Loaded Gun - Lixin

Lixin looked at Brian out of the corner of her eye "Brian.....there's a shitload about me that you don't know......the only thing you need to know is one thing.... I can do this job, I can do it well and I can do it quietly. I'm not a weefle runner. You won't see me boasting about exploits I uncover. I keep myself to myself and my exploits hidden. Good business for me, I can use an exploit more than once.....good business for my employer, they know I'm dependable like.......so if you have any questions.... feel free to ask. And no matter how bad your prank....you knew your Dad would bail you out."

Brian chuckled and smiled while he brought the car to a stop at a traffic light. "We're heading to the island. And I think every programmer worth a shit has had something of theirs stolen by MS. I've been with Linux for a long time now though. I got tired of all the garbage Windows pulled. Still got to work with it though, so I keep two Windows boxes at home so I break them." He glanced over at you. "My Dad was the same way. Didn't matter what I did in college as long as my grades were good. I called him one night," He started doing that half-laugh and shaking his head. "I was trying to get into Sigma Phi Epsilon. A frat at MIT. Well, one of the pledging rituals required a prank. My prank got me slightly arrested. Called Dad, and asked if he'd come bail me out. All he was was what I'd made on my mid-terms. I told him, and he was there in an hour." He was still doing the half laughter thing while he talked but he didn't offer up anymore details. Either it was something he was embarassed of, or he was trying not to out do what you were saying, keeping the focus on you. "So what else do I need to know about you?"

The corner of Lixins mouth turned up in a quirk as she put herself into her seatbelt. "I love me Ma and Da......but really they're fecking clueless. I don't think either of them know what's going on in my life. All they're concerned with is my grades at school and since they put me in an arts program I'm finding it rough. If they put me in a computer program I'd be teaching already. Everyone out there in the business knows who I am already. Fuck, I got pissed when I saw Microsoft lifted a disk seek/find algorythm from me. They didn't implement it properly though, those guys couldn't build an OS if it hit them in the face"

You seen Brian blush as he lead you around the car and opened the door for you. You climbed in and were greeted by warm leather and wood. The seats were super comfortable, almost like it had been custom made just for you. Brian moved around the other side of the car and slid inside, gripping the wheel he pushed the small button on the dash that said, "Start."

He buckled his seat belt and looked at you while you did the same. Once you were secure he put the car into gear. The whole thing took maybe 45 seconds. Once you were on the road though Brian started speaking again, and this time it was not work related, "I was raised in a house where manners were a big deal. My Mom insisted on it. She had been to a school or something for it when she was a kid and taught me and my older sister everything. Please, thank you, which fork to use with what." He shrugged. "Dad made sure we got rounded out on other things. Kept me in football and lacrosse. What about you? What was home like for Lixin?" He glanced at you, a small smile on his face.

She looked at the car wondering if Brian was trying it on. The can of Mace and brass knuckles in her backpack were enough that she thought she was safe, that and the rape alarm and cellphone. She looked surprised at Brian asking the question. "I'm sorry Brian. I'm not allowed to get into cars with strangers....until they buy me drinks and dinner." she shook her head, laughing to herself as she got into the car. "You're so gallant." she couldn't help but laugh in self amusement, Brian's manners almost seemed out of the age of chivalry, or at least the chivalry in books.

Brian rattled off an impressive list of hardware and servers they were using to run the place. Basically it would take a deliberate act of god before they lost data. All of this was while you both walked and he lead you to a car towards the end of the parking lot. "You mind riding with me?" He stopped and looked at you suddenly a little concerned.

Lixin giggled as he missed the bin, lifting her still mostly full smoothie with her. She reached out a hand for his. "I think we shall....for a while anyway. So tell me more about the hardware you guys have stashed away. Software is one thing, but unless you have the right gear to run it on, it's all completely useless."

