MHG-V3-4 (Initial Draft)

Chapter 5 - escape (part 1)

A2.5
Note: when editing try to add more strong emotion. I.e., the feeling that Teruko couldnt do anything to protect ken, her feeling of utter hekpnessness. Also ken's distress. Make the problems seem really and difficult, not so easily overcome.

When Ken awoke he was lying face up in small room. Sitting up, he immediately checked his surroundings. This was the second time he had been kidnapped, but that didn't make him feel any more calm about it.
At least compared to last time, this place was a room with a bed, light and window. The window had bars across it to prevent someone getting out, and walking over to it he noticed he was several floors up.
Ken also suddenly noticed that, unlike the last time, his earpi had not been removed from him. He touched it gingerly, and then turned it on.
Teruko would br searching for him, right? Ken thought as he anxiously assesed the situation. The door! He immediately walked forward and tried to open it, but it was locked. So much for that.
Ken's earpi had turned on successfully and it didnt seem to be damaged, so he sat back down on the bed and began searching for wireless networks. Internet access seemed to be blocked here somehow, but there were a number of private networks available. All of them were secured, however, so there was no way he would be able to use them.
Or was there?
Ken suddenly recalled Teruko's lecture a few months ago when she copied across a number of script files to his earpi.
"These might come in use sometime." She had said sternly, "so you had better learn how to use them."
Now Ken was wishing he had paid attention and taken her advice. Still, the files were there, so it would be worth taking a look at them.
Ken swiped and pressed his hand in the air in front of him as the holopane projected from his earpi updated according to his actions. He found the folder she had put there and took a breath. There looked to be more than fifty files in here. Perhaps that was why he hadn't paid much attention at the time. The sheer scale of it was quite beyond him. He looked across the names helplessly until he remembered something else she had said.
"Always connect to a network anonymously." She said. "The worst thing you can do is let everyone know who you are and where you are. Secrecy is the key. Once you lose that, the game is over."
Ken took a deep breath. Anonymity. Secrecy. As he scanned the names one file stood out: "anonymous ip". He selected it and opened the attached help message.
'Hides source ip by using different connection details for every request. Slows down network speed but ensures secrecy.'
That one sounded good. He opened the program and looked at the options. Selecting the most stringint choices he started the script running.
Ken sighed in relief. But still he couldn't connect to any networks. To do that he would need a username and password. Another file stood out: 'username finder.' The help file: "scans a network for usernames.' That was probably what he wanted. He set the program running and then went to look back at his options. Once he had a username he would need a password, right? 'Password extractor' seemed like a good choice. He then looked over the other options, but he couldn't see anything that would be of use to him.
There was a 'ding' and the username finder script opened a window showing a list of usernames and their privileges. Right at the top, one name stood out: 'Henry Kang'. Was that Samantha Kang's father? His priveleges seemed pretty high. He decided to try that one. Opening the 'password extractor', he ran the tool, entering the username for Henry Kang, and then waited.

***

"I'm in." Ayaka said happily.
"Good job. I knew they would be no match for us." Teruko said, her head scanning the panela in front of her. "Don't worry darling, I'm coming for you."
"But even if we find where he is, what are we going to do?" Ayaka asked. "We've been trying to hack into their system for months now and haven't had any luck. Their security is like a rock."
"We can worry about that when we get to it. For now we need to find out where he is. Have you managed to track that helicopter?"
"Yes but its already out on another mission."
"Let me have a look." Teruko said. "Normally aircraft keep a log of all the locations they visit. If we can just hack into it.."
"I'm in." Ayaka said. "Do you know where its kept?"
"Yep, found it." Teruko replied. "Now lets see.."
She scanned through the list of gps coordinates and then looked at a map of the city as it plotted the points.
"The last destination was 49-92, its an NSA compound alright. Previous to that was the location by the bridge. Its got to be there."
"Looks tough." Teruko said, bringing up satellite and security camera images of the compound and immediately setting off a bunch of programs whose job it was to scan the security network and report back on any weakneases. "If only we had an army.."
"Well if you want an army.." Ayaka said hesitantly.
"What?"
"Take a look at this, I've been assembling it in my own time."
Teruko widened her eyes. "Where did you get that?" She exclaimed. "No.. how much did it cost?"
"Like that matters." Ayaka said offhandedly. "Im not restrained by such rules as you are by your moral little boyfriend."
"Well anyway, thats going to come in handy. But we have to be careful, we can't just barge in there, it might be dangerous for Ken."
"I'll put them on standby."
"Thanks. Then i'll start off DOS attack on the NSA front page."
"DOS attack?" Ayaka asked. "Why?"
"It wont be much, but anything we can do to distract them will help."
"Hmm i suppose."

