This is Rom from the Packrat Sprawl, making waves and coming to you live and direct from the Runners’ tunnels under the Gateway Zone cross leading to the City. The Runners’ tunnels run under the City, the Echelons, and the Zone and are laid out in a maze. They can get you to the middle of Haven 15 in the Echelons near the Red Light District, past Harbin street in the Zone or up into the City under the Broad street subway station near the Corporation. This is how the Runners get to their destinations when they go on their runs to collect psi inducer drugs and iodine pills. The data messengers who are also Runners use these tunnels to carry messages and Top Secret data back and forth into the City. The Zone Police don’t know these tunnels exist. I am actually on a short run today and I wanted to give you a little bit of a tour of sorts as we get to our destination.
I am going to the Terror Hack compound in Haven 5 which is right near the Gateway Zone cross in the Echelons, not actually in the City. Anj, the leader of the Packrat Runners doesn’t want me too close to the City right now due to the activities that are happening at the Gateway Zone Cross today. There is civil protest going on. Thousands of people are marching today and tomorrow in protest of the government and the change in leadership in the Parliament. As I understand Mr. Stuart is still the Lead Minister of Parliament but many of his subordinates are being sworn into office today and the group that was elected by the City population is a group of oppressive, money hungry oligarchs and hate filled politicians. The Echelons can’t vote which is just another show of government oppression. I would be out there protesting too like I always do but Anj has me on this mission which is just as important. The Terror Hack has some business to do to support the protest, I am the messenger boy for the day carrying an audio file and a video that the Terror Hack are going to broadcast for the Packrats. The Terror Hack has the ability to zip the Newsfeed and take over their satellite just like Packrat Underground so we can stream our subversive message and drown out the hateful rhetoric and evil propaganda of the Elite government.
So, lets start the mission.
****
Rom darted down the cold grey underground tunnel on his way to the next checkpoint. The Packrat Runners’ tunnels under the City were sparse, lightbulbs strung up by wires running down the length of the corridor illuminating the darkness and casting a sickly yellow glow in patches as he passed. There was graphitti on the walls and arrows pointing to different destinations. Rom ran for 10 minutes and then came to a stop in front of a large screen monitor tacked to the wall. There was a small stand underneath it.
Rom pulled the handheld out of the pocket of his black Runners’ outfit, the tight fitting black shorts and the Runners shirt with cut outs on the arms. The fabric clung to his body as it conserved body heat making sure as he was running influenced by his psi enabling him to move at super human speed that he did not overheat. The fabric wicked the sweat away and redistributed it so that is evaporated off the surface keeping the shirt dry. Combat boots with twelve buckles up the side graced his feet covering his calves as the thick hard soles kept his feet comfortable on the run. The long black leather fingerless gloves with belts up the side went from his knuckles to above his elbow finishing the outfit making him look cyber death rock sinister as he placed his handheld on the stand under the monitor. The screen of the device came to life and synched with the Runners’ GPS system which was loaded on all the monitors in the tunnels.
Rom checked his location on the handheld. A pop-up box came on the monitor screen asking him to log in with his fingerprint and password, two-factor authentication. He placed his index finger in the white box on the screen and then typed out his password on the virtual keyboard .The system authenticated him and then the Runners’ icons displayed. Rom clicked the map icon which swirled in, a 3D map blue and white architectural diagram of the area above ground. He was at the tunnel closest to the Haven 5 Terror Hack warehouse. His handheld chimed as it synched the locator. He picked it up and engaged it. The route to the warehouse was displayed on the screen. He put the handheld up and touched the monitor again looking for his contact information. The detail for his run had been pulled from his fingerprint when he logged in bringing up the information for his current run. It listed the time. Rom best hustle if he wanted to hit the next mark and be at the warehouse door in 10 minutes. He logged off the Runners’ GPS system and the monitor went black. He took a few steps back and then teleported out.
Rom reappeared in a concrete parking lot in front of a large warehouse which looked like a hangar with the curved roof and a large door in front. The area was sparse with only a few motorcycles parked near the left side of the building. Rom walked forward. There were additional warehouse buildings off in the distance bunched around each other but this building was on its own. Rom got within 20 meters of the warehouse door when a green military open top jeep screeched to a halt in front of him having come out of nowhere. There was an artillery gun loaded in the back and a man in black and green fatigues holding onto the large rifle. The driver glared at Rom as the solider in the passenger seat stood up grabbed the roll bar and inquired pointing a gun at Rom.
“This is a restricted area. Turn around and leave. State your name if you want to keep yourself alive.” barked the soldier.
“I am Rom. The Packrats sent me with a file. I come for Mage.”
“There is no one here by that name. You need to leave,” the man cocked his gun and stepped down from the jeep. He walked up to Rom and leveled the gun at his forehead the cold metal right against his skin.
