Alice's first day off in weeks becomes anything but. The Hacker Chronicles Presented by Tenable. Learn more at Tenable.com/Alice
Alice's first day off in weeks becomes anything but.
The Hacker Chronicles
Presented by Tenable. Learn more at Tenable.com/Alice
Vote for The Hacker Chronicles in the 2nd Annual Signal Listener's Choice Award.
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Credits:
Starring Michael C. Hall as John Doe
And Chloe Taylor as Alice
Executive Produced by Michael C. Hall, Jerome Robert, Skyler Schmanski and Ian Faison
Directed by Rex New
Written for Audio by Rex New, Jerome Robert, & Skyler Schmanski
Story based on the Novella The Hacker Chronicles created by Jerome Robert and written by Skyler Schmanski
With
Nicole Britton as Katie
Zach Lavar Hoffman as Fake Karl
Douglas Thornton as Arthur
Rex New as Kaden
The Hacker Chronicles is produced by Caspian Studios.
Produced by Taylor Brim & Rex New.
Produced by Dane Eckerle
Supervising Creative Producer: Landon Pontius
Sound Design and Mixing by Dan Scott
Associate Producer: Mark Wolf Roberts
Dialogue Editing by Nick Canepa and Scott Goodrich
Production Support by SJ Nichols, Bradley Glanzrock, Jon Libbey
and Dani Godard.
Marketing Support from Dino Pasalic, Kyle Rusca, Dylan Langlois and Rockable
Additional Production Support provided by Echo Mountain Studios
Alice:
We've all taken mental health days. Maybe you go on a long hike or you finally catch up on the spring cleaning you've been putting off, or you sit around and eat Del Goona cookies and watch trashy tv. But when you're being blackmailed by a cyber criminal, self-care looks a little different. Over the entire time I'd been working for John Doe, I was constantly on high alert looking for opportunities to discover clues about my employer. I knew that my only way out was to figure out just who John Doe really was, and if I could pull it off, I'd come to John with a pact of mutually assured destruction. I could dox him, he could dox me, stalemate. The game would be over, and I could finally walk away. That doesn't mean it was easy. Someone like John doesn't make many mistakes, but when they do, you do everything you can to take advantage. And when John told me he knew Karl, our insider in Valencia personally, I knew I finally had the opportunity to learn more about my captor, my jailer, my toxic freaking boss. Before I left for the H C V Orca, I stuffed a bit of malware into a U S B stick. And when the moment struck, I slid that U S B stick into Karl's computer. All it took was a little white lie about security protocols.
Tell you what, let me borrow your laptop. I need to search their documentation to figure out if the functions I'm messing with have been altered. And the maintenance laptop you gave me has too many security protocols to get online with an unregistered hotspot. Yours though, yours will go a lot quicker.
Karl:
You mean you can adapt your payload? So it'll work with the upgraded operating system?
Alice:
Yes, maybe. And if it works, I'll transfer the new payload to the thumb drive and just go from there.
Karl:
Okay. Gimme one moment here. I just wanted to close a few tabs
Alice:
And I was in, in fact, I'd had access to Karl's computer for weeks. But John Doe was a demanding boss. He'd been working me day and night. Every time I thought I had a minute to begin searching through Karl's files, John would make me work on something else with zero explanation. I was working 14, 15 hours a day. I was exhausted. But now I finally had the time to search through Karl's files to see if I could find any clue anything about John Doe. My end game was a long shot, and I knew that, but I couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. I didn't know if I would ever have another one.
Hmm. Coffee. Mm-hmm. Tastes even better after sleeping in for a change. Nothing like a bit of classical music to start a mental health day. God, I miss piano. Can't even remember the last time I played. All right. Something for later. Right now, time to finally enjoy my remote access to Karl's personal computer. Finally. Hello, Karl's computer desktop coming to me live from Valencia, Spain. Ah, where to start? Where to start? Okay. First, your wallpaper. How are your daughters? So freaking adorable. But more importantly, what's with the relic? Can't read anything on this computer. Well, Alice, I would love to tell you, but we're not that good of friends. So it is going to take a little
Karl:
More work to find what you are looking for.
Alice:
Karl, your organization skills are like, ugh, major room for improvement. Your hard drives a mess. Isn't
Karl:
Chaos computing a thing?
