done already. Now I just have to prevent it from being fatal. My feet slap against the ground, and I'm quietly wishing I'd bought a better pair of sneakers rather than the new sets of code from my hacker buddies.

I dial a number, the only number I can think of, because it's the only number that matters right now.

"Madge?" I ask, quietly, softly, even though my heartbeat is echoing throughout my ears.

"Rebel?" She asks just as quietly, "Reb, what's happened?" I sniff, louder than I expected.

"I-" the connection cuts out. If they've found me this fast, I have hours, at the very most, until-

My face collides with the dirt. My nose is running, my eyes are tearing, and I don't feel like I have the strength to get up.

I'm terrified. Not because I'm on the list; I've been on it since I was thirteen. I'm petrified because I've reached the top. There aren't many rules in hacking, much less, ones we actually follow, but the one that everyone everyone obeys is the one I've just broken.

If you value your life, you never become #1 on the list of the nation's most wanted hackers. Ever. Somehow, that's what I've just done.