Month: October 2023

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Haunted (part one)

Sheepdog arrived at the office, pretty hungover, and he must have slept hard because one of his eyes seemed to be permanently out of focus for the day. He decided to work through it. After grabbing his first coffee, he dove into his terminal and immediately opened the clip of the Bowler Hat man and the ghost he was meeting with. It didn’t matter which angle he chose, which AI assisted with the reconstruction or image processing, the data for the ghost simply didn’t exist. Res wasn’t in the office today so he had to tackle it alone. It wasn’t that big of a problem because she had already asked the questions he first asked when he stumbled across and essentially became obsessed with solving this mystery. The camera hardware checked out, software was up to date, and he was at an impasse. How do you create data where there is none, or find out what was removed and how?

He checked the time stamp for the footage and made a note of the date and time of day. He searched the Splicer archives for any other instances of the Bowler Hat man in that area and ran into the retention wall, but not before finding a similar clip 2 months prior to what he was looking at. The footage might as well have been identical, because as he loaded the older clips, he had the exact same problem. Limo arrives, Bowler Hat man gets out, shakes hands with nothing, gets back into his car and drives away. Obviously, it was some kind of scheduled transaction, and since he had already identified the man and his car, he knew it was one of their own clients. Frank, a very early adopter. This made Sheepdog even more suspicious. If he was such an old client, and there were at least 2 instances of him meeting a ghost, why didn’t his AI, Genesis, pick up on this and sound the alarm? As far as he knew, AI weren’t breaking rules or forming their own ideas about morality nor bending the rules for their monitoring. How could Genesis not recognize this gap in coverage as a threat? Something was wrong at a fundamental level, he felt. And that sense of dread could easily infect his concepts of how the organization at large was providing the protection these clients were paying for. This sense of dread and unease led him to an unusual request. He needed to conduct field research in that area.

He stepped into the manager’s office and briefly discussed the issue with him. The manager asked Sheepdog what he planned to do, and how he would do it. Sheep outlined a quick plan using on-the-ground testing hardware fitted neatly in a backpack. Your usual radio scanners, frequency detectors, jammers, and other penetration testing tools. He wanted to bring everything he could to the site to test everything, visible and invisible, ruling nothing out. The manager agreed to let him check it out on two conditions.

One, he didn’t raise any suspicions, and two, he wouldn’t interrupt the standard monitoring deployed at the site. Sheepdog agreed and changed into a generic technician’s outfit before cramming his backpack full of specialized hardware. He would leave no stone unturned, and he would do it without the cover of a service vehicle.

Sheep rode the monorail to the intersection, got off and got to work. First, he scanned for any unusual localized radio spectrum frequencies. He was looking for a bubble, something focused and small aimed at the site. Running through radio wave frequency blocks, his device turned up nothing unusual. Going on the offensive, he ran a Sendai 9 attack platform to attempt to interfere with anything wireless in that location. The devices easily routed around the localized attack by performing channel hopping and other defensive measures designed to overcome noise. Nothing was working in Sheep’s toolkit. He thought for sure the brand-new Sendai 9 would have a noticeable impact to all the radio signals floating around in the air within a 30-foot radius, but there seemed to be no service disruptions at all.

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Tone Deaf

Rex laid awake to the sound of a dripping faucet in the master bathroom. The rhythm of the droplets was regular, predictable, nearly identical. He tried to focus on it as someone would count sheep. His restless mind was having none of it.

More work had to be done on his optics project; the burn rate was starting to overrun royalties for older work he had performed and patented. Basically, he was starting to lose money and he had come too far to put a stop to the project (in order to shore up more cash) or turn back. It had to work. The solution was facing him but it was also something of a moral dilemma.

Wall Street has been cheating for over a century, why should I have any moral quandaries, he thought. This was justification. He was talking himself into taking a big risk, as if the risk he was already taking was not big enough. Rex had that gambler’s gene. There was no way he could have stopped playing at this point regardless of the stakes; wild stallions would not drag him away. A dozen scenarios played out in his mind, ranging from becoming a trillionaire to federal prison for life. Suddenly, his comms device announced INCOMING CALL – FRANK. This was good timing.

“Hello Frank, can’t sleep either huh?”, Rex said quietly, pretending to be sleepy. Frank very excitedly and loudly replied, “after…after what I witnessed today? How could anyone sleep? Like watching the atom being split for the first time, surviving a bullet passing close enough to your head to burn your hair, I feel too alive for sleep. I have been up all night, pondering these wonders.” Rex basically felt the same, without the elaborate dialogue, and said, “Frank, Frank, calm down man. Miraculous, yes. Yet to borrow an analogy, our sword has two edges, and they are razor sharp. One false move and we’re bleeding. It’s best to let the sword rest in a velvet blanket for now.”