Alice:
Karl:
Because it's my child. It's the most beautiful moment of my entire
Alice:
Life. Okay, well, I don't wanna see that. So, God, I thought I closed it. What the hell is Katie? Katie? Oh, Katie, what's going on? I got laid off
Katie:
No. No. They just fired me. They just fired me. Oh my God. These last two weeks have just sucked. And now this,
Alice:
What are you talking about? We've been to Barcelona and Madrid and Paris,
Katie:
But we are supposed to be doing all of this together, and I'm always by myself. Maybe it's just time to call it a wrap.
Alice:
No, don't say that. I mean, you know, I want you here. Right?
Katie:
You've got a funny way of showing it. This was supposed to be our adventure, Alice. We spent so much time cooped up after your accident. This was just supposed to be us getting away and doing something different. But you're not doing anything different. All you do is work.
Alice:
Katie, I don't have a choice. I've got a really crazy boss.
Katie:
Oh, your boss. Your boss. Ugh. You can take a day off, can't you? You work every day. You work every weekend.
Alice:
Katie, what do you want me to say?
Katie:
Nothing. I don't want you to say anything, Alice, because if you don't get where I'm coming from, then I, I guess you should just get back to work.
Alice:
Okay? I mean, I actually, I really need to, okay. Because I'm just in the middle of something kind of urgent right now. Damnit, Katie, I wish I could tell you what's going on. No, that would definitely be worse for both of us. All right, today's your mental health day. Alice. This is your one day to do this. You gotta figure out who John Doe is. If you don't pull this thread out as far as it'll unravel, this will be your life forever, Katie. I promise. I'll make it up to you somehow. Okay, Karl, where were we? Hopefully no more childbirth videos.
Karl:
You can stare at my computer all you want, Alice. But I think you can take 10 minutes out of your life to talk to Katie. I'm not going anywhere. Or at least my systems aren't.
Alice:
Oh really? Karl friend, advice. Fine. You're right, you're right. 10 minutes fake. Karl, I'll be right back. Katie. Katie, where are you, Katie? Hmm? Hey, Siri, call Katie.
Siri:
Calling Katie Mobile.
Katie:
Hi, this is Katie. Leave a message as amazing as you are.
Alice:
Hey, it's me. Look, I'm so sorry I snapped at you. I just, I'm really stressed, you know, just like work is crazy. And, but look, do you wanna have a wine night tonight? Can we do that? Let's just have some fun together. Cool. Okay. Bye. Oh, cool. She's calling back. No, Arthur. Oh, I said we'd do the virtual coffee. Dang. Why did I agree to this shit? Okay, let's do this mental health day.
Arthur:
Alex. Alex, can you hear me, Alex?
Alice:
Yeah. Yes, I can hear you. I can hear you just fine
Arthur:
Now. I can hear. I can hear you. I can hear you, but I can't see you, Alice, hold on. Hold on, hold on.
Alice:
Can Arthur
Arthur:
Okay. Alright. I think I got it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I think,
Alice:
Yep. You got it.
Arthur:
Okay, Alice.
Alice:
Yep, I can hear you. I can see you. Okay. Yay.
Arthur:
Alright. Alright, alright. Alright. Hey,
Alice:
Hey, listen, Arthur, it's really good to see you. Um, but before we say anything, I, I have to apologize
Arthur:
For what
Alice:
I completely forgot to call you on your birthday. It was like a weird day at work. And I have this huge project. I'm just like, Alice, it's spacey.
Arthur:
Hey, I appreciate it. But you know, a birthday's just a day and you know, I I it's tough to coordinate schedules when you're across the bond with the dime difference and everything. I, I'm just happy we're talking. It's great to see you.
Alice:
You too. And if, if I had a piano right here at the Airbnb, I would play you Jacob's celebration.
Arthur:
Well, I tell you what, I will settle for your tickling the ivory at your brother's wedding
Alice:
Arthur:
Uh, but you know, you, you are, uh, not the only one with an apology to make Alice. Um,
Alice:
Wait, what do you mean?
Arthur:
Your friend Jeannie? Um, the one who came down? Yeah. Yeah. You remember, um, when that weekend that you got hurt?
Alice:
Yeah. Daniel or, um, yeah, Jeanie.
