When the meeting ended, I found a message from Warden that she had managed to find something on Blumenthal’s OS.

That OS had been an exercise in frustration. Whoever had set up the system had ensured that, despite it being not a binary, but indeed a trinary OS, seeing as the controller in the computer was an integral part of the operating system, nothing was saved.

At least not on the OS crystals.

Unfortunately, the other crystals were pretty well encrypted. Nothing that could stop us for much longer, mind you, but considering that by the latest estimates, Warden represented around 60% of all the computing power humanity had… it was hellish good encryption.

Nonetheless, I made my way down to the security division and met with Ramon. He expected me with a tablet in hand, that he offered me without any words.

And indeed, they had found a chat log that had not been erased sufficiently.

“How? I thought they did not even create chat logs, or write anything on the OS crystals.”

“This is not all. It is the most important, yes, as the rest is just standard file operations. But for some brief time, a few days, their safety measures failed.”

I looked at the tablet in wonder.

“But… why? What changed? And why did it change back?”

Ramon shrugged.

“We don’t know why, we only have some hints. Apparently, around a year ago, some massive cyber attack hit their network and wrecked most of it. That put the OS, and the chat program, into some sort of emergency P2P mode.”

I sighed.

“And it stopped when they got their network back up and running. Too bad they’ve almost certainly patched out this vulnerability.”

“It doesn’t seem so. As far as we can tell they are still using the same version.”

I frowned.

“That… doesn’t fit. Why did they not fix this error?”

“Probably because they don’t know about it. This is something that slipped through and they never thought about looking for it.”

That was finally some good news. They had an opening in their defense, and they did not know about it. Unfortunately, at that time we lacked the information needed to exploit it.

I did not expect it to last in that state, however. We were gaining ground. Step by step, inch by inch, we were gaining ground.

“Those chatlogs, have you read them?”

“No, I’ve gotten the message from Warden only a couple of minutes ago.”

I nodded and gestured to the group of comfortable recliners.

“Then let’s do that now.”

When we met in cyberspace, I had Warden project the chat log into space.

Gargoyle: Fuck! What the hell is wrong with the network today?

Quicksand: No fucking clue, but it sucks balls right now. Barely any bandwidth and the key transfer took forever.

Gopher: Can you guys access the general case file database? It just times out for me.

Drake: Mom, I take a look…

Gopher: K

Drake: Fuck, you’re right. It’s gone. Only spinning wheel.

Carnage: How can that be? I thought this was our own private little network.

Cabal: And the network is clearly still there.

Viking: Maybe something happened to the servers?

Honor: Don’t be silly Viking! The servers are well-protected and multi-redundant. It would take catastrophic damage to take them all out.

Cabal: But he is right. If our computers work, and the network is still there, something has to have cut the connection between the servers and the network.

Banshee: But why do you think the network is still there?

Cabal: … because we are using that network to chat right now.

Banshee: Oh… right. Sorry, long night.

Monolith: Oh, good you are all here. I can’t reach HQ right now, but we can talk about Operation Octagon without them.

Gargoyle: So, you have connection problems as well?

Monolith: Yes, why do you ask?

Gargoyle: We tried to connect to the database. It seems dead. Thought you might know more.

Monolith: You can’t connect to the database? Strange. Let me look into it.

Velvet: Five bucks that he can’t connect either.

Gopher: Get real. As if any of us would take that bet.

Velvet: Hey, I had to try.

Monolith: You are right, Gargoyle. The servers seem to be down.

Banshee: So… what are we doing now?

Monolith: We will talk about Operation Octagon.

Monolith: Viking, has the situation recovered in New York?

Viking: Sorry, nope. We had a short period of violence here but it died down almost instantly.

Monolith: How?

Viking: The majority of the organized crime families pulled together and eliminated the rest and the street gangs. Insanely violent, but short-lived and at the wrong time.

Monolith: So, Operation Octagon worked already but it fired early?

Viking: Yes, you could say that. What concerns me is that the surviving families stay calm. Something’s going on.

Monolith: OK, that is unfortunate, but one out of 15 cities should not be too bad.

Badger: So you simply let him go with this failure?

Monolith: I know you don’t like Viking, but shit like that happens sometimes. We can’t control everything, we can only nudge the pawns so much.

