How to Make Friends and Manipulate People || Tim and Eddie
Human beings, when it came down to the base essentials, were idiots. It always astounded Eddie just how few exceptions there were to the rule. People were lazy, greedy, would sell each other out for less than a heartbeat of their time if you put on your best customer service voice. He sat in the basement of a library, staring at his laptop screen and discretely breaking just about every rule in the place. He respected books, yes, respected knowledge--but the pretentious people who guarded them...He felt no guilt in eating an especially crumbly cookie in his “no food allowed” cubical, nor in crinkling the paper bag it came in, just to disturb the peace. And he’d talked on a few occasions, using a--for lack of a better word---borrowed cell phone to make his inquiries.
To say there had been some significant changes in his behavior since he’d almost been murdered was an understatement. However, it was hard to disconnect entirely from the world of easy money and information that wasn’t readily available to the public. So naturally, when he called Wayne Industries, claiming to be Ralph from computer maintenance, he was half convinced he was only rooting around in the system for the sheer sake of keeping up to date on current events. It wasn’t his fault that the last moron he spoke to just handed his password right over, sending blue eyes arcing in an exaggerated role beneath a mop of askew curls, even as he said his thank you and goodbye.
The company had upgraded its security since the last time he’d snooped around. Odd. Too bad they didn’t update their minimum wage, there was only so much a lowly employee would care about technicalities before they wanted the annoying conversation to end. Eddie had been passed around on the phone until he’d reached someone whose position had some substance. The story had been muddled, a literal game of telephone, where the original message was lost and the small problem Eddie had initially brought to attention had been blown ridiculously out of proportion. The man on the other line had been in a panic. Eddie told him all he needed was a password and for him to briefly lower the firewalls. He said he’d enable them again once he’d fixed the issue and that was that.
The sheer carelessness would have made him want to scream if it hadn’t been so useful in its exploitation. The firewalls he put back up however, were his own. He’d been bored at the apartment, when he was left alone and had decided to use the time to test the effect of his constructions. They weren’t as strong as the previous ones, and there was a good chance he’d have to abandon this laptop if he was discovered. But Wayne Industries had yet to catch him. His forays had gone undiscovered thus far.
There were so many files to choose from, but he decided to stay within the company’s medical branch. He sat with his elbows resting on either side of his laptop, fingers laced together, a platform on which he could rest his chin. A slight smirk tugged the right corner of his lips upwards-there was a great deal in the toxicology department. Oh, of course it was all for the greater good--chemicals yes, but the company was investigating how to neutralize them.
Bioweapons, germ warfare, all in the testing process--for treatment, the aim was to render them useless, to stop the spread...But that was information that could be easily omitted from a report.
He began making copies, transferring files to a usb stick. He wouldn’t necessarily use this against Wayne or his board...But it didn’t mean it couldn’t be tastefully brought to their attention. If the information leaked it would be devastating to the company. They may have been aiming for prevention but it looked like chemical warfare to the untrained eye.
Waiting, it was the part of the hacking process that never made it into the films. Eddie sat back, rubbed his eyes, and then sat rather abruptly forward. Someone had removed one of his firewalls. He entered a few lines of code, lowercase, zeros and ones, clicked--put it back. Only to have it taken down almost immediately afterwards. Nygma’s pale eyes narrowed at the screen. He had already collected enough data to do an extreme amount of damage if he was inclined to do so--but he wanted to finish his transfers and downloads. He also wanted to know what type of hacker he was up against.
He began to type, measured, slow, amending his defences subtly blocking some but not all of his opponent’s attempts to de-construct him. They were rather evenly matched--for every detour Eddie forced upon his rival, he lost another one of his defences. Well played.
Time to test a virus. Eddie had spent a great deal of time crafting it, and as part of their thrust and parry routine, through the chase and the false trails, he sent the bait out to his pursuer. He enjoyed the game very much, scrambling his true location, and sending false possibilities--but this would be more final. If his opponent accepted the virus, it would wreak havoc on its new host computer. The customized, condescending message “Nice try” would pop up in an insultingly small window, just to rub salt in the wound.
And then there was a pause in the chase, where Eddie assumed his tactic had been successful. He smiled, rolled his shoulders and plucked the usb stick from its port. He tucked it into the inner breastpocket of his blazer. Curiosity kept him from leaving immediately. He stood up, pushed in his chair and went to stand in one of the isles. He plucked a book from the shelf and pulled it a quarter of the way open--so he looked immersed in it but not overly so. He would wait and see who came to find him--and if they appeared threatening, well all they had to look at was a computer, he’d simply walk out while they tried to crack his password.