Arthur:
Yeah. I remember the two of you telling me about, uh, that video game that you play, the one that glorifies the military industrial complex.
Alice:
Yeah. War zone.
Arthur:
Yes. Uh, boy, they tell you right there in the title, huh? Uh, anyways,
Alice:
What
Arthur:
I, I,
Alice:
What happened?
Arthur:
I saw him in town with some friends, uh, and they were snowboarding.
Alice:
Really?
Arthur:
Yeah. And, and a friend of his came in and bought some of those alona cookies that you like. And I saw your friend Jeannie standing outside the door.
Alice:
Oh no. Arthur, please tell me you didn't do well.
Arthur:
I did. I did. And I, I walked right out there and I, I, I gave him a piece of my mind and I, I told him that I could not believe that he had the nerve to show his face anywhere near my store after what he did.
Alice:
Well are, he didn't do anything ex He
Arthur:
Didn't. Exactly. And well, that's the thing. You two hung out the entire weekend before your accident, and then he doesn't show up at your hospital bed once. I mean, not even a card. I can drive to Burlington with my eyes closed. It's a two hour drive.
Alice:
Are there?
Arthur:
I just didn't get it.
Alice:
I know, it's, it's complicated. Okay. It's,
Arthur:
Well, that's what he said too.
Alice:
So how did he look?
Arthur:
Well, honestly, Alice, like it was complicated.
Alice:
Well, it, it, it's okay. I mean, thanks, thanks for telling me.
Kaden:
Yo. It's Caden Daniel's cousin, and I'm here to ask you one simple question. Is this message really worth Daniel's time? We both know this could be a text.
Alice:
Hey, um, Jeannie, look, I know I said I wouldn't call you back, um, but I just talked to Arthur and he told me about how he confronted you the other day. And again, I know I shouldn't be calling you, but I just wanted to say he's not gonna do that again. Okay? He was pretty torn up about it and he should have been so Well, this is my third apology for today. So if I sound a little tired of doing it, well, I guess you probably wouldn't be surprised, would you? Mm. But you know, if you ever do wanna talk about it, I don't know I'm here. Or am I
Hmm.
All right. Speaking of being there for your friends, Katie, are you here? Katie? Katie? Well, if you're not here, maybe I should check your Instagram and at least see what you're up to. Two. Oh, no, Katie, that's a lot of stories.
Katie:
Wow. I'm here on a street in Paris. And look, this accordion player is making such beautiful music. She's making people so happy. They, they just love her so much. They value her. Gosh, imagine all these people valuing your talents, living in harmony, paying you extra for doing an amazing job. That's called a raise. That's called getting paid what you deserve to be paid. They're rewarding you for contributing to those KPIs or whatever this is, or whatever those things are. I, I just wanna contribute. I wanna be part of something bigger and I wanna be recognized for it. Okay? Positivity. Positivity.
Just breathe. Okay, cut. It's tough to be present right now. Now I don't know what this tingling sensation is. Wow. Actually I don't even understand what they're saying in this meditation class. That's okay. That's all right. Energy needs no translation. I actually, I really hope this is positive energy. Why do I feel nauseous? Maybe I'll just eat my feelings. I'll just eat 'em up. Yum, yum, yum. Because no matter how present I try to be, my self-worth is tied to my job and my friendships. It doesn't matter. I can eat all the croissants I want to and everything will still just probably be lame. Everything is lame. Actually. I have never been fired from a job before. Never. Not once. I don't know anybody else who can say that. I have never been fired from a job before. Was it me? Was it something I did or something I didn't do? Just feel like a couch cushion. Just a couch cushion that's been overused and sat on and just discarded in a remote work dumpster. I don't even think I'd be a comfortable couch cushion. Just a garbagey couch cushion. God, I wanna go home. I just wanna go back home. I just wanna go home. I just wanna sleep in my bed. Just, I just wanna go home.
Alice:
God, Katie, I wish I could just go find you right now and just give you a hug. I can kind of see where you are. You're on the sin. Well, that's not as helpful as it sounds. I wish you were just geotagging yourself then I could see exactly where you are. Come on, Katie. Help a roomie out. Help a roomie out. Oh my god. That's it. Karl's photos. Hey, fake. Karl, are you there?
Karl:
I am obviously
Alice:
Right. You're always here because you're a figment of my imagination. Hey, I got a question for you. Are your photos Geotagged? Who? Why? Yes they are.
