The Hacker: Chapter 1

"The Hacker"

The house was filled with the eerie tone of silence, until the air suddenly filled with the sound of clattering. The sound was coming from upstairs, in the dimly lit room at the end of the hall. The shades were pulled down, and the only light source was the soft glow of the computer screen. It was here that I saw the boy, tapping on his keyboard with the focus and ferocity of someone playing Tetris, not knowing that what he was doing was beyond the simplicity of a game. No, he was committing a much more serious, sinister act.

         The boy was pale-skinned, frail-bodied, and blurry-eyed. He looked like he'd been at this for days. What could anyone possibly be doing on the computer at this hour, I thought to myself, looking at my watch, which now read 3:00 AM. This boy's insane!

         The boy was completely engrossed in his work, so much so that he didn't even notice me enter his room. He just continued to type, completely oblivious to the outside world.

         For a few minutes, I stood there silently.
         
         Then I finally spoke. "What are you doing, son?"
         
         When he turned around, I was horrified. He had been staring at the screen for so long that he had developed permanent shadows underneath his eyes.

         I asked again. "Is anything wrong, son? You weren't at dinner. Are you feeling okay?"

         "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered in the tone of your typical 16-year-old boy. "I've just been working on this program here."

         "Oh? What program would that be?" I asked, not really knowing or caring.
         
         "It's a virus."
         
         There was a pause.
         
         "Yeah, right, a virus! Ha!" I laughed, thinking he was being facetious.

         "No, really," he said, "it's a virus. Take a look."

         I walked over to the monitor wearing the smirk of a skeptic.

         And that's when I saw it.
         
         The digital equivalent of the atomic bomb. Even a computer illiterate person could tell that this program had been created to fulfill some sick and perverse plot.

         I was amazed when the boy installed the family printer without a hitch. It was hard to believe, however, that my son was capable of creating such a destructive and evil monstrosity on his own. It just wasn't human. But then again, as I learned, neither was my son.


         To be continued.............