`Feen, they know you did over Spaf's machine,' Pad told Phoenix. `They know it's been you in other systems also. They've got your handle.'

Eugene Spafford was a computer security expert.

The security people had been able to connect and link up a series of break-ins with the hacker who called himself Phoenix because his style was so distinctive. For example, whenever he was creating a root shell - root access - for himself, he would always save it in the same filename and in the same location on the computer. In some instances, he even created accounts called `Phoenix' for himself. It was this consistency of style which had made things so much easier for admins to trace his movements.

In his typical understated fashion, Pad suggested a change of style. And maybe, he added, it wasn't such a bad idea for the Australians to tone down their activities a bit. The undercurrent of the message was serious. `They said that some security people had contacted Australian law enforcement, who were supposed to be "dealing with it",' Pad said. `Do they know my real name?' Phoenix asked, worried. Electron was also watching this conversation with some concern.

`Don't know. Got it from Shatter. He's not always reliable, but...' Pad was trying to soften the news by playing down Shatter's importance as a source. He didn't trust his fellow British hacker but Shatter had some good, if mysterious, connections. An enigmatic figure who seemed to keep one foot in the computer underworld and the other in the upright computer security industry, Shatter leaked information to Pad and Gandalf, and occasionally to the Australians.

`Shatter definitely got the info right about Spaf's machine. 100% right,' Pad continued. `He knew exactly how you hacked it. I couldn't believe it. Be careful if you're still hacking m8, especially on the Inet.' The `Inet' was shorthand for the Internet.

The Altos hackers went quiet.

`It's not just you,' Pad tried to reassure the Australians. `Two security people from the US are coming to the UK to try and find out something about someone named Gandalf. Oh, and Gand's mate, who might be called Patrick.' Pad had indeed based his handle on the name Patrick, or Paddy, but that wasn't his real name. No intelligent hacker would use his real name for his handle. Paddy was the name of one of his favourite university lecturers, an Irishman who laughed a good deal. Like Par's name, Pad's handle had coincidentally echoed a second meaning when the British hacker moved into exploring X.25 networks. An X.25 PAD is a packet assembler disassembler, the interface between the X.25 network and a modem or terminal server. Similarly, Gandalf, while being first and foremost the wizard from The Lord of The Rings, also happened to be a terminal server brand name.

Despite the gravity of the news that the security community was closing the net around them, none of the hackers lost their wicked sense of humour.

`You know,' Pad went on, `Spaf was out of the country when his machine got hacked.'
`Was he? Where?' asked Gandalf ..
`In Europe.' Electron couldn't resist. `Where was Spaf, Gandalf asks as he hears a knock on his door...'
`Haha,' Gandalf laughed.
` ' Electron went on, hamming it up.
`Oh! Hello there, Mr Spafford,' Gandalf typed, playing along.
`Hello, I'm Gene and I'm mean!'

Alone in their separate homes on different corners of the globe, the four hackers chuckled to themselves.

`Hello, and is this the man called Patrick?' Pad jumped in.
`Well, Mr Spafford, it seems you're a right fucking idiot for not patching your FTP!' Gandalf proclaimed.
`Not to mention the CHFN bug - saved by a Sequent! Or you'd be very fucking embarrassed,' Phoenix added.

Phoenix was laughing too, but he was a little nervous about Pad's warning and he turned the conversation back to a serious note.

`So, Pad, what else did Shatter tell you?' Phoenix asked anxiously.
`Not much. Except that some of the security investigations might be partly because of UCB [University of California at Berkeley].'
`See,' Pad continued, `I think the UCB people kept stuff on their systems that wasn't supposed to be there. Secret things.'

Classified military material wasn't supposed to be stored on non-classified network computers. However, Pad guessed that sometimes researchers broke rules and took short cuts because they were busy thinking about their research and not the security implications.

`Some of the stuff might have been illegal,' Pad told his captive audience.
`And then they find out some of you guys have been in there...'
`Shit,' Phoenix said.
`So, well, if it APPEARED like someone was inside trying to get at those secrets...' Pad paused. `Then you can guess what happened. It seems they really want to get whoever was inside their machines.'

Underground can be ordered online (all countries) via Dymocks, the COOP-Bookshop, Randomhouse Australia and others. See the Underground ordering page for details.