Carte Blanche
Chapter 1
It was my dog that woke me up; a stocky, goofy black lab named Bailey. I rubbed my eyes, a bit of grit grinding into the skin before falling out, and then was assailed by a cold, wet nose to my cheek. I groaned and looked to the obnoxious beast: he stared back and wagged his tail. A glance at the bright red numbers on the clock revealed it to be eight minutes past two.
Being unemployed could really play havoc with your sleeping schedule. I didn't mind working, especially mindless physical jobs, but working with or beside people, well, that was a different story. I still had about five-hundred bucks left in my bank account from last years tax return. One benefit to making under five-thousand dollars is that you get all your taxes back. I'd spend random parts of the day pondering how to turn that five-hundred dollars into more money, but nothing ever seemed plausible. It sucked.
With a scratch under the chin for Bailey, I arose and began my usual routine: put on pajamas, a packet of green tea in the miniature coffee machine, three cups of water from the sink and set to brew. As the coffee maker gurgled tea into it's small pot, I awoke the computer to let MSN and Yahoo messenger auto-log in for me and started up Firefox.
That's when things got complicated.
A window immediately appeared, stuck with various official symbols all over the top, stating that internet access was to be "Restricted for the purposes of the public well-being and control of disinformation, terrorist communication, treasonous, and/or seditious material." Of course, there was a bunch more to read: provisions of the patriotic act, presidential and court approvals. At the bottom of the page was a list of websites approved for visitation; mostly news sites such as CNN, a few .gov sites, and various email providers. There was one search engine listed, something I had never heard of with a .gov ending on it.
My initial thought was that I had gotten a virus. I closed Firefox to be greeted by a disturbing message from my MSN and Yahoo messenger windows, both stating approximately the same thing: Government told us to suspend service, so we're suspending service.
If this was a virus, it was a damned good one. I leaned back, rubbed my face, and poured tea into my big mug, sliding the baggy out of the filter and plopping it in the cup. Water vapor steamed up, assuring me that either this was a very realistic dream, or I was, in fact, awake and conscious. Bailey had padded off elsewhere, content that he had awoken me from my slumber. I stood and went to the window, pulling the curtain aside to peer down at the driveway. Both cars were gone, presumably meaning my parents were at work. With a resigned sigh, I dug into my pants laying on the floor and pulled an eight gig flash drive from the key chain, shutting down my computer and then popping it into a USB port.
My finger was on the power button to start the machine back up when I paused, instead popping out the Plexiglas side panel and removing the cable connecting my internal SATA hard drive to the motherboard. If I really wanted to be sure this was a virus, it would be best to insure it couldn't mess with the Ubuntu installed on my USB drive. This accomplished, I booted up. Ubuntu did it's thing and in a minute I was on Firefox. Staring at the same screen that had greeted me when I had booted to Vista.
"Oh fuck me..." I breathed. Fingers shaking, I typed in the web address to 4chan, praying someone had merely hacked Google and set up a bogus page. No such luck: I was greeted with a bland message stating that 4chan was not on the approved list of visitable sites.
Cursing under my breath, I wished I had taken the time to get more than a basic familiarity with Linux. If I had the knowledge, I was sure I could circumvent this web-blockade. Since I didn't, I tried the one thing I did have: TOR, a routing program. No luck. This time, instead of a government message, it just gave me a 'Could not connect to server'.
With my means of internet communication effectively neutered, I gave in and clicked the link to CNN. The headline on the front page was simple and direct: "U.S., Europe Under Terrorist Attack"
The story was short, sweet, and to the point. Early this morning, hackers had broken into various Banking databases and started screwing with everything like kids in a candy store, or a bull in a china shop. Pick your metaphor. Shortly thereafter bombs had exploded at the sites of over a dozen server and database storage facilities, destroying any offline electronic backups.
The attacks had shut down any electronic transfer of funds, including various major stock markets. A few hours after that, similar electronic attacks began to occur. Cutting power to various sections of major cities, messing with traffic lights, government databases, DMV records, criminal records. There were even some instances of colleges and local schools being under electronic attack. The consensus seemed to be that the attacks on the banks were planned and organized; everything else was from people jumping in on the chaos.
In the end there was no real, hard info: just a tally of the damage done and vague assurances from the powers that be. There was no rioting, no trouble beyond the chaos of car crashes and planes crashing on the runways. The death toll was figured to be around seven-hundred. It was sad, but there'd been much worse in history.
At least for now. Most people were still at work or had been sent home. They might not be panicking now, but what about when they began to realize that their life savings had just been erased at the press of a key? More than that, all their debts had been erased as well? All their crimes, wiped from record. It was like everyone had been given a blank slate... for better or worse.
There was little more information to be had. I yearned to check something other than major news outlets, but it was impossible. Halfway through reading BBC's main story, the site 404'd. Someone had probably tried to shut it down. I gave up and headed to the shower.
As the hot water cascaded onto me, anger began to build into me. I'd always known it could happen, of course. And there'd been discussion on it, but still... locking down the internet! It felt so wrong; the last place for freedom had just been smashed. Infuriating. I wanted to slam my fist into the wall; instead, I slumped down into the tub.
What now, I thought. Would the world descend into an even more tyrannical state? Would things go back to the way they were? It seemed impossible. From all accounts, billions of files of information had been destroyed. Without information, data, without history, it was impossible to go back to the way we were. The logical, albeit depressing conclusion, was that the governments would take over. I shut off the water, toweled dry, put my pajamas back on and collapsed onto my inflatable mattress. What now?
The presidential address at eight brought even more bad news. I sat in quiet anticipation with my parents, glued to the T.V. He babbled on for a bit about how everything was going to be ok, and then the shitstorm started. Government takeover of banking, trade, fuel supplies and rationing, food distribution, and media. Law enforcement and military were to be stationed to ensure protection of valuable materials and prevent looting. Thousands of troops were being pulled from overseas to assist.
It was mind blowing. I had no idea what to do, how to fight back or how to stop this all from happening. It was like a darkness was enveloping the world, and I was powerless to stop it. That night, I laid in bed and stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. One line ran through my head over and over: "Control of disinformation, terrorist communication, treasonous, and/or seditious material." Had the terrorists been trying to send an anti-government message?
