CRIMSON SKY
Here's part 5 of Crimson Sky.  It's been more than four months since I've
posted this story.  So just a short summary here.  Ryan Danzler is a
fifteen year old student who one day encountered a strange boy named
Reshion (who is a new student at his school).  Reshion's cold and unnatural
nature intrigued Ryan and he soon found out that things around him are much
more complicated than it seems.  This is a sci-fi story set in the future.
Uh, I'm afraid I can't do too good of a job summarizing.  Just email me
privately or ask for a repost for knowledge of previous chapters.  Anyway,
hope you like the new installment.

Shuichi Minamino
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 5  Forbidden Files

	"Damn!" Ryan curses under his breath as the password is rejected again.
He's been at it for hours and he still can't break the code.  He has to
break into the system to change some data.  He can't let his family see his
grade for the quarter anyway.  Ryan still can't believe he has gotten a D
in his history class, that just isn't possible, for he has aced all the
tests and has never missed a class.  It must've been the teacher.  Just
because he pointed out a mistake in the teacher's lecture, that damn
teacher has had a grudge against him ever since.  So now Ryan has 
to hack into the school's registrar computer system to change his grade.

	"All right, here we go again."  Ryan hits the "Return" key.  The computer
screen freezes for a second before the phrase "log in successful" appears.
A small grin spreads across Ryan's face as he starts going through the
central files.  The files are organized in departments.  It is a matter of
minutes before he finds the personal record file.

	"Danzler...Danzler..." Ryan mutters to himself as he tries to find his
name, which is taking way longer than he has expected.   There just seems
to be too many people in his school.  "Got it.  Danzler, Ryan.  Hm...family
record... disciplinary record...aha!  There we go."  Ryan types in the
anti-detection code and draws out his file.  The decoding and recoding
process itself is not difficult.  Just a few changes here and there and a
few computer language change are sufficient to change the grade without
leaving any glitch.  Computer is definitely his forte, Ryan smiles to
himself at that thought.  He's been at it for years, though only for fun,
never for any malignant purposes.

	At age twelve Ryan is already in secondary school, he is considered as a
child prodigy in various things.  Now at fifteen, he's already a senior in
high school.  Ryan has to admit that he is surprised and a bit jealous when
he finds that Reshion, who is one year younger than he, is in the same
grade with him.  Speaking of Reshion, Ryan thinks to himself, that guy is
one strange person.  What has happened earlier today still unnerves him.
It is somewhat frightening to see Reshion driving like a madman, and the
way he pulls the glass shards out of his hands as if they are nothing.
There's definitely something wrong with this person.

	Ryan directs his attention back to the computer again and reload the file
back into the system.  He is about to log off when a thought suddenly comes
to him.  He reenter the personal data file and starts to look for Reshion's
name.

	"Reshion...Reshion what?" Ryan asks himself, realizing that he doesn't
know Reshion's last name. "well, guess I'll have to break through the
system again.  Break code 231, there.  That was easy.
Okay...Reshion...Cicirelli.  Cicirelli?!  He's Italian?"  That is strange,
for it occurs to Ryan that Reshion looks more European than Italian, not to
mention that the first name is definitely not an Italian first name.  He
rummages through the files, looking for some kind of clue about this
mysterious new student.  Ryan is never curious about other people but for
some reason, he feels that there is something disturbingly different about
Reshion that he must find out.

	"Family records...whatta..." The file won't open.  Ryan tries again and
with some luck, it opens.  There is nothing interesting about Reshion
except for the fact that they have the same birthday.  Ryan is about to
exit the files when his computer scan shows that there is a hidden link
beneath the "Family Income" header.  It has been cleverly hidden and would
have escape even the government agents' glance.  But Ryan's system scan is
in many ways more advanced than the ones currently owned by the government
bureau.  Ryan smiles to himself, being a computer genius certainly has its
advantages; it has just never occurred to Ryan that someday his system scan
will actually come into use.  

	There's something strange about the hidden link.  Ryan knows for a fact
that the school will *never* have a hidden link on somemone's profile.  The
very fact that he has found one on Reshion's data file arouses his
curiosity.  Ryan clicks onto the link and tries to get into the subfile but
nothing happens.  It takes Ryan a few more minutes of trying before
realizing that Reshion's hidden files are connected and stored at a
different data base, one that is outside of the school, under high
security.  "impossible.  What is this?!"  Ryan tries again, something is
definitely not right.  He manages to trace the record to outside of the
school to a residential area.  Now he knows for sure that the storage of
the data is not done with the school's permission.  For the school will
*never* do something of this kind.

	"All right," Ryan mutters to himself. "I'm gonna hack the system."  With
those words, Ryan begins to type furiously onto the keyboard, trying to
strip away the security layer by layer.  He has to admit that the security
on this machine is even better than that of the school's.  It takes him
much longer than he has expected but as his decoding finally overrides the
protective shield, the data file is opened.

	The first page is nothing but Reshion's home address, identity number,
birthdates and other basic personal information.  Ryan is disappointed and
puzzled.  If that's all there is to Reshion, then why is the same
information stored on another database, without the school's knowledge?
Ryan is about to exit the file when he accidentally clicks onto the heading
under "Income."  He has not expect another link there but what shows up
next on the screen are the words "Warning: Forbidden Files."

	"Hm..." This time, the code is almost impossible to be broken.  If it
isn't for the fact that the prospect of it is so interesting, Ryan would've
given up after twenty minutes.  But when the files finally open, what Ryan
sees amazes him.  Inside that files are the code for various items.  For a
moment Ryan is dumbfounded, he has no idea what these codes mean.  Then,
one catches his eyes, the one that writes "Xbw Sr K787YUV".  Crossbow Serio
K787 made with Yuridium Vorux, Ryan realizes.  He skims through several
more and finds that they are all the names for weapons.  A sense of dread
overcomes him as he recognize those items as well.  These are not ordinary
weapons, Ryan notices.  They look familiar, their serio numbers sound
famaliar.  No, not again, Ryan prays as he realizes what these can and or
may mean.  His old pain, his loss, everything comes rushing back to him as
he recognizes the weapons one by one.  Ryan is about to go on to the next
page when an alarm goes off on and the screen goes black flashing the words
"Invalid Entry Detected! Session Terminated."

	"Shit!" Ryan curses and tries to get out of the session before anything
else happens but is too late.  His computer security system warns him that
the distant host is recharging its protective shield and is retaliating by
eating away at Ryan's computer hard drive.  Finally, with a swift stroke,
Ryan disconnects the line.

	For a few minutes Ryan just sits there, his breathing hard and heavy, cold
sweat rolls down his forehead, his body shaking slightly as he recollects
what has 
just happened.  Ryan forces himself to stop thinking about what he has just
found and assess the damage of the hard drive.  With trembling hands he
turns on the computer again and does a scan of the computer and finds that
more than half of the hard drive has been destroyed by the security system
of the remote host.  

	As he starts to type in codes to do a further scanning, Ryan finds that he
cannot concentrate.  He's trembling all over again.  Ryan scolds himself
for being over-sensitive but he still can't calm himself down.  The
possible meaning of what he has found frightens him, he doesn't want what
has happened many years ago to repeat itself.   

	Ryan stands up abruptly, his hands gripping the desk tightly, his fingers
digging into the desk as he tries to gain control of himself.  He closes
his eyes and take a deep breath but can't stop the images from replaying
themselves in his mind.  He almost lost everything he loved on that
terrible day five years ago and he is not about to let it happen again.
Never again, Ryan promises himself as his breathing slowly turns back to
normal, he will never let anyone he loved leave him again.