erfect: "No, I would describe these people
as DEFENDANTS." Delaney busts a kid for hacking codes with repeated
random dialling. Tells the press that NYNEX can track this stuff in no
time flat nowadays, and a kid has to be STUPID to do something so easy
to catch. Dead on again: hackers don't mind being thought of as
Genghis Khan by the straights, but if there's anything that really gets
'em where they live, it's being called DUMB.

Won't be as much fun for Phiber next time around. As a second offender
he's gonna see prison. Hackers break the law. They're not geniuses,
either. They're gonna be defendants. And yet, Delaney muses over a
drink in the hotel bar, he has found it impossible to treat them as
common criminals. Delaney knows criminals. These kids, by comparison,
are clueless--there is just no crook vibe off of them, they don't smell
right, they're just not BAD.

Delaney has seen a lot of action. He did Vietnam. He's been shot at,
he has shot people. He's a homicide cop from New York. He has the
appearance of a man who has not only seen the shit hit the fan but has
seen it splattered across whole city blocks and left to ferment for
years. This guy has been around.

He listens to Steve Jackson tell his story. The dreamy game strategist
has been dealt a bad hand. He has played it for all he is worth.
Under his nerdish SF-fan exterior is a core of iron. Friends of his
say Steve Jackson believes in the rules, believes in fair play. He
will never compromise his principles, never give up. "Steve," Delaney
says to Steve Jackson, "they had some balls, whoever busted you.
You're all right!" Jackson, stunned, falls silent and actually blushes
with pleasure.

Neidorf has grown up a lot in the past year. The kid is a quick study,
you gotta give him that. Dressed by his mom, the fashion manager for a
national clothing chain, Missouri college techie-frat Craig Neidorf
out-dappers everyone at this gig but the toniest East Coast lawyers.
The iron jaws of prison clanged shut without him and now law school
beckons for Neidorf. He looks like a larval Congressman.

Not a "hacker," our Mr. Neidorf. He's not interested in computer
science. Why should he be? He's not interested in writing C code the
rest of his life, and besides, he's seen where the chips fall. To the
world of computer science he and Phrack were just a curiosity. But to
the world of law.... The kid has learned where the bodies are bur