软件 章首故事
“我们没时间听这些废话了！” Medusa对着小队频道大声咆哮。
“冷静点，蛇，我扫描的防火墙可不是块海绵。” Slamm-0!厉声回道。“我不像你之前雇的那个超链蠢货，我不会用我的虚拟屁股即兴编写代码。所以现在我要深呼吸一下，打个补丁，我会在你的兴奋劲消失掉之前回来的。” 他停留在刚刚骇入的阿兹特科技基因农场的外部节点中，打开了一个链接，连接到他一小时前通过网络口耳相传收到的那个地址。
他将自己的VR感知切换到新节点上，进入了一个塑模软件商店，这里摆着无以计数难以描述的木制物品架，上面陈列着数百万件费解，无用的粗劣作品。“我可没时间处理这些东西。”
“这边，老板！”那个棒球浏览程序大声叫嚷着，并在几十个架子上杂乱的图标中高凉了一只小塑料恐龙。Slamm-0!给这只恐龙输入了加密密钥和密码，随后一扇小门出现在他身边。他从后门进入了新的节点。
“欢迎来到黑客之家！我们24/7/365全天候在线，随时准备满足您的骇入需求。所有下载都保证没有病毒。我们接受注册或认证信用、黑市第三方托管账户与一次性账户转账授权”
Slamm-0!丢掉了介绍菜单。“发送优先私信给Netword：需要立即的专家建议。Pronto。”
一个由数百万字符组成的小龙卷风冒了出来，汇集成Netword的回文化身。“怎么了，爆脾气？你又惹上麻烦了？需要什么？”
”我们说话的时候我正在狂奔，所以直截了当地说：我需要一个尖端技术遮罩来让自己在严寒节点上保持温暖。并不是说我介意在蜘蛛身上测试我的新球棍，但这次我需要在不拉响警报的情况下从阿兹的节点中撤出一个机灵鬼。所以你能提供什么?”
Netword调出了一些以知名巨龙的头像作为logo的程序规格。“你是个幸运的混蛋。我刚和一个德国的黑客达成交易，他碰巧得到了S-K的窃听蠕虫使用的隐匿程序——他们就是用这些蠕虫程序在矩阵上为巨龙检索宝贵的信息，你知道的吧？不管怎么说，这个是我不会公开售卖的代码——太引人注目了，你懂得吧？昨天刚完成源代码的破解并重新编译了程序。如果你有兴趣的话，可以给你一份，但不是免费的。作为交换，我要求获得你一直在炫耀的那个新的黑球棍程序作为回报。那将是我收藏的一个很好补充。”
Slamm-0!犹豫了。“你在开玩笑吧！你知道我花了多少个月才写出这份代码吗？”
Netword耸了耸肩。“要么接受，要么就走。我可不会在接下来几分钟拿自己的命去冒险。”
Slamm-0!轻蔑地笑了笑，随后接受了交换。当他回到阿兹特科技的节点并给他的队伍发消息时，他的新龙斗篷已经装载好了。“我回来了，女士们。现在让我们骇入吧。我要进去了。”
劇透 - :
“We don’t have time for this crap!” Medusa barked over the team’s channel.
“Cool down, snakes, this firewall I’m scanning ain’t no sponge,” Slamm-0! snapped back. “Unlike that technowanker you used to employ, I don’t just improvise code out of my virtual ass. So slap on a patch and take a deep breath, I’ll be back before your buzz wears off.” Remaining in the outer node of the Aztechnology gene farm he had just hacked, he opened a new connection to an address he’d received just an hour ago via digital word-of-mouth.
He toggled his VR perception to the new node, dropping into a sculpted warehouse lined with endless non-descriptive wooden shelves, each packed full of millions of items of obscure, useless kitsch. “I don’t have time for this.”
“Over here, boss!” the baseball browser program yelled, highlighting a small plastic dinosaur in a clutter of icons several dozen shelves over. Slamm-0! fed the dinosaur an encryption key and passcode, causing a small door to appear next to him. He stepped through the backdoor and into the new node.
“Welcome to Hacker House! We’re online 24-7-365 to fulfill your hacking needs. All downloads are guaranteed virus free. We accept registered or certified cred, black escrow accounts, and one-time account transfer authorizations.”
Slamm-0! discarded the intro menu. “Send priority PM to Netword: Need immediate expert advice. Pronto.”
A small tornado made of millions of alphanumeric characters appeared, coalescing into the anagramic persona of Netword. “What’s up, spitfire? Got yourself in trouble again? What do you need?”
“I’m mid-run as we speak, so straight to the point: I need a cutting edge shroud to keep myself warm in an arctic node. Not that I wouldn’t mind testing my new bats out on some spiders, but this time I need to pull an Artful Dodger in some Azzie system without the bells ringing. So what can you offer?”
Netword pulled up some program specs displaying a well-known dragon-head logo. “You’re a lucky bastard. I just cut a deal with a German hacker who happened to get a hold of the Stealth program that S-K’s eavesdropping worms use—y’know, the ones that scour the ‘trix for precious info for the dragon? Anyway, it’s premier code I won’t offer on the boards—draws too much attention, you know? Just finished cracking the source-code and recompiling the program yesterday. You can have a copy if you’re interested, but not for free. I’ll accept that new Black Slugger you’ve been showing off in return. It would be a fine addition to my collection.”
Slamm-0! hesitated. “You gotta be kidding! Do you know how many months it took me to crank out that code?”
Netword shrugged. “Take it or leave it. I’m not the one risking my life in the next few minutes.”
Slamm-0! sneered, then made the swap. His new dragoncloak was already loaded when he popped back in the Azzie node and messaged his team. “I’m back, ladies. Let’s hack and haul. I’m going in.”
