The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella Read online

  *

  Julia completed her eleventh straight appeasement phone call to a GCS colleague, sighed, stood and walked over to a cabinet where she had all the supplies to pour herself an adult drink. From the window inside her office at Horizon, she could see the flat tranquility of the Potomac River and appreciate the silence of this section of the city, which was a buzzing hub of waterfront activity during the day, and melted away into upper class passivity at night. Her mind reeled from the lectures she had been receiving from each caller. GCS's backers had established clear overall objectives for their alliance: keep democracy and free market capitalism moving forward; accept policies towards progress; reject failed ideas from eras past; promote individuals striving towards their highest potential; guard wealth and prosperity for those who are willing to work for it; and fight back against anyone attempting to abandon, disrupt or end any objective of the mission. At its core, the mandate tactically covered maintaining an operational free market not with hope, but with industry, technology and a viable defense against those who were aiming to destroy their stability. In a world where human beings had the capacity to think, GCS members used their brains to a singular advantage. They determined that regardless of the vagaries of the democratic process, the pronouncements of media headlines or the chatter on social media, they would advance their own plans to ensure an economic and social atmosphere in which they could thrive.

  Members met throughout the year in scattered small groups and private reunions aimed at solidifying freedom and wealth by uniting those who thought about independent action. Among themselves, people spoke freely about exactly how they would guard prosperity by, among other initiatives, building a cyber safety net across all of their government, business and social operations. The discussions initially began as distinctive aspirations, but emerged into determined pronouncements. The group placed no constraints of politics, culture, gender, ethnicity, seniority, media, or the law on its thinkers. And demanded in return attention, diligence, confidentiality and perseverance in exchange for a future employment contract designed to ensure their ability to continue to manage the project until the point when the secret died with them. Members understood the risk they were taking with their careers when they agreed to join GCS, and none thought twice about the importance of the broader external mission.

  Returning to her desk, she called Marco.

  "Hello Julia," Marco responded on answering.

  "I have just spoken to about a dozen of our outside colleagues to reassure them about the project's status," she said.

  "Why did they need reassurance?" Marco guardedly demanded.

  "You know I have a duty to ensure our international cooperation remains in place."

  "Fine." He paused. "Has everyone settled down?"

  "Nominally there is fear, Marco. And when people are afraid, we have trouble."

  "You made them afraid for no reason."

  "No, I did not."

  "What do you call your actions?"

  "My actions were the needed response to an unsettling event."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, not all activity is related to you and your friends, Marco. In this case, I was responding to a story about someone telling someone else there was subversive discussion in hacker circles about the reach of our program."

  "What?"

  "And the hackers have much more information than Dallas Winter ever could have gathered from reading a few files."

  "What information?"

  "Basically the whole program."

  "The documents from the breach at Horizon?"

  "Perhaps."

  "And it's legitimate...the details they've been saying?"

  "Yes, the information has been disseminated much further than we could have predicted."

  "But how and by whom?"

  "We have no clear idea. But your friend Dallas has received a break. Our efforts now turn to the more definite problem on our hands, hackers, one or more with an agenda to expose our secret."