‘A’ For Effort, Pt. 3
December 31, 2010 1:07 am StoriesThe four reconvened at Brian’s place. This wasn’t over. They were convinced the plan could still work. They debriefed and improved.
First, the computer. Brian committed a major error. He should have been able to deal with the CPU issue, but he was nervous going in. Too much adrenaline meant he couldn’t deal with the problem at hand. In fact, Brian was shot. Out. He wanted out. Second, the window. Bad idea. Certainly, there was a better way than entering from the outside of the building where they were completely exposed.
And that’s that’s where Kyle came in. The Key Man. He was a TA for another teacher in the same wing. Another science teacher. A teacher that had keys to the entire building.
Casually, Kyle asked to borrow the keys from Mrs. Henley in order to get some equipment ready for an upcoming biology experiment. Once he had the ring of keys in his hands, he and Chris drove to the hardware store, paid for copies to be made of the keys to the classroom, keys that were clearly engraved with the words ‘DO NOT COPY’, and returned them to her possession, none the wiser.
When asked what took him so long, he said he had to go the bathroom.
Simple.
—
A few days had passed. It was time. He was ready. Chris would watch the exterior perimeter again, mainly to keep an eye on Mr. Robertson. This time, Kyle would patrol the interior hallways. Kyle was also more adapted to deal with Mrs. Henley should she show up again. He was her TA after all.
Kyle handed him the key and nodded. He rounded the corner, past the python case. Looking left and right, he poked the key into the hole and twisted the knob.
Click.
A perfect copy. He slowly opened the door and saw Chris’s legs through the windows at the far end of the room. Guarded. He closed the door and ran to the PC.
Power button on. Nope. Switch flipped. Power button on. Yep. Boot sequence. Floppy disk halfway in the drive for quick insertion when it became time. No risk of fumbling.
He stared intently at the white text on the black screen as the PC did its memory and BIOS check, then Windows 95 started up. Ugh. Taking too long.
Finally, mouse control was given to him. He jammed in the floppy and opened the contents of the disk. He found the start-up folder with lighting fast muscle memory and dragged the key logger inside. Install complete. Practice makes perfect.
A reboot would be required to make sure. More time. Ugh. Seconds seemed like forever as he his heart raced and his stomach felt like it was going to sink into another dimension.
Disk ejected during the lull. Reboot. More waiting. Finally, the operating system came back online.
Wait, what was this?
In the taskbar, an application had appeared, but without icon and text. It looked like a big, empty button. This hadn’t happened during the practice sessions. Would Mr. Robertson notice? Was he tech savvy at all? Clicking on the empty app didn’t do anything. Nothing to minimize. Nothing to maximize. It looked like a bug. Should I remove it? How long will that take?
Fuck it. Good enough.
He pocketed the disk, powered down the PC and headed out the door. Kyle was still waiting outside. The coast was clear.
Phase 1 complete.
—
The next day, Phase 2 was a go. Getting the password would be easy.
“Hey, Mr. Robertson, could you look up my grades for me?”
“I think you have a B…”
“Oh. Could I get a print out? So I can see how much I need to improve?”
“Sure. Come on up.”
Sick feelings. About to throw up. Was this really happening? Just remember, he fucked you.
He watched nervously over Mr. Robertson’s shoulder as he opened the grading software. While waiting, Mr. Robertson noticed the large empty application sitting in the task bar.
He clicked it a few times.
His nerves felt like they were on fire in his entire body. Was he onto him? Did he know? Was he fucking with him? Was this about to all end right now?
The password prompt for the grading software finally appeared on the monitor.
He turned away. He couldn’t watch. The experience was almost overwhelming.
He heard the clicking of keys as Mr. Robertson typed in the password. He nearly passed out as waves of relief rushed though his mind and body.
Phase 2 complete.
—