“Faid sent me. Word of the day is TallyRabbit Enclave,” said Rom blinking nervous. The gun at his forehead had unexpected. He swallowed hard.
The gunman hesitated for a moment then removed the gun. “Word of the day my arse. Why didn’t you tell me you knew the code?” the soldier smiled, his voice warming up to Rom suddenly from his previous behavior.
“You pointed a gun at my head. What else did you expect me to do?”
“Follow me inside. You ran up on us unexpected. We were not thinking we would see you for another hour.”
“I was told the protest was picking up and that I best step up the timetable.”
The soldier put up the gun and waved off the jeep which drove away fast. Rom followed the soldier to a door carved out of the larger hanger access. The soldier put a badge to the panel on the door, keyed in a code and put his thumb in the reader scanning his fingerprint. The door unlatched loudly and the solider went inside. The door closed behind them and they were in a corridor with a desk and two soliders in front of another door. The one solider stood up holding a machine gun so Rom clearly got the message.
“Stop right there,” said the seated guard.
“He is invited. He knew the word of the day,” said the soldier that had greeted Rom outside.
“Show me what you have on you?”
Rom went into his pocket and pulled out his handheld and the pin drive which was destined for Mage. The solider tried to take the pin drive.
“I need to scan the drive.”
“No, this material is for Mage’s eyes only,” said Rom.
“No entry unless I get official notification. Name and affiliation?” said the guard and then picked up a phone in the desk and made the call.
“My hacker code name is Rom. Faid sent me from the Packrats.”
The guard with the machine gun, set the rifle down and picked up a wand and took the wand to the front and back of Rom scanning for electronics or bugging devices hidden on him as he held the handheld and pin drive in his hands. Two minutes later after the guard on the phone acknowledged, he hung up the phone and waved Rom forward. The solider from outside moved over behind the guard who put the wand down and picked up the machine gun again. The guard keyed a code into the pad on the door and then the light above the door turned green and slid open. The soldier waved Rom in.
“I will take you to Mage.” Rom followed behind the soldier.
The warehouse was immense. There were jeeps lining the side wall. Crates of weapons. Boxes of rations and those marked with pharmaceuticals including iodine pills and synth a healing drug. The names of the drugs were emblazoned on the sides of the crates underneath the manufacturer’s name listing all these items as having come from the SenseNet. Rom figured they were probably stolen from a SenseNet warehouse. The solider took Rom to the back where there were two rows of computers manned with people in black uniforms. The solider told Rom to hold and walked into the area. He came back over a few minutes later with a man in black with short spiky hair and another with blonde shoulder length hair.
“Who did you bring me?” asked the man with the spiky hair to the solider.
“His name is Rom. He knew the word of the day. Said Faid from the Packrats sent him.”
“Well, he must have something of great importance to show me then. I am Mage, the leader of the Terror Hack. The blonde guy here is Stair my lead hacker and the hacker coordinator for the Terror Hack.”
“I think I infiltrated one of your systems a few weeks back,” said Rom and brought his hand behind his head embarrassed.
“Yeah, the avatar name Rom does ring a bell. If I remember correctly I booted you out of my system,” chuckled Stair.
“Only after I let you,” said Rom and smiled. Stair frowned.
“Come, lets see what you brought,” eyed Mage and led him into the area with the computers. The soldier left them.
Stair sat down at a computer in the back with Mage right behind him. Mage held out his hand and Rom placed the long thin silver pin drive in his palm. Mage looked at it for a moment. “Is this encrypted?”
“It uses Packrat encryption. You should have the public key. I believe Acolyte sent it securely to you when he set up this meet,” said Rom.
Mage nodded and handed the pin drive to Stair who put the drive in the front of the hardline terminal in the port and then opened a few windows. The encryption screen came up and wanted a 24-digit number. Stair opened a file and brought it up on the screen.
“Yes, I got the public key a few hours ago when we were notified you were coming. It coincided with the start of the protest,” said Stair as he typed out the code.
Mage spoke up. “If I have it correct you bring me audio and a video that you want broadcast to the City and the Echelons. You want me to take over the Newsfeed signal and relay it that way?”
“Yes, that was the plan,” acknowledged Rom.
“Anything else on the drive?”
“No, just those two files. Everything you need” said Rom.
“Stair you got this? Rom, come with me. We can see how the protest is doing,” said Mage as he started to lead Rom away to a lounge area.
“Will be online in the gridscan in 2 minutes. I can be in the Newsfeed in 5. The broadcast should be live 8 minutes from now. You can watch it on the monitor,” called out Stair as Rom as Mage retreated.
Mage walked up to a small refrigerator in an area with a few tables. There were three other people in the area. There were three TVs on and a monitor in the corner on the wall. Mage stopped and pulled a full coffee pot off the machine and took a mug pouring himself and Rom a cup.
