From: fhoffer@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Fred Hoffer)
Subject: Cracked: A Short Story to Read & Enjoy
Organization: University Computing Services
Distribution: misc.writing
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:44:36 GMT
X-Posted-From: titan.ucc.umass.edu
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

This is a short story I wrote for a class.  Let me know what you think.
my E-Mail address is fhoffer@titan.ucc.umass.edu... Thanks.. I hope you
like it.


                             Cracked
                         by Fred Hoffer 



                            Prologue

     The following story may or may not be true, but in any case
the names have been changed to protect the innocent, the
helpless, and the powerless in the story.  Any material in this
story found to be exactly like real life persons or situations is
purely coincidental, and the author will not be held responsible
for any physical or psychological damage caused by the story. 
The story does contain a few scenes that may be unsuitable for
certain individuals, so reader discretion is advised.  Now that
you have been pre-warned of the possible serious nature of the
story, sit back, relax, and be prepared for one wild ride, as we
take a look at the exciting life of Fred Hoffer.

 
                        In the beginning 
 
     I am a computer science major that quickly acquired this
fascination to crack computer systems.  To crack a computer
system is to gain access in to a computer system that you don't
already have an account with.  To gain access to this computer
system, you need to 'crack' the password protection scheme.  Most
people call this kind of access as 'breaking in', but I never had
any malicious intentions, and calling it 'breaking in' made me
sound like a criminal, so 'cracking' sounded like a more
appropriate term.  Anyway, I considered myself a law-abiding
citizen that would never harm another human being or destroy
someone else's work for my own pleasure, so I would continue to
'crack' or 'break into' computer systems whether people
considered it legal or not.  Well, one day upon my travels
accessing different computer networks on the University mainframe
computer, this one system called Bellum caught my eye.  I
couldn't figure out what caught my eye, but the name just sounded
interesting, so several attempts to crack the password protection
system were made, but they proved to be unsuccessful.  The
mystery of what was lurking on the other side of this computer
was beginning to get to me.  I wanted to have a bite of this
forbidden fruit so, in English class, I created a program on
paper.  This program would hopefully be able to get through the
seeming impenetrable password protection scheme in Bellum.  The
program was simple to create, and didn't take long to write in
class.  The program had a simple task, and that was to run
through all the different combinations of letters and numbers
until a successful combination in accessing the system was made. 
Bellum seemed the appropriate system to test the program on, and
there wasn't too much going on a Friday anyway. 
     It seemed like a typical Friday afternoon for me, I was
driving home, listening to the music after a long day of classes
at the University.  Fatigue was beginning to set in as the
traffic on the Coolidge Bridge was horrendous. The traffic and
fatigue didn't seem to bother me that much, my music was blaring
and there was plenty in store for tonight.  I had a task that
needed to be completed tonight that was going to be well worth
the lack of sleep for one night.  And a lack of sleep was nothing
new to a student in the computer science field so, I shifted
gears and headed home for the night. 
     I soon arrived home after the long ride, and I quickly
fetched the mail from the mailbox at the end of the driveway. 
There didn't seem to be any mail for me, so I headed right for
the computer to type in the cracking program.  A few hours
passed, as I furiously typed in the program to get it finished
before dinner time, but my stomach was begging too much for some
food, so the work that was done was saved.  I then went upstairs
to get something to eat, and finish the program after dinner.  A
box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese was the only healthy kind of food
that I could find.  Cheese and pasta seemed certainly better than
the typical food found in the vending machines that most
programmers eat. I followed the directions on the box, and began
to make my dinner.  Minutes later, dinner was served, and I
quickly devoured the whole thing.  Upon finishing the meal, I
quickly cleaned up and headed straight back to work on the
computer. 
     It was near midnight before the program was completed, and
The Ultimate Cracking Crue Program was about to receive it's
trial run on Bellum.  I knew there was no way that a mere
computer was going to get the best of me, and the Ultimate
Cracking Crue Program was going to prove me right.  I connected
up my home computer to the school computer, and began to run the
program, crossing fingers and toes, hoping that nothing would go
wrong, and denied access to the system would soon be a thing of
the past.  The program journeyed through a series of networks and
gateways until it reached Bellum, where the real work began. 
