"FWLS53" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

"If you tampered with ANYTHING on this deck, I'm going to give
you a cuban necktie," I threatened, grabbing the urchin by the
collar.

"Urp. No, I just tried to play this game you had... it
wouldn't let me in, so I tried to get around it--"

"Did you tamper with anything?!!?" I demanded, in a voice loud
enough to get my point across but not loud enough to alert the
stewardess.

"No! Honest!" he pleaded. I accepted this, and let go. I
had the important areas of the deck write protected, but you never
know with these juvenile hacker punks. I was one once; I knew what
they did.

*

Money was on an all time decline. I had been flying around to
every hacker I used to know in high school, trying to find someone
who could beat the Panda King, or at least hack their way into the
Tower for me. Each trip cost me two round trip tickets, and one
episode of bitter disappointment.

I only had enough money from the wedding check to pay for a
few more trips, and I had to make those count. I had already lost
my job due to skipping work to find ways around the Panda King, so
income was nil, zero, zilch.

Fredrick. Fredrick. He was good, if I recall... a bit nerdy,
tape-fixed glasses and a wild smile that pegged him as a hacker in
any crowd. Loved those VOS video games, especially the ones that
made him feel like he was in another reality. The more detail, the
better. More importantly : he NEVER lost.

Last time I saw him was senior year high school. He was
getting into hacking bigtime then, because the games weren't
providing enough of a challenge. When I graduated, he was still a
junior, rising the school's cracking ladder with rocket boots.
Hadn't heard from him since.

I pulled my old yearbook off the shelf, paging past the color
photos and into the black-and-white junior section. What was his
last name? Nivel? Norman? N something.

There.

Bestride in his KIRK SUCKS t-shirt and greasy glasses,
grinning that perfectly sane but not entirely there grin. Fredrick
Nervin.