The Bad Boy and The Hacker

You seem ready to kill

Place: Remote area of the campus

Time: 07 00

Objective: Keeping me in check

It was still dark and foggy outside as the bus was making its way to the forgotten building. As I was looking out of the window, I was debating in my mind which path I would take to reach the building. The bus can't drop us in front of the edifice since it was surrounded by trees. My two opinions would be either jump over the fence of the only supermarket in the area and then to climb a steep slope up the path which leads to the building or I would have to go around the trees till I reach the entrance of the small trail. In the end, I decided to do some climbing, with some luck the ground wouldn't be as slippery as it looked. I had no interest whatsoever to walk around 1 kilometre (which was what I would have to do if I chose the second option!)

As I was climbing up the rocky track, I was wondering why the school would not just build some stairs here. This would save students the trouble of using so much energy so early in the morning (or at any time of the day!)

The forgotten building looked like an old abandoned factory from the outside. I heard the architect who designed the model was inspired from an old steel factory in his hometown. The school approved of the designed since it was just the technical subjects which were being taught here. Half of the establishment was for the office and classes while the other half served as laboratory and workshop for students working on different projects. They try to design cars and space shuttles at the back (I never visited that part of the building, so I wouldn't know)

As I made my way through the big hall where all my classes were going to take place for the day, I noticed that John, Calvin and Zi Ling were already here. They wee sitting in the front going through their phones with earphones on. As I thought back, these three were always the first to arrive in class (don't they ever sleep!). The three of them were aspiring mechanical engineers with high proficiency in maths, physics and chemistry.

I walked to a seat in the back since I was hoping to check the website they put up yesterday for any new intel. As I suspected, the website was already up and running. They named it 'Web the spider' (not that bad for a name I would say).

I clicked on the link and I should say, I was impressed with the work they did on it.

Without wasting much time, I clicked on the first post of the website. It was linked to several articles about deaths of orcas in captivity in the marine aquapark called 'Deep Blue' (wasn't that the name of the biggest shark discovered so far?). After going through the articles, I understood why the person posted it. In the last few months, 4 of their orcas died from diseases as the park claims. It isn't surprising for orcas to die at a younger age in captivity, but these deaths seemed weird, or rather unpredicted. The latest recorded death was that of a 6 months old calf, called Dory. There were no previous articles about the killer whales suffering from any diseases before their actual death, rather the animal had packed schedules of 3 shows a day. However since the release of a movie, which seemed to portray the cruelty these creatures had to face from the time of their capture, having been chased and kidnapped from their parents at a very young age to being tortured and starved in captivity for them to learn tricks to entertain the public, as well as showing the psychological trauma they are facing living in such small basins, swimming in circles all day long, many people seem to be boycotting the park.

I pity those animals living in captivity. I understand that people are trying to protect some animal species from extinction by keeping them in zoos or other animal sanctuaries, but these animals deserve to be free. I personally would not be able to stand just staying in my room for a week. Now I imagine those killer whales, one of the most majestic creatures in our oceans, going around in circles all day long in a pool which would almost be like a tub to them, it makes me sad. Sure, it is fun to see them up close but while we go home, those poor mammals are still stuck in their tank.

Back to the subject at hand, I took out my glasses to look more into the topic. My glasses are equipped such that they allow me to open a secret window on my laptop, which only I can see. It is a practical device that I made a few months ago to allow me to hack in public. I can see the data I am searching for, but my surroundings can only see the last window I opened. Sure, there are still some bugs (come on nothing can be perfect on the first try, unless if you are the top genius who sees through all the bugs, but that's not me). The main trouble is that even if people see me working, being focused and my fingers running on the keyboard, my screen would stay stagnant on the las opened window, so that could be a bit confusing. (Even I would be confused if I was witness to that scene.)

There was still about half an hour before the start of class as I started hacking into the server of 'Deep Blue'. What I discovered really shocked me. Shocked would be an understatement, I was horrified. I knew humans were cruel for their own benefit, but they always seem to surprise me on how low they can fall.

The park was suffering tremendous losses since the release of the movie and the orca show hasn't made any profits in the past months, rather those total number of people who attended the show in the previous months hardly made a quarter of the quota of last year. Since the park wasn't making any decent revenue out of the marine creatures, they decided to slowly kill the animals. They were administrating the mammals a small daily dose of poison to end their life. (How dare them! Who do they think they are!!)

I was fuming, boiling with anger. My hands were in a fist while I was starring at the files in front of my eyes. I wanted to punch and scream at those horrible people. All they have in mind is their stupid money.

'Hey Cash, what are you up to? Class already started, and you seem lost in your own world. Well, not that it is something new, but you seem ready to kill with that look on your face.'

That voice belonged to none other than Blaze. He was comfortably seated next to me along with Rush and Eva. Somehow, I was grateful that they were here. Their presence would stop me from doing anything that I would regret later. They were keeping me in check, or rather they reminded me that I was in class. (there is a time for everything my little spider, be patient, we'll teach those vile humans a lesson soon)

They seem to have been here for quite some time. Rush had already jotted down some notes from class and was focusing on what Professor Gottschling, the mathematics teacher was saying.  

The Professor is a skinny man with silver grey hair and a unique sense of humour. Unique either because it would take time for the joke to sink in or he would be the only one to get the joke. He is really admired by the students. When he was a kid, he had a huge dislike for maths and preferred languages more. But as he was in his last year of high school, he had a great teacher who made him realise how interesting the subject was. (I wonder how he did it...) The professor, at that time a young student, decided to take night classes and eventually finished his PhD in Maths late but with great recognition. He now tries to share his passion for maths with us, but I must say, it does not always work like he wants it to be.

'I was thinking about how I can't wait for this day to be over and done with.' I replied with a forced smile.

In my mind, I was already plotting on how to make those horrid people regret they even thought about what they did.