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Drama Mystery Science Fiction

It’s 6:06 AM in Los Altos Hills, CA. The sun is rising for the day, swallowing the night-long darkness and 16% moonlight, which is just four days away from the new moon.

The CEO of the world’s top technology giant, in his night dress, is looking at the suicide statistics. It is much faster than the COVID numbers he was following till last night.

A suicide statistics says around 800,000 people die of suicide every year. That makes it roughly 2,000 people per day. Till last night it was not even 300,000 this year. In the last three hours alone, 33,000 people have died. He thought about it for a while, ‘How are they collecting this information? How are they ensuring that the number is close to reality? There are countries that are very good in under-reporting numbers when it comes to mass deaths. There are countries that can’t even track the number of such deaths. What would be the algorithm behind this?’

It is picking up momentum. People are announcing it on social media. Some of them are even posting videos of their ending on social media. Surprisingly, they are not getting censored by the content moderation teams of the social media companies. To make matters worse, a guy working for one of the social media companies in its Phoenix facility posted a video of his suicide with a message that he is stressed out moderating these contents.

“I would have done this someday anyway. This just expedited my decision and reaffirmed my disbelief on this world!” is his message to the world. The comments below are really scary. Nobody is able to gauge how many more are going to do this in the next few hours.

It is not just suicides. There is also widespread killing of people. People have gone mad. Most of the killings are done by the victim’s spouses or partners. The number of suicides and deaths using firearms is the highest in the USA. In many places, there are mass shootings as well.

“If you are scared of getting caught, you kill yourself. Why do you kill those who will catch you? #shootingthecatcher”

#shootingthecatcher is trending on Twitter.

“Crazy idiots. You kill yourself or kill your partner who will kill you otherwise. Why do you kill innocent people on the streets for your problems? #massshooting” asked the one of the tweets under #massshooting hashtag.

The CEO knows why the COVID numbers started slowing down. It’s not a real relief from the problem. It’s asymptomatic now. The world’s focus has shifted to the bigger catastrophe they have to deal with. Some of them are reusing the same dashboards to report this in place of COVID cases.

Last year, around the same time, as a responsible citizen of the planet, he deliberated on his own for days together as to what he can do in his capacity to put an end to the COVID menace, then he discussed with his colleagues and then announced his decision to collaborate with his key competitor to build a contact tracing app. He was talking about how the tech world was putting its best effort to solve the problem that was created by an unknown person knowingly or unknowingly. What is he going to do now? It’s a problem in his own industry that is going to put the world in an unprecedented trouble. He doesn’t know who caused the problem and he certainly doesn’t have a solution on how to solve it or control the damage until this point in time.

“Guys, this is not the end of the world. We have seen deadlier catastrophes and come out stronger in history. Please don’t end your lives for this. We are all in this together. We will come out of it together. Please listen to me. You will thank me for this later,” he tweeted.

Nine million people retweeted it and 21 million people liked it for the first time in the history of Twitter. The record might be beaten by many other tweets in next few days.

He is not on any other social media. He considers them junk and he doesn’t feel safe about his data and privacy with the other social media sites. He is particularly allergic about one of those CEOs, who is seen as the one that revolutionized social media. “What moral standards can you expect on an app built by a devilish guy like him who has zero values?” he often tells people in his close circles.

Wow, there is a call from the devil himself: “Hey *! What do we do now? Shall we shut down the whole thing until we know what to do next? This is really getting out of control. I won’t be alive myself if this continues. An e-lockdown is the solution.”

“Hey man! What are you talking about? It is technology that is helping us control the situation though it is because of technology we got into this chaos. I understand. It’s total chaos. But we can’t afford to switch off the entire internet. That will kill more people than it is saving. Let’s get on a call with the president. This is a war against humanity. It’s not just a technology problem.”