Frank had to be nodding in agreement as he replied, “Of course. You’re totally correct. Although, you must admit ideas are filling your head as well! You weren’t sleeping. You were, I assume, considering the possibilities of the sword. Planning, plotting, pondering. Devising new tests or, God forbid, new applications. Tell me I’m wrong.” Rex didn’t disagree. He actually confirmed all of Frank’s statements as he added, “…but we must temper our response. You remember that old mob movie Goodfellas? Doesn’t matter. There’s a scenario where a bunch of mob guys make a big score and get away clean. One of the guys tells everyone, don’t buy anything. Sit on it until I give the go ahead. And yet, on Christmas Eve, every mobster shows up at the club with furs, new cars, you name it. Can you guess what happened next?” Frank knew the answer immediately, “they didn’t get busted, but one by one, they got whacked, for bringing too much heat. I get the message here, but I don’t expect to get whacked, Rex.” Frank paused and tapped on his Splicer comms device in a knock-on-wood motion. “Nobody ever does, Frank”, Rex shot back, before hanging up the comms and going back to listening to the dripping sink.

That really needs to get fixed, Rex said to himself, before finally drifting off to a few short hours of sleep…

As Rex’s alarm clock woke him at a brisk 10am, he slowly brushed the blankets aside and sat on the edge of the bed. He imagined he looked as tired as he felt. It required a brief ice bath in the sink to bring some of the puffiness down, although Rex still looked much younger than his actual years, he was getting to the age where sleepless nights landed squarely under his eyes.

Call Frank. Wait. Eat breakfast first, some coffee, freshen up, then call Frank. Nope. Breakfast, shower, check messages, check project progress, check account balances, then call Frank. Rex thought about his little parable from Goodfellas and the importance of waiting. He decided to give Frank a break for a little while as he kept an eye on his balances and project progress. Waiting had to be part of the whole equation to make this thing work to Rex’s advantage. Time had a magical way of impacting certain activities. Too close together and it’s a story, too far apart and nobody is any wiser. He wondered if Frank’s success was even a blip on anyone’s radar. Sure, it was beating the casino, but the casino was busy and if they didn’t go back for a while, odds are nobody would notice. Rex decided a slow burn strategy like this would be best, if Frank would even agree to it. But Rex knew, deep down, that Frank couldn’t wait to play with his new Ouija puck again, with or without Rex present, so he couldn’t wait too long until testing again.

Rex came up with an idea as he sipped some espresso from a tiny cup, freshly brewed from a very expensive Italian machine. It was borderline insane, just crazy enough to work and convoluted enough to avoid detection if anyone was to get curious. Moments like this defined why Rex had come this far; he was known for unlikely ideas having a desirable outcome. He decided to let it simmer and called Frank very briefly. “Frank”, he began, “I’ve come up with another test. Let’s meet next week, you pick the day. I’ll make sure I’m free.” Frank replied, “I’m eager to hear more. We can meet Wednesday. I’ll send the driver by if you’d like”. Rex said, “Sounds good Frank, stay green”. Frank’s comms unit briefly flashed amber then went back to green.

Rex went upstairs, back to his Danish desk, and started sketching out some ideas for the next test. The ideas were coming fast and hard, and his hand couldn’t keep up with his brain. He ended up paring down the list and doing a quick comparative analysis. Risk vs. Reward. That was the balance he was having trouble striking. Too much reward, red flags, someone notices. Too much risk, same outcome only he stood to lose money he couldn’t really afford to lose. He finally drew up a matrix of ideas, sorting by risk and reward, and found the middle of the grid where he could perform testing. A good starting point would be the way forward, he figured.

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The Ouija Board (part two)

Frank pondered the chart for a moment and thought perhaps a step was missing. This wasn’t all the value he could extract from the stock. He immediately purchased shorts against the stock at 15 cents per share. No reason for attempting to guess the floor, just a hunch. A few tense moments later, and the comms went green. Not long after, that familiar waterfall pattern appeared on the chart. After the peak, other players were collecting their profits and running out of buyers. The final chart valued the stock at 15 cents. Frank had made an additional 85 cents per share, shorting it to the penny. 

Rex sat there awestruck. He was familiar with the voodoo of the market, and bandwagoning day traders who followed trades up and cashed out at a set peak, but this was something else. Frank was equally stunned, mouth agape at what he had witnessed. “Should we prepare another test?”, Frank asked very quietly. “I’m not sure. What we’re dealing with seems just as supernatural as that Ouija board puck. It also seems extremely dangerous. If we can replicate this again and again over time, we’ll smoke the market. Someone is gonna notice, someone or something. I… I don’t even know if we should try this again. I need some time to think it over. Enjoy your profits, you had a fantastic day”, Rex said, not even noticing his adrenalin pumping as he unsteadily rose from his seat. Frank replied, “of course we must be extremely cautious. I don’t even feel comfortable doing this directly. But I don’t know if our little magician will perform his magic if I try to do this through the normal layers of shell companies and holding firms. I suppose we need to perform some low-risk testing on that type of indirect trading.”

Rex was about to leave, then suddenly turned to Frank who was standing politely to see him out. “Strictest confidence, Frank. What we witnessed here was nothing short of a miracle,” Rex said, without a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He was dead serious. “That goes without saying, Rex. You are almost dealing with the same amount of danger I am. Even knowing that these tests pass is more than we should know. But I must thank you for helping design the tests. If there’s a way to repay you, tell me,” Frank said earnestly. “I may call on you for some kind of reward, soon, so keep your comms on,” Rex replied. With that final sentence, he began ordering a vehicle to take him away from Frank’s and back home, as he walked down the stone steps and back onto the pea gravel walkway. He was terrified.

