Copyright 1997 Pearl Publishing
Bianca sat silently, trying to compose herself before facing the
children and bringing them up to date on the quickly changing
situation surrounding an educational process which had been, up
to now, mostly an exciting exercise in technological mystery and
intrigue.
Despite her inability to cover up the full depth of her current
despair, the point became moot when she entered the room to find
the girls all suppressing giggles, and the lone boy in the group
sitting with his arms folded across his chest and grinning madly.
Bianca turned her back for a moment, to suppress a genuine smile, and then turned once again to face the children, feigning an unsuspecting manner.
"Can anyone tell me who Attila the Hun was?"
Bianca asked, knowing that Human Gus-Peter might well wet his
pants resisting his urge to raise his hand in order to get the
opportunity to brag once again about one of his historic heroes.
All of the girls raised their hands, giggling all the more over
the Nephew's predicament.
"Yes?" Bianca nodded toward Totokyo Rose.
"Attila the Hun was the greatest MeatSpace Warrior who
ever lived." Rose shouted, leaping to her feet and mimicking
the ferocious grimace that the Nephew usually affected when speaking
reverently about his favorite historical hero.
Human Gus-Peter nodded thankfully to young Rose, who blushed at
the realization that she had instinctively acted as a compatriot
and co-conspirator to the secret admirer who loved to tease her
so mercilessly (and vice-versa).
Bianca thanked Rose as she sat down, and then began pacing back and forth slowly in front of the children. She gave a discrete wink to Rose as she strolled, alerting her that the next question would give her an opportunity to redeem herself as the Nephew's chief adversary among the young ladies who vied to torture him relentlessly for the sins of his forefathers, who had held their mothers in such low esteem in the fields of math and science.
"And who is Attila T. Hun?"
Bianca asked, referring to the boy's chief hero and mentor in
the arena of CypherSpace Killosophy.
The Nephew was bouncing up and down in his excitement, but he
managed to keep his arms tightly folded across his chest, guarding
the secret that he shared with the still giggling young girls.
He smiled at Totokyo Rose as she raised her hand once again.
"Yes, Rose." Bianca smiled.
"Attila T. Hun is a CypherPunk who was exposed as a wannabe when Hallam-Baker revealed to the list that he was a sixteen year-old kid with an overactive imagination." Rose beamed.
"Not! Not!!!" Human Gus-Peter leapt to his feet
to defend his idol, dropping his arms and revealing the message
that the youngsters had been busy stenciling on his T-shirt while
Bianca had been engaged in deciphering her latest email messages.
Bianca laughed as hard as the girls as the Nephew's impulsive
reaction to Rose's teasing led to the revelation of the message
newly emblazoned on his chest.
Bianca chuckled inwardly, as she outwardly frowned and shook her
head sadly.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn you over to the
Tickle Gestapo." she said, breaking into a laugh as the
Nephew's eyes grew wide in alarm and he bolted for the door with
a gaggle of giggling girls close on his heels.
She sighed with relief as the Battle Royal began in the snow outside,
knowing that she would now have a bit of time to prepare for what
she had to say to the children. As yet, however, she was not sure
just what to say.
Bianca went over the morning's events in her mind.
Of all the mornings to sleep in… Damn!
The children had already been deeply engrossed in various computer
exercises by the time she had shaken off the deep slumber of the
previous night. It was sleep she desperately needed, but it had
come at exactly the wrong time. She had woken up to find an urgent
email message that had apparently arrived just as she was drifting
off into never-never-land.
From: GOD <[email protected]>
BCC: Dave Null <[email protected]>
Subject: "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart
of the Void?"
Dear Melissa's Great-Great-Grandmother,
"David Jansen's dead, it's up to me to carry on."
~ The Last Canadian Outlaw
"he's gone, man. he's gone…"
~ Jerry T. Garcia
"If you don't leave me alone, I'll find someone who
will."
~ T. Gosney Thorton
"For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made
void and the promise made of no effect."
~ Ultramontane 4:14
Sincerely,
God
"Who gives life to the dead and calls those things which
do not exist as though they did."
~ Ultramontane 4:17
Bianca hadn't bothered to check the PGP signature on the message, knowing that the Author was the only person besides George Burns who could get away with forging messages from God without getting struck by lightning.
