Day Zero, Part 4

The CAIC bulletin was issued Saturday at 1PM EST, as a “low risk” issue, because it didn’t seem to be exploited. Most agencies and companies didn’t react because of that over the weekend and they didn’t have HP computers.

A Security consultant to another large computer manufacturer in the US called several people from work to see if they felt this bulletin warranted immediate investigation. No one felt it was worth pulling people into the office over.

The Japan Computer Security Research Association took note of the strange network traffic and began analysis immediately. They noted that this attack was successful at penetrating their computer’s security defenses, but did nothing because it did nothing obvious. It looked like only a probe.

Jan sat in front of her Laptop in the spare room of her Apartment, when she noticed a momentary system hang, but it stopped after a few seconds. She continued tapping out her blog for the night, praising the show she had seen at the Sydney Opera house that evening.

Several Russian hacker groups noted the intrusion and started a meager engineering effort, but it didn’t put any priority to it. The nature of the attack modified the code in the BIOS and didn’t effect the Operating Systems, so nobody took notice, even if they did identify the intrusion.


Anna was not enjoying the Pub they had chosen after the movie, it got too loud when a local band started their first set of the night. Both he and Mai agreed that the movie was horrible and laughed when they aped some of the dialogue, in character.
They only stayed for one drink and headed back to school. On the Bus ride Anna checked the time and realized there was just 10 hours to go. He became preoccupied with the coming event and got real quiet. Mai noticed his quick change in behavior.
“What is wrong?” she asked and leaned in close to him.

The Bus went over a speed bump and jogged Anna back to the moment. “Nothing” he said, “Just thinking about the future and where will we be a year from now.”
“Better places, but this now is good too” She said, smiling. It was the kind of smile that wanted a smile in turn, which Anna did. “We are almost there.” And she stood, reaching for his hand.

Anna took her hand and pulled himself upright using the stainless steel pole, next to him. She wrapped her arm into his as usual, and they exited the Bus once it stopped. When they got to the Dorm, Mai surprised Anna and told him, “Go to Fire Exit on opposite side.” And went inside the building.

Anna walked around the exterior of the Dorm and found Mai waiting at the Fire Exit. They went inside and up to her room on the 3rd floor. She kissed him and whispered “Just kissing” as she set the key and opened the door. Anna understood what that meant and was not bothered at all as he stepped inside.

The room was unremarkable, no posters or decorations at all, just very clean and tidy. Mai went over to the entry closet and motioned to Anna to follow. She took off her coat and took Anna’s too, hanging both neatly, flattening out each with her hands. She smiled and walked over to the bed and sat.

Anna followed her and rested beside her. She reached up and stroked his cheek, looking straight into his eyes. “Let’s have today and not care for tomorrow.” She tapped his cheek in a motherly way and kissed him.

They reclined then hugged and lay on their sides facing each other. Anna put his hand on Mai’s back and held her against him softly as they kissed more. He began to get physically excited and didn’t want to get overwhelmed. He released his grip on her midsection and drew a line down her nose with his finger. “Just kissing”, he said. They both giggled.

In whispers, they talked a little longer until Mai fell asleep and Anna stayed still spooning her when she turned over, dreaming. He thought about tomorrow and the day after, until he fell asleep too. He dreamt that he was with his mother, father and brother again.