by Robert Wood - Sociologist
The
sheer cliffs of dark economic futures closed about the Investor like the sides
of a trap. He did not like the way their jagged peaks loomed against the few
faint numbers which glittered like the eyes of spiders from the dual computer
screens.
Neither did he like the chill, uneasy numbers that seemed to whistle
across the black Logitech keyboard and prowl among his papers on the desk.
– Do I disturb the profound
meditations of the nobly successful Investor Dresden? purred a soft voice.
The Investor started and
reached for the Esc-key before he recognized the person of the Business
Strategist Jin, wrapped to the pharynx in a voluminous shirt of pea-green
velvet.
– Perhaps the profitable Investor is unable to sleep? murmured Jin,
appearing not to notice the Investor’s ungracious hand movement. – Is it the
heavenly gold again?
– Yes, growled the Investor,
something about these accursed graph trajectories. 1520 dollars for an ounce of
gold is unnatural! Some uncanny premonition
keeps me wakeful when, after a long day’s trading, I should be as weary as a
stripling after his first night’s drinking too much moonshine.
– I think I understand the
misgivings of our excellent Investor. Nor are such disquieting emotions unusual
in this – ah – this legendary building. They say that quite a few employees
have been encouraged to kill themselves after failing to make money for your
glorious Investment Company.
– I wish I had the key to the
gold futures of tomorrow, snarled Dresden. Then my bonus would be enough
Venture Capital to establish a Company of my own.
The Business Strategist
surveyed the Investor for a moment with an oblique, contemplative gaze. Then,
as if having reached some private decision, he replied: - Company legend states
that a magnificent treasure of precious metal information is locked up in the
Main-Frame computer. The Vice Chairman of the Corporate Responsibility
Committee died of an unforeseen heart attack. The encrypted password was
unfortunately cremated with him.
The Investor picked up his
ears. - A golden, encrypted file, he?
Has nobody ever been able to break the code and exploit
this treasure?
– No, noble Investor, the precise file-location of the trove is not
known – save to one man.
The Investor’s interest was
quite visible now. - To whom? he demanded bluntly.
The Business Strategist smiled.
– To my unworthy self, of course.
- Bear and Bull! If you have
the encrypted key, why haven’t you cracked the golden file yourself?
Riches in Chains
Jin spread his small, long-nailed hands. – I need a trustworthy man to
guard my back against any snooping board members, security guards or employees
that might approach. Moreover, a certain amount of calculating assistance will
be required. A gentleman like me lacks the mathematical insight you investors
are capable of. And besides, being our Company’s supreme fund generating expert
you do not share the common employees’ superstitious terror of The Board. Am I
correct in my assumption?
The Investor grunted. - I fear
neither god, man nor a Wall Street collapse, and least of all the wrath of a
geriatric board of obese has-beens. Speak on, Business Strategist.
The Strategist sidled closer,
his voice dropping to a scarcely audible whisper. – Then, here is my plan. As I have stated,
this person approached you because I thought you might be he whom I have
sought. The task will be light for one of your mathematical capabilities, and
my Kingston DT HyperX Predator memory stick includes the encryption-key. Let us go this instance, and within an
hour, we shall be richer than either of us has dreamed!
Profits to Die for
Jin’s seductive, purring whisper awoke the lust for profit in the
Investor’s greedy heart, but a residue of caution restrained him from immediate
assent.
–What about surveillance in the server room? Surely, we shall need help to power down The
Defender Surveillance system!
Jin shook his sleek head. – Not
so, honorable ally! The surveillance system will power down in due time. I have
seen to that. Silicon Valley, Grade A military software. And, as I have
previous stated, the Main-Frame is said to enchain precious gold- and platinum
information. Since the secret is mine alone, I am entitled to choose first, and
since I prefer platinum to gold, I choose the white metal. You can download the
numerical quantity that represents the yellow metal.
It took no more urging to persuade the Investor to Jin’s scheme. The
bonuses of the Investment Company were in his eyes meager. And the Investor’s
recompense for his arduous service to date had been many empty words of honor
and precious little in his account.
- I will fetch two portable terabyte-disks to store the Golden Files we
download, crooned Jin. – We should leave this
room separately, so as not to arouse suspicion. Whilst I get the disks, you can
take the encryption key on my Kingston. Go to the Main-Frame physical input
station and I’ll meet you there.
– Why should you entrust me with the encryption key, just to get a
couple of hard disk drives?
– Oh, excellent sir! There are
many dangers in this high security Company building for a visiting foreigner
from the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Security may any time do a checkup on me.
Even bringing the Kingston to your desk was gambling with faith. I took a
calculated risk, but dare not press my luck any further. And by the way, the
Kingston also contains the sequence-key you need to get into the Hall of the
Main-Frame. I secured a copy when the Chairman gave me the grand tour of the
building on my first day in this barbaric country. Do not ask how!