Badger: But if it was one of us others there would be hell to pay.

Monolith: You got a dressing down because you failed. You made a mistake and busted Operation Rooster in Columbus, by giving the wrong hint to the wrong person at the wrong time. Viking faced some strange occurrences in New York, but he is not even in the Burrough where the families are.

Badger: And you just believe him that he did not fuck up?

Monolith: Are you stupid? Of course not! Venator had Squirrel look into it. As she did in Columbus when you fucked up. He was not in Queens, he had no contact in Queens, and he did nothing to blow Octagon.

Carnage: Burn!

Monolith: Focus! We are not children clowning around.

Carnage: Sorry, but Badger is… nerve-racking.

Monolith: …

Monolith: Whatever. Let’s get back to business. As you have already thrown your hat into it, how is the situation in DC?

Carnage: It is slowly creeping to the boiling point. The criminals are ready to go at each other's throats. The only thing missing is the spark.

Carnage: The only problem is that they are too stupid to follow the breadcrumbs that C-21 placed.

Monolith: That seems to be the standard. I honestly had expected more of them.

Cabal: It doesn’t matter. It only takes one criminal enterprise in one of the cities to light the fire.

Monolith: And does it look as if they are finding the trail in Philly?

Cabal: No, not yet.

Velvet: Hey, what if that is what’s gone wrong in NYC? If they got somebody who not only found the breadcrumbs but also could prove that it was a false flag?

I was getting a suspicion of where this was going, and I was not sure if I was to be happy about it. It would make some of my earlier conclusions wrong, and show an even longer pattern of atrocities than we knew about. The last part was not particularly surprising though.

Viking: There is only one Jack in New York, the state, not just the city, who has the ability. And that barely. I had him under observation.

Monolith: No, that could have happened. I mean, we only have the word of this contractor of C-21 that nobody can figure it out.

Viking: No, I looked into it. The thing is that there are at best a handful of people who can identify the forgery that the contractor made.

Viking: That sounds better than it is though, as one of them is a tech who is known to sell those technologies. That means that the majority of the Abyss dwellers can, at least theoretically, figure it out.

Monolith: But they have to suspect that there is a forgery first, right?

Viking: Mostly. But I doubt that anybody hired Spectre for the job.

Vulture: What has Spectre to do with it?

Viking: He is the only one who already has unveiled such a forgery. The tech in question is his personal main tech.

And it was getting firmer and firmer in my suspicion.

Viking: That means that he will likely look for that kind of forgerie on principle.

Monolith: We are talking about street gangs and small-time gangsters. I doubt that any of them will pay for Spectre. Even if he was willing to work for them.

Gopher: And let’s be honest, even if they somehow discovered the double cross in New York, the bosses would still all be dying.

Honor: In other words, even if they discovered it, most of them would strike out on principle just because they are already dying.

Quicksand: That still makes the situation in NYC strange. Either they know, and they know they are dying, and keep the peace anyway, or they know they are dying and believe it is a coalition of the others and don’t do anything anyway.

Viking: Exactly. I just can’t explain it.

Monolith: It is just something that happens sometimes. If we had enough time I would say that we look into it, but Merlin confirmed that the situation in the AFS is coming to a boil.

Gargoyle: And that drives the timing of Operation Octagon.

Monolith: Well, let’s go along the line then. Honor, how is it in Toronto?

Honor: It is a slow burn, but it will only take a spark to explode. I request that I be allowed to stay in the bunker until the situation is resolved.

Monolith: That might not be a bad idea. Do you have a reason for your absence?

Honor: The usual. My cover required me to travel to Europe. I’ve done it often enough so there should be no suspicion.

Monolith: Then ok, you can remain in the bunker. The same for the rest of you, if you can do so without risking your cover.

Monolith: Well, to get on with it, Quicksand?

Quicksand: The criminals here in Montreal are restless. I would say Octagon is ready.

Monolith: Velvet, how is the situation in Chicago?

Velvet: Similar to how it is in Philly. The animals are snarling at each other. I don’t think we need them to even find the breadcrumbs to explode.

Monolith: We already have Philly, so Drake?

Drake: Ottawa is ready to explode.

