Chapter 3: Hacker

I like to believe that I’m very good at this….hobby of mine. Hackers are often frowned upon, but I think the world should appreciate them a little more. The things we can do are pretty endless. There are so many things we can change, so many lives we can save or ruin. The world is basically in the hands of hackers such as myself.

However, it takes true skill and knowledge in order to do something as risky as hacking. With hacking, you have to know all sorts of codes that can get pretty complex. It also goes without saying that because hacking is pretty illegal unless you’re with the government, you have to be good at timing and secrecy. As I said in the beginning, I think I’m pretty good at my job, but even if I am, it doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten caught. I admit, I’ve been a little cocky over the past month, which caused me to go to court several times.

My problems go beyond me getting caught though. You see, if I was a normal person, you know, a low-life, then it wouldn’t be so bad. I would be forgetful. However, I am not normal or a low-life person. I am the son, and soon-to-be heir of one of the most influential technology businesses in America. My dad has built his company from the bottom up and has gotten to where he is using only legal moves. It took him fifteen years to reach where he is now and I don’t know if I want to wait that long. So I spice things up.

Using my dad and his connections, I could pretty much make any technological invention that you could dream of.Like a capsule that transports you to different challenges in your subconscious! It’s not that I’m not smart enough to do it. It’s just that my maturity level and sense of the real world is a little less than everyone else. At least, that’s what my dad says. I personally don’t see anything wrong with hacking. It should be a good thing! It really exercises your brain! I got extremely good grades in school (before I dropped out...aha), because of my brain’s ability to take information and store it well so I could recall and use it later.

My life just wasn’t...exciting. What’s the point of living a life in which you are not satisfied with? I know it seems immature, idiotic, etc. etc, but I really do think that this is the only way to live my life. Whenever the media catches me going into court again, the reporters harass me with questions and the crowd flings hateful words at me. Calling me names, death threats, you name it. A very common comment I get is: “This kid has it all, why is he wasting his life doing illegal things and spending so much time in court. I would kill to be in his position. He’s so selfish and unappreciative.”

The second time that I went into court for “accusations” of my hacking “incidents” (For this month), someone from the press managed to pretend to be one of the bodyguards that my dad had to escort me to the courthouse. I felt as though something was off from the beginning, the way that person would look at me and give a very menacing smile. The whole car ride there was scary and unnerving. When we were about 2 blocks away, the “bodyguard” which also happened to be driving, took a wrong turn. Since I was already suspicious, all my red flags started to go off.

“Excuse me, sir. I think you took a wrong turn. You were supposed to keep going straight and turn right after two more blocks.”

They looked into the mirror at me, and smiled. “I know.”

If I wasn’t terrified then, I was now. “Take me to the courthouse now or let me out!” I yelled but when I looked at the person again, their grin only grew wider.

“I’ll let you go if you promise to give me your number and do a story with my magazine.” They changed a couple of lanes so that they could pull over. They then twisted in their seat to look back at me. “Can we make a deal, SIR?”

I was so terrified that all I could think to do was stupidly nod my head and ask them in a voice barely above a whisper: “Can you please take me to the courthouse where I’m supposed to be? I’ll do anything you want.”

They reached back and patted my head like a dog. “Now that’s a good boy.” When we pulled up in front of the courthouse, I was still shaken up and shaking uncontrollably. I reached for the car door handle but right as I touched it, the door locked. I turned back to the “bodyguard” and felt a stronger panic attack coming on.

“P-p-lease, l-let m-me g-go.” I barely managed to choke out in between breaths. I was starting to feel as though I couldn’t breathe. The “bodyguard” rolled their eyes.

“Oh, please. Stop overreacting, it’s not like I’m going to hurt you or anything.” They then reached towards me and I flinched away. With a sigh, they grabbed my phone and took my number without any problems because I didn’t have a password.

They then handed back my phone and unlocked the doors. I climbed out quickly before they could change their mind and before I shut the door, they said, “Expect to hear from me soon. Oh, and if you don’t answer my calls, I will come find you again, and who knows, maybe I really will hurt you.”

I slammed the door shut, and fell to my knees. My breathing was still fast and I felt as though I was going to black out. I could hear people murmuring around me, saying that it was a disgrace “To be wearing such a nice suit in front of the courthouse and appear drunk.” I wanted to tell them that it wasn’t true and if they walked by two seconds earlier, they would understand, but I couldn’t even control my breathing.

