Richard Hardman is twenty-two years old. He has cell number hundred-and-twenty-five in a prison near London in the year 2043.
He was lying on the hard madras in the small cell, when he woke up because
of the harsh light placing his eyes. It was the rising sun which shone right
trough the thick glass high above him, when the blind in the ceiling was rolled
over. He was one of the few who had that and it was only because his parents
paid for it. There were no electrical appliances in his cell, not even a lamp,
they were afraid he might use it for something. Only two years had gone by,
but even though he felt like it had been an eternity.
He heard the jailer's metallic footsteps in the corridor. The robot stopped
at the end of the path and placed its iron fingers on the screen. Shortly after
a laser beam passed its fingers and the countdown begun. The cell gates opened
into the outdoor area.
There weres now ten seconds to get out into the area before the cell gates closed
again. Richard raised his sore and painful body and went out into the empty
area surrounded by walls which had an invisible roof of electric power leading
laser beams so that you could not escape.
There had been a couple of fights during the week among the prisoners. Therefore
he did not have clue what the programme of the day would be.
The countdown had ended and the cell gates locked behind them. At the same time
it started to flicker around the prisoners and the virtual world was being printed
on their retina in the shape of holograms. He breathed a sigh of relief, luckily
it was not like last Sunday where a jailer had been wounded in a fight during
the week and because of that they where punished by a whole day of studying.
Richard hated it. He only had a typewriter and paper. Most of the other prisoners
had their own computers. But they were watched of course. All the prisoners
had electronic surveillance in their cell.
The holograms took the shape of a park with flowers, benches and trees; it meant
the prisoners in his cellblock had behaved well this week. He thought it saved
the prison a great deal of money, and it was almost impossible to see the difference
from the real world outside. It all looked idyllic, but it was a nonexisting
world which they were placed in. Some flowers had no smell and some trees you
could walk right through, it was because of bad files in the programmes - Richard
knew things like that.
He sat down on a bench and he came to think of the park in his hometown, Oxford.
So innocent and without knowledge he had often been visiting this park, which
was named Oxford Garden, in his childhood together with his nanny and his little
electronic dog. All ready at that time he had parted and assembled much electronic
equipment, he was quite fond of that.
He remembered the short bumbles underneath their feet in the park, when the
metro in the underground passed by. The whole train system was under the earth
in several of layers and spread all over Europe, he was so amazed by that. Richard,
his mum and dad had often taken the train to Rom or Crete for the weekend.
Later his dog was replaced. He had got his first computer, a pocket laptop,
on his seven years birthday in 2030. In no time he learned how to use it and
knew everything about its structure.
It was also in the Oxford Garden he had met Elena the first time five years
later. She was surrounded and popular, while Richard always sat all by himself
and was lonesome. Only sometimes she talked to her pcw, personal computer wristwatch.
It was the reason Elena and he became friends, she introduced him to a whole
new way of using a computer. He remembered the lessons in school where the computer
animated screen teacher Mrs. PCX taught his class. Mrs. PCX did not register
when he and Elena had, sometimes long, conversations over her pcw and his pocket
laptop. Richard had always admired Elena's hair and her blue eyes. He always
just looked at her on the laptop-screen while she explained about her new adventures
and experiences with the pcw and the Internet. She was the only one who could
distract his attention from computers.
Richard knew her parents had problems, financial complications she told him.
They had their own firm called "Cyperqua". In the beginning she showed
him how to make easy money, by breaking the code to small companies and ruin
their safety system. He never thought of it illegal.
He did not relate the world on the Internet with the real world.
At the age of seventeen Elena asked him to help her. Her parents' firm would
go bankrupt because of another company stealing their costumers. He assembled
a strong computer and together they found the way to the safety system of the
company. It all went fine until they accidentally found out that they did not
know of a newly installed safety system which prevented hackers from breaking
into their systems - it was a newly passed law by the president of the EU concerning
hackers across Europe. Richard would let Elena go to prison. Therefore she and
her parents escaped to the USA. And Richard went to prison as the most wanted
hacker in the world.
It was time for lunch and Richard went from the park back to his cell. While
he sat down on his madras, a screen turned up from the inside of the wall with
his food. There were only two months to his release. But he would never be the
same. He would have a chip operated into his body, so the police could follow
his single movement to the day he died.