Monolith: Short and concise, I like it. Badger?

Badger: Columbus is almost burning.

Monolith: Gopher?

Gopher: Octagon is a go in Hamilton.

Monolith: Good. Vulture?

Vulture: Boston awaits the spark.

Monolith: Cinder?

Cinder: Detroid is almost burning already.

Monolith: Scarecrow?

Scarecrow: It’s a go in Baltimore.

Monolith: Casper?

Casper: Milwaukee is a go.

Monolith: Banshee?

Banshee: Kitchener is ready.

Monolith: Gargoyle?

Gargoyle: London is with the rest.

Monolith: Good, I know it is not our plan, but it has a good chance of increasing…

Monolith: Wait a minute, I am getting a call from Venator.

Gargoyle: Now? I bet it is about the network.

Honor: Cut the chatter. We will learn soon enough if it is something that concerns us.

Badger: Always the brownnoser, aren’t you?

Honor: …

Honor: You can’t stop, can you?

Badger: Why should I? Just because we work for the same goal does not mean that I can stand most of you. Always so proper, and serious.

Monolith: Stop right there. I know you are still salty Badger, but you should at least try to be professional.

Monolith: Do I have to send Squirrel back to Columbus again?

Badger: No Boss, I’m good. This is just me letting off steam.

Monolith: Just stop annoying the others!

Monolith: Now, Venator just called me to tell me that they’ve lost around ⅔ of the network.

Gargoyle: What the fuck! How did that happen?

Monolith: It gets worse. They’ve lost all of the servers.

Viking: So they are reinstalling the backups? How long will that take?

Monolith: No… the servers are gone. Destroyed. From what Venator told me, they melted.

Honor: … how? How could that happen? They were in how many different locations?

Honor: How could anything physically destroy all of them?

Monolith: The assholes of C-21 fucked up. By the numbers.

Monolith: But it neatly explains what happened in New York.

Viking: How so?

Monolith: C-21 learned that a tech who has recently moved to NYC has developed new cyberware that is immune to CRS.

Monolith: And in their infinite wisdom, decided that the only ones deserving of this cyberware are the warriors for their false god.

Monolith: And attacked.

Yup, guessed right. So those monsters were behind Falconer poisoning the bosses.

Viking: But how can the bosses of New York know about this new cyberware? But you are right if they know, it would explain why they remain calm.

Monolith: The chance that I am right is really high. This tech? It is this main tech of Spectre you talked about. She not only developed this new cyberware but coded virtually all the utilities for Spectre.

Viking: Wait… so somehow the bosses got this tech to get on the trail? But… she is a tech. Not a hacker.

Gargoyle: Most techs are hackers. They are just better at the technical part and concentrate on that.

Viking: And she certainly has the tools to discover the forgery. So she discovered that somebody was inciting the bosses, and offered them to survive if they just kept calm…

Monolith: It is the best theory we have so far.

Badger: So, Viking indeed fucked up? Nice.

Viking: How do you get that idea?

Badger: It was your job to learn about that.

Monolith: You are wrong. This is just an unpredictable coincidence. She could have arrived in any other city as well.

Gargoyle: But what I don’t understand is how that took out our network.

Monolith: C-21’s contractor got into a matrix combat with this tech, and managed to steal a couple of files from her. And gave them to C-21. Before she roasted his brain.

Gargoyle: Wait… I thought C-21 used one of the top Abyss dwellers as a contractor. And while a tech is still a hacker, how could she beat him?

Monolith: From what I understand, she has the reputation of being that good. Good enough that, if she wanted to, she could get into the top 10 in the Abyss.

Gargoyle: OK, fine. But again, how did C-21 fucking up hurt us that much?

Monolith: The files were mined. And not just little data mines, but what was described as data nukes. When C-21's special operations division triggered the first of those mines, it took out 90% of their network.

Monolith: And because we were hooked into their network as well, it moved straight through to us.

Gargoyle: Are you seriously telling us that a fucking data mine managed to melt down our servers?

Monolith: Yes, I am telling you that.

Gargoyle: How? We are talking about graphene! It has a melting point of over 7000 degrees!

Monolith: I don’t know. Venator does not know. He is still shocked. He said it should be impossible. But it happened. That means it has to be possible.