***

An hour later Ken received a notification that Henry Kang's password had been successfully hacked. Exileration shot through his body. He didn't know what he would do next, but he felt like he was finally getting used to this kind of stuff.
He immediately opened up the wireless connections and connected to the network as Henry Kang. Then he opened up a list of connected drivrs and began snooping around.
Henry Kang really had access to a lot of stuff, and luckily for Ken, it was all well named. He found a section titled 'cells', and when he scanned through them he found one with his name against it. Opening it up, he found a list of controls, including lighting, power and the door lock.
Door lock. Ken pressed it and immediately he heard a clicking sound come from the door in his room. He opened his eyes wide. Did he just unlock that door? He swiped to clear his holopane and then stood up and walked over to the door. Sure enough, the door opened out into the corridor when he pressed it.
"Hey!"
a man yelled at him suddenly, and Ken froze as he saw a armed officer run at him with his gun raised.
"Your room should be locked" the man said with confusion. "Get back in there or i'll shoot."
Ken obediently went back into the room and waited as the door was locked again from the outside.
ken smirked. A small setback. Now that he knew what he was doing, it was time to explore his other options.

***

Mark stood calmly watching the array of screens in front of him as he tapped a nearby table with his fingers.
"What kind of progress are they making?" He asked, his audience two terminal operators who sat at desks in front of him.
"They've broken our hold on the satellite." the rightmost man said, so they should probably have guessed where the boy is located by now."
"Our public facing site is reveiving a lot of hits." The leftmost said, "But the compound itself hasn't been touched at all."
"Are they just going to sit back and watch?" Mark said with annoyance. "Close down the public site."
"Sir?"
"Do it. I don't want anything to distract them from their mission. Come on darlings, what game are you playing? Don't you know your beloved human ally is in danger?"
"Sir, our internal tracking bot has just informed us that the boy's cell was remotely unlocked about 10 minutes ago by Henry Kang."
"What? That's absurd. Don't tell me..."
"I'm tracing it, sir. It looks like there is someone connecting as Henry Kang, but everytime under a different ip address. Most likely.."
"Its that boy!" Mark said, raising his eyebrows with delight.
"Shall i send someone to stop him?"
"No, no. This is an intetesting Development. Let's see what else he does."
"But with Henry Kang's credentials.."
However it was too late. Before they knew what had happened the lights flashed out and the screens flashed dead. The three of them sat there in complete darkness.
"What?"
"The power's dead!"
"Quick, activate the backup. Check the vital systems immediately."
Mark leaned back against the table and sighed gruffly. He had been careless. That boy was more dangerous than he thought. However this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It just added another variable to the equation. Besides, success was never sweet when it wasnt well earned.

***

It wasn't until Ken found himself bathed in electronic darkness that he realised just how powerfu were the tools Teruko had installed in his earpi. Sure enough, not only had the lights gone out, even the wireless connection was dead. It looked like power had been truly cut off from the compound.
Luckily Ken had had the foresight to download a map of the compound onto his earpi, so he had an idea of the direction he should head to escape. Unforunately he didnt know what obstacles lay between here and there. He only hoped that knocking out the power would remove a good number of them.
It had been quite a simple trick, really. That Henry Kang really had access to a lot of important things. One was a safe of confidential documents which Ken had tried to download as many as he could in the short time he had. The other was access to control of the power grid. Tweaking a few of the parameters had had better results than expected. Whether it had blown up or just temporarily failed he didnt know. What he did know was that now the place was dead. If he wanted to escape, now was the time to do it.
Ken took a glance at the map and then approached the door and then put his ear to it to listen. It seemed silent for now. He slowly opened the door and peaked out into the darkness beyond. There really was no one here. With a bold step of faith, Ken once more stepped out of his room into the hallway, turned left and began creeping along the wall toward the corner up ahead.
He didn't know what to expect, but if he didn't escape now, he might never. That realisation ket him going, despite the fear he felt. After all, they were adults and he was a child. And they had guns, and he didnt.