Anarchy of the Mice

Chapter Thirty-Two

The international response to what officials first termed "the data-storage software glitch," then "broad degradation of socio-civil structures due to rapidly-spreading infrastructure weakness," and finally just "the Anarchy" was slow. At the U.N., Russia and China blocked resolutions calling for a coordinated worldwide response, unwilling to devote resources to what they saw as the West's problem. For their part, Western nations hesitated sharing intel with those it feared might use it against them. Across all levels of society, trust was low.

At last, the Security Council agreed to convene an exploratory commission. The Copenhagen-based group took five months releasing its report, which contained the following conclusions:

1. The Anarchy began in the United States, triggered by the internet-based group known as The Blind Mice.

2. The Anarchy is worsening.

3. Greater transparency and regulation might have prevented the Anarchy.

NASDAQ lost two weeks of trading due to "irreconcilable packet loss." Thousands of dollars in meat, fish, and temp-sensitive medicines spoiled when Port Newark's container refrigeration algorithm failed. The loss of electronic deeds plunged several municipalities into territorial legal fights. Banks, desperate to shield deposit records against the wave of disappearing data, retained paper backups. Soon these physical sites became targets. How much the Mice directed versus merely inspired was unclear.

Capital markets ran dry in March. Nobody, neither lenders nor borrowers, had faith in institutions' ability to enforce future obligations. Building projects from Tuscon to Vladivostok stopped. Vital maintenance stopped. A bridge span crumbled spectacularly in Jakarta. The Suez Canal fell into disrepair; a commercial fishing trawler tried one last run and ended up aground fifteen miles into Egypt, sunk in the sand, blue-fin tuna rotting on deck.

News devolved to a kind of pointillist, unreliable info-cloud. Depending on which blog you read, you might believe any one of a dizzying array of fact-sets: that over-protection of civil liberties was sustaining the Anarchy, that a school of dolphins in the Red Sea carried all the world's data in embedded microchips, that Kim Jong Un was in cahoots with evil corporations, that the richest one percent were being shuttled in batches to moon colonies via Richard Branson's personal spaceship...

A bad time to be mayor of New York City.

"No. No, that is patently false," Sergio Diaz said into the phone, pacing about his office.

The reporter on speaker pressed, "A number of city employees have gone on record saying their paychecks bounced. Is this true? Is the government insolvent?"

"I assure you, we're paying our people," the mayor said. "Everyone is struggling with logistics now. These kinks will get ironed—"

"Has NYPD ceded parts of Staten Island and the Bronx to motorcycle gangs?"

"What?"

"There are multiple reports Hell's Angels and the Bandidos effectively control the outer boroughs—can you confirm or deny?"

Sergio walked to his mahogany sideboard, bracing himself by a carved elephant tusk. "Crime continues to be a challenge. My office makes no secret of that."

"What about the plume of smoke coming from the Waldorf Astoria? Has the source been ID'ed? Is the building being evacuated?"

Sergio found a pen and jotted Waldorf fire? on a Post-it. He'd ask Ingrid to make some calls.

"All these issues are being addressed. We're doing the best we can with the resources at our disposal."

The reporter asked, "Is there a plan for getting the data back? What's the expected return date?"