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open port has seen us send a genuine email, it will assume anything else we do is also legitimate.’ I nodded, not wanting to interrupt the flow of his genius. ‘And that includes sending an email which will convince the TLA computer to open up a new account for us. One with all the privileges we need.’
    He typed in a series of Unix commands, adding a special twist to the address of his ‘message’ so that the computer would be forced to execute those commands.
    â€˜Now then; he said.
    Login: jsmith
    Password:
    Ready
    tla2#
    We were in. The Doctor looked like the cat that had got the cream. ‘Swan may be security-conscious,’ he said, ‘but even she hasn’t patched every puncture in her mainframe.’
    Before he did anything else, the Doctor located the files which kept a record of the ports and logins, and snipped out the lines showing our unauthorised arrival. Then he spent a leisurely half an hour poking around in the guts of the TLA mainframe. Normally each user is locked into their own section of the computer, like residents in an apartment building, each with the key to their own door alone. The Doctor had convinced the computer to hand him the master key to the building, an account with root privileges, just as powerful as Swan’s own account. If he’d wanted to, he could have locked every user out of the computer, or have erased every file. Amistyped command could have catastrophie consequences for the system. Watching a hacker at work was always like watching a tightrope walker.
    â€˜You know, I’m rather enjoying myself,’ the Doctor said. ‘I haven’t played with technology this simple for a very long time. It’s rather like discovering your old toys at the back of the cupboard. I’m not having much luck with these files.’ He tapped a fingernail against the glass of the display. ‘I think it might be easier to read through some of Swan’s email. Perhaps she’s discussed what I need to know with some of her colleagues.’
    Breaking and entering computers is still a grey area of the law. But the law aside, there was something a little itchy about reading other people’s mail. But before the Doctor could start purloining any letters, we were suddenly and decisively kicked off the TLA system.
    â€˜Someone’s noticed us,’ said the Doctor.
    I had spent a few minutes in a half-panic, expecting the police to descend on the hotel room. When someone knocked at the door, I just about dived under the bed. But it was room service, with a three-course meal and a bottle of champagne.
    The Doctor knew that whoever had slammed the door in our face had no way of telling which direction we’d come from. So we did it all again: another genuine email message followed by a, uh, doctored one. The Doctor typed with one hand while he sampled his dinner with the other. I cracked open the champagne and had a badly needed half-glass. The system opened up to us again in less than five minutes. ‘It will take them days to puzzle out how we’re getting in.’ This time his username was jeoffrey. ‘For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command,’ non-explained the Doctor.
    He used the who command to see who else was online atTLA. ‘Sarah Swan herself,’ he said. ‘Undoubtedly it was she who invited us to leave.’
    â€˜How long before she notices we’re back?’
    â€˜No time at all,’ said the Doctor, already sitting forward in his seat and tapping intensely at the keys. ‘So, turn about being fair play, I’m going to log her out before she can do the same to us. There.’ A few more commands, and the Doctor’s bit of magic was running in the background – a time bomb quietly ticking. While she puzzles over that, I’m going to download a copy of all her email. Then we can read it at our leisure.’
    I’ve sat and watched a lot of hackers at work.