Prologue

I sat in a large, posh, corporate conference room, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. I like to be the first to show up for meetings like this. It gives me a chance to get a feel for the space and it allows me to scrutinize each person as they arrive. It also gives me a feeling of control over the meeting. Yes, I like to be the one in control - especially when others mistakenly believe that control rests in their own hands.

For a few minutes I sat alone, privately mocking my hosts for their profligate spending on all the unnecessary niceties that lined the conference room. Then the company CEO, Mr. Edward Persimmons, walked in and greeted me. Ed was the one who had approached me about this project three months ago. I remember being skeptical about the technology, but he was a superb salesman and was clearly excited about the idea. His excitement turned out to be contagious.

His company, Nextwave, had decided that it was high time someone invented a way for people to communicate directly to the internet without pesky Bluetooth devices that not only looked dumb, but also didn't work well and had to be recharged all the time. Scientists had known for a while how to implant small microphones and speakers into a person's ear to correct for deafness or other medical problems, but the concept had never taken off commercially for healthy people.

Ed laid out his company's premise for why people didn't go for implants; dead batteries and obsolete hardware. Nobody wanted to lay their head on a battery charger for an hour every day. And, more importantly, everyone understood that new technology came out every year. It was one thing to trash your smart phone every year or two and get a new one, but it was an entirely different proposition to surgically remove and replace an implant every couple years. Nobody would do that.

Ed started to really get excited as he explained how his company's device, the Brainset, had overcome these two hurdles. Micro-electronics had allowed them to create an array of tiny sensors that would sit on the brain itself. They only needed tiny amounts of electricity that they would be able to get from the brain's own electrical activity. Their solution to the 'obsolete' problem was even more elegant. The Brainset was just a series of sensors - no processor or hard drive or anything else. The sensors communicated wirelessly back to Nextwave's servers. Those servers would be upgraded whenever necessary, but the sensors never had to be changed.

Nextwave's concept was for the sensors to essentially measure any and all brainwave activity. They wouldn't have uses for all of the information right away, but as brain science progressed, the Brainset would be able to do more and more.

Even right out of the box, the capabilities of the Brainset were impressive. Users would be able to give a set of commands simply by thinking them. They could use a think-command to start a phone call, then speak the recipient's name, and then have the conversation, all without touching a single button or jamming some annoying earpiece into their ears. Incoming calls would trigger a quiet tone that only they would hear, and they could then think-command either to ignore or answer the call. Beyond phone calls, the initial list was fairly limited, but it was expected to grow. Nextwave had built-in a few commands for doing internet searches or finding directions, but it was clear that was just the tip of the iceberg.

I remember getting pretty caught up with Ed about the possibilities for this technology, but it soon became time to get down to business. I had a pretty good idea what he wanted from me. I was a professional computer hacker, and it was well know that I was one of the best. Companies hired me all the time to try to hack into their systems so that they could identify and correct any weaknesses.

Ed explained that security for his company's Brainset had to be absolutely flawless. They couldn't afford to have anyone hacking into their clients' heads! So he wanted to bring me on, in secret, to try to hack the testers. As usual in these situations, nobody else at the company would know my identity except for the CEO. Sitting in the conference room now, I thought back on that conversation. I had certainly been intrigued, and agreed quickly to the job. Even so, I had had no idea that I would end up having quite so much fun.

 

***

 

The next person to enter the conference room was Richard, the Nextwave's Chief Information Officer and their head of security. "Head douche-bag" would have been more appropriate. I mean, I always hate CIOs and network security types - it's only natural given my profession. But this guy really took the cake. He was a cock to everyone below him in the Nextwave hierarchy, and a total sycophant to the guy in charge. I could tell that Ed didn't actually like him, but apparently he thought that the guy was really good at his job.

That couldn't have been further from the truth. Sure, Richard was well organized and kept his team working hard on all of their assignments; but hackers don't launch visible attacks on a system's front door. Did Richard think that the security battles he might fight would be like the pitched battles of the 1600's - my forces lined up against his across a big open plain? What an idiot. His fortress might look massive and impenetrable to people who didn't know any better, but for someone like me it was Swiss cheese. I mean, granted, I'm at the top of the business, but really any hacker worth a damn could have waltzed right past this schmuck.

It wasn't just Richard's incompetence and douche-baggery that made me despise him. I have to admit that part of my hatred was due to the fact that despite all of his massive flaws, he was quite successful. Was the whole world so fucking stupid that they couldn't see this guy for who he really was? Look, I don't just mean that he was successful financially. When I first start a job I always dig into personal lives; it gives me an understanding of who I'm up against. I hacked Richard's Facebook pages, email accounts, bank statements, you name it. Almost right away, I found his girlfriend.

The pictures I found of Hannah showed a smoking hot babe. I remember wondering what the heck a d-bag head of security was doing with a chick like that. Long blond hair, toned athletic body, perfectly tanned skin, pert c-cup boobs. I knew then that I was going to fully enjoy cutting Richard down to size.

 

***

 

Next into the room came the five Brainset testers. Nextwave had signed up these folks for a three month trial, which had just come to an end. The first month of the trial was done before I was brought on, to give the security team a chance to build up that pathetic firewall. Then there had been two months for me to try to hack in. That proved to be more than enough time, but I certainly put the extra time to good use.