The goDog had obviously gone to ground, with John Law's hounds
nipping closely at his heels. Apparently, he believed that the
Blind Faith Server at dev.null had been compromised, as well.
When Bianca had logged on to pull the plug on it, however, all
signs that it had ever existed had already been purged from one
end of the InterNet to the other.
Bianca got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, once again,
as she realized that this was possible to do only through the
Blind Faith Server itself, which meant that whoever had taken
down dev.null had accessed the heart of the Circle of Eunuchs
communications system, potentially putting everyone, including
the children, in jeopardy.
She rose angrily to her feet, angry at herself for having let
the Author allay her initial fears about exposing the children
to danger by allowing them to use the dev.null shadow email system.
"In for a penny, in for a pound." he had said,
nonchalantly. "Unless you are willing to put their bodies
and minds in the hand of The Destroyer right now, you'd best give
them the tools and knowledge to prevent it from happening later.
"Besides, we are more likely to need those little scamps
to pull our ass out of the fire than the other way around."
he had continued, with a wink.
Bianca was shaken out of her reverie by the entrance of the children,
who were laughing and shaking the snow out of their hair and clothes.
Except for the Nephew, who was holding his sides and grimacing
in pain.
"They have tic-killed me to death!" he said,
dramatically, falling limp to the floor.
Bianca motioned for the girls to gather around her on the floor,
and they sat quietly until Human Gus-Peter peeked up to see that
nobody was paying attention to him, whereupon he quietly joined
them. Bianca began…
"I have something very serious to discuss with you."
she began.
Although we have had a lot of fun up to now, playing hide-and-seek
with others and ourselves in CyberSpace, I have constantly reminded
you that we must perform all of our actions as if the consequences
could be deadly serious, for there would come a day in the future
when this would become true for the past."
"That day has finally arrived." Bianca said solemnly,
worried that the children didn't seem to understand the gravity
of what she was trying to tell them. She decided that a direct
approach would be the best.
"A number of members of the Magic Circle, including your
uncle," she nodded to Human Gus-Peter, "have
gone to ground like wounded foxes, holing up while waiting their
chance to make a break for higher ground."
"As well, I have received communications indicating that
the Shadow has sniffed out the Blind Faith Server, and…"
she paused to change her voice to reflect the seriousness
of the situation, "it appears that dev.null has been compromised."
At this grave pronouncement, the children began giggling, and Totokyo Rose gave MustHang Sally a thinly veiled poke in the ribs. Bianca gave herself an inward slap on the forehead, stepped forward to hover menacingly over Sally, and asked sternly, "Is there something you would like to tell me, Sally?"
"Nein, Herr Commandant! Nein, Nein!" was Sally's
reply.
The children broke into such a fit of sniggering and chortling
at this point, that Bianca abandoned them to the Invisible Tickle
Monster and headed to her computer to look for inevitable pointer
to the ClueServer that the young archfiends would have left behind
for her.
Though the children had developed an amazingly intricate labyrinth
of secret signs and messages by which they used to communicate
a remarkable array of information ranging from technical information
to mystical parables, they always gave their elders clues about
as subtle as a fireball in the sky, apparently being under the
impression that shortly beyond puberty lay senility.
Bianca typed '999' into her computer and hit the return key, whereupon
it turned out that the phrase had been aliased to a slow-running
batch file which echoed its internal commands onto the screen
as if lip-reading them with great difficulty:
cd \666
pwd \6overnment6ates6omez\Pedagogue
cd .\999
pwd
\Munition$Monger$Madman$\Petadog
cat goDog.niYang
"Johnny can't add…neither can his dad…Y2K is
coming, and it's going to be mad."
~ Little Orphan Annie, CypherKid Cult of One
"Follow the Money, honey."
~ SlutSally, CypherKid Cult of One
"I'm here from the IRS, and I'm here to ring your Bell."
~ Robyn Steele, CypherKid Cult of One
"Gun$ get you money$…
Money$ get you gun$
Billy runs window$, but window$ don't run."
~ Human Gus-Peter, Grand Pooh-Bah of the CypherUniverse of One
Government = Power Corporate = Money Money = Power
Government + Corporate = Fascism Statism = Standardization
(Government + Statism) = (Corporate + Standardization)
Unitary Theory of Fascist Statism: If Government and Corporate
interests become a Unity then Decimals become insignificant dots.
