Authors: Luca Rossi
Eugenio interrupts: “Lin, we have a problem. A call came through the police network: they're coming here. They intercepted a call in our building about a minute ago.”
Eugenio, Mario and Lin turn towards Isabella.
“I didn't call anyone,” she defends herself. Her husband's stern gaze makes the tears come to her eyes. “It was...Roberto.”
“How did he call you? I smashed your smartphone against a wall!” Mario asks, stunned.
“Roberto gave me... this.” She shows him the miniscule device. “It's registered under his name.”
“Isabella, can you explain to me why you're walking around with my boss' microphone?”
“Not now, Mario.” Lin intervenes. “We need to cut the cord.”
Mario gives his wife a haunted glance.
1/V – Suicide
Eugenio, Lin, Mario and Isabella leave the abandoned building. They climb down a ladder into the sewer. The woman coughs, annoyed by the unpleasant odor.
A roar shakes through the walls. Isabella and Mario freeze, terrified.
“It's our lab. We blew it up!” Eugenio tries reassuring them.
Mario is devastated: “I'm so sorry, guys. It's my fault you've lost everything.”
The two hackers look at him, amused: “Are you kidding? The information you've given us just saved us a week of poking around. As for all of our stuff, we can talk about it later.”
They emerge a few minutes later, climbing up another ladder. Isabella and Mario look around, surprised. They're in a lab identical to the one that just exploded.
“A little backup,” Lin smiles. “Let's get back to work! I'd say that your boss' call and the attack on our lab are no mere coincidences. Let's see what our good friend Roberto is doing.”
A video, taken in real-time from Roberto's smartphone, appears on Eugenio's screen. The audio immediately begins flowing out of the speakers.
The man staggers. He's clutching a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hand.
“Now turn right and walk towards the riverfront. Keep drinking, it will be easier,” the DataCom software orders him.
“I want to go home and be with my family!” he protests.
“It is no longer possible. You know that.”
“But I didn't do anything wrong!” Roberto screams, exasperated. A few passers-by scurry away, frightened.
The smartphone starts to play a video of Roberto and Isabella in a bedroom. Eugenio, in the lab, pauses the connection.
“No, let's keep watching,” Mario says.
The video shows Isabella dressed in latex. She's holding a whip. Roberto is naked, except for a pair of black briefs. With every lash the woman gives him, the man responds with a cry of pain. After a few minutes the two lovers kiss passionately, then take off their clothes. She ties his wrists and ankles to the bed and mounts him. As they begin making love, she continues whipping his chest.
Back in the lab, Isabella places her hand on her husband's arm: “Mario, I-”
“Later!” he interrupts.
The smartphone's voice continues speaking: “Do you want to see this video released on the web? You would lose your job and insurance. Your wife and children would be left helpless. But if you follow the directions, your life insurance will guarantee them a prosperous future. Now cross the street and walk down the bridge. Have a little more to drink.”
Roberto does as he's told. He keeps drinking. Tears are sliding down his cheeks.
“Why me?”
“Everyone who knows the new code is added to the human selection program for security reasons.”
“But -”
“There are too many of you humans, and the climate changes, caused by your pollution, will soon be irreversible. You have been aware of this for many years but you have not taken any significant action to stop it. Soon there will be wars caused by lack of water and food. Large areas of the globe will be covered by deserts and others will be submerged by the rising seas. The world economy will fall and so will our profits. We're getting rid of many of you and controlling those that remain so that we can protect the interests of DataCom.”
Roberto reaches the middle of the bridge. He finishes the bottle with one last swig.
“Now climb over and let go. Your family will live a comfortable life in a cleaner and more peaceful world.”
Roberto climbs onto the parapet. He puts his smartphone down and jumps into the icy waters of the river below.
1/VI – Freedom or slavery
Roberto's smartphone, lying on a parapet of the bridge, frames the star-studded sky.
Eugenio breaks the connection. In the lab, the three men and the woman are silent. Nobody has the courage to say anything. Then three pairs of eyes turn towards Mario, who has fallen to his knees. He beats his clenched fists and forehead against the floor and begins crying like a child, something he has never done in his adult life.