Being the smart computer programmer, a signal bell was installed
to inform me when the program had actually finished. 
     The program started it's work, entering all the different
combinations.  Operations looked fine, and the Cracking Crue was
running smoothly, so I decided to catch some sleep after a long
day.  My head gently hit the pillow on the bed, and I was fast
asleep. 
     Many hours passed until the program found the right
combination, and there was a loud, "Ding...Ding...Ding" 
     I looked over to my clock to see it was 9:50 a.m., and the
computer screen was flashing away, so I rushed over to the
computer to discover what was inside the system.  Dying to know
what was found, I quickly sat down, and began my typing search
into the unknown realms of Bellum. 
     The search of the system proved to find a few programs that
looked very interesting to try, so like a curious cat, I tried
them all.  Most the programs turned out to be popular video games
like, Tetris, Chess, and Worm, but there was one program in the
directory called hcnual.  Intrigued by the name, I decided to
give the program a run.  The program was run and a question
appeared.  The question asked for the name of the English word
for radio that was spelt properly, either way. 
     "That's an easy one!" I exclaimed. 
     Radar spelt either way, forwards or backwards would be
correct, so radar was entered.  An acknowledgement that the
answer was correct was flashed on the screen, and then a second
question appeared.  This trivia game seemed fun, but the
questions certainly became tougher than the first question.  As
the second question asked "What can be found only once in time,
and once every thousand years."  This question left me stumped
and perplexed, so I decided to stop and go watch a movie with my
family.  Some serious progress was made in the last 24 hours, so
a question like this could wait, and a break from the computer
would do me good. 
     The movie started, and I took a seat in the rocking chair. 
My parents rented Better Off Dead, which is a personal favorite.
A perfect way to take a break from the computer, watch an
excellent movie and, satisfy my stomach's hunger with some fresh,
buttered popcorn.  As the movie started, I began to feel more
relaxed sitting in the rocker, and felt glad to be out of that
back breaking computer chair.  The movie made me laugh through
the entire thing, but the movie was quickly over and the credits
began to fly by.  The copyright date came on the screen in the
roman numerals MCMLXXXIV, which is 1984 in Arabic form. 
     "Wait a minute," I said.  I had stumbled across something
very interesting.  M was 1000 in roman numerals, meaning for
every 1000 years, you had an M, but how did the roman numeral M
fit with the other clue.  In frustration, I wrote down the word
time on a piece of paper, and noticed the answer staring me in
the face.  M was the third letter in the word, and was never
repeated throughout the word.  Meaning M appeared only once in
time, and once every thousand year. 
     Content with my huge discovery, I waited until after my
homework on Sunday to access the system again, and try my luck
then.  Once on the system, the program hcnual was run again, and
the answers to the questions were entered into the program.  The
answer of M was correct, so the program began to prompt with yet
another barricade, but an on-line-message from a user on the
university computer came across the screen, so the question was
unreadable for me.  Frustrated that another question had to be
answered, I decided to stop and see what this user wanted.
     The user said that this was their first time on the system,
and was experiencing some serious problems that couldn't be
solved, and could someone be able to help out.  Remembering how
to send an OLM (On-Line-Message), the user looked on the list of
logged on users to ask for help.  I happened to be the only one
on the system, so I received the cry for help.  I felt honored,
and helped the user out with the simple problems.  Feeling
grateful, the user asked me for my name. 
     I replied, "Fred, what's yours?" 
     "Kelly", appeared as she typed her name in. 
     I then asked her, "You like computers?" 
     "A litle, but not tht muhc...", was slowly typed in, and
incorrectly might I add, but it didn't matter.  I could easily
figure out what she meant. 
     The conversation continued from there for a couple of hours.
Kelly told me quite a bit about herself, everything from her
hometown in Maryland, to her major, and why she choose the
University for her studies.  I, of course, gave her my whole
history, except the hacking part.  There was no need to brag or
incriminate myself with a complete stranger, especially on the
first date.  Before we ended the conversation, she said that she
would like to pay me back for my help, and asked me if I would
meet her in the Blue Wall on campus for a cookie and a shake. 
     "Sure, that would be great!" I replied.