Therefore, under Fascism, the citizen is no longer a citizen-unit,
but a Decimal.
The Revelation of SaintMonger LanniTastic the Divine (In Bed)
13:16 "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and slave, to receive a digitally implanted Persistent Identity
$$N in their right hand or on their foreheads."
13:17 "and that no one may buy or sell except one who has
a PI-$$N or traceable Bea$tCa$h, or a Digital Certificate authorized
by the Bea$t."
13:18 "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate
the number of the Bea$t (keeping in mind that Micro$haft Money
has a Millennium Bug in it that gives a result that is different
from one returned by the more spiritually-correct Quickening $oftware),
for it is the number of a ManBoy: His number is GGG."
"Standardization is the Opiate of the Masses.
~ Saint Ishtar of Linux, CypherKid Prophetess of One
"That's not a dry-cleaning bag, Linus. It's your new security
blanket. If it saves the life of a single child…"
~ BadLucy, CypherKid Government Regulator of One
The worse the Y2K problem is, the easier you can steal.
The worse the Y2K problem is, the harder it will be for the government
to steal.
The worse the Y2K problem is, the more intelligence and initiative
will evolve.
The worse the Y2K problem, the faster the dinosaurs die.
Ad infinituum…
"Except ye be as a little child…"
"Those who are not busy living, are busy dying…"
"If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the
problem…"
"We have met the cliché, and it is you…"
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming…"
"Teach your children well…"
The Alaska Highway Was a Roman Road!
When 6omez is Fuhrer, the email will run on time!
Highways are for moving troops forth and goods back.
The Information Highway was designed to move digital government troops forth and digital currency back!
The History of InfoNumbers
Numbers were made for counting.
Counting was made for keeping track of…
InfoNumbers are made for accounting purposes.
FRESH FROM THE CLUESERVER!!!
Unencumbered knowledge is freedom to evolve.
Encumbered knowledge is captivity in statist prisons.
Numbers are not Knowledge. Numbers are Statistics.
Humans need knowledge. Machines need numbers.
Quake is fractal. Quicken is linear.
The eyes are the gateway to the soul. Biometrics captures your
soul.
InfoNumbers are Information. Information is not InfoNumbers.
Who Needs Traceable, Encumbered Information?
Information Nazis.
Information Census Takers.
Information Tax Collectors.
Information Gestapo.
Information Jailers.
Information Executioners.
Jews For Just-Us Protection Society:
Biometric Identification to protect only Jewish children.
Biometric Identification to protect only Jewish financial transactions.
"We're from the government and we're here to Biometrically
Identify you in order to help you."
[Disclaimer: Jews For Just-Us Protection Society is a fully licensed
charitable subsidiary of the Yellow Star Biometrics Corporation,
a Division of Auschwitz Cattle-Car Manufacturing, Inc.]
Numbers are for counting.
Counting is for accounting.
Numbers can be held accountable.
Are you a number?
Passenger Manifesto / Cattle-Car #17 / Departing at 4:54 a.m.
054-38-2961
293-82-9764
429-67-8342
…
Humans need information to survive. Governments need controlled
information to survive.
Humans need mobility to survive. Governments need statism to survive.
Humans need physical identity to survive. Governments need physical
identification to survive.
Humans need emotion to survive. Governments need obedience to
survive.
Humans need soul to survive. Governments need InfoNumbers to survive.
Humans need spirit to survive. Governments need control to survive.
InfoWarriors blow bridges out from under the troop trains on the
Information Highway.
InfoWarriors route around armed checkpoints on the Information
Highway.
InfoWarriors infiltrate enemy camps on the Information Highway.
InfoWarriors wreck or confiscate enemy munitions on the Information
Highway.
InfoWarriors generate their own numbers.
Church of PGP / Campfire Songs
"I don't care if it rains or freezes,
As long as I've got my CryptoJesus,
Sitting on the laptop on my desk.
"Threatening PRES, but he can't floor me,
As long as PRZ don't backdoor me,
Giving out my cleartext to the Feds."
"I turned my children over to the government, and all I got
was this digital implant"