368 lines
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368 lines
24 KiB
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_____________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ _____________
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| ___________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ ___________ |
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| | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | |
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| |________________________________________________________________| |
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|____________________________________________________________________|
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...presents... Prophile: Future History
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by THE NIGHTSTALKER
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>>> a cDc publication.......1994 <<<
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-cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
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____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____
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|____digital_media____digital_culture____digital_media____digital_culture____|
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UnderGround Digest profile #16
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Nom du Guerre: "Mr. Jefferson"
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January 23rd, 2030, the 15th year of the "Temporary State of Emergency"
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(As always, these profiles are written and presented in order to inform
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the members of the underground who some of their comrades are, to let us all
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know we are not alone in the struggle to regain the freedoms our ancestors
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enjoyed, and to let the Oppressors and the Oppressed know the quality and
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character of the free men and women who will one day liberate America!)
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I met him at the bus station after I cleared the ID/weapon/drug
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checkpoint. The man I was expecting to meet was in his 60s. The man who met
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me could easily have been in his mid-40s. "Exercise, supplements, and
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bootlegged nootropics!" was his merry explanation to me later when I commented
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on his appearance. This was indeed the man I expected to meet, a legend in the
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underground. He stands 6'7" tall, red hair with streaks of grey at the
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temples. A fine 'Roman' nose, strong jawline and high cheekbones. Even in the
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dead of winter, his skin had a tanned appearance, due to judicious use of UV
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lights and some Amerind ancestry. He was wearing an 'Indiana Jones' fedora and
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a black leather trenchcoat. Wearing a coat like that in almost any city in
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America would be asking for a robbery attempt, but his bearing as we walked to
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the metro station seemed to turn aside the street hustlers and gangbangers who
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eyed his coat with obvious desire and had apparent designs on his wallet. "I'm
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told," he later said "that there's something in my eyes that seems to incline
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miscreants to look elsewhere for mischief." Indeed, his clear, grey eyes could
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only be described as piercing, and his gaze as menacing.
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From the front, his rowhouse looks like any other. It's when you get up
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close that you notice the differences. The front door is a cleverly disguised
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Class I armored unit, more suitable for buildings in the Abandoned Areas than
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here. The windowframes are steel, not polymer or aluminum and the actual
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windows are quarter inch thick Lexan, not glass. The back door is equally
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secure. I asked about that, and he told me that his defenses were not against
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his neighbors, but his government. "A pretty sad state of affairs, isn't it."
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he lamented.
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Upon entering his house and taking off his coat, I saw that he was armed
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with both an automatic pistol and a WW I 'brass knuckle' trench knife, both
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attached to a stylish belt around his waist, worn over a pullover sweater. "In
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the few times I've had to display a weapon, I've found that the trench knife is
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far more effective than my pistol for causing the local goblins to turn tail
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and run. There's something downright scary about this knife, it seems. I'd
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much rather scare them away than shoot them. There's always the potential that
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they might change their ways, and I'd hate to kill someone who has a chance at
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redeeming himself."
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His home is in an integrated neighborhood of rowhouses. "I was born and
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raised only a few houses down from this one. When I decided to relocate back
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here, I intended to buy my old home, but it was being rented by a Haitian
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family. Believe it or not, they reminded me of my family, so I bought the
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place from the landlord, who was gouging them terribly on the rent, and I'm now
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their landlord, even though they don't know it. As long as Etienne and Marie
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choose to live there, they'll never have to worry about eviction if they miss a
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few payments. They want to make a life for themselves, as did my immigrant
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parents. I'm happy to make their attempt a little easier in these trying
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times."
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Inside, the house is decorated in what can only be called Hackeresque.