After a couple minutes that felt like hours, I could hazily tell that someone was calling my name, but I couldn’t find it within me to respond. Right then, a shadow loomed over me and I immediately flew back and gasped in shock. I thought it was that crazy reporter again, but when my mind snapped to reality, I realized that it was just the prosecutor that my dad hired. She truly was a beautiful woman with short black hair and her usual aura of: Leave me alone has now turned to: Omg, are you okay? If you didn’t know Alice Li, you wouldn’t know that this kind of aura change was something that only happened once in a lifetime.

She waved her hand in front of my face. “Daniel? Daniel? Are you okay? Do you need to go to a hospital? Hello? Can you hear me?” She squatted down in front of me so that we were eye to eye. I managed to fully focus on her. “Hey, are you doing alright? What was that?” She said in a soft voice. I honestly felt like I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone. I shook my head aggressively for a couple of seconds and, with my shaky legs, I managed to stand and put on a smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about it right now.” I put my hand out to help her up and she took it. She simply gave me a worried look before nodding her head once and turning back to the same Alice Li that I’ve always known.

All throughout the trial, I couldn’t concentrate. My mind seemed to only want to focus on what the fake bodyguard said to me and I hated it. I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I hadn’t even realized when the trial was over. I probably still wouldn’t have known if it hadn’t been for Alice’s demonic glare. I smiled at her sheepishly and turned away. I know I made a mistake. I’ve got to stop hacking. I’ll run into more trouble like that person again if I don’t change.

I was thinking this as we walked out. I could tell that Alice was still mad though and Alice is someone that you don’t want to be mad at you. She gestured for me to follow her and she led me to a quiet hallway. I don’t want to go into the details, but she yelled at me and because I was already in a bad mood, I called her some offensive things and she basically told me to find someone else in the future because she wouldn’t be working for my dad or I anymore.

I was furious, how could she just up and quit like that. What other job does she have that she’s able to quit without hesitance. At that moment, I remembered: this girl wasn’t only menacing because of her aura, she worked as an assassin of one of the deadliest clans that this city has ever known. I figured that she must be getting paid good money because she’s constantly putting her life on the line and the prosecutor job was just a nice cover up so no one suspected her of anything.

Maybe it was because I was still reeling from the person who pretended to be my bodyguard or if I just needed someone to take my pent up anger and stress at everything on, but I suddenly thought: How easy would her life be if I were to expose her secret. Only my father was supposed to know but I walked in while they were doing her “interview” and found out. As I said before, my dad always goes about things in a legal matter. That’s just how he is. So you may be asking, what is he doing with an assassin as a prosecutor? Well, he needed someone who was ruthless and because she was an assassin and he didn’t know that when accepting her application, he thought he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He actually respects her immensely for some reason. When I found out about it and asked my dad, he told me that she had reasons for doing what she did and that I shouldn’t inconvenience her or get in her way.

For a while, that was no problem, she seemed scary enough and if she was supposed to help me in some ways, I didn’t want to mess up the help I’d be receiving. I’m sure my dad is going to call me a disgrace again and maybe even disown me when he hears about what I’m about to do, but it can not be helped. My anger is too large to quell and she just happens to be the closest and easiest target.

I was finally about to break her carefully constructed facade, and make her take a step down. “Hey, everyone! I bet there is something I know, that the rest of you don’t about Alice Li!” I was in direct eyeshot of her and I could see that she froze at the entrance with her hand on the handle. To make things even more dramatic, I stood on a nearby table as people started to gather around me. Alice turned around and started running to where I was. She looked so panicked. Even more so when she joined the crowd.

The people that were gathered around me started murmuring and looking at Alice, then at me, to hear whatever juicy gossip I had on her. I smiled, at the people, then looked at Alice. My face fell. She was clutching her chest and looking at something far away, while breathing unevenly. Seeing as I just went through this, I knew what she was experiencing right away.

I don’t know why I did what I did next, but I can never take it back. I jumped down from the table, pushed the confused people out of my way so I could reach Alice, and took off my suit jacket and placed it on her shoulders. Out of all the things I could’ve said to the awaiting crowd, I said the stupidest, most idiotic sentence of my ENTIRE life.

“Alice Li is my soon to be wife.”