And Then a Hacker Took Over the Country.

Chapter 1 (Jason)

The plan had required a total of 48.6 seconds to devise. It was time for Operation: Show Them Your Balls.

Jason walked out of his apartment, opened his fly and aimed his balls at the hallway camera. He then gave them the finger. The 'giving them the finger' portion of the plan was a late addition devised after opening his apartment door.

He zipped up quickly and ran down the stairs. His interview was in 5 minutes ago. He was in jeans, which would have been a point against him if the employer hadn't already disregarded him for the position due to his lateness. He hadn't showered in 3 days which was strange as his apartment had a perfectly functional shower unit.

For the most part Jason was also perfectly functional.

Jason was 6 foot 1 inch tall. If he was 6 foot 2 inches tall he would have died in about 15 minutes.

It had been 246 days since he last held a proper job. This was unique as his current bank balance was exactly $-246 though with the overdraft charges coming soon that would change very rapidly.

He walked out the door of his building and was now 7 minutes late for the interview (and the manager had moved on to interviewing another candidate who would eventually get the job) and he was currently trying to hide from the sun. The sun was not watching him, he just didn't like it.

At that exact moment there were 17 cameras that could see him. None of these were specifically focussed on him but if needed they could all easily be requisitioned.

He knew this, which is why he commenced 'Operation: Give Them the Finger' over and over again.

He then remembered he was late and started running.

He stopped running because it would make him sweat and that might make him stink even more than he already did.

He started running again realizing it didn't matter if he was super late.

He was already super late so most of the things he was thinking didn't matter.

63 degrees to his left an anti-surveillance demonstration was being held. A man was holding a mega-phone and yelling about how even if you are innocent you shouldn't have the government watch your every move. Some of the demonstrators were naked for some reason.

Jason turned around and did the moon walk for a minute to show off, realized his stupidity and straight out ran towards the subway stop.

Challenge one: get on the subway for free.

The system was upgraded on a regular basis but everyone sort of assumed it hadn't changed in about a decade. On entering the station Jason had only 7 cameras that could see him.

Hide or scam? Yesterday he tried sneaking by and that ended terribly (he now owed $500 to the fine people at the transit authority.)

The man who would change Jason's life walked 13 feet behind him at this moment.

He flipped a coin in his head. It landed on scam but he decided to try sneaking on again anyway. It should be mentioned now that Jason is an idiot.

Waiting was the worst part. He had to make sure there was a large enough surge.

12 people walked in.

Not enough.

Another 5 walked in but 3 had already gone through the gates. Jason was starting to stick out a bit.

Finally the subway entered the station as 4 more people came in. Everyone in line pushed forward so they could get on the train. In the ruckus Jason pushed forward too and jumped the turnstile when the poor (though well paid) employee behind the booth was busy keeping track and making sure everyone paid.

This worked. Jason was the 3rd person that day to attempt the maneuver. He was the 2nd to be successful.

The man who would change his life entered just after him. He held a simple briefcase that looked like it should hold a laptop. It did not in fact contain a laptop or computational device of any kind.

The subway car moved forward (along with all the other cars, this is how physics works) and the passengers that had rushed to get on for some reason suddenly all wanted to get off.

There were about 15 people on the car along with Jason. Of these, 4 were about to die, 2 were about to be injured (without the dieing part) and 1 was about to have the chemistry of his brain changed.

Person 7 opened the briefcase that was between his feet now and looked down at the gun that was resting alone in there. Sweat fell into his right eye and he wiped it away. His eyes met Jason's for a second. He took the gun out and fired it toward Jason.

Jason inhaled.

This terrorist (as he is now known) was not trained very well. He wasn't part of any major terrorist group and had never been in any career path that would train him on how to properly use a gun. He had simply purchased the gun at a local Walmart and practiced shooting it once or twice in his backyard.

The above is why he missed Jason by exactly 1 inch. In the interest of creating the most havoc possible the terrorist aimed wildly at the other people in the car and shot at them. The terrorist counted each shot in his head, feeling good about the bullets that hit and bad about the ones that missed. Even with his lack of training he still managed a 40% hit rate.

Within a few seconds he shot off the second to last bullet and then quickly turned the gun to his head and fired off the last one.

Jason exhaled.

Someone hit the emergency button and an alarm blared throughout the car. This was 3 decibels louder than the gunshots had been.

"Ladies and Gentleman..." a voice said over the loud speaker. "There is a delay eastbound on line 2 due to an emergency alarm being pulled. Emergency personnel are on route and the delay should be cleared shortly."

Jason was now 13 minutes late for the job interview.