Karl:
Whoa. Whoa. What does that mean?
Alice:
Well, Karl, every photo you take, tags your location and it's metadata. If you aren't the 1% who actually gives a shit about privacy and turns that off, anyone with access to your raw files can learn quite a bit about you. And if I download all your photos, which is whoa, 53,431. Jesus. Karl, you really take a lot of photos.
Karl:
I do. And I'm not going to apologize for it.
Alice:
Oh, you know what else? I don't have to sift through these photos one by one. Like I did those Wakefield City honeypots. I can just make a dummy iCloud account and use AI to log the photos according to location or even the clothes you're wearing. Once the photos are cataloged, I can literally type in jacket and find everyone in your photos wearing one. Oh dammit. Transferring these photos to iCloud is gonna take all night. Oh, when's the last time I got a good night's sleep? So refreshed. Okay, what's up?
Karl:
Uh, Alice, can I say something?
Alice:
Yes, of course.
Karl:
I know I exist only in your head and I'm happy to do whatever I can to help you out. But we need to get going. You have to work in a few hours.
Alice:
Yeah. Yeah. You're as obnoxious as the real you, you know that.
Karl:
Of course. How's Katie?
Alice:
Huh? She's asleep. We'll take care of Katie when this is done. But right now I wanna focus on all these photos I downloaded and cataloged in my dummy iCloud account. Oh, we have 733 individual faces identified. Geez, Karl. It's like you take a photo of everyone you've ever met. I
Karl:
Wish.
Alice:
But you are friends with John Doe,
Karl:
Right? Well, the real Yes. Yeah.
Alice:
Yeah.
Karl:
Now let's put our thinking caps on. Has John Doe ever told you anything about himself? I'm
Alice:
Not sure. Not much
Karl:
Anything. It doesn't have to be big, but you have to start somewhere.
Alice:
Okay. He told me something once that kind of stuck with me. Something about camels.
John Doe:
I could do a lot of things, Alice, but the reality is that sometimes we have to swallow a camel.
Alice:
That was it. That was it. Swallow a camel. I never heard that. And tech support said something along those lines too.
Tech Support:
I've worked with a few Danes and, uh, the Danish people have a saying, sometimes you have to swallow a camel. It means, uh oh. Well, things didn't go so far. I wanted them to, but I'm just going to live with it.
Alice:
Great. It's a Danish expression. So let's start there. Karl, you ever been to Denmark?
Karl:
Well, as you can see, I have, and now that you have filtered my beautiful photographs by location, you'll see
Alice:
28 separate faces. We're getting somewhere, but I don't know what to do. I don't know how to find him. 'cause I have no idea what he looks like. Ah,
Karl:
So the only thing you know about John Doe is that he uses Danish proverbs.
Alice:
Yeah. And I'm assuming he's into computers, but when I type computers into iCloud, I just get a bunch of photos of you taking selfies in the Apple store. Gross. Karl, you got like a huge stain on your shirt. Oh, oh, oh, remember
Karl:
John said he spilled something on his favorite T-shirt?
John Doe:
Yeah. And I spilled coffee on my favorite t-shirt yesterday. It has a picture of a bear, but the bear has deer antlers. So underneath the drawing it says beer Now. Yeah. I guess you're more of a wine person.
Alice:
Mm-hmm. If John wasn't messing with me, then he's probably wearing that shirt in a few photos. I can filter them by typing beer. And in theory, the AI should recognize his shirt. And probably a ton of pictures of Karl in bars, but we'll just see. Oh my God. Look at this picture. It's the real you. Karl having a beer outside with a couple, a tall blonde woman, and a really handsome guy wearing a t-shirt with a mashup of a deer and a bear, and it says beer.
Karl:
This couple is in hundreds of photos with me. We must be very good friends. And if you run a few of these photos in Google's reverse image search.
Alice:
Yeah. Then maybe I can discover who our mutual friend really is.
Oh my God.
Oh my God. What? Oh my God. What? There are zero matches on Google for the mystery man in the beer t-shirt. Oh wait. If I was a cyber criminal who knew the real Karl, but wanted to keep my identity a secret, I'd do everything I could to disappear online. This is him. Oh my God. This is John Doe. I found him. I found him. Yeah.
