High Frequency

Death by Proxy

"It's encrypted."

"What do you mean, it's encrypted?"

Jeremy stared at the laptop defeatedly, its monitor halfway sheeted with a wall of lime green source code. The text would often shift itself to a messily compiled binary, though it lasted only for a split second before reverting back to its prior fiasco. A tendrilled pile of executable file functions had jabbed themselves into the mix, too, alongside the original viruses and the countless gaps in code.

It was a complete and utter shitshow, with each string of text more unnavigable than the next. Jeremy was used to that, but not on such a large scale.

Determined malware had even somehow managed to find its way into the computer's core processor, destroying data caches within their minimal runtime before dissipating entirely. The high-level probes seemed to be the result of chip-off, but as far as Heere knew, the laptop hadn't been touched by any outside sources. Then again, he wasn't given much information in the first place. EMA- evil maid attack- could've been possible, but if that was the case, then the useless processors of the computer's old updates wouldn't of been tapped at. But of course, they were.

Old RAM data had been corrupted to a ludicrous amount, making the necessary files nearly inaccessible. It was a complete jungle to get through on its own, with firewalls managing to culminate themselves between strands of trojans and rootkits. They must've been amazingly slippery at first to get into the system's core properties, but ever since the laptop had worn down in function, the hacks must have, too. They'd evidently lost their cover, and had deteriorated and mixed into a shaky, unstable swath of alternating code ever after. Now the malware was less of an organized rundown to sift through, and more of a confusing swarm of interconnected vineyards that Jeremy would have to cut down. But that wasn't all, no.

Not only that, but the only thing that had remained intact from the debris of data storage was a problem in itself. The amassed catastrophe of server locks and proxies had built up and restrained themselves, unleashing only once the rest of the coded destruction had. If it were just the passwords and shaky firewall restraints on their own, it would be astronomically less of a disaster. Except, those automated fence-offs were now tangled in with webs of spyware, making any attempt at cracking inside that much more impossible.

It was a gritty, frustrating, garbled up heap for any hacker, black hatted or not. The entire outer shell was encrypted, protected, unsteady and broken in some of the worst ways imaginable. Jeremy found it a shock that the laptop hadn't been thrown out months ago. It would've been easier if it was newer, but that obviously wasn't the case, because that was just Jeremy's luck. That would've been too convenient. Instead, the computer was ancient and dusty and had this constant stream of harassment blaring in by the force of a million pop ups. It wasn't a completely obsolete cause, but if left alone as the tangled mess it was now, it was gonna take a lot more than six hours to sift through. Especially considering he was just- well- Jeremy.

He was a passable hacker on good days, at best. That's all he's ever been, and working through something as uncoordinatedly arranged as this was light years beyond any sort of skill level he currently possessed. His most valuable trait was his lanky frame, scrawny and flexible for accessing the target's devices themselves- full-scale breaking and entering, if you will. Alas, being unnaturally gangly wasn't going to give him the capability to work through this bulky tower of cyber disease.

Hell, it was obvious. As much as Jeremy hated to admit it, he probably needed help working through this mess. Quick help, maybe, but help nonetheless. And as a matter of fact, the person who could give it to him was the same exact one interrupting his thoughts.

"-Jeremy."

"Huh?"

"What do you mean, it's encrypted?"