Today Sana and some of her friends are going to meet in a café.

She woke up early because of curiosity. She even dreamed about hacking and tracking those people down.

About the research: she has found some common numbers at the crime spots, but the question is, why would a professional do such a thing — carry mobiles to a crime scene? That doesn't make sense.

Hacking is not easy, but to be safe everyone should learn something about it.

(Note: you can skip a bit from here if you want.)

There are five main steps of hacking:

1. Reconnaissance (footprinting). In this step you gather data about your victim.

2. Scanning. As the name suggests, you use footprinting to see what services, ports, OS, etc., the target system is using.

3. Enumeration. From the scanning results, you use specific service/OS techniques and tools to gather user accounts, shared/exported information.

4. Penetration. The attack phase. Two things can happen here: you can fail (and should fall back or risk detection), or you can succeed. If you succeed, do two things:

   • Elevate privileges — try to become root/superuser/admin.

   • Manipulate data — enter or copy data, or insert malicious code.

5. Cover your tracks. Erase all traces of your presence on the platform.

(And start from here :D)

Now back to the case in hand.

If you’re thinking Sana should involve the police, you’re wrong. If finding a lead were that easy, the police would already have them. Sana has set an alarm on her phone: if any of those four numbers are detected near her by GPS or trackers, the alarm will ring.

Right now she’s making her way to the café where her friends are waiting, as they decided yesterday morning.

When she enters the café she finds them sitting by the window. Three girls are there waiting for her; two of them are her best friends.

One of them is Laura — very beautiful, with light blue eyes — and the other is Julie. Julie is Egyptian and also very beautiful.

“Hello, girls,” Sana says, sliding into one of the free chairs.

Have I mentioned all three of them use the name H King in their hidden professions?

“Hello, girl. Long time no see. What are you doing these days?” Julie asks, signaling the waiter with her hand.

Sana is about to tell them how hard she’s been practicing for her upcoming match when her alarm starts ringing, drawing everyone's attention to her.

She realizes they’ll be looking at her now. Seriously — who sets an alarm for 11 a.m.? Do you even need an alarm for that? Yes. Some people do.

She’s damned if they think she’s suspicious.

Her besties stare; their eyes question her moves. She makes a casual sign to act normal and tries to shrug it off. Thanks to her friends’ good humor, they tease her instead.

“Oh my God! Sana! We know you sleep a lot, but setting your alarm for 11 a.m.? Seriously?” they laugh.

Sana starts to blush furiously. Looking around, she thanks God people are back to their own business. When she looks at the three again, one of them smirks and turns away — a random feeling tells her it was them.

Her mind starts spinning with stupid possibilities that she shouldn’t think about.

Sana’s POV (continued)

“ So, Sana — are you free tonight?” Lara asked. She and some of the others weren’t close to Sana for safety reasons.

“I’m sorry. I’m not — and I don’t think I will be, from now on,” Sana replied, speaking a little louder in the hope that any men nearby would hear and not think of her as an easy target.

“What? The whole year?” Julie almost shouted.

“Yeah.” Sana said, almost a whisper.

“I shall go. We will meet soon,” she added, standing up and leaving hurriedly when she saw their faces.

These girls were her best friends, but she couldn’t tell them everything yet. She didn’t want to involve them — maybe she was afraid they’d stop her, or be in danger. She knew for a fact that Lara would want to stop her, but Laura and Julie would never; instead, they would become her team.

Back home, Sana closed her bedroom door and went to her study table where all her devices were.

She opened her laptop and connected her phone. After a minute, the data came up, and her heart started to shake. Her hands trembled; her whole body shivered.

She knew now they knew someone was trying to enter their business.

Those people who had killed so many innocent humans were sitting there — looking at her. The thought froze her. One of them even smirked.

She typed and searched for information about them and found it: ID pictures and documents. She double-checked and verified them online.

They had posted these documents themselves — they were useless, and all of them were fake. When she checked, the posts’ timestamps were from that very morning.

“Why would they post their documents online?” The question flashed through her mind and left before she fully registered it. Then a bell rang in her head: of course they knew someone was trying to hack them. They had come to the restaurant today because of her alarm.

For a moment she stood frozen, then she yelled, “OH GOD! I’m sorry. What if— what if they know it’s me and that’s why they came to that restaurant today and my alarm! Oh gosh!”

Suddenly she felt that same raw fear everyone feels when they have no backup. She wasn’t scared for herself alone; she was terrified for her family and friends.

With those thoughts racing, she slowly drifted off to sleep on her cold floor.

The next morning she woke and told herself, “It’s my time to take a U-turn. Yes! Let the fire settle.”

She would act like she was just a badminton player — for now, at least. She knew she mustn’t rush. Her family was at risk. She had to think before acting.

Then an idea came to her. “What if I show that my family is dead? I have no one. Not even a friend.”

Before she could consider it further, she remembered they had already seen her at the café. She would take a U-turn, and those people would regret not stopping her earlier.

She took out her phone and made a group call to her two besties.

When both picked up, she didn’t let them say hello. “We have to meet. We have a situation. I know you’ll help me, but we’ll discuss it later — not today. Today we’ll stay at Lara’s so we can at least say goodbye to her.” There was silence for a few seconds, then they agreed and hung up.

While leaving her home, she dialed Lara’s number. After one or two rings, Lara picked up.

“Hello, Lara,” Sana greeted.

“Hello Sana. What a surprise!” Lara replied.

“I want to hang out today with my besties. Have a party tonight — or we can do a movie and pajama night?” Sana suggested.

There was a pin-drop silence for a moment, then a loud squeal filled the line. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Yup, I’ll call them and we can gather at my house. It’s going to be a good time,” Lara said happily.

Sana knew it had been a year since they’d all partied together like this. For Lara, this party could be on her final list with them.