By Caezar as The Woman With No Name

Looking over her shoulder in the terminal, she decided finally to give in to the need to rest. Long-ignored memories flooded across her closed eyes, drew her back into meditation and a thousandth review of her oldest project.

In days long past, she built her first power base by transferring pirated software into the State from Europe. Since the day she returned from her first world tour, she only pretended to operate without a safety net. She slept like a baby in the worst circumstance because she could always fall back into Plan B. When she found a knot of stress, she meditated by replaying that first big trip and the get out of jail free card she created .

She worked the counter at a little greasy spoon, worsening the teenage disease that kept her pinned to her Commodore 128 late into the night. The job paid poorly, but the steady income kept her in reasonably modern equipment and bought an array of reference manuals she read on her few breaks.

Fate would have found her one way or another. It came in the form of a legendary software pirate who needed to satisfy his munchies late one spring evening. He pegged her cold with one glimpse of the 6502 reference manual, which peeked out from behind the till. Perhaps he sensed an opportunity to score an easy lay, or to make his first friend in a long time.