It happened at 3 AM Pacific Standard Time. There are many theories about who would have done it. Some people say it must be a Chinese or Russian hacker. Some say someone should have done it from Hawaii because it was 12 AM in Hawaii when it happened. It is only natural that such a massive thing that is targeted at the entire world must have been timed at 12 AM. The techies in the Bay Area suspect that it must be an insider job. Nobody has claimed responsibility for it yet. 

“If all they wanted was money, they could have targeted only the rich. The motive behind this must be something larger than life,” said another celebrity tweet.

“It could be something much sillier than we can imagine too!” read a reply.

“I had to catch a flight to Orlando at 9am. At 6am, I was in the toilet asking ‘Hey Siri, how is the Weather?’. It went straight to search and what I got on top of the search result shook me like mad. It’s an email I sent to my ex more than a decade back. Both of us moved on. 1/2"

“I deleted all emails from/to her permanently. I never thought even in my wildest dreams I would be able to see them again anywhere. And, what’s worse, I don’t even see the word weather anywhere in those emails. 2/2,” tweeted an Atlanta man. A guy who was shaken by the existence of an email is okay to talk about it in a public forum like Twitter!

Kavin from Chennai was searching for ‘thalaivar’ at 3:30 PM local time. What he got was the exact content from an attachment that was part of an email he received from his IT department with his browsing history before getting fired by his first company in his second month. He wanted to forget that nightmare. He deleted it from his emails and more importantly he deleted that email account itself before he joined the next job.

The worst is this. Olivia from London searched for ‘top 10 albums this year’ at 11 AM her time. It threw the entire chat history of her boyfriend Arthur with all his girlfriends from childhood. She calls Arthur immediately. His phone is endlessly engaged. 

“It’s not my chat history. It’s his when I search for anything on my browser. How is that possible? Imagine who all are going to read my chat history!” she screamed to her colleague sitting next to her. 

One thing common about all these people is, each of these people tried to search for something else immediately after seeing the first results. Whatever they searched for, they got the same results. What they didn’t want to see again or what they never knew existed.

***

The techies are busy debating about the feasibility of this in their online forums. 

“I can’t wait to know how this was done. It’s not just the emails. It includes chat history, browsing history, search history… everything. Probably, only the scan copy of handwritten letters are not seen yet. This doesn’t seem like an accidental leak. A well planned and executed strategy. It just lists the most unforgettable but want-to-forget histories of people. But how?”

“Also the ones that others want to hide from us and the ones that we want to hide from others…”

“What is the algorithm? What is the motivation? How did he or she manage to do this?”

“You never know. The man who did it may be chatting with us right now.”

“How do you assume that it’s only a man, not a woman?”

“How do you assume that it’s not a team or a terrorist organization?”

“The terrorists don’t have any organization. They are called governments. The most terroristic governments are democratically elected ones. Those who participate in the process are the terrorists.”

“Hey guys! I would just like to remind you all, this is not a political forum. We don’t discuss politics here. We are here to solve the world’s biggest technology problems. Please be cognizant of that.”

“That’s what we are doing here. By trying to zero down on the suspects. As this is a highly political issue, we can’t avoid politics. Please be cognizant of that.”

***

“Who is Emma?”

“I don’t know.”

“You have exchanged more than 300,000 words with her.”

“You don’t need to know.”

“First, you said you don’t know. Now, I don’t need to know. I NEED TO KNOW. Tell me, where is she now?”

“You won’t need to know.”

“If you don’t tell me, I am going to kill myself.”

“You don’t need to do that. I will do that for you.” Poomb!

This is in Louisiana.

***

“You told me you told me everything!”

“Yes, I did.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“What are you talking about?

“Who the hell is Bill?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“I do want to know.”

“I don’t have to tell you.”

“You have to. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise…” Poomb! He kills himself.

This is in Nevada.

***

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“We were planning to tell you at some point in time. It’s not the right time yet.”

“When do you think is the right time going to come? After you both die?”

“No. Please don’t talk like that. We don’t care where our real son is. You have been our son for the past 18 years. You will be our son for the rest of our lives.”