Brian grinned again. "I'll make a note." He tried to toss his smoothie cup into the waste basket from where he was. It bounced off the rim, but in all fairness, the basket had one of those stupid domes with the hole in the middle, so anything less than a perfect shot was destined for the floor. "Damnit." He got up and walked over quickly, and dropping it squarely in the trash.

He returned a second later and offered a hand, "Shall we?" That half-cocked smile again, and a little glittering in his eyes.

Lixin sat back in her seat, feigning disappointment "Awww.....well it's your loss Brian. Movie theatres are very fun places, all that darkness....all kindsa fun stuff happens there and you get the voyeuristic thrill of knowing the staff are watching you on IR. But you're paying so you get to pick where we go. I'm not carrying any recording or tracking devices, save my mobile."

"Buncha highly qualified bruisers with guns. Ex-military types. A few brainy ones run the intelligence and logistics. Its not my area." Brian shrugged. "And if I were going to try to feel you up, I would've suggested a movie, not a loud server room." He fired another half-cocked grin and thumbed at the theater behind him. "Passcards, a few fingerprint scanners, and we use infrared cameras as well as a few passive x-ray machines. It'd make the security at JFK look like the security at a McDonalds."

Lixin shrugged "Well, was kinda hopin only had to go onsite to pickup what I needed to and take it home to work on. But hey, you sign the paychecks, so I'd work anywhere you want me to. So what's physical security like onsite? I'm not going to go if you're just gonna use it as some excuse to feel me up. You want to do that , you HAVE TO PAY" Lixin toyed with her smoothie not really drinking it now she had it.

Brian laughed, "Guys and gals huh?" He made a face while he pondered the remark. When you got to the fun-sized he laughed a little harder. "I like that!" He shook his head. "And nah I'm not looking for a date. Just wondering if you wanted to see it. The Vault. Where we keep the servers?" He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe poke around a bit and tell me what you think. I can also show you where you'll be working. You didn't think you'd be doing this off-site did you?" He smiled again, looked at his empty smoothie cup and frowned after the straw made that annoying slurping noise.

Lixin almost snorted her smoothie "No man, I ain't got no-one special. Very few that can keep up with me as is. Couple of people I hang out with for food, gaming and music. Dated a few guys and gals, but nothing lasts. I think I'm just a little bit too out there for most." She leaned over the table to look into Brians eyes "Aside from that like media of all kinds except books. Dead trees just don't do it for me. Why? looking for a date? Music is my most relaxing pastime. Don't have patience for ads. Don't let my height fool you. I'm not small.....think of me more as....fun-size"

He nodded, "Of course we can't get it protected 100%, but you try explaining that to a 60 year old Chairman and see if you can get him to understand it." He listened while you spoke. He was genuinely drawn into what you were saying: making eye contact, nodding, and processing what was said. Brian was actively listening to what you were saying, not just waiting on you to shut up so he could go on some more. "So, what do you do for fun? Got a boyfriend or husband we don't know about?" He fired a half-cocked smile and took another sip of his smoothie.

He glanced around doing a little people watching while he waited on your answer. The crowd had picked up and was coming in a wave as a movie let out and another was getting ready to start. So you had the rush of people leaving, and the stream of people coming to find their seats. You were maybe 30 years from the theater, but this one was huge, like most things in NYC.

Lixin waited until he'd finished before answering "Professionally? uh.....I'm still in tertiary education. Doing arts and drama. My rents.....that is my parents wanted me to focus on something other than computers. I pay for my gear by doing side jobs....you know setting up webservers and the like. How secure depends on how much they're willing to pay. Got a couple of good honeytraps out there let me see whats new....doesn't normally take me long to rewrite the source to stop it from happening and then it's safe until the next one. Had to rewrite code maybe....6 times last year. I rewrite Linux for the guys I run stuff for, I wrote my own OS for my lappy. I got fed up with bloat. I rewrite and compile for every new toy I add to it, so it doesn't keep a huge driver DB. Got the whole OS footbrint down to 200 megs." she wasn't going to mention anything about her ecommerce server hacking. "I don't think there would be a problem with securing it the way that you want. I've come up with one or two ways to plug in the holes already and a few strategies to minimise your risk....I could probably find another way in given enough time.....but I doubt any more than say....20 people in the world could hack it at that point, and if I had access to your network schematics and all the server info we could cut that down even further. Dude, you'll never eliminate the risk entirely....but we can make it nigh on impossible for them. Already your setup is better than any bank or defence contractor." Lixin left it unsaid as to how she knew that the setup was better. She snorted "Like seriously.....it's almost unhackable except for that other guy already in."

