Roommates & Soulmates

Ch131: Jordan's Spark

He had to admit he'd been more than a little surprised to get the text. Maia had wanted nothing to do with him for ages now, so even a hello from her was enough to throw him off. Jordan replied quickly, and she explained that her computer was acting up and if he wouldn't mind taking a look at it, she'd greatly appreciate it.

'No problem,' Jordan texted back. 'That's what friends are for right?'

All he got back was a thanks and times when she'd be home later that day if he wanted to look at it right away. Jordan answered texted he'd be over, and the conversation ended. He had to admit he wasn't too sure what to expect when he arrived. He knocked twice before she opened the door.

"Thanks again," Maia said awkwardly as she let him in.

"Let's see the patient," Jordan said, and Maia directed him to the laptop sitting on her dining room table. Jordan sat down and began investigating, checking the hard drive as Maia explained the problem.

"It's been getting worse," Maia explained. "It's so slow now, sometimes I don't even want to bother using it."

As Jordan was poking around the bios, he found the problem. "You have malware on here," Jordan said. "Very sneaky malware that is very well hidden. Like really well hidden. I can't even tell what it's purpose is without activating it."

"What will happen if you activate it?" Maia asked.

"Whatever the malware's final command is," Jordan explained. He turned to face her. "Is there anything on here you can't lose?"

"It's all saved to the cloud," Maia explained. "But isn't it like counter-productive to activate the thing causing the problem?"

"Not really," Jordan explained. "See, if I choose when it activates I can gain more control over it. Otherwise it will just suddenly go off when you aren't prepared."

"Huh," Maia smiled. "I guess that makes sense."

"I'll activate it in a viral machine so I can isolate it a little more," Jordan continued. "Depending on what kind of malware it is, this may or may not make a difference. You sure you don't need any files saved before I do this?"

"Can the malware effect things I have saved in the cloud?" Maia asked. "Like google docs?"

"No," Jordan replied. "But to be sure I'll clear the cookies from your internet browser, which will log you out of everything."

"Alright," Maia said taking a deep breath. "Let's just hope I haven't forgotten any of my passwords."

"Ah yes, best to back those up somewhere offline," Jordan smiled. "If not in your brain."

"Hey my brain is full of lots of more important stuff," Maia laughed.

"There is enough memory space in the brain to store more than one life times worth of experience," Jordan told her. "You aren't gonna run out of room before you run out of years."

"Oh hush," Maia chuckled. "You are ruining all my excuses." She gestured to the computer and added, "Just do the thing already."

With a slight nod, Jordan did as he was told and activated the malware. Almost at once a blinking error message appeared on the screen, shutting everything else down. Jordan couldn't even open the start menu. The message read:

'Your Personal Files Have Been Encrypted.

If you wish to restore your data you will need to pay 4 coin. Your data will be lost if you power down, reset, or in any way try to stop this code. If left unpaid for more than three days all your files will be destroyed.'