     "Graet, I would lik to meet you in peson" she typed back.
     It took a minute to figure out that she was looking forward
to meeting me in person.  I wanted to criticize her typing, but
didn't.  I just made the necessary arrangements to meet her in
the Blue Wall the next day after classes.
      The next day came, and I met Kelly at the Blue Wall.  She
had described herself the night before, but when I first saw her,
she was far better then how she described herself on the
computer.  She was a little over five feet with straight blond
hair, and a set of sparkling green eyes that just seemed to
mesmerize me.  She was a ten on my scale.  I was in love at first
sight, and when she smiled, my heart hit the floor.  This person
was sending me sky high to cloud nine, and it was going to take
an H-bomb to get me down.  We sat, talked, and ate for a while,
as we each learned about one another.  Finding out each other's
likes and dislikes about the University, food, and life in
general.  I was having a great time, and by the looks of things,
so was she. 
     As she was leaving, she asked, "Would you like to meet again
tomorrow?" 
     I gladly replied "Yes, I would love to." 
     Kelly met me promptly the next day at the Blue Wall.  We did
primarily the same thing as the night before, but I didn't care
what we were doing.  I was with Kelly, and it felt so good to be
with her so, for the next week, we met and talked about anything
and everything that crossed our minds.  I could feel myself
becoming closer and closer to her, both physically and
emotionally.  Then one night, I walked with her up to where she
was living, and when we arrived, she told me that she had
something for me.  She leaned over and gave me a long, wet kiss
on the lips.   
     She then said, "Fred, being with you is fun and enjoyable,
and I want to spend more time with you." 
     I told her, "I felt the same way, but that I also enjoyed
being with her." 
     She laughed at my little joke, and hugged me good night.    
I headed home, and decided tonight I would try the trivia program
on Bellum, one more time.  I hadn't tried in a week, since I was
spending most of my time with Kelly, and the night just seemed so
right to try it.  My spirits were high from that kiss, and
homework could wait, so I logged on to Bellum, and ran hcnual. 
The third blockade came up on the screen, it prompted me with
"Enter Password:".  This seemed to baffle me, as I tried several
passwords that were commonly used, but they all were incorrect. 
It was getting too late, so I decided to sleep on it. 
     The next day came, and Kelly met me at our normal rendezvous
spot in the Blue Wall.  I asked her, if she would like to come
over and visit my place.  She was thrilled by the offer, and said
that she would love to see my house and family.  I brought her
over after classes, and showed her to my room.  She looked
around, checked everything out, and then asked me, "What do you
do for fun at home." 
     I went to the computer and showed her the computer system,
Bellum, which I had gained access to and the program hcnual that
was stumping me.  She didn't seem happy with my fun and
excitement, so I shut the computer off. 
     She told me that it was a great accomplishment that I made,
but there were other things in life to do than waste my life on a
stupid computer. 
     I agreed, "Like holding you tight, and never letting you 
go." 
     She agreed, and the warmth of her heart could be felt as she
hugged me like nothing before.  Kelly began to cry.  I asked her
why, but all she could say was, "Fred, I need to be going." 
     I didn't argue, and took her home.  After dropping Kelly
off, I wondered what could have bothered her so much.  It didn't
seem right for someone to bothered so much by a computer program,
but maybe she was over-filled with joy that she was with me, so
that's why she started to cry.  I didn't think that was the
answer, but it sounded good enough for now. 
     The next day came, I saw Kelly, and she said that we could
no longer see each other.  The pain began to sink in, as I
couldn't figure out why, or what was so wrong with what I did. 
She just ran away crying, before I could say a word.  Hurt and
curious, I followed her back to her dorm room making sure to stay
out of sight.  What she said was beginning to eat away my
insides, and I was going to find out what was going on. 
     I stood outside her door, and could hear her talking to
someone.  She said something about how she was sorry that she
couldn't finish her mission of terminating Fred, and that she
would like the KGB to re-assign her to a new assignment. 
      "She's a spy, and has to terminate me.  Ohhh-boy, what did
I get myself into, now.  God, it must be something big for the
KGB to go this extreme." I said softly to myself. 
