Mind_Hack.exe Ch. 01

In the near future, it wasn't a third world war that threatened to end humanity. It was the internal violence and unrest within each country that almost lead to the extinction of mankind. The state of the world under the control of increasingly corrupt politicians and dictators had led to the forming of a few peaceful protests. Those few had become dozens and then hundreds and thousands and the word peaceful was soon abandoned. Civil wars sprang up everywhere and leaders worldwide were brought down. Millions of lives were lost and those left when the dust settled wondered how long it would be until it all happened again.

Charismatic leaders of science and technology stepped in with a way that could end mankind's destructive cycle. Corporations, sensing opportunity, funded research that promised to put a stop to the violent tendencies of mankind. This was done in exchange for information vital to increasing their profit margins. They promised peace, as long as everyone was willing to part with their privacy. Most were still shell shocked enough from the recent atrocities that they readily agreed if it meant an end to crime and war. Corporations swayed dissenters by offering discounts on their products. Part with your privacy and save a dollar. With this logic in mind, a permanent solution was made to better manage a potentially volatile populace.

Everyone that had supported this new endeavor received free of charge exciting new cybernetic enhancements. People were opened up and chips and circuits were added to brain matter and optic nerves. Glasses were no longer needed and cancer and diseases were detected early enough to stop it almost every time. Other benefits were promised down the road but mainly safety was touted as the main reason everyone should get on board. Every person was essentially a camera. If you committed a crime, there were witnesses, you could be tracked. You would be found and stopped, usually permanently. Crime was now almost impossible to get away with, which drastically improved morale.

A surgery was required but the outward affects were completely hidden to the naked eye except for one piece that was purposeless left exposed. At the center of the neck, a flat square that looked like glass poked out of the skin. From it, a dull, red light could be seen. It was only a square inch but it was always on, sending a constant signal. The excuse for it being visible was that it would decrease possible interference that might have occurred if it resided inside the body. But the real reason was for authorities to be able to judge at a glance if you were a part of the new regime that was dedicated to a peaceful existence.

The new scientific solution for peace came to be known as Peace of Mind, or POM for short. Corporations gave discounts for food, utilities, fuel, everything they could for those who adopted POM early on. For everyone else, the prices went up, driving more and more to receive what was becoming a necessity. But what really silenced the naysayers was the swift drop in crime. The one thing POM did well was remind people that someone could be watching them anytime. It was always there, always watching. Every crime as soon as it was reported, no matter how big or small, was dealt with by the authorities and punishments were quick and severe. Lawyers became irrelevant, as did juries and courthouses. The evidence was always right there, impossible to refute.

After five years, POM became mandatory for every citizen eighteen and older. This was argued by many, but the statistics did not lie and the advantages seemed to outweigh the disadvantages. It was helping bring lasting peace to a fragmented society, and since privacy did not matter to most anymore, it became illegal to not have a red light visible on the back of your neck. Those that wanted peace had won. The corporations that wanted to know everything about everybody at all times were the real winners though, and they vowed to keep the population happy and tranquil as long as they bought their products.

Many would be anarchists tried to hack their POM or someone helpful volunteer, either through POM's wireless network, or by dissecting the cybernetics themselves and rewiring them. The network had thus far been a dead end. Those that were opened up and explored were also a dead end but in the physical sense that the test subjects were no longer alive anymore. All attempts to put the cybernetics back in place and sew up the human guinea pig failed spectacularly and always lead to the arrest and punishment of the person who tried.

A breach was bound to happen eventually. What was surprising was that it's security held out for almost ten years, which seems like forever with advances in technology. At least, it used to, but that progress had slowed, even halted for a time during the uprisings. Now a new century was right around the corner, and there still weren't flying cars or artificial intelligence. It was almost the same as it had been at the beginning of the 21st century as it had been at the end of it. But now the world had POM, creating exciting new advancements in technology to get them back on track. Peace was here, peace that could last. At least until one disgruntled eighteen year old with some lines of code threatened to put the world's potential utopia at risk.