“You need coffee for a show,” chuckled Mage as he set the pot down and walked with Rom over to the monitor on the wall. The sound was low and an image of the protest at the Gateway Zone Cross was on the screen. There were a row of Zone Police in riot gear with night sticks faced off with a line of protestors. The scene changed and panned over the crowd, there were thousands of protesters in attendance with signs and some with masks partially covering their faces. Others were throwing glass bottles and rocks. The Zone Police were holding the line as a protestor with a bullhorn brought it up to his mouth and started the group near him to chanting.
“Turn it up, will you?” called out Mage.
One of the people in the area went to the wall monitor and turned up the sound. The chanting broke the low hum in the room.
“Stop government oppression. End the hatred. End the violence. We are all equal. Down with the Elite!” cried the protestor with the bullhorn. The chanting was taken up by the crowd. Rom listened intently.
There was a Zone Police van at the side that was broadcasting to the crowd. The message drowned out the chanting. “This is an illegal protest. This area is under control of the Zone Police. If you do not leave now you will be arrested. This area is off limits. Violators will be taken into custody!”
Mage turned to Rom. “Listen to the message from that van carefully. In about 5 minutes it will be saying something very different. Split the screen to the Newsfeed sister channel. I want to see what is there as well.”
The person went back up to the monitor and fiddled with it. The screen split and showed the protest and the Newsfeed commentary channel.
Stair screamed across the warehouse he had successfully infiltrated the Newsfeed which was covering the protest. “It is live in 10 seconds!”
Mage nodded. “Watch carefully.”
The Newsfeed sister channel suddenly went black and grey and white static appeared across the screen. Rom noticed a set of nonsense images quickly flash as the Terror Hack zipped the Newsfeed. Then the Terror Hack logo came up on screen, the distinctive logo of a white letter T atop a yellow and black square with a black oval circling. Rom took a sip of the coffee and then a person which bright red hair came on the screen wearing a white fox spirit mask with cut out eyes from the Prophet religion and started delivering the subversive message warning the Elite government if they did not stop their hate and lies that there would be consequences. Rom realized that behind the mask, it was Faid, the leader of the Packrats delivering the message.
The Terror Hack member turned the sound up. The Zone Police van was still broadcasting its message warning the protestors who got even more rowdy. A group of about 100 people rushed the Zone Police and attacked them. Another set of Zone Police burst from behind the line and started grabbing people and wrestling them to the ground.
Suddenly the Zone Police message broadcast by the van changed. Rom noticed the Zone Police seem to be confused by the change in message. It rang out to the crowd. “We are the majority. We are the righteous. Equality for all. Hate has no home here. You are on notice. Nowhere is safe. We will drown out your message and attack you where you work, sleep and breathe! We are coming for you! Hackers Unite! Hack Till You’re Dead!”
Rom noticed the protestors cheering. They got bolder. The Zone Police that were holding people on the ground with their hands behind their backs were attacked by additional protestors.
Mage motioned the member again to turn up the sound on the other broadcast and split the channels again.
“If you look. We should be on every channel on the gridscan and those that the Newsfeed controls,” said Mage. The Terror Hack member started flipping channels randomly and Faid in the white mask was on each channel that he changed to.
“What about the live stream or websites on the gridscan?” asked Rom.
Mage put his hand behind Rom’s back and put the coffee cup down on the nearest table walking him over to a laptop in the lounge area. He leaned over the keyboard and pulled up a window onto the gridscan. “We left nothing out. The message should be everywhere. It will hit the entire Pacific Territories in another few minutes. The Elite government can try but they won’t be able to pull us offline. We have a monopoly on the channels. Any link the Elite have, we have hacked into including all the Newsfeed affiliates,” said Mage as he waved at Rom to come look.
Rom leaned over his shoulder as he brought up the main Elite government website. Even that website was broadcasting Faid’s subversive message. Mage raised the audio on the machine as Rom could hear Faid’s voice waft from the speakers.
“Hate has no home here! We are coming for you! Nowhere is safe. We are everywhere! Hackers Unite! Hack Till You’re Dead…”
Rom smiled. He had accomplished his mission. The protests would go on for the next 48 hours all over the City and the Echelons.
“What about the hackers?” asked Rom.
“Op Infitrate Lights Out should have already started,” said Mage.
A moment later the power went out in the warehouse. Rom raised his head and looked at the ceiling unprepared for the darkness. About 5 seconds later a generator kicked in bringing the lights back up in the warehoouse.
Mage cracked a smile. “The City should be in darkness now and the Echelons. We are in control of the power grid. Now, lets see how much control the Elite government and the Zone Police really have!”
“All Hail the Packrat Code!” cried out Rom and raised his fist in the air.
For more about Rom check out the novellas “A Storm’s Coming,” “Rogue,” and “Read Only Memory.”
