London Light

Taking down TRS

Alex woke up to the feeling of someone watching him. Opening his eyes he saw a familiar shadow looming beside him. Danny with his lopsided smile and bright eyes watching him intently. Alex could feel his heart skip a beat, his hand reaching out to touch the beloved face in front of him. Only then did he become aware of the top spinning on the small bedside table. Spinning continuously. Round and round without faltering.

With a gasp Alex woke up, bolted halfway out of bed before he became aware of his surroundings. The dimmed light almost made the white room feel homey and welcoming. The image of Danny still in his mind, Alex was heaving for air. Five days since Alex had installed the webcam. Five nights with the same dream, the same nightmare. The same feeling of terror and despair when he was shocked into wakefulness.

It took several minutes before Alex dared to move away from the bed and start his morning routine. Too early, like the other days, but TRS would not question it. The nightmares were an interference which the program tried to soothe him through. Letting the lights be dimmed longer than normal, even provide a few extras with the daily food rations. Alex hid his face in his hands, trying to regain control with his emotions, willing his body to calm down.

He had kept updating and maintaining the TRS, going about his daily practices. There had been the occasional irregularity in the program, keeping Alex' hopes high about having reached someone outside. This morning TRS had several runtime errors in its log as well as a few new sets of algorithms. The latter seemed to be a response by TRS to some events in the outside world. TRS was programmed to not only learn and react, but also to actively influence events which had potential to create financial gain for Spectre's organisations.

Wit his face a blank mask, Alex analysed the data, numbers, objects. With a carefully considered movement he took the top and let it spin. He watched it as intently as ever, keeping tabs on the rhythm of his breathing, trying to calm his pulse. The top fell. Alex drew a deep breath. He looked through the log a second time, somehow managing to keep his hands from shaking. There was a pattern in the disruptions. Alex had to tear his eyes away from the screen to avoid alerting TRS to his agitation. Alex stood and went to the bookshelf behind him. When he took a book, he risked a direct look into the camera lens. For a few moments he just stared ahead. Then he blinked. Short. A longer blink. And short again. He turned away with the book in his hands, humming his sad melody and started to pace up and down in the small room.

It had begun.

Alex had no idea how Q-branch or whoever was on the other side of the camera had managed to stage the disturbances in the outside world with such precision, but he had no doubt about the intentionality behind them. At this point, TRS was able to react to a plethora of incidents ranging from the smallest rise and fall of stock markets to a killing spree committed in the murder capital of the world. It would instigate its own manipulations, altering headlines and black out news feeds.

The log clearly showed that TRS was reacting, unable to gain any grounds on whoever was upsetting its usual machinations. The continuous updates of algorithms were turning into error messages. Alex could watch how TRS slowly was turning down parts of its program to keep control of the core system. Having been a passive bystander for most of the day, Alex finally sat down and started a new line of attack from inside the program itself. His Trojan horse was executed, disguised as a small update to the part of TRS which contained an image recognition program. Inconspicuous, just like the original total return swap program was used banks in their national and international transfer of virtual assets.

While Alex was watching the code being executed, TRS' control of certain parts of his Internet access was weakening. For the first time in his months of capture, Alex was free to read news sites, uncensored by TRS. And within seconds his world was turned upside-down.