All that had been learned about POM's system and enhancements was posted on the web if you knew where to look, but after five years of failure, most had given up. But Adam Holland was either too young or too foolish to care about the short comings of those before him. As his eighteenth birthday had approached, he became more and more obsessed with the thought of hacking that which everyone said was impossible. He constantly reviewed the message boards of those that had tried, both in POM's network, and the cyber ware inside the minds that had been opened up.

Adam had dedicated his life to hacking and had gotten very good at it. He knew every time he did he was breaking the law and now that his POM had been surgically installed a week ago on his eighteenth birthday, he knew that from then on there was a record of it. He also knew that it was like getting audited by the internal revenue service. Chances were always good nobody was monitoring you, unless a crime had been committed by or near you, then everyone in the surrounding area had their recent histories played back remotely.

So Adam kept to himself in his room, away from any excitement and far from anything that could even resemble the appearance of illegal. He still lived with his parents. He had few friends and had graduated school early so there he was, day in and day out, committing crime on his computer at locations far away that could not be easily traced back to him.

What Adam was most proud of were the programs he had written himself. The one he had been working on the longest was the one he hoped would thwart POM itself. He called it Mind Hack and if it worked the way he hoped it would, it would grant him access to every part of POM, enabling him to hide or delete his presence completely from the powers that be. Mind Hack would not attack POM directly, or try to sneak in a back way, like most had before him. Rather, his program appeared to be a part of their system and only worked because Adam was newly registered in their servers, which gave it an opportunity to enter through the front door.

Adam knew this was a part of POM's controlling, money making process. New members had one opportunity for two week's to log in to POM and try to let it know everything about them that it didn't yet know. It already knew a great deal, but they always wanted more. Since minors couldn't be officially tracked until they were eighteen, this information willingly volunteered helped them to catch up on their new members. Each new fact learned provided a future discount for various goods and services. When you logged out, you were then locked out forever.

The log in did not get anyone very far into POM's system, but it got Adam far enough. With his program launched, he found he had access to, well, he wasn't sure. He was fairly certain know one had been this deep into POM before because he didn't recognize what he was seeing on any of the websites he had visited to prepare for this moment.

Actually he did recognize some of it. Names, hundreds of them, positioned around a localized map of his town. He tried to zoom out, but he could only see his town. He zoomed in and found he could zero in on neighborhoods, and then individual houses. Everyone that had cyber implants installed showed up as a name and a solid red dot on his computer screen.

Adam wasn't entirely sure how his program was interacting now with POM. He had wanted it to access everything but it just appeared to be localized. He didn't need everyone's names, but, since they were there, he decided to see what he could see. First he found his own name, he pressed the dot next to it and felt a jolt in his head.

Adam felt like electricity was coursing through his brain now. It didn't hurt, but was uncomfortable. He felt the back of his neck for his signal square because that area suddenly felt hot. His finger explored the small smooth surface. Despite feeling warm, it seemed normal. Trying not to be silly but being a little paranoid, he wanted to see it to be sure. It seemed silly, but it was the only external part of the implants he could see. He took a picture with his phone. The red light from the signal wasn't there. Adam knew this was either really good or really bad news. POM might notice a missing signal, or maybe he was suddenly just off the grid. On a whim, he took a video of the back of his neck. To his astonishment, the signal on his neck was blinking on and off, red to nothing, as if it were intermittently transmitting, or transmitting in a different way than before.

Adam blinked and thought about exercising caution. He should log out. Mind Hack should still grant him access to POM later. He could study how his program was affecting POM's systems and then log back in when he was sure it was safe to do so. But first, he wanted to test out one thing. Being off the grid was definitely the goal, but being able to log in and see what everyone else was doing, to spy on friends and neighbors and enemies, that was a definite bonus. And he had someone in mind, Candace Porter.

