Finding the Back Door

The sounds of the keyboard clicking never ended in the house of Michael Lee. Sometimes, the sound of music faintly fell over the typing yet the sound never ceased. Michael was young, but old enough to live on his own; at least, in the eyes of his family he was. Michael secretly suspected that they only let him get his own place because he kept them up with his all-night computer sprees. He had completed his public schooling just a few months prior and had received permission to move out of his family home only days after. Therefore he was liberated from rules dictating when he could eat and when he couldn’t, when he could sleep and when he couldn’t, and when he could pull himself away from the computer.

Michael smiled as he typed. Tonight he challenged himself to an even greater degree; now he was breaking through the last branch of security in the database of the American FBI. This was his great accomplishment for the night. Michael stuffed some chips in his mouth as the security broke and he entered the database without breaking a sweat. On this particular night music blasted from his headphones as he scrolled through the names of America’s Most Wanted. Some of the names he recognized from Japan’s most wanted, a list he had browsed just the week before. He started to dig deeper into the organization, smiling as it all just seemed to open itself to him willing.

It seemed a bit odd to him how easy it was. He thought maybe it was just overconfidence in security systems. If no one could break through the initial security block why bother to spend money in making the entire system the same way? There was hardly a need for it, but with hackers like himself around he couldn’t help but wonder if overconfidence was going to be the downfall of these so-called “great organizations”. After all, he knew for a fact that there had to be hackers out there just as good as him. What was stopping them from doing the same thing as him? He wasn’t entirely surprised that he could go as far as to find names of individual agents along with addresses and even whether or not they were on duty. Michael smiled as he felt goose bumps crawl across his skin. This was ultimate power, this was the rush he lived for.

The day and night were both young, and there were things that needed to be done. After all, the American FBI would eventually notice an intruder, even if it was just him. Sleep was necessary and, If my memory serves me correctly, I’m supposed to go to work tomorrow he thought and then shook his head. More like in a few hours. Sleep would be a good thing. Michael yawned while he hit the Esc button a few times, leaving behind no trace of him ever being inside the system. Next came the code that put his computer in sleep mode with an impregnable security system. There was no way to bring it back to full function without a password, a very long and complex password backed by one hell of a protection system. The muscles in his body screamed as he struggled to get out of his chair. How long have I been here? Michael wondered as he pulled his shirt off, throwing his glasses on the floor with the garment. The world was clear now and seemed bright without the dull tint of his orange colored lenses. He was tired, the slight haze over his mind told him so. Yawning, the young man stretched one last time before crawling into bed, falling soundly asleep to the familiar hum of his computer.

10100101

He was bored and there really wasn’t any other way to put it. There was nothing that was particularly interesting about working in a computer store, even for someone who loved computers as much as he did. The store never had people in it, he was the only one there, and the store had no internet connection for him to play with. All in all it meant he could sit around and customize systems all day and not much else. All day he would think of new ways to crack into networks and build up a more secure firewall and security system

When the long work day ended Michael carried with him an upgrade for his firewall. There was no way anyone would get through this system now; it was perfect in almost every sense of the word. However, he was still not satisfied with the work done, but that did not matter at the moment. That didn’t matter, at the moment he had a store to close and a computer calling him home. Now was the best time to go snooping around the government some more. As he walked back to his house Michael found himself drifting off into his own world. The street lights flicked on as the last evidence of the day fell to night. His shoulder slammed into the body of another person walking down the street.

“Sorry.” He muttered and his eyes fell briefly on the man. He was tall with black hair that fell just above his shoulders. He wore a basic pair of dress pants covered by a long black jacket. Michael’s eye caught a cross around the man’s neck yet the lower half of the cross seemed to blue. He only glanced at Michael briefly before continuing on his way. Shrugging to himself, Michael continued on his way, trying to ignore the feeling that he was being watched. He was a hacker and was thus paranoid despite his complete confidence in his security systems and firewalls. Michael opened the door to his apartment and tossed his bag onto the couch. Now was when the fun began. Pulling the upgrade disc out of his bag he placed them in the computer and began the process. As the computer upgraded Michael open the pantry and started to look for something to eat. Unfortunately, it looked like the only thing he had at the moment were some donuts that were probably a little too old and some old coffee from the night before. They would have to do.

The sound of his computer re-booting told him that the installation was complete and it was time to start looking around for something interesting. Settling down in the chair, Michael cracked his fingers and thought for a moment.

“I went into a foreign system last night,” he said out loud to no one in particular. “Maybe I’ll do something more local.” And with that he began to search through the server of the local police. Seems like there was another “interesting” murder, he thought. Michael clicked on the case, but found that there was not any information on the murder from the police. Instead there was only one word on the report: STN-J.

Now Michael was interested.

This was apparently some sort of organization the police did not enjoy working with. While sorting through email he found that there was a lot of anger between officers about this STN-J. There were rumors about what happened if you poked in their business and that these were not normal people in this organization. They handled all of these “unusual” cases and managed to solve them with no police help.

Now Michael was very interested.

These were the types of organizations that were the most fun to poke around in. These were the people that lived in the dark under belly of the city. This would be like hacking into the mainframe of a syndicate. Michael began his search for this STN-J’s server. Once he located the server it would be easy to bypass a security system and slip in undetected. Then came the fun part, the looking around at all of the information that was supposed to be so secret.

“People put way too much confidence in their security systems.”