A Real Man from Texas
Dresden looked down upon the Chinese’s manners with a hard-bitten
investor’s cynical contempt. The Business Strategist’s slanting black eyes and
purring voice reminded him of a cat, and he often told himself to watch this
slick oriental envoy for treachery. On the other hand, he secretly envied the
Mandarin his exquisitely cultivated manners and easy charm. This fact led
Dresden to resent the strategist ever more; for, although his year in the
Investment Company had given Dresden some slight polish, he was still at heart
a blunt, bullish, young redneck out of Texas. He would have to be careful.
– Oh, all right, grumbled Dresden.
– Excellent! I knew that so superior mind as yours would see the force
of my arguments. And now we part, to meet again in the Hall of the Main-Frame
in ten minutes hence, which should give us ample time for our rendezvous.
Moonlight in Synthetic Neon
The night outside the company building grew darker, and he could hear
the wind increase as he walked the now desolate corridors which led to the
Main-Frame. At the titanium vault-door he entered the sequence-key the
diminutive Chinese had given him. As the titanium opened on silent hydraulics
the half-moon rose over the skyscrapers outside the panorama windows behind
him. The illusive light of this moon embraced the synthetic light emanating
from the vault as Dresden walked silently into the great hall casting wary
glances into the semi-darkness.
As the led-lights cast a
powdering of blueish silver over the server pylons all around him, Dresden
forgot his premonitions. For here, in the middle of the enormous server hall
stood the monolithic Main-Frame server of which Jin had spoken. It was a
smooth, brushed, polished shaft of dark metal, which rose from a small dais and
soared up until it almost pierced the steel ceiling. The top of the smooth
shaft appeared as a mere blur.
Here then, was the Main-Frame
which Jin had been allowed to admire when the wan Chairman
broke Company strict rules by showing off the server hall to Jin. The Investor
walked up to the shaft and with a startled oath clutched the sequence-key when
Jin appeared like a ghost beside him.
– I did not mean to startle the
excellent Investor, but take the seat by the Main-Frame’s interface and connect
the two portable hard-disks. Then write the password I bought. Then you must
input the code the Vice Chairman of the Corporate Responsibility Committee sold
me before his unfortunate demise. The code will infiltrate the algorithms that
are guarding our waiting gold and platinum files. Then it will erase all traces
and nobody will ever notice your data extraction. Ready to input the code,
honorable Investor.
Key-Strokes from Doom
Dresden was key strokes from finishing inputting the complicated code
when his subconscious suddenly flashed a combination of well-known numbers. His
index finger hit the Enter key. Numbers he had not seen since he was a reckless
hacker in Huston flashed on the
screen. He had been hacking corporate, military and government sites for
the glory of just being able to get past the computer defense-walls
well-dressed Suits claimed were impregnable. He had been the best of his
country’s data-thieves and
been known in the deep web as the Codebreaker. He had never been exposed, but
dropped out of the hacker trade when one lonely night he realized he could make
prison free money through legal, but merciless investment companies. These numbers were parts of his old code. Mutating like a real life virus and capable of
penetrating server-citadels, no matter how well protected. Jin’s code was not
an encryption key! It was a modified stealth-virus. How had Jin gotten hold of
it? No matter … He had never designed a virus without an antidote. Realizing
that he had been led by the nose like a newbie investor to junk bonds he
started to erect a defensive structure to hold the virus the moments he needed to
inject his antidote.
The Mandarin's smile
Jin must have felt the change and seen the realization in Dresden’s
eyes. Luckily, Jin enjoyed his predicaments so much that he would not attempt
to physically attack him. And even better… the Business Strategist had no
inkling that it was Dresden that a few years ago had hacked a bank in China and was the mastermind behind the
stealth-virus he was now going to terminate.
–You are smarter than your brute looks, Investor, but
it is too late. The virus you have injected into the Company’s computer system will go viral within 180 seconds.
There is no stopping it now. And by the way, there are no golden files in the
Main-Frame. That was a ruse to get you to help me and ultimately make you dài
wǒ shòu ɡuò, or become my scapegoat, as you say in your uncouth language.
The Golden Pheasant
Dresden’s eyes blazed with volcanic fury as he hurled the might of his
powerful knowledge to keep his temporary wall from crumbling. He had the means
to counter the spread of the virus in his pocket. After all … Could not a
creator kill his own creations? Sweat tickled down his brow and soaked the
cotton shirt under his jacket. But he needed the smirking Chinese out of the
way.
– Since, my dear investor, your
life approaches its predestined end tomorrow when they find out what you
have done, continued Jin, it would be impolite of me not to explain my actions,
so that your lowly spirit may journey to the blazing hell the god in your
barbarous country favors the greedy. Know that the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China of his amiable but foolish highness, the General
Secretary, is divided between two parties. One of these, that of the White
Peacock, welcomes even more contact with you barbarians of the West. The other,
that of the Golden Pheasant, abominates all associations with you animals; and
I, of course, am one of the selfless patriots of the Golden Pheasant. Willingly
would I give my life to bring your techno-culture to utter destruction. Contact with your barbarous masters
contaminates our pure Chinese culture, and your so called democracy threatens
our divinely ordained social system.
– Is that… the point…. of this meaningless… exercise of power, Dresden
managed to gasp between keystrokes.
