In Which I Have Way Too Much Fun Hacking
“Pass the salt and vinegar chips?”
“Here.”
“Hey, you didn’t have to throw them at me!”
“Just keep working.”
“I’m trying!”
“Hey, can you two lovebirds keep quiet, I’m trying to work.”
“Yeah, me too. Could you guys keep it down?”
“Sure, sure.”
MJ, Ned, Mr. Stark and I’s chatter fills the room as we all sit at our own computers in the lab. Surrounding us is every snack known to man, from Cheetos to yogurt-covered raisins. Hey, MJ likes them. We’ve also gathered pillows and blankets, and I currently sit on a pillow.
“How long have we even been down here?” I ask, pulling another chip from the bag.
Mr. Stark doesn’t respond, just points to the hologram clock at the center of the room. It was 1:00 pm when we started. It’s…6:30 already?
“Holy shit,” I mutter, looking back to my computer.
“Language.”
“Sorry,” I say through my chewing. My computer is covered with green text as I try to hack through the firewall blocking the files. It’s one hell of a wall, though. I mean, we’ve been working for hours. We may be like, 20 percent of the way through the wall? If that?
But we have to keep working. My hands shake as I type, and I swallow thickly. The secret to my parents’ deaths could be hiding at the other end of this wall. All I have to do is get there.
At first, the computer asked for a password to get access to the files. Since we didn’t have that, we started working on a way to hack through the firewall. It’s painstaking work, but we have to do it.
“Making any progress?” Ned asks through a yawn.
“Nope,” I say, popping the last syllable. “You?”
“Ha, no. I wish.”
“This is boring,” MJ says from her position on a table. “Shouldn’t you guys have hacked it by now?”
“Why are you here again?” Mr. Stark asks. “You’re not hacking with us.”
“Moral support,” she says, tossing a grape in her mouth.
“Huh.” He turns back to his work with a confused expression. I chuckle and rise to my feet, joining MJ on the table.
“You okay?” she says quietly enough that no one else will hear.
I nod. “I’m doing my best.”
“That’s good.” She leans in and kisses my cheek. “I’m here for you, kay?”
“I know.”
“Good.” She smiles and pats my shoulder. “Now get back to work. That hacking won’t do itself.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I know.” I hop off the table and return to my laptop. As soon as I sit down, I sigh. This is gonna be a long night.
Before I know it, I’m neck-deep back in my work. My hands fly over the keyboard, and my eyes flit over the screen, looking over every piece of code that flies through my vision. Man, this firewall is tough. I mean, it was designed by a genius after all.
“How long do you think this is gonna take?” I ask the room.
MJ sits down beside me and shrugs. “I dunno,” she says. “You’re the one hacking. How long do you think it’ll take?”
“I’m guessing another five minutes,” Mr. Stark says from his position across the room.
I jolt and look up. “What?”
“I think we should try putting in a password,” he says.
“Really?” Ned asks.
Mr. Stark nods. “I mean, this is the police we’re looking at, right? I figure their password can’t be that hard.”
“Why Stark, is that a jab at the police department?” MJ says, a smile growing on her face.
Mr. Stark grins.
MJ laughs out loud, then turns to me. “All right, we can keep him.”
“Were we not going to?” I say, confused. MJ ignores me and gets out a notepad from her backpack.
“All right, let’s figure this out,” she mutters. She begins writing possible passwords on the notepad. “Why weren’t we doing this earlier?” she says to no one.
“I dunno. Hacking seemed simpler, until it took like, forever,” I say. “How were we supposed to know how long it would take?”
“So we’re giving up on the whole hacking thing?” Ned questions.
“I guess,” I reply.
“Maybe not,” Mr. Stark muses.
I look up at him. “What?”
“Maybe there’s two ways to go at this. We could have two teams, one hacking, the other trying to figure out the password. Whoever wins gets…”
“A lifetime supply of books,” MJ says.
“A new computer,” Ned interjects.
“Both?” I say, shrugging.
Mr. Stark grins, then says, “Deal. Let’s do this, then. Pete, you’re with me. MJ and Ned, you two figure out the password.”
I walk over to Mr. Stark with my laptop, and he gives me a high five. “Let’s do this, kid.”
I nod. “Yeah.”
Soon, Mr. Stark and I are working at lightning speed, each on our own computers, hacking away. MJ and Ned are on the other side of the room with Ned’s laptop, typing in password after password. I chuckle at the options they tell each other. ‘Steve’, ‘donut’, ‘Connor’.
“Why so many names?” I ask them from across the room.
“We’re looking through the police department, trying to see if one of the employees’ names is the password,” MJ replies.