Turns out that said server was a lot harder to find than he thought. The police really did not want anything to do with these people and had absolutely no way of finding the server via the police. So now it came to searching all of the servers in the known area. Michael shoved another donut in his mouth and began to look for keywords in servers that might hint to where he should look. He wasn’t overly surprised that it did not take him long to find the server. The firewall that was up, however, gave him a bit more than he bargained for. Michael had been in almost every federal system, but he had never seen a security system quite like this one before. The codes that he needed to type in seemed endless and, for a moment, he even thought that he would not be able to break it.

The system finally gave way and Michael entered the database. The first thing he noticed was the list that seemed to be in the mainframe of the system. He clicked on it and huge list of people came up in front of him. At the top it read THE STN-J’S WITCH LIST.

“Witch list?” he asked out loud. Clicking on a name, he saw a box pop up on screen, detailing the possibility of said person being a witch, age, how dangerous they might be, and all the information that was supposed to be confidential. This witch list fascinated him, but only for so long. The next thing he started looking for was information on a word that seemed to pop up a lot on the server: the word “orbo”. It seemed to be some sort of thing used to render witches harmless so they could be taken to a place called “the factory”. The case files were nothing like the case files in the police server, they were detailed with photos, some of which made his stomach turn. He could see why an organization like this existed, there was no way some of those crimes were committed by any weapon developed by modern technology. This all seemed so secretive, and there was no information this “factory” or “orbo”. That was not comforting. Maybe it’s time to leave... he said to himself and pushed the escape key. The screen remained the same. He hit the key again and then again. What the...? Michael tried to find the back way out of the server but all doors seemed to have vanished. That’s when it sank in: I’m locked in which means they are tracing me.

There was the sound of pounding footsteps coming down the hallway. Michael jumped to his feet and yanked the power cord out of the wall, the screen of his computer freezing for a moment before switching off. Michael was half expecting a knock on the door, but much to his surprise the door broke open with a hard kick. Men in white suits with helmets on their heads came rushing in the room. They gave him no time to speak or defend himself, they simply threw him to the ground, his arms twisted painfully behind his back. Michael opened his mouth to speak, but the pressure made the world around him start to fade and he wondered if this darkness would last forever.

10100101

His head was pounding and his arm muscles screamed at him when he tried to move them. He was no longer in his apartment, nor was he in a jail cell, but in an office. Michael blinked a few times and tried to move, but a black gloved hand pushed him firmly into the chair. He glanced up and saw the man from that night, the man he ran into while walking home. He almost laughed out loud, thinking about the entire “small world” saying.

“Michael Lee,” a voice from behind the desk stated. Michael looked up as the large chair spun around slowly. A man sat in the seat, his hands folded in front of his face. His hair was grey, most likely from age and stress, and his eyes were cold, no emotion whatsoever in the depths. His green suit was almost perfectly pressed without a wrinkle to be seen.

“What’s going on? Who are you?” Michael asked, generally confused as to why he was sitting in an office and not in some jail cell in the middle of nowhere.

“Michael, your hacking and computer skills are quite impressive. From the looks of your computer you have been in many federal databases all over the world. How you managed to get by our security system is a mystery to me.” He paused for a moment. “I am going to give you a choice Michael. If someone like you could sneak through our security system then it obviously needs work and we could use someone who knows computers very well. You may either decide to work for me or suffer the consequences of your actions.” The choice seemed obvious to him. The way he said “suffer the consequences of your actions” makes me think that I’ve seen things I cannot tell a soul about. Things that they would have to kill me over.

“I guess I really don’t have a choice,” he replied. The man smiled.

“That’s what I thought you’d say. My name is Takuma Zaizen and I will be your new boss. However, Michael, you will still have to have some conditions applied to you.” Mr. Zaizen pushed a necklace across the desk. “In that necklace there is a tracking device. Under no circumstances what so ever are you aloud to leave this building.” Michael looked at the piece of jewelry in front of him.

“What about my job and apartment and...” he trailed off, thinking about what this could all mean.

“You are dead to the rest of the outside world, Michael Lee,” Zaizen stated quite firmly. “Now these are the conditions that come with your new...job. Do we have an understanding?” Michael looked at the necklace in front of him for a moment, lost in thought. He was losing everything, his life, his family, his friends, his identity, all because he was curious about what could have the police so riled up. He had a good idea why they stayed out of these people’s business. They did not play games.

“Yes sir.” And with those words Michael placed the necklace around his neck. It felt like a collar and he had a feeling that this building would feel like a jail cell. The hand on his shoulder was removed and Michael looked up at this tall, dark man looming over him. He guessed that these were the people who hunted the witches so the factory could take them away after they were apprehended. In other words, that man was his co-worker.

“Welcome to the STN-J Michael,” Zaizen said, smiling though the expression was not happy or welcoming. Michael wondered if the thrill of the hack was going to be worth this price he has to pay. If all of those times he danced on the doorstep of being thrown in a federal prison just for the rush.

As he entered the new office, his new “home”, he wondered what he had gotten himself into.

-12/03/04

Michael is my all time favorite character on Witch Hunter Robin and it was not until I actually found the official site that I realized how young he really was. That explains why Amon won’t show him that killer website because he’s too young. Most people think Michael is eighteen or even twenty when he’s only a year older than Robin which means he could have been as young as fifteen or younger when he was taken into custody. It never says how long everyone has been there though I would assume it was at least a year. Michael talks about a case that happened six months prior to Robin coming. Enough with my ranting.