Hacking the Naked Princess

by Andy Kaiser

Chapter 0x13

P@nic stared at me, her eyes glazed over, still processing what had just happened.  In a flash that I'm sure she didn't want me to see, I saw her pain and fear, and her knowledge that even though Reboot had left us, her problems were far from over.  She knew all this, and she had no idea of what to do next.  She was just a kid.  Yes, a 'leet-level security and communications hacker, but still just a kid.  She couldn't control this.  She couldn't fight back.

The worst part was that she'd been used, and her creation had been stolen and mutated.  The Naked Princess was changing from a freaky social experiment into an actual weapon.

No, I rethought, the worst part was that I'd caused all of this.

"So?" P@nic said, eyebrows raised in expectation.

"RedAction" I said.  "When Reboot said it, I knew it.  Well, sort of.  Not really.  I mean, I do know that RedAction is a company that, well, it's run by, well...  And their ultimate goal is...  Um.  But they're doing some scary work with scarier people.  Some of them aren't around anymore."

The words were flowing almost randomly as I scanned memories shellacked with pain, terror, and a very significant virus attack.  P@nic looked at me, confused, probably thinking that information technology investigators weren't as cool as they seemed, especially since the one in front of her seemed to have trouble with forming coherent sentences.

I'm a techie, so my default view is to categorize every possible thing I see.  I must give things attributes, ratings, and opinion-heavy reviews.  I have to, because that's the best way to sort through the chaos of life and force it to make sense, to sort out the Big Data of Planet Earth.  The problem was that RedAction took away my usual methods because they'd given me so little information.

RedAction had sneaked into my life as softly and violently as they'd left it.  The knockout gas they had used on me made sure of that.  They'd hidden themselves well.  We couldn't hit what we couldn't see.

I took a deep, cleansing breath.  I coughed because I rarely took breaths that were deep or cleansing, and I tried to explain.

"I worked with a 'Ms. Smith,' one of those high-powered, perfectly-dressed, to-the-point CEOs.  She paid me frighteningly well for a basic security diagnostic.  RedAction is her company."

"That still sounds vague."

"That's because I never got their address.  They hid their location from me.  They're not online.  I remember the business description Ms. Smith gave: RedAction is a 'classified outfit performing secure management of priority operations for anonymous clients.'"

"That's not much to go on."

"Yeah, but it really sells the business card.

Later I found out they were pushing high-tech brain modification."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh for sure, until I got on the wrong end of their mental modifications.  But my third personality says I'm much better now."

She looked at me, appreciating my humor, or possibly she was rethinking her decision to talk to me.  That's when my natural bravado fought with my pessimistic side, and lost.  My pessimistic side turned and gave me a face-punchable smirk.  P@nic was right, we didn't have much.  RedAction was a well-hidden, very private, outside-the-law company whose public description was that they did interesting things for interesting clients.  Now - thanks to Reboot - I knew they were involved with the Naked Princess.  But that was it.

Back in an often-ignored part of my brain, my optimistic side shyly raised its hand.  There might yet be something to work with.  Perhaps my lack of information could still lead to something helpful.

"Based on what happened to me, when I did their security work, I can make a few assumptions: RedAction has a local presence in town, because they took me there to do work.  They don't worry about breaking the law.  They're not government, because if they were, they wouldn't have bothered with hiring a bit-level operator like me."

"I might have something here," P@nic said.

"Right," I nodded.  "If I were a profitable, clandestine, possibly-illegal organization, and had access to the Naked Princess, what would I do with it?  Reboot said the Naked Princess app was being weaponized.  He talked about direct manipulation of stock markets, politics, and sports betting.  But he talked like it was the future, not the present.  I think they're still beta testing.  They're not ready to act."

"You know, I think I might have a way to help," P@nic said.

"Sure.  But this'll be tricky.  How can we track them?  We can't just log on to the nearest esports betting site, pick the next Street Fighter tournament, and look for 'I'm with RedAction' avatars.  We still have to find them.  I need to get in the way of their testing, to find what they're doing and break it."

The danger to my job and possibly my life had just escalated.  Why did I still want this?  Because I felt guilty about P@nic, about supposedly being her savior when I'd instead pointed Reboot and RedAction right towards her.  It was my responsibility to take care of her.  I was angry at the way Reboot had manipulated me.  Correction: I was pissed.  I didn't like being controlled.  I had to punch back.  Though I still didn't have a target for my anger.

"In some cultures, people converse with others," P@nic said.  "It's just a custom, but you still might want to try it."

As I stopped thinking to myself out loud, the words she'd been saying over the last minute finally penetrated my thick skull, and were translated into usable meaning.  My eloquent response was to stare blankly at her.

"Whoops," I said helpfully.  "I got sidetracked."

"No kidding."

"What do you have?  How can you help?"

"When Oober - I mean Reboot - came over to threaten me, he pushed into the house.  Sat down and acted like he owned the place.  He used my computers so he could use my projector.  He logged in to a webfacing server, pulled up the Naked Princess pictures for you and me, and had them displaying on my systems, ready for when you got here."

"He used your systems to log in to his systems."

"Yep."

"Tell me you're running a keylogger."

She smiled.  With her teeth.

"I put keyloggers on every system I access.  So yeah, mine too.  I know everything he typed.  Get online and I'll send it all to you.  This mongrel's gonna pay."

"If Reboot accessed RedAction systems from your house, and you keylogged it, we probably have a lot to work with."

P@nic's eyes were shining in a way that made me uncomfortable.

"Their systems are open," she said.  "Even without creds, I won the AnonIt hacking competition.  I'm not good at a lot of stuff, but I can access systems that aren't meant to be accessed.  Since Reboot was dipstick enough to give me his creds, that makes it even easier.  I'll bet all the bitcoins he bribed me with that I can do some real damage.  The sky's the limit."

Until now, I'd known P@nic as someone Reboot had taken advantage of, someone he'd attacked and tracked and abused.  Now, she glowed with competence and intensity.  I wasn't eager to stand in her way, but I still wanted more backup.  I thought back to Minotaur.  He was another AnonIt hacker, another winner who might be eager for the next big target, especially if it was to stop the Naked Princess app.

"Don't get too eager to pound Reboot into the ground right away," I said.  "We'll do this right.  Reboot works for RedAction.  I have no idea how big they are.  We shouldn't do anything until we know, because the other team is just you and me.  I know people who might be willing to help, but need time to put something together."

P@nic shrugged.

"Fine, whatever," she said.  "You talk to whoever.  I'm going to fight back, and I'm going to do it right now.  You and me don't matter.  I've got my botnet."

Sometimes I get chills.  This was one of those times.