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Furniture is minimal, yet comfortable. Bookshelves everywhere, as well as
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shelves for CDs, laserdiscs, videotapes and vinyl records. His A/V system is
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old, but still first rate. The monitor is a second generation Sony digital
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HDTV with a homebrew de-interlace and interpolation black box for displaying
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standard NTSC/PAL/SECAM tapes on it. The stereo is similarly hacked to the
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max. The music runs to folk and ethnic, classical, mid to late 20th century
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humor and spoken word, and lots of good old rock and roll! The wall space that
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isn't taken up by bookshelves is decorated with artwork, everything from
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fractal prints to English landscapes by Bannister. There's a working fireplace
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in the living room and there's an enormous broadsword above the mantle. He let
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me examine the sword. It's no mere decoration! This thing is razor sharp and
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could easily lop off a head or limb. "That was the whole point of a
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broadsword! One stroke could incapacitate an enemy." Above the sword, in a
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simple, dignified frame, and illuminated by a single soft light, is a copy of
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the Declaration of Independence. "My underground 'name' of 'Mr. Jefferson' is
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not to imply that I think of myself as a 21st Century Thomas Jefferson, but to
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remind me of what this struggle is all about and to inspire me when things are
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dark. And this constantly illuminated Declaration is also a reminder of what
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we are fighting for these days. And since it can be seen from the street,
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those members of the underground who are on the run know that this is a safe
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house and they can find succor here." His library runs the gamut from science
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fiction to history to philosophy to the sciences to theology. Like many
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members of the underground, he is amazingly well-read.
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The rest of his house is set up with a guest room (which I used for a
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night), kitchen/dining area, a large bathroom, complete with a whirlpool
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bathtub, bidet and urinal. "I installed the urinal because it always made
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sense to me to have one in one's bathroom." His bedroom is a very minimalist
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environment. A futon and rack, dresser, a lamp, telephone, digital clock,
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small AM-FM-Shortwave radio and small VHF-UHF scanner are on the floor next to
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the futon. Several old, well-read books are stacked near the head of the
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futon. _The Complete Sherlock Holmes_ and _Alice in Wonderland_ were two of
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the titles I could see. The last room in the house is the computer center and
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his work area. Believe it or not, all his computers are pre-Millenial! "They
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may be old and slow by modern standards, but they are absolutely 'clean'!
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There's no chance of any Government mandated 'anti-crime' monitoring
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processors." There are several Mac Quadras of diverse types, a Silicon
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Graphics INDY, a couple of PowerBooks and DOS notebooks, several printers,
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including a 5 year old H-P 2400 dpi color laser printer. Banned by the
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Government in 2025, this model can churn out full color pages on plain or
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glossy paper, indistinguishable from Government Approved publishers. The
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propaganda potential is enormous.
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There's even a Commodore 128! I asked about the 128, since it was powered
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up and doing something. "Ah, yes, the 128, in it's native 80 column mode,
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makes a fine terminal for packet radio. Even though it's almost 50 years old,
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it's running like new. I've had to replace the odd component over the years,
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but it's worth it to keep the old warhorse in the running. It's running my
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packet radio node. Radio Amateurs are among the few people allowed to own
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computers, thanks to the Good Works we do during national disasters.
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Supposedly, we are only allowed to send unencrypted data over packet, but I
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doubt that less than 10% of everything going via packet these days doesn't
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contain something it shouldn't." He tapped a few keys and studied the screen.
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"Right now a couple of cDc boyos are exchanging GIFs of electronic schematics
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via my node. Odds are, there's a PGP 5 message hidden in the GIFs with
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StegoSaur. A goodly number of the underground are hams these days, for
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obvious, and not so obvious, reasons.
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His desk is interesting. The telephone is a military AUTOVON phone from
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the last century, with a speakerphone and headset attached to it. "There are
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some... actions that can be initiated via those four extra keys, that might
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someday be quite useful to me, in certain extreme circumstances." Other items
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on his desk included a Mac Color Classic II and flatbed scanner, laserprinter,
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electronic Rolodex, a cup full of pens and pencils, a photograph of his
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girlfriend, an HP calculator and a slide rule! I asked about the slide rule.
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"Hah! I've had that slipstick since junior high school! It belonged to my
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father, and I was always amazed by how fast he was using it. I learned how to
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use it myself and still use it often these days. For many calculations, it's
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actually faster than using the calculator." His diplomas from MIT and Brown
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are prominently displayed on the wall.