Karl:
Listen, Hey, look, look. Not, not, don't burst your bubble or rain on your brain. I know this is a happy moment, but the only thing you know about the man is what he looks like. I mean, you don't even know his name.
Alice:
Okay. But give me some credit. Yeah, no,
Karl:
It's great.
Alice:
Really still. Shit. You're right. Okay. Okay. Okay. I get it. I get it. I get it. Well,
Karl:
What about his wife? You, you can't find the beer bear guy online, but if you can find his wife online Oh
Alice:
God. Then I can find him.
Karl:
Right?
Alice:
Okay. Okay. And a Google reverse image. Search sis Lindsay Peterson. Boom. And here's her LinkedIn page and here's her employer's page.
Oh God.
Karl:
And look, here's her employer's address. Oh my God. You can follow her from her office to her home
Alice:
And finally meet John Doe at his house in freaking Copenhagen. There she is. Hey, where have you been? Just out walking.
Katie:
Yeah, I'm just trying to burn off these quas I ate yesterday. Hmm. I feel horrible.
Alice:
Uh, but what if we did something else?
Katie:
Um, nah, I just wanna take a nap.
Alice:
But what if we packed, because guess whose boss is sending her to Copenhagen?
Katie:
What? Yeah.
Alice:
We just got hired for this pen test gig.
Katie:
Oh my God, Alice. I don't, I I don't, I I don't know. I I actually, I don't think I should be spending the money.
Alice:
Oh, no, you don't have to. The trip is on me.
Katie:
Oh, no, no, no. Really? You can't. It's you. You can't do that. No, no, no.
Alice:
Katie, it's the least I can do. Really? Okay. So here's what I'm thinking. I set really strict boundaries with work and we go see the city. We buy some Danish furniture and we get comfy
Katie:
Like hygge.
Alice:
All day, all night.
Katie:
Oh my God.
Alice:
All right. But Katie, Katie, Katie, I have one condition. Yeah. You have to agree to this. No social media. Okay. We unplug, we go dark. We enjoy ourselves.
Katie:
Yeah.
Alice:
I mean, eliminating social media should probably be a hooah principle if you think about it, right? Hmm. Self-care presence. I mean, you can't be present if you're on your phone. Hmm. Plus I mean, I don't think it's always the best idea to be Instagramming our feelings. No offense.
Katie:
I think you're right.
Alice:
Yeah. And listen, one last thing. Okay. Um, I know that I get tunnel vision with my work. Mm-hmm. And it's kind of the only way I can do things sometimes. It's just like the way my brain is and mm-hmm.
Katie:
I know. And if I ever see your boss, you're gonna have to hold me back.
Alice:
Okay. That night I bought two plane tickets to Copenhagen and then I packed, but I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning concocting my plan. The reality was I'd gotten lucky. I was lucky that John Doe had used Karl as our insider in Valencia, and that Karl had let me use his computer on the orca. And I was lucky that John Doe had told me the one thing that could put a face or a t-shirt to my captor, but it takes two to tango. I just had to hope luck would continue to be on my side. It was finally time to begin my escape, because if it worked, I could kill Ableton forever.
Credits:
The Hacker Chronicles presented by Tenable. Learn more at tenable.com/alice, starring Michael C. Hall as John Doe and Chloe Taylor as Alice Executive, produced by Michael C. Hall, Jerome, Robert Skylar Shaki and Ian Faison, directed by Rex New, written for audio by Rex New Jerome, Robert and Skylar. Shaky story based on the novella, the Hacker Chronicles, created by Jerome Robert, and written by Skylar Semanski with Nicole Britton as Katie Zach Lazar Hoffman as fake. Karl Douglas Thornton as Arthur Rex. New as Caden, the Hacker Chronicles is produced by Caspian Studios, produced by Taylor Brimm. And Rex New, produced by Dan Ackerley. Supervising creative producer is Land Pontius Sound Design. And mixing is by Dan Scott. The associate producer is Mark Wolf Roberts dialogue, editing by Nick Cana and Scott Goodrich. Production support by SJ Nichols, Bradley Glands Rock, John Libby and Danny Goddard. Marketing support from Dino Polich, Kyle Ruka, Dylan Langley, and Rockville. Additional production support provided by Echo Mountain Studios. Learn more at tenable.com/alice.