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The Ouija Board (part one)

The next day, Rex couldn’t wait to meet up with Frank to discuss the ramifications. He knew Frank would be at the Splicer offices signing contract amendments bright and early, which meant Rex woke up early to sketch out some plans to test the system. The best test Rex could come up with was some volatile stock trading in the penny markets. Or, even more fickle and short term, crypto markets. He thought all it would take was a few big bull moves on a very short time frame to complete the test, but they had to be sure it was functioning before they placed any bets. Rex, of course, would match Frank’s bets with his own money, but Frank would be the one doing the betting.

10am rolled around, and Frank reached out to Rex, confirming the paperwork is done. “This, of course, is a gentlemen’s agreement between you and I,” Frank said, “so long as it goes no further, I don’t see the harm in the testing.” Rex agreed and arranged transportation to Frank’s home.

When Rex arrived, he tipped the driver handsomely and advised him to forget his last customer and route. The driver marked the ride as a failure and the details were erased. Rex strolled up to Frank’s idea of an ancient Germanic castle, pea gravel crunching underfoot as he approached the massive door. Naturally, Frank was expecting his arrival and one of the house staff opened the door in such a manner that Rex didn’t have to break stride to enter the home. He was greeted with a bow and kept walking towards Frank’s office. Pulling up a brass-tacked emerald green leather chair, he found Frank already at his terminal ready to get to work. “So,” Frank began, “what mischief did you have in mind for testing? Or would you prefer discussing the details of my revised contract first?” Rex replied, “I’m sure the contract language is very interesting, but lacking the legal chops to properly dissect it, I’d rather get to the testing.” Rex paused for a moment as Frank grinned. “I propose we test either crypto markets or penny stock trading off the sheets. We don’t want to show up as a big hammer, but we want to push the Ouija puck and see what happens. How is it supposed to work, warning you for your own protection?”

Frank took a deep breath before replying. “They said it was going to be simple. An extension of existing protocols. You see, my secure comms device for them, it has two lights. One amber, one green. Green means everything is secure and safe. Amber means danger. A simple binary. My AI controls it somewhat independently. So the trick must be to stay in the green, whatever that takes.” Rex nodded as he understood the limitations of the system, but he would figure out what the timing and threshold looked like. “Alright Frank, ready to do this thing?”, Rex asked. Frank gave him a thumbs up. “Let’s start somewhat small. How much holding do you have in crypto?” Frank quickly replied, “my financial advisor told me it should be zero, but it’s actually 100 million, spread across a few popular coins that track closely with other market indexes.” Rex thought for a moment and said, “ok, our first move will be… only one million. Let’s find a volatile coin that has a lot of attention focused on it.” The secure comms device remained green. Frank searched the coin base, and purchased Lucky Coin, something apparently new which had seen a 1500% rise since the debut 48 hours ago. It was starting to fall in value, according to the real-time charts, but it wasn’t anywhere near the bottom. “Tell me when you’re ready,” Frank said. Rex had his eyes fixated on the comms device. Seconds passed, and it suddenly turned amber, and it stayed amber. Rex and Frank watched the second-by-second charting live, and the coin was in freefall. In less than 15 seconds it lost 200% of the pumped value, and was still bleeding in the charts. The Ouija puck had indeed moved. “Best 2 out of 3?”, Frank asked, already knowing that Rex would need more proof than this. “Of course. Let’s flip over to the penny stocks. Again, look for anything unusually hot or busy. Cash out and record your loss, I owe you a few bucks.”

Frank found a stock that had been essentially dead on the ground for the past month, but it was starting to break out. From one cent to 2 cents in the past hour. It was some rinky dink startup company that had plummeted after a major CEO failure sent it into a tailspin and it got delisted from the NASDAQ. However, a brief glance at today’s financial news promised a turnaround as the new CEO took the reins and landed a military contract with huge initial funding. Someone saw promise in it. “Bet another million, it’ll hide in the volume that is already happening,” Rex said. Frank queued up an order for a million credits’ worth. He glanced at the comms device, which just changed from green to amber. Puzzled, Rex lifted it off the table and shook it, in case anything was loose. It felt like a monobloc design with no moving connectors or parts. “This has to be a winner, how can it chart lower?”, Rex asked, before Frank changed his order, and split the order in half, two orders of 500,000 each. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense that it would impact the transaction in any way, but suddenly the amber light changed back to green. Frank executed the trade. They watched the charting pump the stock. 2 cents. 5 cents. 10 cents. Comms still green. 15 cents. Every few seconds it nearly doubled in value as they glanced from the chart to the comms. Somewhere around a dollar per share, the comms went amber again. Frank immediately sold both orders back to the exchange. Comms stayed amber. What was it trying to say? He had already made a ton of easy money in a few minutes.

to be continued