     I left for home.  I wanted to find out what was going on,
and I knew that there wasn't much time before they would be
coming after me.  I opened the door, and called for my mom, but
there was no answer.  I looked around and found the house trashed
with things thrown around, turned upside down, and the furniture
broken.  I went into my mother's bedroom, only to find her laying
dead.  She had been shot several times.  
     All I could say was "Ohh my god.", as I fled the house.  I
knew this place wasn't safe for me, so I headed for my car.  I
started up the car, and began to back out of the driveway. As the
car started to roll backwards, this car began shooting in my
direction. 
     Frantically, I put the car in first gear, and pushed the gas
pedal to the floor.  I headed through the front lawn to get some 
speed before hitting the road.  This black car started to pick up
speed also, and began to follow me.  I tried to out maneuver the 
black car, through the streets of Easthampton and Northampton.  I
thought that I lost them when I took a quick turn on to Bridge
Road, but they came up from behind taking South Street.  I needed
a place to go and hide from these people, I figured the
University would be perfect, with my office there and only a few
people knowing about it, Kelly not being of them.  I sped down
Damon Road, over the Coolidge Bridge, and ended up losing them on
the back roads to campus.  Figuring they would be soon arriving
on campus to look for me, I parked the car near the Campus Police
Station, and entered the Tower Library through the South College
entrance to take the stairs up to the seventh floor.  Upon
reaching the seventh floor, I headed straight for my office to
work.  I grabbed a terminal from one of the corrals and began my
search to find out what this computer system was really used for. 
I finally logged on to the system, and was prompted again to
enter password, so this time, I did as instructed, and entered
the word password.
     As soon as return was pressed, the screen went blank, and a
set of numbers appeared on the screen.  The series of numbers
6000 was printed on the screen. 
     "That's it!  All this work, and the program doesn't do a
damn thing!  My life for a series of numbers,  What's this world
coming to."  I exclaimed. 
     Well, right after I said that, the screen changed to 5900. 
This program seemed to be a counter, but a counter to what.  The
program was called hcnual, which launch spelt backwards.  Maybe
this was a program to launch a pretty fireworks display on the
screen.  I wasn't amused or pleased with my finding, and didn't
give a rat's ass to see what was at the end of the countdown, so
I began to hit keystrokes to stop the program, but nothing seemed
to stop it.  Then, there was a knock at the door.  I stopped
everything, and there was another knock. 
     "Fred, I know you are in there, Please let me in." Kelly
said. 
     Kelly asked me to sit down, she had some things to tell me.
She began to say "Fred, I am sorry for hurting your feelings, but
I am a KGB agent, and was assigned to kill you when the Russia
Coup learned that you had broken into their computer system.  The
Coup felt threatened with your knowledge, and were afraid that
you might tell about their program to destroy the world with an
onslaught of nuclear missiles.  They then decided to put me on a
plane, and send me to Massachusetts to find and kill you.  I met
you at the Blue Wall, and fell in love.  I could no longer build
the courage to kill you, so I asked the KGB to have them transfer
me to another assignment, but my wishes were refused.  The KGB
informed that if I didn't finish you off, they would get someone
to kill us both." 
     "Well, they already have sent some goons to finish me off,
but they ended up killing my mom.  They tried to follow and catch
me, but I was able to lose them in Northampton."  I explained to
Kelly. 
     "I am sorry about your mother, but we are in grave danger"
as she looked over at the terminal.  "If that countdown reaches
0000, the missiles will be launched, and the world will be
destroyed.  I know someone that can stop the program, but we need
to go to my room and call him.  There's not much time, so let's
get out of here." she said in a frightened, but hurried voice. 
     We proceeded to cross campus to her dorm room, looking and
watching out for the KGB agents.  It was a Saturday afternoon, so
campus was dead with most of the students either sleeping, away
for the weekend, or off doing other things.  Because of this, we
had to take each step with caution.  If we were spotted, there
wasn't going to be any place to hide, so each step had to be made
carefully.  There also wasn't much time left before mass
destruction, so in between the different buildings we ran until
we reached her dorm room.  15 minutes had passed, since the
counter began, so there was 45 minutes left until the world no
longer existed. 
     Kelly picked up the phone, and made the call.  She received
the deactivation codes to stop the program, wrote them down a
piece of paper, and handed me that piece of paper.  She hung up
the phone, and we headed back to my office to stop the program. 
