In hindsight, the solution was simple. But Tim hadn't thought that five minutes ago.

The boy pounded the keyboard furiously; letters, numbers and symbols flashing across the screen.

Dave peered over the other boys shoulder, tentatively.

"Are you sure you can do this?" he asked.

Tim ignored this comment. Of course he could do it. Yes, they would detect the hack in a matter of minutes, but he never doubted his ability to circumvent their security before then.

He began to type faster, his fingers a blur.

Dave stepped back, sweat beginning to bead his head. If they could get into the Tao systems and download the source code for the game then they would be able to reproduce it on their own pc's. Play the game without paying. How cool that would be.

But if they got caught, they would face prison... or worse, if the corporations got involved.

"Come on, man..." muttered Dave.

Defiantly, Tim smashed his finger down on the Enter key and the words "Downloading" appeared on the screen.

"Yes! Screw you!" Tim raised his arms above his head and turned to his friend, grinning. "All I needed to do was reroute their primary security subroutines into a loop. They're busy monitoring the vending machines now. See? Simple!"

Dave wiped his brow.

"Yeah." He muttered "Simple."