Electron, still logged in as the mystery Guest, leaped in. `Did it work?' `No. Decrypted OK, but the file was corrupted when I tried to decompress it.' `Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!' Gandalf exclaimed. `Fuckfuckfuck,' Electron wrote. `Doomed to fail.' `Sigh Sigh Sigh,' Pad typed. Gandalf and Electron quizzed Phoenix in detail about each command he had used, but in the end there seemed only one hope. Move a copy of the decryption program to the JANET computer in the UK and try decrypting and uncompressing Deszip there. Phoenix gave Gandalf a copy of Crypt and the British hacker went to work on the JANET computer. A little later he rendezvoused on Altos again. Phoenix was beside himself by this stage. `Gand! Work???' `Well, I decrypted it using the program you gave me ...' `And And And???' Electron was practically jumping out of his seat at his computer. `Tried to uncompress it. It was taking a LONG time. Kept going--expanded to 8 megabytes.' `Oh NO. Bad Bad Bad,' Phoenix moaned. `Should only be 3 meg. If it's making a million files, it's fucked.' `Christ,' Pad typed. `Too painful.' `I got the makefile--licensing agreement text etc., but the Deszip program itself was corrupted,' Gandalf concluded. `I don't understand what is wrong with it. <Sob>' Phoenix wrote. `AgonyAgonyAgony,' Electron groaned. `It'll never never never work.' `Can we get a copy anywhere else?' Gandalf asked. `That FTP bug has been fixed at Purdue,' Pad answered. `Can't use that to get in again.' Disappointment permeated the atmosphere on Altos. There were, of course, other possible repositories for Deszip. Phoenix and Electron had already penetrated a computer at Lawrence Livermore National Labs in California. They had procured root on the gamm5 machine and planned to use it as a launchpad for penetrating security expert Russell Brand's computer at LLNL, called Wuthel. They were sure Brand had Deszip on his computer. It would require a good deal of effort, and possibly another roller-coaster ride of desire, expectation and possible disappointment. For now, the four hackers resolved to sign off, licking their wounds at their defeat in the quest for Deszip. `Well, I'm off. See you l8r,' Pad said. `Yeah, me too,' Electron added. `Yeah, OK. L8r, m8s!' Gandalf said. Then, just for fun, he added in typical Gandalf style, `See you in jail!' CHAPTER 6 -- Page 1 The New York Times. Read about it; Just another incredible scene; There's no doubt about it. -- from `Read About It', 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Pad had an important warning for the Australian hackers: the computer security community was closing in on them. It was the end of February 1990, not long after Phoenix and Electron had captured Zardoz and just missed out on Deszip. Pad didn't scream or shout the warning, that wasn't his style. But Electron took in the import of the warning loud and clear.