I raised my eyebrow - even in my international intrigue days, I'd never heard of such a thing.
She evidently saw my disbelief, for she quickly explained, "It's twice as secret as MI6, of course. And we have even better gadgets than in those Bond films." She began to pace around the room, as if surveying the shrunken borders of the British empire.
The empire was even smaller than I remembered - about three meters on a side and cluttered with paperwork and tools. The tough guy who had driven me over was waiting discreetly outside the door.
Maggie noticed my discomfort and put an end to her pacing by sitting on the desk. Several file folders spilled off, but she paid them no mind - after all, it wasn't her desk. "You needn't worry about Thomas," she said, referring to the heavy, "He's one of my finest agents. We can discuss this in front of him."
"And what, precisely, is this that we're supposed to be discussing? I need to be back in forty minutes, so make this good."
She looked me straight in the eye - "I need you to hack one of your clients' accounts for me."
I was shocked, of course! Like any system administrator, I had sworm to uphold the POSIX standard and defend the RFCs. To break a user's privacy except was strictly forbidden, except in the course of emergency data recovery. I explained as much, though I expected Maggie's underlings had briefed her already.
"I'm well aware of your ethical limitations, that's why I arranged for the power blackout." I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me off with a wagging finger, "Tut tut tut! It's my turn to talk. We also took the liberty of removing a quantity of petrol from your building's generators - they're probably running out as we speak."
I began to burn with anger - I had been set up. I should have expected no less; Maggie was a real pro at this. "So the backup will fail in the middle, and I'll have 'no choice' but to recover the data manually, and slip it to you, right?" I wanted to spit on the floor to show my disgust, but since it wasn't her office I figured it wouldn't do much good.
"You're catching on fast - that's the man I knew so long ago!"
I was not moved by a wave of forgotten emotions.
"Well, like it or not you *will* do this, and it's for the good of the Commonwealth and the whole world. The person we're after is a notorious international criminal, a terrorist. He - or she - is implicated in hundreds of bombings that we know about, and doubtless more that we've not yet linked him - or her - to. The information in her account will save many lives - and you'll be generously compensated."
Well, I was always a sucker for saving countless lives. And compensation. Might make up for the crap I was going to get from my boss when he found out the server *and* the backup had crashed.
"And who exactly am I looking for?"
"We know only the user name - it's __________" |
