to live. But he had to have a Quest Companion, someone to help him push
that door open.
Who? He had spent most of the last three days going over possibilities and
the list was disappointingly small. When you got right down to it, Craig
realized, he didn’t have any close friends except maybe Judith.
The gamers were the only people he actually knew. But he really didn’t
like them much and most of them thought he was kind of strange. Besides,
they couldn’t help him. The thought of Joe or Howard as Quest Companions
on a real quest was silly and the rest didn’t know enough about computers.
There were the others, the ones he met in the shadowy neverland of
bulletin boards in his secret identity as Skullslayer, the master hacker.
But he knew as little about them as they did about him. It would be
embarrassing to confide in someone and then have it turn out to be a
pimply faced thirteen-year-old.
There was one whose real identity he did know. A year and a half ago Panda
had taken the unusual and dangerous step of contacting him in person. He
was such an outtasight hacker that he’d discovered Skullslayer’s identity
and found that he used to work as a part-time operator in the University
computer center. Not only that, he knew that Craig’s password and login
were still active!
The stuff about the virus, that had been an accident. Mikey had explained
it all to him the night he showed up at his apartment and wanted help to
cover it up. At first he’d been scared that Mikey was going to turn him
over to the FBI, but Mikey just sort of mentioned in passing that he knew
a lot about Skullslayer and of course if he was picked up he’d have to
make a deal to save his own skin. Just this one favor, Mikey had promised,
and we’ll be square.
Actually it was a thrill and kind of an honor to be involved in something
as big as the Jesse James Virus. So in a matter of ten minutes, from his
living room, he had hopelessly muddled the trail that led from the
out-of-control computer virus back to Panda.
They’d never met in person again, but they had become good friends over
the BBSs. Craig followed Panda’s exploits with admiration and more than a
little awe. The guy was not only good, he was, well, daring. A dozen times
or more Panda had boldly gone where no hacker had gone before, coming up
with phone numbers and access codes to some of the most outrageous
systems.
A woman with a bag of groceries in either arm came up the walk from the
parking lot. She stepped off the sidewalk to pass well around Craig,
eyeing him suspiciously as she did so.
She’s gonna call the cops on me. Well, he couldn’t delay any longer.
The name on the door was “Michael E. Baker,” but Craig knew everyone
called him Mikey-like in the cereal commercial.
“Panda? It’s me. Skullslayer.”
There was a muffled “just a minute” and the sound of a lock turning.
The door opened a crack and a blue eye peered out.
“You alone?”
“Yeah. Just me.”
The door closed and then opened wide.
Mikey was shirtless and barefoot. He was several years older than Craig,
but Craig was already beginning to bulge and Mikey was lean without being
skinny. His blonde hair was cut surfer style and wire-rimmed glasses hid
mild blue eyes. While Craig looked like a computer nerd, nothing suggested
Mikey Baker was one of the most accomplished hackers in Silicon Valley.
“Come on in.” He turned his back on his guest and strode back into the
apartment.
“Nice place,” Craig said as he closed the door behind him. The living room
was furnished in modern chrome-and-leather furniture. Brown leather that
complemented the beige carpet and the darker brown drapes. One entire wall
was taken up with an elaborate entertainment center, including a
big-screen television that was playing soundlessly. It was fairly neat for
a hacker pad. No printouts, no posters, no stacks of books and magazines,
just the day’s newspaper on the floor by the recliner and a couple of