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He also has several shortwave radios and VHF-UHF scanners racked up. "I
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like keeping an ear on things, and the scanners have allowed me to warn some
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folks of impending doom from The Bad Guys. 'Legging banned books and music is
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a serious rap in this town. Fortunately the locals believe their anti-scanner
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laws for the citizenry work, so they don't use anything more than frequency
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inversion for voice scrambling, and their digital stuff is sent in the clear.
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What losers!" He pointed out the voice descrambler units and the hookup from
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one scanner to an ancient Macintosh SE/30, used as a data terminal for the
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local police data channels. "I've got it set up to alert me on certain key
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words, such as my name or address, booklegging, etc. Since they only use one
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data channel these days, it's easy to keep track of what goes back and forth on
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the digital side of things."
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My God, I was thinking to myself, just being in this room could get me a 5
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to 7 term in prison, and yet he has this stuff openly displayed. I asked if he
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was concerned about someone informing on him.
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"No, not really. The people in this neighborhood are not favored by the
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people in power. Just living in an integrated area is reason enough to blown
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off by the boys in City Hall. Besides, my neighbors know that I'm on their
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side and use my small talents for their benefit. My fax machine downstairs,
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for example, is free of charge for local calls, and I only ask for long
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distance reembursement, unlike the one in the local Stop and Rob that charges
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$5.00 a page for a local fax. And those folks that need 'other' services, such
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as database searches and more 'invasive' procedures know that I'm willing to
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help out in a good cause. That's how I was able to buy my old home so cheaply
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and send the landlord to prison for tax evasion and building code violations."
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He has a workbench with diverse electronic test equipment, soldering
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station and Unimat machine. He also has a cartridge reloading press bolted to
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the workbench. "Rolling your own cartridges is the only way to go these days.
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Just try and buy any of the unapproved non-sporting cartridges and count the
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seconds before the Feds show up."
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There are several military security filing cabinets in the room, each with
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a combination lock, "and thermite lining for those nosy parkers who don't have
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the correct combinations. It took me months to find the right GSA auctions
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that had these particular cabinets available. The thermite and fusing was
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naturally removed, but the triggering circuits were left in place. It was a
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simple manner to replace the thermite and fuses." One of the drawers contains
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the CD-ROM 'jukebox' that holds gigabytes of banned information. "It's
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connected via a file server to the 128. Anyone who knows how to ask has full
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access to that jukebox. Of course, there's an automatic StegoSaur filter that
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hides any requested information in 'innocent' GIFs or other files.
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Periodically, I get a flood of requests from new areas as the underground
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spreads and new packet nodes are set up."
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Speaking of CD-ROMs, he had a Mini-Disk recording deck set up and one of
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the Quadras has a CD drive that can write to blank CDs. "Normally, I bootleg
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banned music and spoken word items via cassettes; they're cheap and universal.
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However, sometimes it's easier to move the product via CD or Mini-Disk, hence
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the disk decks. What would fill dozens of cassettes, is easily stored on a
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single CD. CD players are everywhere and cheap, as are patchcords to hook a
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cassette deck to the player." He gifted me with the complete Frank Zappa
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catalog on Mini-Disk and a CD with a QuickTime movie of Zappa's testimony
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before Tipper Gore in the last century. After seeing the video, I can
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understand why she despised him and had his works banned in her administration!
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One thing that surprised me was his choice of sidearm. Despite the
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innumerable laws forbidding the mere possession of most guns, let alone
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carrying one in public, many people flout the law, due to the indifference of
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the police. "I prefer the Luger, to the Glocks and Red Star 20s and other high
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capacity pistols. The Luger is an elegant weapon, it nestles snugly into the
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hand and naturally points to one's target. It's also rather smaller and less
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noticeable than those enormous hand cannons favored by most. I've found that 8
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well-placed 9mm rounds can be just as effective as 20 .50 caliber rounds
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sprayed at random."
