CyberStorm Read Online Free Page A

breath. He opened the door and turned to me. “Just give her some time and space to figure it out. Turning thirty is a big deal for women.”
    I walked in ahead of him while he held the door open.
    “I guess you’re right. Now what were you talking about?”
    “The news today. Things are getting totally out of hand in China. Have you been watching? More burning flags outside embassies, ransacking American stores. FedEx said they had to stop operations in China, even delivery of vaccines for the bird flu outbreak, and now Anonymous is threatening to attack them in retaliation.”
    Anonymous was the citizen hacktivist group we’d been reading about more and more in the news. We’d reached the storage locker again, and we stacked the water containers.
    “That why you’re stocking up?”
    “Just a coincidence, but I also read that cyberattacks on the Department of Defense have stepped up an order of magnitude.”
    “DoD’s getting attacked?” I asked, concerned. He’d obviously been researching the cyber world ever since I brought it up at the barbecue. “Is it serious?”
    “Not really. It gets attacked millions of times a day, but it’s getting more targeted. Makes me nervous someone is planning something in meatspace.”
    “Meatspace?”
    He smiled.
    “The internet is in cyberspace, but we ,” he said slowly, pausing for effect, “are in meatspace, get it?”
    We opened the back door and walked out into the rain again.
    “God help us, now you have something new to be paranoid about.”
    Chuck laughed. “Only yourself to blame.”
    We walked back to the garage and found Rory, our neighbor, talking to one of the men.
    “Thirsty?” laughed Rory. He must have seen us lugging the containers. “What’s all the water for?”
    “Just like to be prepared,” replied Chuck. He nodded at the man Rory was talking to.
    “Mike, this is Stan. He runs the garage here.”
    I reached out to shake Stan’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
    “Not sure how much longer I’ll be running this joint,” said Stan as I shook his hand. “The way things are going.”
    “Used to be we had Bob Hope and Johnny Cash,” sympathized Chuck. “Now we have no hope and no cash.”
    “Ain’t that the truth,” laughed Stan, and all the cabbies around the entrance laughed too.
    “You need any help?” asked Rory.
    “Naw, thanks, man,” replied Chuck. “Not too much left.”
    We headed back in for another load.

Dec ember 17
     
     
    “COULD YOU GIVE me your credit card?”
    “Why?”
    “Because mine are all cancelled,” replied Lauren angrily.
    She’d been the victim of identity theft just after Thanksgiving. Someone had started taking out loans in her name, creating hedge accounts with online trading systems. It was a total mess.
    “I can give it to you,” I answered, “but forget trying to order anything.”
    We were sitting and having breakfast. I was having some oatmeal, Lauren was drinking coffee and surfing the internet on her laptop, and Luke was back to the fruit-chunks-and-dog game.
    Ellarose was burbling away on her play mat on the floor in front of the TV. Where Luke was a bruiser, big for his age, Ellarose was petite, small for a six-month-old. She didn’t have much hair yet, and what she did have seemed to always be sticking out at right angles, like a sandy-colored bird’s nest. Her little eyes were constantly watching, wide open, seeing what was going on with the world. We were looking after her for a few hours so Susie could go shopping.
    I was staying home for the day. The week before Christmas was completely dead for me business-wise, and it was a good time to catch up on paperwork and expenses. The kitchen counter in front of me was filled with scraps of paper and notes I was trying to organize. Unconsciously, I picked up my smartphone, swiping it to check my social media feeds. Nothing new.
    “What do you mean, forget trying to order anything?”
    Where I was winding down for the holidays, she was