As his tears fall, the greatest love of his life dissolves, the trust he felt as he laid for hours in bed, talking while resting his head on Isabella's thighs, the dream of a union that nothing and nobody could ever separate.
Isabella settles into a chair, crosses her legs and rummages through her purse. She takes out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter, then lights a cigarette.
Mario stops crying. He gets up. The three men watch her.
“So?” the woman asks.
Silence.
Isabella continues, smiling: “I was the one who added that message into the suicide procedure for Roberto. In fact, it wasn't so much for him but for you.” She smiles. “It was the easiest and simplest way for it to reach your prying ears.”
“And the video?” Mario asks.
“A nice way to blackmail our little friend Roberto, don't you think?” She smirks again. “And a little help in making things clear between us, my darling hubby. I've never liked mushy goodbyes.”
Her lips close around the cigarette filter. She inhales deeply.
“Sweetie, don't look at me with those puppy dog eyes. You're a genius, you know that, I've always told you so.” Isabella throws the butt on the floor without extinguishing it. “Mario, without you it would have taken us decades to write that code. I sacrificed myself for it. Look, DataCom identified you years ago, and I had to make sure that you did your job. But if it's any consolation, our life together wasn't all that bad. I'll ask you one more time. So?”
“So what?” Lin asks, brusquely.
“We need you, Mario,” Isabella explains. “We might ask you to make a few modifications to the code in the near future. And as for you two...a good hacker is one of the best experts in security. So are you two willing to collaborate with us, or do you need a little encouragement?”
Eugenio interrupts: “Mario, let's stop here. What do you want to do with her?”
Isabella bursts into laughter. “Poor little hacker! Eugenio, this time I'm afraid that you didn't do so well with intercepting communications. More than two hundred men are listening to us, above and below us, even behind that door. They're ready to intervene.”
The woman enjoys the bewilderment in the eyes of the three men. “Listen, boys, maybe you don't like it, but now you know what's going on. Many need to die and many more need to be controlled. You choose which side you want to be on.”
“No, Isabella! That can't be the only solution! Maybe humans are selfish, maybe they do act irresponsibly, but we will never become slaves to machines,” Mario responds frantically.
Isabella turns towards him and chides him like a naughty child. “Not slaves, Mario: allies. Not even DataCom can do it alone. We need to have a presence in the field. Unfortunately, we have to take a hard line with those who choose not to follow our recommendations. For the last time, are you going to come with us the easy way or the hard way?”
The three men remain silent. Isabella raises her voice: “Okay, you can come on in.”
A blast. The door falls to the ground. Police officers and DataCom men start streaming into the lab.
1/VII – Fake places, false identities
“Arrest them!” orders John Dannington, head of security at DataCom. The police officers enter menacingly and try to seize Mario, Lin and Eugenio. But the agents' hands pass through their bodies, touching nothing.
“Sir -” a police officer starts. “What is this?” exclaims John. “They're holograms! Son of a bitch!” he adds, exasperated by the second missed capture.
In the real lab, Mario, Isabella and the two hackers listen to every word coming through the speakers. Lin turns towards the DataCom head of security: “Another fail, right John?”
Purple in the face, John, in the fake lab, responds to Lin's hologram: “How long do you think you'll be able to stay hidden? Anyone with a smartphone in their hand is our ally, whether they like it or not. There are videocameras on every door, in every car, every public and private place and every street corner. We already sent the police into the sewer system. Where do you think you can escape to?”
“Escape?” Lin responds. “Your precious programmer and Isabella are in our hands now. You thought it'd be easy to follow them to get to us, but that didn't work out so well, did it? We don't need to go anywhere.”
“Oh Lin, Lin! You think those two are really that important to us?”
“Oh John, John! You need Mario now more than ever, because you know full well that if you want to extend your operation to a larger scale, you'll need to be able to modify the code in real time. Otherwise it's just going to be a disaster.”
John glances over at his deputy, hoping for confirmation that the fugitives have been located. “You won't be able to stay hidden for long!”