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We had dinner with his girlfriend, a tall Black woman in her 40s, whose
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profession must remain confidential. There aren't too many like her in her
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chosen profession, and the fewer clues to both their true names, the better.
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"Flaunting the stupidity of the ruling party is one thing, making it easy for
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them to catch us is quite another!" She's also an influential member of the
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underground, and her profile will be appearing soon.
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We ate in a small East Indian restaurant, where he was apparently well
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known. It is to be noted that we received excellent service and the food was
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superb. As he was paying the bill, his girlfriend confided to me that several
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years ago, the restaurant was robbed at gunpoint, and that he deliberately took
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a bullet meant for the cashier, the pregnant daughter of the owner/chef of the
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restaurant. He also shot and killed the two armed robbers before he collapsed.
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Curiously enough, the bodies of the two robbers were never found, there was no
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report made to the police, and his wound was tended to by a local Indian
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surgeon. Bullet wounds are required to be reported to the authorities, and
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damn few people these days wish to tell the authorities anything. I asked him
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about that incident. "If I hadn't been sitting with my back to the door, I
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would have spotted them coming in and would have been ready for them." I then
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recalled that both in the restaurant and in the bus station, he was always
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positioned so that he see all the avenues of approach.
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The three of us returned to his home, and I spent the remainder of the
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evening asking him about his exploits. In college, he was an incorrigible
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prankster. The DayGlo orange fruit bat is still talked about at MIT, and Brown
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alumni and the Secret Service still wonder just how DID all that Jell-O get
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into the Presidential limousine. With a mordant wit, impeccable logic and a
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cadre of ACLU lawyers at his back, ("and don't forget the First Amendment, God
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bless it!") he made life miserable for the self-appointed "Thought Police" at
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both MIT and Brown, validating the right to free expression and gaining the
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undying enmity, even 4 decades later, of some of the most powerful figures in
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politics today.
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"They may hate my guts, but deep down, they're still scared of me. I'm
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told that the senior Senator from Massachusetts still has nightmares about what
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he went through at my hands at the student court in Cambridge. I also have
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enough juice in my above ground life to keep them from trying anything obvious.
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Besides, the ones who I really made laughingstocks of, have found out that
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spending four years in school as thought police, instead of getting an
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education, did bugger all for their career options. Damn few of them are in
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any position to do anything to me now."
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It's rumored that he has heavy dirt on both political parties in his city.
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His only response was to smile and chuckle. "That would be telling." He also
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contributes to both major political parties in the city. "It's a fact of life
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here, but paying off the parties insures that I won't be 'bothered' by the
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police, no matter what 'evidence' comes to hand."
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He was part of the crew that exposed the hidden, and easily accessible
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trapdoors in the Clipper II chip, resulting in the massive investigation and
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expose of the National Security Agency. He was also one of the team that
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created PGP for the Sega 64 game machine. "I'm very happy that I was one of
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those who helped bring PGP to the masses of people who couldn't afford a 64 bit
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'computer', and since there're SO many Sega 64s floating around in the States
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and indeed, the world, there's probably many people alive today who wouldn't be
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if their governments could crack their secure messages. I'm told that at least
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two democratic revolutions were made possible, in part, due to PGP S-64. Right
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now, myself and several others are attempting to create a version of StegoSaur
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for the S-64. That one extra layer of protection could be very useful for a
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lot of people in the future, the way things are going in most of the world. We
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do have the stripper for the S-64 that strips the hidden data from a StegoSaur
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file, but it really should go both ways." He was quite reluctant to talk about
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himself, preferring to praise others in the underground for the their efforts
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in the struggle against repression.
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One thing I've noticed as I've travelled across the country, profiling
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those members of the underground who are willing to be interviewed, is their
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humility and self-effacing nature. The braggarts and self-promoters are almost
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always phonies, wanna-be's or informants. In the day and a half I spent with
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him, he almost never said, "Well, I did this" or "I did that." He consistently
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used "We did this" or "My friends and I did that". In many respects, he
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doesn't consider himself a hero in the underground, and he was astounded to
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know that his opinions and thoughts carry great weight in the underground
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community.
