The Last Login

Liam Reddick wasn’t your typical 17-year-old. While most kids his age obsessed over video games and social media trends, Liam spent his nights poring through lines of code, testing firewalls, and decoding vulnerabilities in obscure systems. He didn’t hack for money or fame—he hacked for the thrill.

By day, he blended in at his quiet suburban high school. But by night, Liam became NullByte, a name whispered in forums and darknets alike. He had built a reputation: ethical, elusive, and eerily brilliant.

One stormy Friday night, Liam received a private message on an encrypted chat board from a user known only as “SpecterX.”

“You ever cracked a bank before?” the message read.

Liam hesitated. Hacking financial institutions wasn’t a game—it crossed into dangerous territory, where prison sentences started at decades, not years. But curiosity clawed at him.

“I’m listening,” he typed back.

SpecterX sent over an IP address. “MidCity Federal. Just the perimeter. Just see if you can get in.”

The idea was simple: test the outer layer, find the cracks, report back. That, Liam figured, wasn’t illegal… not really. Just exploring the locks, not stealing anything behind them.

He fired up his custom Linux distro, launched his VPN chain through six countries, and began a slow scan of the target. The system looked tight—new generation firewalls, up-to-date patches—but there was something odd in the secondary login portal. A leftover subdomain with weak encryption. Rookie mistake.

With cautious precision, Liam injected a simple payload. The response was instant.

Access granted.

His heart raced. He had bypassed the first gate of a national bank.

He could stop now.

But he didn’t.

Once inside, the system unfolded like a treasure map. Nothing flashy—just logs, test servers, and audit trails. But in the “sandbox” folder, a file caught his eye: ledger_test_real01.csv.

He opened it.

The names, account numbers, and transaction histories of 200 real customers stared back at him.

Panic surged. He hadn’t meant to find this. He was in too deep.

Before he could back out, a small window popped up on his terminal.

"You shouldn’t be here."

Liam froze.

Another hacker?

A honeypot?

Before he could respond, his screen went black.

His machine was off—dead, unplugged, fried.

Liam’s hands trembled. He had tripped something. Was it a trace? A counter-hack?

He barely slept that night.

Three days later, Liam was walking home when a black SUV pulled up beside him. Two men stepped out—suits, earpieces, and badges.

“Liam Reddick?” one asked. “We need to have a conversation.”

His stomach dropped.

The interrogation room smelled like antiseptic and cold steel. A man introduced himself as Agent Marcus from the Cybercrime Division of the FBI.

“We’re aware you breached MidCity Federal last Friday,” he said without anger. “You triggered a honeypot system we set up to catch real criminals. Instead, we caught… you.”

Liam stammered. “I didn’t steal anything. I stopped as soon as I saw what it was.”

Agent Marcus nodded. “We know. We also know you’re the one behind NullByte.”

Liam’s heart sank. That identity was supposed to be untraceable.

“You’re talented,” Marcus continued. “Too talented to throw your life away. That’s why I’m giving you a choice.”

Liam raised an eyebrow.

“You can spend the next ten years behind bars… or you can come work with us. White hat. Ethical hacking. Paid, legal, impactful.”

It wasn’t really a choice.

Five Years Later

Liam sat in a high-rise office overlooking Washington D.C., now dressed in a sleek suit and tapping away at a government-secured terminal.

Today’s task? Pen-testing the Department of Energy’s new system.

He smiled. This time, he was still hacking—but on the right side of the law.

And as “Agent Reddick,” his trace was one criminals would learn to fear.