The Jagged Edge

by AJ Frazer

  “What do you mean?” asked Dominic, intrigued.

  “Well, I’ll spare you the technical mumbo jumbo, but since Biblical attacked, our servers have been completely spared. Now, I would like to take credit for this, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with the security measures we implemented at your request. Biblical could have taken us down, just like all the other sites. The government has been extremely interested in our code and system to see why Biblical left us alone. They think that it was programmed to ignore Jagged Edge’s servers and IP addresses.”

  “Yes, Sagen alluded to all this when I saw him last.”

  “You saw Victor Sagen recently?” Desmond looked shocked.

  “Story for another day. Please go on.”

  Desmond looked bewildered, but shook off the surprise and continued. “Well, all of this was true as of yesterday. But last night an alarm was triggered by our servers, which is why I’ve been here since two o’clock this morning. You see, Biblical invited itself into our servers. It’s infiltrated everything, it’s enslaved all Jagged Edge sites around the world. It hasn’t released a payload, it hasn’t done a thing. But it’s there, in the code, dispersed everywhere throughout the network. It’s incredible.”

  “What? So Biblical is controlling our sites now?”

  “Yes and no—I mean, it could, but it’s not. It’s like a vine or a weed that has sunk its roots everywhere and wrapped its tentacles around our systems. If it squeezed, it would choke off the system and take complete control.”

  “Charming. Is there anything you can do?”

  “Not a bloody thing. The government brainiacs are looking at it, but they’ve had no luck with any other system, so there’s no reason to think they can help us.”

  “Is there any way to know when it might take over Jagged Edge?”

  “No, none. It could be right now—or never.”

  A realization was forming in Dominic’s head. Something so obvious and yet it was only now that it became apparent. “So, if we’re the last form of mass communication in the world, we need to alert people to any important messages now or risk never being able to communicate with the world.”

  “Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Desmond looked concerned.

  “And what’s to stop Biblical from churning out its own news?” said Dominic, suddenly feeling light-headed.

  A second’s contemplation before Desmond looked at Dominic in shock. “Well–– oh my god. Nothing I should think.”

  Dominic ran to Ray’s office. He hadn’t ever been a graceful runner, so it was an ungainly awkward series of steps that essentially stopped him from falling over while moving forward slightly faster than usual. Bursting into Ray’s office, he spluttered breathlessly, “Get the prime minister on the phone!”

  Ray looked up, surprised but, as ever, not the type to shock easily. “What is it, Dom?”

  “You know Biblical has infiltrated our servers?”

  “Yes, Desmond told me. But we’re still operational in all locations.”

  “For how long?” Dominic emphasized each word slowly.

  Ray considered this for a second or two before his face dropped. “Once we’re down, there’s no one else.”

  Dominic nodded. “And who’s to say Biblical won’t start spreading its own news?”

  Ray froze. The enormity of being on the brink of a total failure in worldwide communications quickly dawning on him.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Picking up his phone, Ray pressed a button. Since the Biblical event, he had been given the prime minister’s office number and had it on speed dial.

  “Yes, this is Ray Fells. I need to speak to the prime minister immediately … Yes, I’ll hold, but hurry the fuck up.”

  “Put her on speaker,” said Dominic.

  They waited in silence until Prime Minister Louise Sawyer answered.

  “Ray, this is Louise, what’s happening?”

  “There has been a development that you need to know about—” Ray began.

  “Prime Minister, this is Dominic Elliston. Our systems have been corrupted by Biblical and there is no way to know when it will take us down.”

  “I see,” remarked the prime minister, calmly.

  “I don’t know if you do, Prime Minister. Once we’re down, that’s it. There is no way to communicate to the masses. Right now we’re the only source of digital or, for that matter, any news content on the face of the planet. So, if there is something you need to tell the people of Great Britain, and indeed the world, now is the time.”

  “Christ, yes, I see.”

  “So, may I suggest you very quickly prepare something to go out to the people? We really have no idea when we could go down.”

  “Yes, quite. All right, let me call you right back.”

  “Standing by,” said Dominic.

  The phone line went dead.

  “So what do we do? Should we announce to the world that our system has been breached and that the sites could go down?” asked Ray.

  “We need to think this through.”

  Ray stood, angry; he glanced at his desk before picking up a commemorative cricket ball from the last Ashes series between Australia and England. It was the ball that had won the game and the series for England in the last over. Ray, being American, had gravitated to cricket since it was the closest thing to baseball he could find in the UK. Taking the ball, he hurled it against the back wall of his office. It destroyed an antique vase and dented the wooden paneling behind the shelf.

  “Fuck! Fucking fuck fucker! Shoulda planned for this! Shoulda had a plan ready to roll as soon as this happened!”

  “Don’t worry,” said Dominic calmly, strangely amused by Ray’s outburst. “There are no scenario plans for what we’re doing here. We’re reading the tea leaves as we go.”

  “Jeeesus!” exclaimed Ray, throwing himself back down in his chair.

  “Get Ed up here and let’s work through our options and best response,” said Dominic.

