Poor, inner-city kid. Maybe Chinese or Russian. They got caught up in the underworld, using his computer skills to steal bank accounts and credit card numbers to be sold for a tidy profit.

Then the requests started coming in. Someone wanted an enemy’s bank account drained or a debt erased. The stakes got higher. The paychecks got bigger. They could afford a life for themselves. An apartment that didn’t smell like rat urine. Food that didn’t come from a can or a government program. A girlfriend.

The requests got stranger. They grew more arrogant. Celebrities. Corporations. Governments. Life was good.

One day, though, was the climax. An address they’d never heard of. A security system like no other.

Weeks turned into months. Progress was made. Slowly. The real world slowly slipped away. The house. The car. The girl. None of them mattered. All that mattered was finding out what that damn computer was hiding.

A breakthrough. Information splashed across the screen. The security system lay defeated.

Or was it? Lines and listings vanished. Forbidden knowledge ripped away. Only one line remained.

“Congratulations.”