Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 1: Spanner in the Works
Part 8: The Virus Has Been Spread (Revision 4)
Part 8: The Virus Has Been Spread (Revision 4)
In the ensuing chaos, five hoverboarders in black trenchcoats and helmets fly out through the subway tunnels to take advantage while the TrumpCity corporate security network remains down:
- Deth Pussy uses the data from the colliding reality distortion fields to activate the logic bombs within AEGIS’ illusions and take down Echelon’s regional surveillance network and a spy satellite;
- Debaser forwards the intercepted security video to mafia-owned servers in Nigeria, Russia, and Mongolia, on which guerrilla hackers edit, tweak, and transform the raw footage and use Sudoku encryption to encode it within bootleg concert videos of DisneyPop SuperStar Minty Fresh to send to the Phreaks, shadowy longtime nemeses of the AT&T communications monopoly; Sudoku software decrypts the video and reveals the Spanner footage within the Minty Fresh video posted to clandestine Darknet servers worldwide, all in under a minute;
- Mecha Neko steals the briefcase from the stunned old man with the ankh pendant before Chairman Becket’s men can reach it, then disappears into the dark tunnels;
- Genki Girl special-delivers Nanami Tachibana and her nephew Seika to join her daughters before the final flight leaves Newark; and
- Loca Fantoma wields four spraycans like a katana master to put the finishing touches on the large tag she’s painting on a subway car: shield badge, crossed wrenches, gothic “S”.
Spanner imprints his image onto the unnatural mind of Echelon. Wherever there is thoughtcrime, it will see Spanner. Wherever there is underground resistance, it will see Spanner. Wherever the excesses inherent in Corporatist tyranny drive desperate masses into revolt, in the colonies or in the Homeland itself, it will see Spanner. The last thing it ever sees will be Spanner.
In Washington, FBI Director Karl Radisson declares him Public Enemy Number One and thunders the order in his Australian drawl: “Find the masked terrorist who calls himself Spanner! Sniff him out, smoke him out, tear off his mask! Find out who he is, and bring him to me at once, alive or dead! We must burn out this virus before it destroys our sacred Empire!” The official news channels carry the message: “A $25 billion reward is being offered for the capture of this terrorist. Anyone with any information about him is urged to contact the National Police Agency at once. The number is...”
The Pentagon orders all domestic counterterror units, from Delta Force to Dictel’s Strike Division, to hunt and kill the terrorist wherever he manifests himself and in whatever form. Meanwhile, disgruntled conscript soldiers and underpaid mercenaries in the occupation forces abroad and at home adopt Spanner as a shield behind which to conceal their own plots against the Corporatist régime.
The security outage reaches the West Coast. No sooner than Ariel says, “We’ll have to princess our way through,” the San José checkpoint goes dead and Interstate 5 turns from a parking lot into a racetrack; masses of cars speed forward at once.
“Or not,” says Taylor. As they hurtle northward, her three children sleep huddled in the back seat.
In TrumpCity™, the Becket brothers oversee the evacuation of all personnel, alive or dead, from Madison Square Garden to secret secure locations that Trump has scattered throughout the city he owns. Richard Becket calls the COPCO field office. Since clone resurrection is a time-consuming process, Doctor 42 now stands in for the currently incapacitated Agent 6.
“COPCO Command. This is Agent 42 from Homeland Security. May I help you, Mr. Chairman?”
“Find any Trump Security video with Spanner in it after he left Madison Square Garden.”
“Sir, we’ve been trying to do that since the incident, but we have no record of him even leaving Madison Square Garden.”
“You aren’t looking hard enough!”
“Or even of him entering. Sir, I believe he’s cloaked.”
“What?”
The media underground spreads the news worldwide through the Darknet in seconds. Soon, the Corporate media can no longer ignore it. Defying Secretary Becket’s order, the networks compete to see who can swarm TrumpCity™ with newscopters first. Hordes of reporters invade Manhattan accompanied by the networks’ own security agents and broadcast their stories to the world, accompanied by video after video of subway trains, every car painted with the crossed-wrenches “S” badge emblem of—
Fox: Spanner—The story gives the networks their highest news ratings since the coup. People overwhelm the phone system to spread the news. They text, tweet, and email the security video. Spanner is the subject of all conversation, the new obsession of America and the world.
Sun: Spanner—
ABCNN: Spanner—
QVCBS: Spanner—
ESPNBC: Spanner—
The virus has been spread.
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[Revision 4 Final, 7/10/12: Expanded and revised to fit Fourth Revision continuity.]
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