  When Ed joined them, they spent the next thirty minutes preparing an announcement, as well as contingencies to put across their worldwide network. As they were wrapping up the plan, the prime minister called back.

  “Dominic, I know you are aware of the high probability of Biblical causing even more havoc from today, so we have prepared an announcement to the British people, which I would like you to publish immediately.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Dominic. “Please read it out. We will record your message as an audio file and post it on the site immediately.”

  “We’ll also publish a text version, verbatim,” put in Ed.

  Louise Sawyer began slowly and methodically:

  “It is with enormous trepidation I must share with you the reality of our situation and the possibility of what may come next. For these past seven days we have endured a siege on our way of life not seen since the last world war. Then, as now, the people of the United Kingdom have acted with bravery, resolve, and an unflinching stoicism to endure. My heart has been filled with moments of terror and bravery, of disgust and humility, of shock and inspiration, of hopelessness and hope. I have no doubt that many of you have felt these myriad emotions as well.

  “The best and brightest people in both our government and private sector have fought hard to find a way to eradicate this cyber weapon known as Biblical—a weapon of terror and destruction and suffering, the likes of which should bear no reference to Christianity, or to any God-loving religion. One day, I wish that we will rename it more appropriately. However, now is not the time to contemplate trivialities. We suspect that there may be worse to come. We believe that there is the potential for Biblical to deliver even greater destruction on the world. We do not know what that may look like, we do not know precisely when, but our intelligence suggests that, as of today, things may get worse. We may lose our ability to communicate with you completely. So, from now on we will be issuing a daily announcement at local council buildings across the country. The messages will c
ome directly from my office and be read out in public at eleven o’clock every morning. I urge you all to make every effort to attend these meetings until we can restore proper channels of communication.

  “I would like to reiterate that we are investing everything in our substantial power to deal with this attack and I am confident that, with time, we will prevail, and we will return to civilization as we know it. People of the United Kingdom—people of all countries—if you are hearing this, I urge you not to lose hope. Do not let this attack dehumanize us. This is not a time to lower our values or treat our fellow citizens with any less respect than we did before. To do so would be to give the perpetrators victory. We must maintain our respect, our humility, our sense of justice and decency. I believe that, in this bleakest of hours, we will find our finest of qualities. God bless you all and good luck.”

  “OK, we got it all recorded. Very poignant, Prime Minister. Just what the people need to hear right now,” said Ray.

  “Thank you. When do you think you can have it distributed?” asked the prime minister.

  “We can push it live within ten minutes,” Ray said.

  There was a sharp knock at the door and Desmond burst in breathless. “Something is happening! We don’t have control anymore.”

  The others all stood reflexively.

  “What the hell was that?” said the prime minister, still on the phone.

  “Prime Minister, we’ll need to get back to you,” said Dominic calmly before ending the call.

  Desmond’s jaw hung open as he realized who had been on the phone.

  “Quite an entrance, Desmond. Now, calm yourself and explain what’s going on,” said Dominic.

  “Right,” said Desmond, sweating profusely. “So we noticed that Biblical had shut down certain content on our sites globally. It started slowly about fifteen minutes ago and then—bam! All of a sudden, Jagged Edge sites in every country we operate in were frozen. You could scroll the main page but that was it, nothing else.”

  “So the sites are still live then?” asked Dominic.

  “Yes, they’re up, technically. But we’re not controlling the content or the access. Biblical has assumed control.”

  “Can Biblical create content and publish it on Jagged Edge?” asked Ray.

  “Yes, technically it could. Based on the sophistication of the AI, it’s very possible.”

  “Well, pull the fucking cord. Shut it down. All of it!” exclaimed Dominic. “We can’t have a machine communicating with people and determining the news. Christ knows what it’s planning to say or do!”

  “Shut it down? We can’t simply shut it down. There’s no on-off button. Hasn’t been for years since everything went into the cloud.”

  “So you’re telling me that the last fucking bastion of free goddamned speech and mass communication is now controlled by a fucking terrorist weapon?” exclaimed Ray.

  “Yes,” said Desmond. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  Dominic went to the window and stared out at the bleak gray sky. Ray slumped in his chair, looking defeated. Ed, who had barely said a word since the prime minister’s address, went ghostly white and collapsed onto the couch. Desmond remained standing in front of Ray’s desk.

  “Sit down, man, you’re looming,” said Ray.

  “Sorry, yes, of course.” Desmond moved over to share the couch with Ed.

  “I thought it would be bad if the site went down,” said Dominic. “But this … this is truly terrifying. People will still trust what is coming out of Jagged Edge sites, none the wiser that it’s a bloody computer program giving them the news.”

  “This takes fake news to a whole other dimension,” said Ray.

  “We have to warn people!” said Dominic.

  “As Louise said, daily town halls. Eventually people will stop reading Jagged Edge sites when they know that the content is bullshit,” said Ray.

  “Get the site up, could you, Ray?” said Dominic, walking to his desk.

  Ray brought it up on his screen and tried navigating the site. “Here it is. Everything looks fine until you try to click on an article or go to a section.”