“You don’t care about your son. I care about my parents. I want to know where they are. I had my doubts a few times. Then I convinced myself, no, that’s not possible. I didn’t know you guys would be this cheap. I don’t want to see your faces anymore. Leave me alone,” he cried like a baby that just lost its parents in a crowded market.

Aditya’s parents begged him to forgive them. They were both in tears. Whatever reasoning they gave was not enough for him to fill the void he felt from the minute he read that document.

***

“Wikileaks is nothing. What you witness here today is the mother of all leaks in human history. #WWWLeaks”

“1. We thought it’s a tech company and they have been improving the standards of human life with their innovative contributions to society. You know what! They are an intelligence agency to spy on people. 99% of the staff who work for them don’t even know this yet. #WWWLeaks”

In-person meetings are not possible with COVID restrictions. Virtual is the only option they have. After all this, nothing they talk about in a virtual meeting is going to be private. But there has to be a decision. Both the employees and the people outside need an explanation. The board has to meet. 

After all this, what is there to lose anymore? They decided to go ahead and conduct the meeting virtually. The world is waiting to hear from them.

“2. Collusion of competitors is the biggest scam that we never saw coming. Here is a text that will explain how two of the biggest banks in the world rigged the entire financial system in partnership. #WWWLeaks”

“Related Article: How these two pharma giants we thought were fighting against each other came together to keep humankind in a never ending disease ridden world. #WWWLeaks”

It is not just these two banks or the two pharma companies whose boards were meeting to decide the further course of action. The entire business world is busy figuring out their operating model in the new world. Many boards already sacked their CEOs. Many CEOs unilaterally announced sacking of their deputies. Some of the business leaders tweeted that their life is at risk. They need protection from police.

“3. Nuclear secrets are the biggest joke of our time. We were always told that there were big secrets that only a few were aware of. Today, this minute, every country in the world knows every nuclear secret of their enemies and friends. #WWWLeaks” 

“THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD. Everything we believed is a lie. Everyone has to start everything all over again. Individuals, businesses, countries… everyone! Relationships, contracts, agreements… everything! #WWWLeaks”

“PEOPLE! PLEASE USE DISCRETION WHEN YOU LISTEN TO THE HACKERS AND CONSPIRACY THEORISTS. THEY ARE SOWING SEEDS OF LIES USING THIS OPPORTUNITY. NOT ALL YOU HEAR IS TRUE. #WWWLeaks” tweeted the most powerful man on the planet. 

“Most powerful??? Before or after #WWWLeaks?” is your question?

Every big statement got retweeted and liked million times. You know how many millions this all UPPERCASE tweet would have crossed. Internet bandwidth choked all over the world.

Someone replied to that with many thousand likes: “So you are saying some of them are true?”

No response to that by the most powerful man yet. But there were all sorts of responses to that by others.

“You want his confirmation on that, bro? Hehe.”

“One of them for sure is true. I figured out which one it is. +1 if you found one too.”

“Sir, this is the best time to get to know the secrets that were kept away from you. Enjoy. Lol.”

“Todays’ Tarot card for the world is DEATH. It is in an upright position. It doesn’t mean bad. It just means we need to start everything all over again. It’s the death of life till today. Tomorrow has to be a new day and new life. #WWWLeaks”

Nila, a 13 year old girl from a remote village in South India, who became popular after receiving a letter from the NASA Administrator appreciating some of her views on astrophysics, tweeted: “Check this. Everything that is leaked today pertains to mature democracies with some of the most sophisticated data protection laws. Do you see any data from the notorious dictatorships? Something to ponder over. WWWLeaks”

“That means our nuclear secrets are leaked to them. Theirs are still secrets!”

It is 8:01 PM in Los Altos Hills, CA. Sun is setting. The darkness is taking over from the light. It is a waning crescent with 10% light. It’s not complete darkness. Tomorrow there will be a sunrise again, at the same time, 06:06 AM. 

***

May 08, 2021 03:57

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