The art of hacking (Snowfall)

The art of hacking

Part three, Mission One, of Snowfall.

To Geopaw. Happy birthday!

I stare at the box thing.

“You don’t know what it even is, do you?” Pi snarls. He sighs. “This is a computer. I have chosen the main one because it contains most of the technical information that can be easily accessed using the right skills.” He stops pacing and sharply turns his head to loom at me. “The grey blob is called a ‘mouse’, and the flat rectangle thing is a ‘keyboard’. Move the mouse with your right paw, and watch the white thing on the screen move around. The mouse controls that white thing, called the cursor.”

I gingerly fling the mouse around on the desk. I gasp as the little white cursor on the screen mimics its movements. I move the mouse to the right, the cursor moves to the right. And the same with all the other directions.

“You see the two rectangular things on the mouse?” Pi asks me. I nod. “Press down lightly on the left one. But first, make sure the cursor is on the words ‘log in’. You can read, right?” I nod again, still fascinated by the computer. “By pressing down on the left rectangle while the cursor is hovering over something that will change the screen, you are doing something called ‘selecting’. Select the white bar.”

I drag the mouse slightly to the right and click the mouse. A flashing vertical line appears on the left side of the white bar. “What do I do now?” I ask.

“The keyboard has various letters of the English alphabet on,” he explains. “Press lightly on a square with a letter on, and that letter will appear in the white bar.”

I smile to myself and slam a paw on the keyboard. I laugh as a jumble of letters appear on the screen. Pi leaps onto the desk and quickly mashes a button until the letters are gone.

“That’s the backspace button,” he explains. “Press it to delete the last letter or number or whatever you’ve typed. Slam a paw down on the keyboard and give it a try!” he chirps.

I let out a whoop of joy as I slam my left paw on the keyboard again, then mash the backspace button.

“Now type in Admin, then select the lowest white bar,” orders Pi.

I search the keyboard for the right letters, then slowly press them, one by one.

“By pressing the letters on the keyboard, you are typing.” I nod dumbly to Pi’s lecture, then select the lowest white bar.

“The password is too long and complicated to type out without making a mistake, so I did this thing called copying. Press the button ‘ctrl’ and and the letter v.”

I laugh silently to myself. This is like a tutorial on a game I once played on a gaming console when visiting another cat’s house. Good times.

“Select the blue thing saying ‘log in’.”

I almost choke trying not to laugh as I select the thing.

Pi purrs and shoves me off the desk. “Good,” he purrs. “I’ll take it from here. And I almost forgot,” he meows, chucking a heavy book at me. “Read this. It was written by a friend of mine, a very skilful hacker.”

I look at the title. ''Hacking 101, by Delta. ''

“Read it. I expect you to be here after breakfast. Oh, and if you have any questions, you’re bound to find a cat wandering around the school. I assume you have many to ask.” Pi shoos me out of his office. “Say goodbye to your friends, Nuts, I doubt you’ll be seeing them again.”

Something about his words makes me shudder. I jump as the door slams behind me. Snarl and Silence sit by the entrance, smiling.

“We’ll be going now,” he meowed. “If we hear any news on the local radio station about the school, then we’ll be here in a jiffy to make sure you’re okay.” He licks my ears. “Now go and explore. Find out as much as you can.”

“I won’t let you down,” I meow determinedly.

Snarl nods, and he silently slips outside with Silence leaning against him for support.

TBC