Viking: So… it will take a few days for the hardware to be replaced and then… a week to get the network up and running again?

Monolith: Something like that.

Viking: Maybe we should try to recruit that tech.

Monolith: We will look into it.

Honor: Does that mean that C-21 is crippled right now?

Monolith: Yes, it does. Fortunately, it is not just C-21. A full third of all the corporations had some tap into C-21’s network. They’ve all caught the nuke.

Huh? I had not known that. Interesting. And a bit surprising that nobody got after me. Then I remembered that it was the same time when I announced Warden. And everybody had just gotten a taste of what I could do.

Not surprising that nobody dared to trigger her.

Viking: OK, I look into recruiting her. Do I get support?

Monolith: I don’t know, but if you can get her, we can certainly get Mystery to induct her.

Viking: I’ll do what I can.

Monolith: Do that. Fortunately, NYC is relatively safe so you can start immediately.

Viking: I’ll do that. Good by.

And we had a cut in the conversation, only for it to pick up a day later:

Viking: I am back. Why did you call me back?

Monolith: Information. First, stop looking into the tech. She accidentally created an unbound cyber warfare VI with the primary objective of protecting her.

Monolith: A cyber warfare VI that has everything she does, that Spectre does.

Viking: That does not sound good.

Monolith: It is a fucking disaster. Venator has made it clear to keep far away from her for the moment.

Viking: OK. I have just started looking into her. She mostly took over the building of a slaver in Queens and bought some tools.

Viking: Oh, and she spanked a Fixer who got the idea of robbing her. I don’t think he will ever recover.

Badger: And that did escape your notice?

Viking: It was over in Queens. You have no idea what a chaotic minefield that place is.

Monolith: Badger, let it be.

Monolith: The other point is that Operation Octagon is a failure.

Viking: How? I thought it was going according to the plan except for NYC.

Monolith: It totally backfired. For some reason, C-14 and C-18 decided to clean out the criminals on the verge of rioting.

Viking: Fuck, so instead of destabilizing the situation and C-21 getting into a shooting war with C-14 and C-18, C-14 and C-18 get good PR?

Monolith: Exactly. We have some suspicions of what happened, but nothing concrete. Our contacts in C-14 and C-18 are as surprised as we are.

Viking: Let me guess, the tech?

Monolith: The most likely scenario. We are pretty sure that she acted against C-21 alone, and hindered our plans in the process, but it stings.

Viking: Not surprising. They send four cyber zombies after her. I would be pissed off as well.

Viking: Also, she is a Pure, so no love for C-21 here on principle.

Monolith: Whatever it is, Operation Octagon is dead in the water.

Viking: That is not good.

Carnage: Not that surprising. I always said that it was way too complicated.

Honor: And you would have done it differently?

Carnage: C-21 only needed the gang war. That is easy. Use assassins against the bosses, double-cross the assassins, and give them false information about the client.

Carnage: And you get the organized families at each other's throats.

Carnage: For the unorganized animals it is even easier. Sponsor them with some weaponry, stage some assaults on their territory, and they react like rabid dogs.

Carnage: Simple, fast, efficient, high chance of success. And no chance of some new technology ruining it.

Monolith: You are right, but again, it was not our operation. And C-21 is so indoctrinated that they believe they are on a holy crusade and can do no wrong.

Cabal: Imbeciles. But what Carnage said is a good plan. Maybe we can use it later.

Monolith: Not in the next few years. The fallout of Octagon removed virtually all gang criminality and most of the organized crime in the US. There is nothing there anymore to incite.

Cabal: Except New York.

Monolith: Yes, except New York. But one city won’t make the whole country burn.

Honor: So… all that work down the flusher. Brilliant.

Gargoyle: Hey… anything about the rebuilding of the network?

Monolith: That goes slower than expected. Something’s wrong with the backups of the data, and systems has to look into what’s up there first.

Gargoyle: Shit… what else can go wrong?

Banshee: Did you just jinx us?

Gargoyle: Get real, are you superstitious?

Gargoyle: But for real, I thought the backups would be certified periodically.

Monolith: They are. But for some reason now that we need them, they are just inert blocks of crystals.