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I asked him about his above ground profession. He asked that I not reveal
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any details, for his protection. Suffice it to say, that he's quite
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successful, enjoys a degree of wealth that many would envy, and disposes of
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most of that wealth to the benefit of the poor and powerless in our wretched
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country.
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One thing that troubles him is certain groups in the underground. "Not so
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much the old-line patriot groups, but the loonies who blame all the evils that
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have befallen the US and most of the world on international conspiracies of
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Jews or Jesuits or Grey Aliens or the Illuminati or the Discordians. It's so
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easy for them to see themselves as victims of powers beyond imagination, that
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they cannot cooperate or compromise with those of us who deal with the reality
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of oppression every day. They're loose cannons, and I fear that they may prove
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even more dangerous to the struggle than the oppressors in power." I asked
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what he'd do about them, if he had the power. "Oh, absolutely nothing! For all
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I know, they may be right! It's unlikely, but the chance is there, and
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frankly, despite the Government edicts, the First Amendment is STILL the Law of
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the land. I have no right to silence them, or to prevent others from hearing
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their opinions. I'd be no better than the oppressors were I to try and repress
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them in any way."
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My last question is the same that I've asked all the underground members
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I've interviewed. Are you optimistic about the future? "Yes, actually, I am!
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Repressive regimes are entropic. They cannot maintain the status quo without
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expending more and more energy. Eventually, they'll collapse under their own
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weight. The sad fact is that in some cases the collapse is terribly
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destructive. One of the responsibilities of the underground is to establish a
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framework that can, when eventually called upon, provide some manner of
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direction. Fortunately, our Constitution and Bill of Rights are still extant,
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and those few pages are really all that's needed to run a Republic. I hope
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that before I die, I can see the Republic reborn, the rascals turned out, and
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free men and women once again in control of their destinies."
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He escorted me to the bus station the next afternoon, and with the most
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startling episode of misdirection, passed my Frank Zappa Mini-Disks undetected
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around the metal detectors at the boarding gate. I was wondering how I'd get
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it past the detectors at the bus station in my home town. "Don't worry," he
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told me. "Make sure you use the number 3 detector at the station. All the
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CDleggers know that one is defective. Just stash all your metal, coins and
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pocketknife, in your bag and tuck the CDs under your shirt in the small of your
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back. You'll sail through with nary a beep." He was right! One thing that
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puzzled me was that his pistol and knife didn't trigger the detector. He must
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have sensed my confusion. "To quote the late, great Tom Lehrer, 'To think of
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all the marvelous ways, they're using plastics nowadays!'" He PGPed me later
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with a fuller explanation. For the journey to the bus station and a trip
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though the metal detectors, a ceramic blade and Lexan handle, and a Lexan gun,
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with a ceramic barrel liner, polymer springs and cartridge cases are just the
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thing, replacing his usual sidearms. Practically undetectable, even with
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properly maintained detectors, and all but invisible given the sad condition of
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most bus station detectors.
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A week later, an underground courier showed up at my door with a package.
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In it was a mint condition Luger, several magazines, a cleaning kit,
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maintenance manual, holster and 1000 rounds of 9mm ammunition. The included
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note suggested that, given the recent, well-known unfortunate events in my home
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town, a serviceable, untraceable pistol might be a Good Thing. There was no
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signature, but then, was one really necessary?
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_______ __________________________________________________________________
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/ _ _ \|Demon Roach Undrgrnd.806/794-4362|Kingdom of Shit.....806/794-1842|
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((___)) |Cool Beans!..........415/648-PUNK|Polka AE {PW:KILL}..806/794-4362|
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[ x x ] |Metalland Southwest..713/579-2276|ATDT East...........617/350-STIF|
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\ / |The Works............617/861-8976|Ripco ][............312/528-5020|
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(' ') | Save yourself! Go outside! DO SOMETHING! |
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(U) |==================================================================|
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.ooM |Copyright (c) 1994 cDc communications and THE NIGHTSTALKER. |
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\_______/|All Rights Reserved. 07/01/1994-#269|
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