Three days is an important amount of time in terms of data and updates. If the first few updates of a decode project you give to someone else occur within a day or two of each other, then you can expect rapid updates for the project with minor breakthroughs each and a continuous stream of slightly new information. If it takes more than three calendar days for the first three updates (or a week for just one), then it's probably either a major breakthrough or a total disappointment (unless it's only because it takes a while for code to compile, or anything to do with snail mail).
But then there's the cusp. If day zero is the day that a project is given, then if the first update is received on day three, you know it's going to be a doozy. Always something you wished you knew earlier, but pray isn't real. It never fails.
Earlier today, I had checked the forums. I had simply dumped the data there for anyone who wanted to try their hand at it. That was three days ago, and I had almost forgotten about it due to the party. I checked it daily, out of habit. I didn't expect anything for the first day, and that's what I got. Aside from discussions about possible encryption methods, I got the same thing for the second, and I was hoping that the third would keep the pattern...but as you can guess by this point, I had a rude awakening. At about 6:30, a good friend of mine updated the project.
It turns out that the mini-military rumor is sort of true. The guy owns most of an unknown "security" firm, nicknamed "Vesuvius" because that was the closest word my friend could think of when he looked at the jumble of encrypted letters. I say "security" because not only do they specialize in man-and-firepower rather than cameras and alarms, but they also practice "preemptive security", by which I mean they break into people's houses to arrest and/or capture them. Supposedly worse is the only half-unencrypted part, which I don't look at but it does give me the impression that I'll be getting another update in three days.
I shot the man another email before I went into the network about half an hour ago, hoping he'd take a few hours to get to it. But apparently I'm high priority, because he flagged me down for voice chat at the...how best to put this?
Worst.
POSSIBLE.
TIME. I'm not even exaggerating. It would have been best to keep this conversation private, and if the listener reveals herself, I'll have more than just a bit of 'splainin' to do. Seeing as both myself and the listener want information on each other, it would have been more rude to leave and take the call than to stay and allow a listener, and even ruder if I simply muted both sides and went AFK. This left only one option.
I braced myself and clicked the button.
"Hello?"
"I couldn't help but notice that you somehow got a hold of the shareholder quantities for a certain corporation. Private records, I might add."
"Your information is not mistaken," I snide.
"Care to tell me where you got that information?"
Perfect snarking opportunity. "For all you know, I might own some stock in there as well."
"Sadly, no. I know all of the other shareholders, and none of them are dirty hackers."
"Don't say that!" I threw myself into false panic, before hushing my tone. "There might be hackers listening..."
He suddenly adopted a tone of rage. "Exactly my point! Putting their noses where they don't belong...it's this kind of cheating scum-"...I heard a bang, probably his fist banging a table..."-that I'm trying to rid the world of!"
"Funnily enough, it's your kind of ignorance that my kind feel should be squashed," I say as my own tone of voice begins to take an edge. "I didn't say a person, though. I said a perception. You think that every single leet prog-elite programmer-is a person of mass terror. That all hackers in the world are scum that deserve to rot in hell."
"That's exactly what I think." I reel back in my chair for a moment. "I'm glad that you finally understand my point."
"Then understand mine." Playtime is over. "Hackers believe in one thing: freedom. We hack to promote those beliefs and undermine those who oppose them. And we do it the defense of others. Now, me accessing your data? The internet feels that you are a threat to innocent people-"
"I am only a threat to those that deserve it!"
"And who gave you the choice of who deserves it? Are you the president of the USA? Are you the governor of my state? Or any state? Or any state of being but your own? No! Now get this through your thick skull: Hackers are good guys too. What do you think would have happened if that one hacker wasn't there to fix Eden?"
"The government would have been able to fix the K project without-"
"EDEN WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD BY THE TIME YOU GOT TO HER!" I take a deep breath. "You would never have known in time. You specifically. You're too busy with your irrational hatred of that which you don't understand. You don't understand everything that hackers do, and seeing as you don't even want to try to get it, I can't possibly feel sorry for you."
"...get off this planet."
It takes a few moments to register that I've just been spoken to. "Come again?"
"I said, get off this miserable planet. The world would be better off without you. You specifically."
I suddenly adopt a smirk. "That would do you more harm than good."
"Bullshit."
"Think about it. I would have no reason to fear your corrupt security. We call it Vesuvius, didja know? I would blab all I know about you to people in high-ranking positions, not to forget the internet at large." Time to lay down the big one. "Have you ever heard of the Bard's Song?"
When he didn't respond, I sang two lines of said song.
No one will ever know our names...
But the bards' songs will remain.
I can't stand this guy any longer. I click "hang up" and close the program.
Silence on the other other end. "Give me a minute. I need to calm down from that." A positive response, so I go to my room and bang my head against the wall. Remind me again why I put up with the rest of my species?