Brian nodded and smiled politely, "Sounds like you had a pretty good head start on everyone else. What do you do now? Professionally I mean." Before you could answer Brian went into a little detail about what he did, "I'm the Lead Admin for the system you hacked your way into, and that system is owned by several high capital companies who use it to trasmit top priority, sensitive data between their data centers. Most of it is just going to be archived, but we do run into pieces regularly that they use to make on-spot decisions with their policy, and how they do business. Obviously, they want it protected 100%." He paused and finally gave you a chance to answer. He shifted forward, putting his elbows on the small round table.

Lixin was happy, she didn't need the backup after all. Brian seemed like a nice enough guy.

"I'm Lixin, but you already know that...might want to call me Lisa. Easier for you to pronounce." she reached forward sipping at the smoothie as she talked. "As to how I learned so much about computers? Well, it's a long story.....starts back in Leixlip, County Kildare. My Dad worked for intel as a product manager. Always had cool toys in the house as a result. I uh....had an incident in my young adulthood that kind of isolated me from a lot of my peers. When that happened, I needed to make friends with people who didn't know me....and the easiest way out there is over the internet. That was just the start of it. When I got into it I started wondering how it all fit together. I got every book I could on computer technology and read it. it just all started fitting together....then I started finding out where the idiots had flaws in operating systems and programs....from that, short matter to try and figure out ways to purposefully break it......or defend against it. I'd pretty much started programming within 6 months of starting to learn and had my first exploit within a week of that. Microsoft didn't bother patching it, so I had free reign for a while."

OOC:ok, so my dad got me my first computer, and i had no idea how it worked.....but he bought me tons of computer theory for kids books and it kind of made me interested. Besides.....I had nothing else to do when I couldn't go see Michelle or Tom or the RPG group.

He looked up at you and smiled. "I'm good. You? Most of my clients struggle to operate an IRC client. Some refuse to even touch a computer. Ease of use has a priority, and while anything important is secured as soon as it hits the network, there are some loose bits out there. Which is what you stumbled into. Still, I'm all about making the thing more secure."[/color]

He continued to smile at you. "Its Brian by the way. My real name. How'd you come to know so much about computers?"

Lixin turned up in a bright yellow T-shirt with a pink flower on the front and a pair of denim capris. A pair of Converse sneakers rounded out her ensemble. She carried a woven bag. She smiled as she met the mark, making her way directly towards him. She'd watched the cafe and was confident the guy she was meeting was on the level.

She sat down in the seat opposite the man after she got herself a drink.

"How are you?" the words were quick running into one another it almost sounded like one word. "I've got some of my preliminary notes here. Your systems is grand against anyone that isn't an out and out hacker. I put down some suggestions at the end."

Once you decided on what to wear you headed to the Jamba Juice. It took you all of two minutes to spot Load. He was actually a pretty fit looking guy. Sandy blonde hair, strong arms, high cheek bones and he had that tan that told you that he spent time outdoors. He raked his fingers through the sandy mop on his head and sipped a yellow concoction and flipped through something on a Blackberry.

You glanced around, everyone else in the mall seemed to be going about their business. Nobody seemed to be paying any undue attention to you. Once some white guy with his wife and kid locked eyes with you but he smiled and nodded, then went on about his day.




OOC: Roll Per + Alertness dif 7