Monolith: Whatever… there is nothing more for you to do, so you can go back to your homes.

Monolith: I will contact you when we have new information.

We were at a sedate 30:1 so Ramon was only a bit slower than me reading the log.

“Are they talking about you?”

I shrugged.

“Of course they do. Well, they don’t know that the Justicar never got my files. I send them to Falconer.”

His eyes bulged out briefly before he calmed himself down.

“You did? Why?”

“To nuke them of course. I had no idea that it would go so far though. I thought it would only cripple their operations.”

“That was risky.”

I snorted.

“No, not really. Virtually the first thing I did was put the warning into the Abyss that Justy stole some of my booby-trapped data. Put it squarely on him.”

“But if he had contradicted you?”

“At that point, he was already lobotomized.”

“Yes, but you could not know that.”

I sighed and looked him in the eyes.

“It was not an accident. The old jacks had a critical security fault that made this attack possible.”

“What? But… “

“Don’t worry, I don’t sell things I know have such problems. The new jacks don’t have that weakness.”

“So… you knew he was technically dead already?”

“Yes. I needed to take him out without physically killing him.”

He shuddered.

“That is… honestly, I have no idea how to think about that.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“I did not like it either. Heck, I developed the utility just in case. You know, better to have it and not need it and so on.”

“I get it, but… that is disturbing.”

“Again, the new jacks, well the Enki-jacks at least, don’t have that vulnerability. I have not looked into the jacks from the other corps though.”

“And what did you use on those networks?”

I shrugged again.

“I call it Enola Gay. After the plane that dropped the first nuclear bomb in anger. It is not hyperbole when I call it a data nuke. It destroys virtually all processors, all internal crystals, the memory, the motherboards, the network hardware, and so on.”

“And why did they suddenly have problems reinstalling the backups?”

“Because one of the few things Enola Gay does not destroy are the external crystal readers. It will delete the crystals, but the readers remain intact. Outwardly at least.

Instead, it rewrites the firmware. Instead of reading the crystals, they now will overwrite them with all zeros, then ones. Making the crystal useless.”

He looked at me with incredulity for a moment and then began to laugh.

“Oh… that is evil. You are saying that they are ruining their backups in the attempt to restore them?”

“Yup. As I said, I thought I would only get Falconer’s ops section.”

“And you used your strongest weapon. Yeah, I can see that.”

I sighed and shook my head.

“Nope. My third strongest weapon. You would know if I had used my strongest. Of course, this Venator might no longer be alive then.”

“Wait, you have stronger?!?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Do you know the difference between a fusactor and a fusion bomb?”

He frowned.

“Uh, no? But I don’t like where you are going.”

“The fuel feeding system and the strength of the compacting. If you rewrite the firmware and pump the reaction chamber full of fuel, and then overcharge the grav coils, any fusactor is a fusion bomb.”

He shuddered again.

“And you have something that does that?”

“I have. And obviously, I have never used it. Then there is the utility that can overcharge all the grav coils it can find, making them into gravity pulse weapons.”

“That is… I don’t know what to say.”

“And the really evil one is the one that combines Enola Gay with the other two, destroying first all the hard- and software it can find, except skimmers, grav ships, and fusactors, before using first the gravity pulse one and then the fusion bomb one.”

For some very long moments, he said nothing, before he rasped:

“Why? Why create something that fucking destructive?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“I… was in a bad place. Angry at the whole world, and wishing to see it burn.”

“That is… terrifying.”

“I am better now, but by then I already had the utilities.”

“You should delete them. As soon as possible.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Two reasons. First, I can not make myself do it. I am better, but I am not fully over it yet. But that doesn’t matter anyway. Do you really believe that Warden, who has those tools, would let me destroy them?”

He materialized a chair and fell down into it.

“Fuck… that is… so fucked up.”

“I know. But as long as I am around, Warden is no real threat.”

“But what if you die?”

“Then the rest of the world burns most likely. Not that this is a likely scenario. Too many are stepping between me and danger, including Warden.”

“So we have what, another 130 years before you die of old age?”

I chuffed.

“No… I am a K4.”

I frowned again.

“What does that mean?”

“That means that I am biologically immortal. I will age until I am around 21 or 22. And then remain that way. For centuries or millennia.”