  Dominic leaned over his shoulder and looked at the site. It did look normal at first glance. Then the screen flickered, and staggered, and the whole site lurched on the screen.

  “Jesus fuck, Desmond! What the hell is this?” said Ray.

  Desmond ran around the desk to see the screen. “I don’t know, I’ve never seen a website do anything like this.”

  The screen flickered and suddenly went black.

  They stared at the empty screen.

  “I actually hope it’s gone down,” said Dominic.

  “Would seem like it has,” said Desmond.

  “Don’t need to be an IT genius to tell you that,” said Ray.

  The screen flickered again but this time lines of code scrolled across the display. It lurched once more, then stabilized.

  “Hold on,” said Desmond. “It’s live, but looks completely different.”

  The only thing on the black screen was a logo for Earth Ghost Media and a still frame from a video image.

  “What the hell is this?” exclaimed Dominic.

  “I’m really not sure.” Desmond’s mouth dropped as he studied the image.

  Chapter Forty

  The video started playing on Ray’s screen. It was jilted and slow to begin with before it buffered. It was an image of Sagen, sitting in front of the camera, with a bare white wall behind him, about as low quality as budget filming got. Sagen moved awkwardly in his seat before settling. He gazed intensely into the camera lens—unblinking and unemotional. Then, finally, he began:

  “For seven days, now, you have all experienced a different reality, a different way to live, free of the shackles of technology and consumerism. I know many, if not all of you, have been looking for someone to blame for this event: politicians, the private sector, Earth Ghost, the government. But the fact is you are to blame.” Sagen emphasized this point with a darkness in his eyes that sent a shiver down Dominic’s spine.

  “Every individual in the West is indirectly to blame for the events of the past week. Naturally, many, if not all of you, will not accept responsibility for Biblical and the havoc it has caused, but you will eventually. You see, I launched Biblical for two reasons. First, to demonstrate that humanity does not need technology and products—it does not need the energy it so voraciously consumes. And second, it does not need to devour the planet’s resources, creating a ticking time bomb of climate change that will destroy the Earth’s delicate biosphere. The intent of Biblical was to strip you all of capitalist consumerism and show you that life can go on without the energy we burn so flippantly, or the pollutants, or the excess.

  “Now, I know seven days is not long, but it is long enough to gain perspective. It is long enough to test society to the point of breaking. I am sure there has been discomfort, stress, and for some, pain and suffering, possibly even death. For all of this, I am deeply sorry. However, these are extreme times for the Earth and extreme measures are required to shock us out of our default behaviors and create genuine change.”

  Sagen had barely blinked. He held their attention like a magnet. Dominic couldn’t have pulled his eyes away if he’d wanted to.

  “‘So, what now?’ some might ask. Well, there are those who believe God created the Earth in seven days. In seven days I hope to have saved it. When I created Biblical I was tempted to use it to make a permanent change, to take down every piece of critical infrastructure in the modern world and turn back the clock on civilization. But this was not the answer. As a dear friend pointed out to me; this was not a solution that could manifest in humankind’s greatest triumph. So, today, Biblical will relinquish control of all the systems it has infiltrated. Life will, technically speaking, go back to normal.”

  Sagen paused and drank from a glass of water. Dominic and the others looked at each other, not sure whether to celebrate or wait for the but. They didn’t
have to wait long.

  “Well, not entirely normal. Biblical is impossible to stop. It is nowhere and everywhere; it resides in every connected device in the world, it lives in the cables and waves that communicate between devices, it is the digital embodiment, and most literal definition, of a ghost—the Earth’s ghost. And because it is omnipotent, Biblical will live on for as long as there is a digital connection. Biblical can absorb data and translate it and give it meaning, and that meaning can be used to trigger further action. Unstoppable action. Extreme action. Biblical can listen as well as act.

  “From today, every piece of environmental data is being processed, analyzed, and considered by Biblical. From today, the Earth has a guardian, a protector … One that will monitor climate, pollution, consumption, energy use—everything that could potentially harm our environment. A complete list of global climate and environmental standards has been supplied to every government and media organization in the world. Make no mistake, these are not guidelines; they are commandments. If Biblical establishes a transgression, it will strike back against the entire world with such merciless force that it will send civilization back centuries. These last seven days are merely a taste of what Biblical can do. To any nation state that is tempted to test Biblical, do not. If you think I am bluffing, do not. If you think that you can stop Biblical or get around it, do not. If you think you can go back to life as you knew it before. Do. Not.

  “I understand that I will be despised for creating this guardian of the Earth and you will want to see me punished. But the fact that you are watching this video means I am most likely dead. And that is my destiny. It is a destiny I have accepted. My actions are not a reflection of extreme hatred for polluters, consumers, or destroyers. My actions are a reflection of extreme love for humanity and our planet. I have done what is needed to ensure our time is sustainable and brings joy to every generation to come. Hate me if you will. The fact is, it will make no difference now. Your reality is one that must embrace change. There is no deliberation, no negotiation, and no wait-and-see. Change now, or Biblical will change you. Namaste and peace to all.”