The rest of the Nextwave VPs slowly filtered into the room. The company's entire executive team was supposed to be on hand to get the verdict on the testing period of their big new technology. Conspicuously late, however, was the VP for marketing. I had done quick background checks on each of the VPs, and didn't find much of interest except for that marketing VP. She was young to have such a senior position, and the reason quickly became clear. She was none other than Hannah, the woman sleeping with the CIO, and it was pretty obvious that she had slept her way up to where she was.

It was also obvious that none of Hannah's fellow VPs missed having her in the meeting, and I understood why. The woman was manipulative and conniving. She was always trying to get ahead, and didn't care who she stomped on or slept with to get there.

Something those other executives didn't know about Hannah was that she had convinced Richard to secretly set her up with her own Brainset. Apparently she was enthralled by the concept and simply couldn't wait for the trial period to conclude. You can imagine my surprise, and delight, when I discovered that!

First Day with Hannah

 

It was only one week after Ed hired me to find security weaknesses in his company's Brainsets, and I was ready to roll. I had quickly discovered that the Brainsets were built to be capable of communicating directly with other Brainsets. The feature hadn't been activated for the trial; it was just one of the many things that Nextwave had built-in for the future to make sure that their product didn't become obsolete. Because of that, Richard, the head security moron, had done nothing to block me from hacking into the Brainsets through that direct channel.

I gained access to the Brainsets that first day, then spent a week observing. The amount of information coming from the Brainsets was incredible. I quickly identified the signals for the commands that the testers could send, and could listen on to any of their phone calls. It was also fairly easy to activate their microphones so I could listen in to anything they were saying, even when they weren't "on the phone".

I was also getting all the other information that the sensors were reading about their subject's brainwaves. It was overwhelming, but after a week of listening to conversations and matching what was going on with the brainwaves, I was starting to get a handle on some of it. I had also made a number of brainwave recordings and figured out how to playback those recordings so that Richard or anyone else watching would think that everything was normal. That was the final hurdle I needed to overcome. I could then hack into the Brainsets without anyone back at Nextwave seeing what was going on.

Out of the six people who had Brainsets, Hannah was the obvious choice for my experiments. The fact that she wasn't one of the official five testers would reduce suspicions. She also lived alone and was a total bitch, which would make my job easier and more justifiable. On top of everything, she happened to be smoking hot, which I pretended was just an added bonus and not my primary consideration. I listened in to her at work as she sent her secretary on menial errands, railed on her subordinates for insignificant mistakes, and just generally made life miserable for those around her. This tigress was perfect for what I had in mind!

I waited for half an hour after she went to sleep on a Monday night, then started the recording from her previous night's sleep. I took a deep breath and picked up my computer mic. This was it. I was prepared for everything I could think of, but you never know exactly how your plans will work until you actually get started.

"Hannah," I whispered softly into my mic. My voice was played directly from the tiny speaker implanted behind her ear. I could tell that she had heard it, because the graph of her brainwaves on my computer changed, but apparently it hadn't quite woke her up. I whispered again, "Hannah."

This time her brainwaves changed significantly and it was clear that she was conscious, so I said into my mic, "Hello, my dear."

"Oh!" She responded, clearly surprised. "I must have placed a call in my sleep. Sorry to bother you."

My computer registered a command from her to hang up a call, which of course didn't actually do anything. I continued; "No, sweetie, you didn't call me, I called you." Another command to end a call came in, then her brainwaves started to show some nervousness. I enlightened her as to what was going on. "You can stop trying to end this call, because this is not actually a phone call. I'm plugged directly into your system."

"What? How? Who... who are you?" Hannah stammered. A command came from her Brainset to place a call to Richard, who she had on a sort of speed-dial that didn't require her to speak his name. I was actually impressed that she had recovered from the shock so quickly and tried to make a distress call. But it wouldn't do her any good.

"Sorry, sugar, I'm blocking your calls. I want your undivided attention." The brainwaves that showed her surprise and nervousness were really going strong now. My computer let me know that she tried to place a call from her old cell phone, but I had, of course, hacked into that as well and blocked all calls.

"Who are you, and what the hell do you think you're doing?" Hannah demanded.

"Who I am isn't important, but I'm happy to tell you what I'm doing. As part of the Brainset trial, I was hired to try to hack these gizmos so that any weaknesses can be exposed before the product goes to market."

"What?! I wasn't informed that we had hired anyone to do that! That's ridiculous! Anyway, you've got the wrong person. I am not one of the testers; I am a company Vice President."

Hannah's tone had gone from surprised to haughty. It sure was going to be fun to cut her down a few notches. "I know who you are, darling. I figured that if I could hack your Brainset, it would show that I could hack any of the Brainsets.

My screen showed Hannah's irritation rising, but it also showed that she was able to get her surprise level under control quickly. I was impressed. She then demanded; "All right, you've clearly demonstrated that you can hack my Brainset. Now get the fuck out of my head and never come back."

"Oh, baby cakes, I'm not done with you just yet! You see, I was instructed to test the extent to which I could hack and manipulate your system. So far, I've only shown a few things; that I can keep an audio line open against your will, that I can block commands that you try to give to your Brainset, and that I can prevent those security morons back at the company from seeing your upset brainwaves. I've still got a bunch of things to try out."