Adam hadn't seen Candace in years, but knew she lived only a few miles from him. She had been his babysitter when he was younger and he had had a huge crush on her. She had treated him like a child though, which he had thoroughly resented since there was only a five year gap between them. Adam had been eleven the last time he had seen her. After that, his parents felt he no longer needed a babysitter, something he was grateful for, but disappointed in since Candace would no longer be around. He stalked her on social media and knew she had gotten married shortly after her graduation and had a kid now. But seeing family pictures was not enough for Adam, not when he had POM to see through someone else's technologically advanced eyes. He scrolled through the digital map of neighborhoods and found Candace's house. She and her husband, Mark apparently, although he didn't really care, were both home.

Adam reasoned that the best way to look at her would be from another perspective, so he clicked on Mark's name. A message popped up from his Mind Hack program that had been running in the background. It read, "Connected. Do you want to send? Yes/No?" Adam's program was doing its job and giving him access to POM's internal systems. He just hoped it was working the right way and managing to go undetected. He typed Yes and hit Enter.

Adam felt a surge in his brain that was beyond uncomfortable and downright painful. Why had that happened? He was trying to see what Mark was seeing through his eyes onto his computer, but Adam's brain had paid the price. A new message popped up. "Access denied. Signal incompatible." Had he already been discovered? Was his program not working properly? Adam was frustrated by the denial, and again felt that wisdom dictated that he log out now and examine what was happening. But he had come this far, he would try once more, this time trying Candace herself. He clicked on her red dot on his screen. The same message popped up. "Connected. Do you want to send? Yes/No?" His fingers hesitated over the keyboard, then frantically typed in Yes and hit Enter.

For reasons unknown to Adam, there was a surge in his brain as his implants seemed to come to life. He saw a message on the screen. "Access granted. Sending..." Adam had a hopeful second as he eagerly anticipated images of what Candace was seeing right now projected onto his computer screen. Then his vision blurred, he felt very wrong, and then his limbs went slack and his face fell forward as his consciousness vacated the premises.

An instant later, a few miles away, Candace Porter was sitting in a chair, watching the television as her two year old son played with toys in her peripheral vision. Unaware to her, the signal square on the back of her neck started blinking as it began to receive something new. Her brow furrowed as her head suddenly tingled, and then everything faded to black as her body fell back against the chair.

A few seconds later, her eyes flew open and her body gasped as if she had been holding her breath underwater and hadn't tasted air for minutes. Candace looked around, confusion flooding her face. Her hands went up to the blonde strands of hair she could see out of the corner of her eye. She pulled it, hard until a piece of hair came out. "Ouch!" a voice yelled. But it was not the voice of Candace Porter, but the more masculine voice of Adam Holland. "How is this happening? Where am I?" Adam heard a child laugh close by. He turned Candace's head and saw a small boy, pointing and laughing at him.

"Mommy sound funny!" the boy said between fits of laughter.

"I'm not your mother, kid," Adam said shakily in his deep alto. This caused another fit of laughter from the boy. Adam heard footsteps coming from the next room and then a man entered. It was Mark Porter. He recognized him from Candace's pictures online. But that would mean... Adam's hands shot to his chest which he realized was noticeably heavier. As Mark picked up the child, Adam discovered soft, sensitive mounds attached to the body he was in. "Holy crap, I think I'm Candace," Adam whispered.

"What game are you playing with him in here that has him so worked up?" Mark asked smiling. "We're not supposed to get him all worked up right before nap, remember? Honey? Babe? You okay?"

Adam slowly realized Mark was speaking to him. He scrunched up the face to look attentive, and then nodded seriously.

Mark laughed and addressed the boy as he picked him up. "Is this part of Mommy's game? Seeing how weird she can be? Well you can play some more after nap." Mark started to move out of the room with his son but then stopped to speak in Adam's direction once more. "Candy, why don't you go to the bedroom, we should have an hour before he wakes up and maybe you can take a nap. I know you're really tired." And then Mark was gone.