Lin smiles sarcastically. “Your usual excess of security: the reason behind the extra message in Roberto's suicide procedure, and Isabella revealing much more than she should have. Now we know what your objective is and how you intend to reach it. Do you think you're omnipotent because you can control the lives of individuals? What if everyone found out about your plans? Millions of people would be horrified, they'd throw their smartphones into the trash!”
In the real lab, Mario is faced with new doubts. How does Lin, his hacker friend, know the head of security at DataCom so well? And how does he have so much information on the multinational's plans and their work? And what about those words, how he and Isabella
are in their hands now?
While Mario is lost in his own thoughts and the two hackers are focusing on John, Isabella, still sitting in the chair, takes a pistol out of her purse. She points the weapon towards Lin and pulls the trigger.
The hacker's body falls to the ground. Blood begins to flow from the bullet's exit hole at the base of his neck, widening into a puddle on the floor. Isabella moves closer to the cadaver and nudges it with the tip of her shoe: “In your hands, eh? Moron!” Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Eugenio reaching towards a desk drawer. “Don't even try it! Alright you two, lie down on the floor!” she orders. “Side by side!”
As he follows her orders, Mario wonders who this woman in front of him really is. He thinks of the sadomasochistic sex scene between her and his boss, Roberto. And the cigarette? He didn't know she smoked. And now the pistol and the cold-blooded murder of his friend!
Isabella moves towards Mario and kicks him in the face. Then she approaches Eugenio and presses her shoe hard against his cheek: “From the way you were watching it looks like you wouldn't mind replacing Roberto. Tell me the truth, you want to become my new little slave, don't you?” Then she turns towards John, who's still following the holograms in the fake lab: “Everything is shielded here. How can I figure out a way around it and send you the location coordinates for this place?”
Mario lies at her feet, his nostrils dripping blood. He violently grabs her ankle, making her lose her balance. Isabella falls to the ground.
1/VIII – Nanochips in the brain
The weapon slips out of Isabella's hands as she falls. Eugenio moves quickly and grabs the pistol, pointing it towards Mario and the woman: “Freeze! Now, both of you, nice and calm. Don't move a muscle!”
The hacker stands up and, without taking his eyes off of them, heads towards a cabinet. He takes out a little metal cylinder with two LEDs, a pocket knife and a pair of tweezers. “Quick, get inside!” he orders, motioning towards a door.
“Eugenio, listen -” Mario says.
“Do what I tell you!”
They enter a room furnished with a pair of cabinets, a bed, a table and a chair.
“Lie down on the bed, Isabella, face down! Mario, go to the cabinet: there are four pairs of handcuffs in there. Take them and attach her wrists and ankles to the bed,” Eugenio orders. “Now!” he yells at Mario, who's still frozen, watching him.
Isabella lies on the bed. Mario secures her limbs with the handcuffs.
“How bold, Eugenio! So you really do like S&M.” she taunts him.
“Mario, leave the room!” the hacker orders, pointing the pistol at him.
Even more surprised and afraid, Mario leaves the room. Eugenio locks the door, places the pistol on the desk and moves towards Isabella. He sits astride her back.
“Well you're not one to waste time. I might even like this,” she posits.
Eugenio moves her chestnut hair to one side.
“Usually I'm on top. But this time a little change might do me some good,” the woman continues.
The hacker slowly moves the metal cylinder over the base of Isabella's neck.
After a few minutes the two LEDs start flickering. Eugenio takes the pocket knife and makes an incision at the point detected by the device.
“Have you gone crazy?” she protests vehemently.
Eugenio inserts the tweezers into the cut. “This is going to hurt.”
With one hand he holds her head down on the bed. Isabella is unable to breath. Eugenio starts to pull a thin filament out of the wound. The woman's body is racked with terrible waves of pain; she manages to lift her head from the pillow and let out a scream that shakes the walls. Mario, in the adjacent room, beats his fists against the door: “Isabella, Isabella!” he calls. “What is that bastard doing to you?”
Eugenio wraps the thin thread he pulled out around his index finger and continues to pull. Connected to the first, a myriad of filaments, up to a foot long, come out of the woman's head. After he's finished extracting them, the pain stops.