Chapter 22

The next day we had a much friendlier discussion. We were actually getting down to details of how the virus might work. I was determined to be polite and patient, to make up for my ridiculous words of the previous day. Katherine was also making a big effort to treat me like a rational person. Her scientific mind was curious as to all of the intricacies I was claiming the virus must possess.

“Can’t we just reverse all transactions?” she asked.

“Not really. It would be too obvious too quickly that something was wrong. Moreover, I’m sure such a simple problem could be fixed very easily.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “That makes sense. So how do we make it less detectable and harder to fix?”

“The first thing we do is give it an incubation period. In a real virus, that kind of builds up the ‘potency’ period. In this case, the code would be written so there is a time period during which the virus can attach itself to other bits of data, but not immediately alter them. That achieves the same affect. It gets to spread for a little while without actually doing anything, so it can’t be detected right away. Am I clear on that?”

“Yes,” she said without sarcasm. “Go on.”

“After the incubation period, the virus would initially only affect a small percent of transactions. A really good programmer could write it to work only after the first code had touched twenty or thirty other bits of information. Who knows how long that might take? Anyhow, you need to write some sort of restriction of how often it can actually impact a transaction.”

Katherine and Wafer simply nodded. Both of their heads were tilted forward, convincing me they were getting into it. Encouraged, I got a little more into it myself.

“The bug should also be designed to have random impacts on transactions. For example, any credit might initially be reduced by two to ten percent while the virus was in its early stages. Any debit would be similarly increased. Nothing radical, just something looking like normal glitches in the system. I mean, assuming there are such things as ‘glitches’ in your present system?”

Katherine nodded. “If by that you mean errors, then sure. Occasionally.”

“We’re with you,” Wafer confirmed. “You’re hoping there would be a few weeks of confusion and irritation after the first problems showed up. Let the problem build up slowly, right?”

“Exactly,” I confirmed. “As the virus gained in virulence due to its random nature, its affect would become equally out of control. Eventually, it might get to the point where each debit might become a credit, and vice versa.”

“Excellent idea!” Katherine proclaimed. “If it builds up slowly, it might become so widespread the Zaibatsu would have an almost impossible task to reverse the trend.”

“And if that happened,” Wafer added, “it would effectively paralyze the system!”

“Unless the government has some computer programmer better than Solomon’s old friend Robert,” I agreed. “If not, they would eventually have to completely shut down the system and reload all of its accounting software. Naturally, all data would have become corrupted. Unless they have a complete backup somewhere, it would be totally impossible to revert back to a ‘clean’ period and reconstruct all records accurately. The economic system would become total chaos.”

“How long would that take?” Wafer asked intensely.

“Well, as the infection kept spreading and the number of impacted transactions grew exponentially, it could cause a total economic collapse within one or two months of getting the bug into the system. It’s hard to predict, given the huge population you have and their exact level of dependence on the system.”

“You couldn’t make it happen any quicker?” Wafer asked hopefully.

“Wafer, I’m not sure I could make it happen at all. But to achieve the effect I want, I certainly couldn’t make it quick and still be effective. That would take a true genius.”

“But wouldn’t this ‘total chaos’ you speak of mean a violent reaction?” Katherine asked in a troubled voice.

“It certainly could,” I answered sincerely. “Which is why you people must really prepare in advance. The Revos absolutely have to be ready to step in before mass hysteria could set in. If we create the problem, we must be ready to fix it on short notice.”

“What do we need to do?” she asked.

“First, prepare a plan to get the Zaibatsu to turn over the reigns of control before a violent reaction could begin. Otherwise, such chaos might result in bloodshed not even you could stop. Second, the Revos have to develop an interim monetary scale based on an equivalent of what everyone has been used to. After such economic trauma, you have to give the people some reassurance of status quo to calm them down. Third, I think you’d better be prepared to reinstitute a modified capitalistic system, on whatever model you want to follow. The system should not significantly damage anyone – except for most of the Level 1 and 2 people, of course – but should also accommodate certain personal idiosyncrasies.”

“Meaning?” Wafer inquired.

“Well, like the Zaibatsu accommodated the old fortunes and trust funds. Anything you still have that gives a few people an amount of wealth outside of the new system.”

“Great idea!” Katherine enthused. “And can you write such a program?”

Her eyes practically glowed with enthusiasm. I could feel an intensity between us that I would not have thought possible a few days before. And yet, I couldn’t lie to her.

“I’m afraid not,” I confessed. “I’m an economist. I can conceive of such a program and even explain how it ought to work, but, again, I’m not a programmer. Your society runs totally on computers, and I could never write it. I’m sorry.”

The light faded quickly. Somewhere down inside, I was crying at the loss.

“Oh,” she said. Her disappointment stung me like a stiletto in the lower abdomen. “Well, it’s all right. I understand.”

Never had such sympathetic understanding been more heartbreaking.

“I’m sorry, Solomon,” Wafer apologized for about the fiftieth time. “It just seemed most logical go me.”

“Yes, you’re right, of course,” Solomon confirmed. He held his glass of lemonade up at arm’s length, as though examining its color. “There’s no need to go through all of this again. It has to be the two of us.”

Naturally, no one bothered to ask me if I wanted to go. They had just assumed I was critical to the operation. I guess I should have been flattered.

The five of us were sitting around the same table at the Max Planck Deli as we had on my first day in the future. Solomon had just arrived back in the city formerly known as Athens, now called Olympic City, and we made a beeline for the group’s favorite deli.