Adam just sat for a moment. He was Candace. How had this happened? Somehow, his program must have altered his signal. It wasn't transmitting to POM, showing them what he saw, what he bought, what he was up to. Rather, it was streaming his consciousness into another person, his hot, former babysitter. He needed a mirror. Adam temporarily pushed away the terrible dilemma he might be in for the perverted prospect of seeing Candace without any clothes on. He stood up, took a step, and immediately crashed to the hardwood floor. He caught himself with his hands, minimizing the damage, but still felt like Candace would have a couple bruises from that sudden landing. He slowly got to his feet, more cautious this time. He took a timid but purposeful step and realized his whole sense of balance was off. Adam's consciousness was in Candace's body, but he was not programmed for her height, her walk, and her voice for that matter. Adam wondered if that could be changed as he checked the doors of the house until he found what must be their master bedroom.

He was gradually getting the hang of her body as he strode towards a large mirror attached to their bedroom wall. He reasoned she must use it to check out what she would wear. Today, he would use it to check out what she wasn't. He saw that she was wearing a loose fitting white t-shirt that hid her large bust and grey sweatpants that did nothing to reveal the cute butt she had to be proud of. Her blonde hair was shorter than he remembered it being, only coming down to her shoulders. It looked like it needed brushing. Adam looked closer at her face. It was still the same cute visage he fantasized about, but, he thought he saw bags under her eyes. She currently had the appearance of a young harried mom who probably needed to be treated to a night out on the town and then allowed to catch up on some sleep. He put those observations aside, remembering that he needed to make the most of this situation since he probably wouldn't be here again, assuming he could reverse the process. That thought lingered for a moment as he wondered how and if that were possible. He'd need to gain access to his computer and see what options there were. It should be as simple as canceling his signal.

While thinking he had let his hands begin to wonder. When they found the area that he was so accustomed to finding a penis, all other thoughts vanished. He rubbed the area gently over the sweatpants, then harder as a pleasant sensation started to grow. He made Candace's face contort to that of lust as she licked her lips. Since he hopefully would not be here again, he'd put on a show for himself. He began to slowly spin around as he lifted the t-shirt over her head, posing for the mirror sensuously as he threw the t-shirt aside, revealing two large breasts. She had lost the baby weight it seemed in every area except for there. They were bigger than what he had seen in pictures, and seemed too good to be true. He wasted no time and began groping them furiously, watching in the mirror as her hands pinched a nipple or caressed their soft sides and then lifting them up and dropping them to watch them bounce. He made a brief attempt to talk sexy to Candace's reflection in the mirror, but it didn't do much for him since it was his deep voice that came out.

Adam took a quick break from squeezing her breasts so he could quickly pull down her sweat pants. She wore white cotton panties underneath and he removed them just as fast. Candace was not managing her business down there as curly hair completely covered her pussy. Adam presumed this was probably because of her hectic parenting lifestyle, new mom and all that, or maybe it was what her husband was in to. Either way, he didn't care as one hand slid down, finding moisture under the bush, and the other hand finding a breast again. The sensations were so overwhelmingly pleasant and erotic that he found he was unable to stand. He fell back onto the large, soft bed. He kept one leg touching the floor and the other stretched out giving him plenty of room to let her fingers explore her nether region. Adam had become so swept up in the erotic new feelings and that fact that he had access to a body he had wanted for so long that he did not notice Mark walk into the bedroom.

Mark couldn't believe what he was seeing. He and Candace had been hot and heavy for the first couple years of their marriage. They were both young and had healthy libidos until their son, Austin, came along. Then it had all stopped.

They had done all sorts of kinky things before she gave birth, afterwards, she never seemed into it. When they did have sex, he felt like she was really just doing it to shut him up. But what he was seeing now was, well, the hottest thing he had ever seen his wife do. His eyes roamed up and down her naked body, watching her get herself off as if she was touching her erogenous zones for the first time. She was really enjoying herself as she fingered her lower lips. She seemed to alternate between brushing her fingers lightly against her clitoris, then pushing two fingers inside her, and then back again. It was as if she couldn't decide what felt best. All the while her other hand swapped back and forth between each breast, fondling each with increasing passion.