“Nice.”
“Hey, focus, Pete,” Mr. Stark says.
“Right,” I agree with a nod.
Mr. Stark and I go back into our work, sometimes switching computers to get a look at each other’s code. As we work, the time ticks away, and soon another hour has passed.
“How’s it going over there?” I call to Ned and MJ.
“Still working,” MJ says.
“Actually, we’ve hit a wall,” Ned says. “We can’t enter any more passwords for another half hour.”
“Yeah, we put in too many,” MJ gripes.
“That’s what you get for trying passwords,” Mr. Stark says with a smirk.
“Oh? And how are things going over there? I suppose you’ve hacked your way in by now?”
He frowns in reply.
She chuckles.
“Come on, Mr. Stark, let’s get back to work,” I say. “I want that lifetime supply of books.”
“You do realize that whoever wins, even if it’s us, is getting the books and computer from me? I’m the billionaire.”
“I mean, yeah.”
He sighs and continues working.
Thirty minutes later, cheers erupt from the other side of the room. The noise surprises me, jolting me out of my focused zone.
“What?” I say, wincing.
“We got it!” MJ says, running up to me and giving me a hug.
I frown. “Wait, really? Already?”
“Peter, we’ve been in here for hours. What do you mean, already? Also,” she says with a look at Mr. Stark. “I’m expecting those books soon.”
He sighs and nods. “Sure.” His voice sounds defeated, and I grin.
I turn to MJ. “So what was the password?”
“It was the Captain’s daughter’s birthday. You know, Captain Stacey? He has a daughter named Gwen.”
I vaguely remember her. “Oh, yeah.”
“So wanna look at the files?”
A pit forms in my stomach. “Oh…I guess we can do that now.”
MJ puts her hand on my shoulder. She doesn’t need to say anything. I know she’s here for me.
“Are you ready, Pete?” Mr. Stark says beside me.
“Yeah…” I trail off. I don’t know. This all seems so sudden. A minute ago, I was sure I’d never get to see those files. Now, here they are. I bite my bottom lip, then clear my throat.
“Maybe I’d just like a minute.” Before I can stop myself, I’m running from the room.
The door slams behind me, but I barely hear it. I’ve taken off down the hall, running up stairs and through hallways until I reach the roof of the compound. I expect to have the place to myself, but I bump into someone, so hard that the force of the impact sends whoever it is to the ground.
“I’m sorry!” I say, looking down to see… “Bucky, I’m sorry.”
He gets up and smirks. “Hey, it’s cool. You’re stronger than you look.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot.” I rub the back of my neck. “Sorry. I didn’t think anyone would be up here.”
“It’s cool. What’re you doing up here?”
I open my mouth to tell him, but what comes out is a sob. His eyes widen in concern, and he bends down to look me in the eye. “Hey, kid. What’s wrong?”
I tell him the whole story through my tears, from the hacking to getting the files open. He stands patiently and waits for me to finish. As soon as I do, he nods.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Th-thanks.”
“So you’re finally going to find out what happened.”
“Looks that way.”
“Here,” he says, stepping away. “Come sit.” He gestures to a bench a few feet away.
“Who put that on the roof?” I ask, a little confused.
“I did. I come up here sometimes when it’s a little too much.”
I stop. “You uh…you do?”
“Yep. Believe it or not, not everyone likes me here.”
I chuckle wryly and think of Mr. Stark. “Yeah.” I sit down beside him.
We sit in companionable silence for a few moments, listening to the birds and the wind through the trees. No quinjets are taking off or landing, and no cars are coming in, so it’s relatively quiet.
“I’m sorry about your parents, kid.”
“Thanks,” I say. “I’m just…I’m nervous. There are so many ‘what-ifs’, you know? What if it really was Dr. Connors? Or Mr. Osborn? Or…you?” I bow my head. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. I understand. You may have overlooked something, or someone. That’s okay. If you did, you’ll find out. That’s not a problem that can’t be fixed. And maybe it’s someone you haven’t thought about yet. But still, you’ll be okay. You believe me, right?”
I nod, sniffling. “Yeah.”
“Good. Then why don’t you head back down, and find out what happened?”
I rise, wiping my cheeks. “Sorry about all this.”
He smiles. “Hey, it’s cool. I get overwhelmed sometimes too.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
I sniff once more than turn toward the door. “Thanks again.”
“Anytime.”
With that, I head back down. I open the door to the lab, and everyone looks up at me.
“Hey,” MJ says carefully. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“We didn’t want to bother you. You know, if you needed space?” Ned says. “You sure you’re all right?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m good. Let’s look at those files.”