The Great Black Game

THE GREAT BLACK GAME

a silent revolution series

inspired from Mr. Robot

I know why I can’t delete it, I know why I think this isn’t real, I know why I can’t make myself think that he is who I think he is, because he is the past…the past I’ve been trying so hard to forget.

“One wrong move and everything you had will be on the internet, give me what I want.” I hear Al from the other side.

“This is mad, Mello, I told you so many times that we shouldn’t meet them in person.” I say, but he scoffs.

“Are you afraid? Al can handle himself,” he says without looking at me. “That person is angry, we just invaded his private life and now we want money for our silence.” He’s not listening, all I can hear from him is the clicking of the keyboard.

“We’re did not invade his private life, we hacked him. We do not want money for our silence, we are extorting him. Learn our language, don’t be too discrete,” he says without looking at me.

“How long will we be doing this?” I ask him.

“As long as it takes, it’s fun. Don’t tell me you don’t miss the thrill of hacking,” he says, I can almost hear a smile from him.

The truth is, I am not sure. We are amateurs. We aren’t that good. We hack. We extort. That’s what we do. Sometimes, we look for vulnerabilities to exploit, secrets to spill, that’s what we do for a living. We are good, but we are amateurs.

“He know now—” All of a sudden, I heard a gunshot. My heart stopped. I feel my mind go numb. My breathing is shallow. I look at Mello, I can hear him, but I don’t understand him. I feel my ears ringing from the gun shot.

Mello looks at me, “L-lenniel!!! C-contact him!” 

“A-al! A-al!” There’s nothing, I can hear nothing.

“A-al—”

“I know he’s not the only one. Don’t bother to call an ambulance, your bold friend is dead. You too, if you continue to play with me.” Then there’s a beep and everything is gone. No sound. No one. Al is dead, because of us.

“What now?” I ask him.

“Join me.” I look at Mello, the madhatter. The man I’ve been seeing all day, the one is who is following me. I thought I will never see him again.

“Never again.” I stand up. I will never be part of his little games.

“I found him. I found the man that killed Al, he’s an executive of Villain Corp.”

“I know.” I say, that is one of the reasons I hate Villain Corp. He is Villain Corp. He’s the Chief Technology Officer, I don’t know why he let amateurs hack him years ago.

“Help me bring Villain Corp down, bring him down,” I look at him. “Why would I?”

“Do I have to say anything? I know deep down you want to do it, you miss the thrill, like the thing you did with Leo, why else would you leave the rootkit there? Why didn’t you delete it? Because you’re curious. Help me. The servers are fully protected with honeypot, help me remove it, be the person inside,” he says. He’s right. He still knows me.

Sht, what will I do?

“I can bypass their security protocol, I can gain access to their system but nothing will move them, I know people. I am part of something bigger now, I want you to be part of it as well, I want you in the revolution.” 

“What made you think that I will join you?”

“Nothing made me think you’ll join us, I know you’ll join us…” he pauses, “…we’ll hack into the system and steal their data, their financial data, their trade secrets, but with me it will be limited, you know where you’ll find me.” He stands up and walks away without looking back.

“What made you think I won’t contact the police?”

“We’re pass that now, Lenniel. I know you won’t.”

As soon as he’s out, I look at the card he left. How long have I waited for this moment? How long have I waited to bring Villain Corp and that man down?

This is bad. This is for me. But this is personal. I clasp the paper and stand up.

A month later…

“The biggest blackhat hacking causes a massive crisis with the Villain Corp, sources says that they may not retrieve the deleted data…”

“Villain Corp’s financial data are destroyed…”

“Villain Corp’s data warehouses are burned…”

“Villain Corp’s secrets exposed…”

I sit silently and watch the news diligently. Everything that I did lead me to this moment. I smile. The revolution is everywhere. Silent revolution is always the noisiest.

END

BLACKHAT

(n) something bad is bad