cross-posted from !shortstories@literature.cafe

According to ISFDB this was originally published in 1987, right at the dawn of cyberpunk. It’s interesting to see that era’s depictions of cybersecurity and AI. For example, here’s a passage about hackers:

I must have been thirteen when I first discovered the hackers, phone phreaks, network bandits, all the computer cowboys living in the optic fibers, wave guides, old-fashioned copper wires. I tapped into HUMAN HEADZ, the most accessible of the underground networks, and began to meet them one by one. The Zork, from New Jersey, who would stack up long-distance tandems around the globe just to listen to his own voice echoing through the night. E-Muff, from Berkeley, a consistent thorn in the side of the U.C. Computer Police. U-3 Kiddo, a group from Portland who planned free gas and electricity for one month for all Bonneville Power Authority customers—power to the people.

Through them I was admitted to the inner circles and the gossip, rumor, and mad delusion that passed in the midnight hours. The Princess and Ozmo and Dwarf had gotten married over the net but had sworn never to meet in person—it was a purely spiritual connection that gave total intimacy through the wires. Frostie had disappeared in Paris, taken away by Interpol, and would never be heard from again. Bright Water the Hiroshima-Nagasaki group, had sworn vendetta against Boeing because their B-29s had dropped the bombs. Captain Muck had broken into a C3 system at Omaha and planned to launch a first strike if he didn’t—finally—get laid.

Haw! Those crazy hackers with internet waifus who hate Boeing and can’t get laid! Things are totally different now… right? RIGHT?!? Anyway, this story’s hosted on Baen, so you won’t be computer cowboy network banditting if you read it: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791474/9781625791474___4.htm