– We don’t understand fully, how the virus you Americans applied and inserted,
function, but we have named it the Taiping Tianguo Virus after the bank it
totally obliterated. We know that it originated in your country and we managed
to isolate it. We know that the virus you are battling will mutate and break
through the fragile defense wall I see you have succeeded to erect. When that
happens, it will infect the Main-Frame and the rest of the minor servers. Even
your backups will be erased. Then the Taiping will race down your computer
connections to Wall Street and all the other stock exchanges where your
Company earns your inflated dollars. The Shanghai stock exchange will of course
not be infected. We have seen to that all Chinese trading platforms are immune.
My guess is that it will take less than three hours to engineer the downfall of
your capitalistic system. Next week, China and the Golden Pheasant will be the
supreme economic leaders of the whole world. The gold standard will be
reintroduced and the West will never recover. You will become inferior
vassal-states under our leadership. And, do not a moment believe that your Fort
Knox gold is still resting in the now empty and dusty vaults. The 8000 tons have been
sold by corrupt politicians and The Federal Reserve banks to Saudia Arabia, India and China.
Arrogant Yellow Devils
-You arrogant, yellow devil …This will also be China’s downfall. You…
are a part of… the economic globalization. You need… the global market!
– We, of the Golden Pheasant,
are willing to bet that China comes out on top after your downfall. We have an
industrial knowledge base you westerners have been stupid enough to transfer to
my country in your greed for higher profits. By this time tomorrow I shall, I
hope, be far away. If FBI captures me… well, a man must die some time, and I
trust I shall do so with the dignity and decorum befitting one of my rank and
culture. My well clad dead body would make a delightful ornament in the FBI’s
interrogation cell, I am sure. – And so, my good Investor, farewell. You will
forgive this person for turning his back upon you during your losing battle
with our Taiping virus. Your demise is a pity in a way – for security will kill you - and I would not enjoy
witnessing it. Had you had the advantages of a Chinese upbringing, you would
have made an admirable servant – say an Investor in precious metals for me. But
things are as they are.
Wall Street Tango
After a mocking bow of farewell, the Chinese turned to go. The Business
Strategist’s plan was to leave him trapped to the keyboard until the nation-crushing
virus broke free into the financial markets of the World.
The keyboard that held him
did not forbid all movement and his massive key ring pressed against his
thigh. His right hand kept on writing while he strained to pull the dull lumps
of analog metal and silicon out of his pocket. The LaCie iamaKey flash drive
was hidden among all the other metal keys. His dirty secret. His plan for
revenge if his stingy Company should ever fire him without offer remuneration
that was competitive in the international market for top precious metal
investors.
His modified Deutsch-Jozsa
algorithm was on this key. A quantum algorithm that would be exponentially
faster than any possible deterministic classical algorithm. An algorithm that
always found counterstrokes to mutating viruses. An algorithm that also would
have wiped all financial records in the Investment Company a week after he had
left the building. Possibly Business Strategist Jin had beaten him to it. Every
new keystroke became agony. The torment of suspense grew unbearable. Dresden
shoved the iamaKey into a USB-port and hit Enter. His fingers were aching and
numb as the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm went to extermination war against the
Taiping virus.
The Black Monolith
Dresden exploded off the chair and saw Jin walking leisurely towards
the massive vault door. The arrogant Chinese would close the door in his face
and leave him locked in the server hall for security to find in the morning. He
pounced like a striking ox and a mighty blow to the side of his head subdued
Jin’s struggles. Dresden groped into the Chinese wide sleeves and tore out the
Kingston Predator containing the virus. Then Dresden lurched back to the
Main-Frame, dragging the Mandarin after him. As he reached the level section
around the base of the monolith, he heaved The Business Strategist into the air
over his head. Seeing what was happening to him Jin uttered one high, thin
scream as Dresden hurtled him at the shaft. The Chinese struck the column
headfirst with a thud and slid unconscious to the ground at its base.
The blow to the head was
merciful, for the Business Strategist would now never feel the chemical induced
pain the corporate security officers would have injected into his frail body.
He would never be able to scream answers and beg the torturers for death. Yes,
they would know that Jin had not been alone, but since they would find no signs
of tampering with the Main-Frame they would conclude that Jin’s collaborators
were to be found in the Surveillance system department. After all, hadn’t the
infallible system been rendered useless for the whole building for hours? Let
them all suffer, he thought as he left the comatose Chinese lying in the bluish
light. Closed the titanium door and strode back to his throne of screens and
the waiting graph trajectories.
The Long Fall
The price of gold had started a slow fall on the Shanghai stock
exchange and kept on creeping downwards as he stared at the screens. 1416
dollars an ounce! Dresden smiled ghoulishly. Something told him that the price
of gold would hit rock bottom when Wall Street did not collapse as foreseen by
the Chinese. The Golden Pheasant industrialists had been buying
tons upon tons of precious metals the last five years. Getting rid of what they
thought would be a dollar without value in the weeks to come.
- Time to sell and all the bullion and gold mining stocks the Company
owns, thought Dresden with a wolfish smile. Time to earn handsome
bonus, or follow Business Strategist Jin to his
hell.
- The End