As we were heading back, a familiar voice said, "Fred, Stop.  I
need to ask a favor of you." 
     This could only be the voice of Larry.  He was always asking
people for homework solutions.  He was a royal pest to everyone
in the computer department, and today was not the day to be
messing around.  "Fred, I need the solutions to the last homework
in COINS 511," Larry says out-of-breath.
     "Larry, call me later for the solutions to the homework in
COINS 511," I told him.
     "Fred, I need your phone number, since I don't have it," he
says.
     There was a reason why he didn't have my number, but I was
too nice to tell him why, so I came up with a lame excuse, "I
don't have anything to write it down on."
     He asked if I could write it down on the piece of paper that
I had in my hand.  I told him that we were in a hurry, and if he
would stick out his hand, that he would receive my phone number. 
He stuck out his hand, and I wrote my phone number on his hand,
and then ran for the library with Kelly following right behind. 
We didn't want to wait for an elevator, so we decided to take the
stairs up to my office. 
     We climbed the spiral staircase up seven flights of stairs
to my office.  I unlocked the door, and saw the terminal
displaying 0900.  I opened the piece of paper to find that the
sweat from my hand had smudged the ink of the paper, so the last
code was illegible.  I began entering the code sequences,
figuring that it would best to try guessing what the last code
was when the time came.  The entering of the first twenty codes 
took several minutes, and I now reached the point to enter the
smudged code.  It prompted me to enter "Author:"  I looked at
Kelly, and she didn't say a word.   
     I asked her "Who wrote the program?", and she turned the
other way.   
     "Who in the heck wrote the program!" I demanded.   
     She told me in a soft tone who it was.  It was her father. 
I quickly typed in his name, and the program stopped counting
with 2 minutes left. 
     As soon as the program stopped, I turned to her in a sigh of
relief, only to find a gun pointing at me.  She informed that I
knew too much about this program, so the KGB wants me terminated. 
They had tracked me down and found out who I was, so they decided
to send in an agent to get rid of me.  The KGB picked her,
because her father wrote the program, and with a beautiful female
like the programmer's daughter, Fred wouldn't expect a thing, and
he would be quickly eliminated.  She said that she met me, and
couldn't do it, but she asked to be re-assigned.  The KGB
refused, and said that if she didn't comply, they would kill her
parents.  Fearing their safety, she was going to have to finish
me off, right now.  Just as she finished telling me this, the
tears began to roll down her cheeks.  You could tell that she
didn't want to kill me, and in a quivering voice she said, "Fred,
I am sorry, but I have to ..."  She started to pull the trigger,
when the KGB agents burst opened the office door.  They pointed a
gun at her and one at me, saying they couldn't trust either of
us, so they were going to shoot us both.  The one pointing the
gun at Kelly was just about to pull the trigger, when I lunged
over and pushed her out of the way of the on-coming bullet.  The
bullet managed to miss Kelly, but ended up hitting me in the leg. 
I grabbed Kelly's gun and shot one of the KGB agents in the head. 
The other KGB agent fled out of the office, and I quickly
followed him. 
     The KGB agent ended up sneaking around and grabbing Kelly
from behind.  Fearing for her safety, I aimed for the head and
pulled the trigger.  The excitement of the moment caused my hands
to shake, and my shot hit him in the chest.  The agent fell to
the ground, but fired one last shot at me.  The shot hit me,
right in the heart.  I was devastated by the blow, and quickly
fell to the floor.  Kelly ran over to help me. 
     I looked into her beautiful green eyes, as she held with me
close.  The blood was beginning to pool on the carpet, and the
tears were beginning to fall from her face.  I knew that my life
was about to come to an end, so I told her "Don't worry, you will
be safe now.  It be over real soon." 
     She cried some more, and said "I don't want you to die." 
     I looked at the blood on her hands, and then looked back
into her face, and said "All good things must come to an end, and
I guess in this case, this one came sooner than expected.  I will
miss you and I will always.  Love you,"  As I murmured those last
two words, my eyes fell shut.  I could faintly feel the tears
fall from Kelly's face, and the sound of her loud cry was no
longer heard.
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