Joel was recovering well after two days. Both his eyes were still blackened from the blow to his face, but Max had restrained himself enough that he hadn’t actually broken Joel’s nose after all. The lunatic had Linda to thank for the last minute mercy. If she hadn’t asked Max to go easy, Joel would have been in much worse shape. Nevertheless, he wore his protective foil cap down low on his brow and kept his distance as Linda and Dr. Murray prepared Max for the trip back to Perske’s corner of the dark net. Listen to the Chapter 27 podcast with roboreader Sangeeta. Max stretched out in the lounge chair and Linda placed a pair of headphones over his ears. She swung around a set of goggles mounted at the end of a jointed boom, and positioned them in front of his face. The contraption looked like it had been kluged together with parts scavenged from a dental drill, an optometrist’s testing station, and the guts of a microwave oven. “If that thing slips,” said Max, “you’ll crush me.” Linda winked at him and continued about her business, twisting the positioning knobs and lining up the eyepieces. She beckoned Joel to help her. He approached hesitantly, careful to keep Linda between himself and Max. “Can you see the test pattern?” Max focused on the image in the lenses. “Yep, there are the cross hairs. The focus looks about right.” “And you can still hear me?” He nodded. “It’s a little muffled.” When everything was set, she stepped back to survey the set up, and then climbed into the twin lounge chair nearby. “Wait,” said Max, “I thought I was going with Joel.” “No, it’ll just be you and Linda,” said Dr. Murray as he began arranging Linda’s equipment. “May Ted guide and protect the both of you.” Max lifted the headphones off of his ears. “I’d really prefer it if he came along instead.” “You and Linda will make a more cohesive team,” said Dr. Murray. “He’s going to work on finding a vulnerability for us to get you in. That’s really more in keeping with his talents.” “We’ve worked things out haven’t we Joel? Come on, it’ll be fun” Joel shook his head in a silent but vigorous negative reply before busying himself at the keyboard and monitor across the room. Max pushed the goggles to the side. “What’s the matter?” Linda asked. “Don’t you trust me? Or is it because I’m a girl?” “No, it’s not that.” “I’m a much better shot that Joel. Much better than you too, as I’ve heard.” Max stammered, “This isn’t the way I thought it would go down.” “What did you have in mind?” “I don’t know. It’s just not what I expected. That’s all.” After a moment, he pulled his goggles back in place. “I’ll try to adapt.” Joel made himself small at the terminal. Linda fiddled needlessly with the equipment mounted to her lounge chair. Dr. Murray broke the awkward silence by describing the zero day exploit. Joel, he explained, was scanning the recent security bulletins for high priority patches and the flaws that they addressed. The inevitable delay between the announcement of a vulnerability and the installation of patches by sysadmins, he said, means that there is almost always a window of opportunity for a fast moving hacker to take advantage of a security flaw. Places like the University, where staff were likely to be less attentive on the weekends, are particularly vulnerable to flaws announced in bulletins released late in the day, at the end of the week, and over holiday breaks. “In the summer,” said Murray, “they might as well hand us the keys during happy hour on basically any Thursday or Friday you like, Ted willing.” He checked his watch. “It’s five thirty Joel. Anything promising?” “There are a few possibilities,” Joel mumbled. “Lets get started,” said Linda. “We’ll hang out on the inside until you find an exploit.” Dr. Murray placed a hand on each of their shoulders and blessed them and their mission in Ted’s name. He stepped back, flicked the switches on a pair of small vacuum pumps resting by each of their chairs, then opened the valve at the top of an