Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997 Pearl Publishing
Welcome To The InterNet
The Dark Allies were gathered around the podium, waiting for Gomez to speak. They had never seen him shine in such resplendent glory. They knew that the Time was close at hand.
Gomez barked out his orders in the voice that was inflamed with the power of a great beast who was sure of his kill. "Act quickly and unfailingly, for our Glory draws nigh and this carnal kingdom will soon be ours to command."
Gomez dismissed his fawning sycophants and they scurried out of the Great Hall to do his bidding. Now he would rest, and reflect on the trail of antiquity that had led him to this moment in time, making sure that he had overlooked nothing that could stand in his way.
His plan to investigate the Cowboy's alleged relationship
to D'Shauneaux was simple and it proceeded directly to the heart
of the issue.
Gomez had top-secret memos, concerning the Cowboy's location and
precarious position, disseminated throughout the InterNet to the
highest levels of the command structure, with strict orders to
conceal the messages under nothing but the tightest level of security.
If the Circle of Eunuchs truly existed, only they could possibly
have the capability of breaching the defenses in place at that
level.
None of the mortals who served as Gomez's minions were to be involved in this operation. It was to be carried out entirely by the Dark Allies in order to assure that any 'leak' that surfaced would unquestionably have come from deep within the bowels of the InterNet.
The Cowboy was being watched night and day. Any attempt to make contact with him, in even the faintest, most trivial way, would be noticed and reported immediately.
This was an area that Gomez congratulated himself
on profusely. Nuthouse Number Nine, Looney Level 'Leven, was one
of his consummate feats of genius.
Schultz was the best of the best.
The governments of the BC era spent billions on espionage
and internal security, building investigative organizations composed
of superior agents with intensive, specialized training and the
finest technology available at their fingertips. When they ran
up against a situation that was beyond them, it was Schultz who
got the call.
Schultz had, since day one, personally hand-picked and trained
the 'inmates' of Number Nine. Jesus #1 had been in place for over
thirty years; he considered Number Nine his 'home'. Jesus #2 was
the rookie of the bunch, having only been there for fifteen years.
Neither one of them had ever left the building since the first
time they walked through the door.
The rest of the inmates were retired from other security forces
and found Number Nine an excellent place to spend their remaining
years. Under the cover of the Money Channel it was perfectly natural
for Number Nine to provide amenities for the 'inmates' that were
superior to those received by even the governing elite of some
of the other Channels.
Keeping the personnel at Number Nine alert and motivated would not be a problem. They had more than enough reason to be excited about the opportunity to utilize their expertise in surveillance of the Cowboy. After more than forty years in existence, with the most highly qualified and experienced security personnel ever to be gathered under a single roof, Nuthouse Number Nine finally had its first authentic inmate.
Gomez howled with glee, in recognition of his own brilliance.
Gomez laid his plans a millennium in advance. He
had made allowances for all the possibilities-and then he made
allowances for the impossible. He subjected every incident, every
situation-every apparently random occurrence in his domain-to
a rigorous scrutiny unequaled by any of those among the Dark Council
who arrogantly considered themselves to be his peers.
He went over all his stratagem before, during, and after their
implementation and completion. He looked at every one of his plans
forwards, backwards and upside-down, in concept and in detail,
and he missed nothing…nothing!
That's why He was the favored son of the Evil One. That's why He was chosen to be the instrument by which the Great Plan would be put into effect when the Time had come. That's why He was charged with the duty and honor of preparing the blueprint for the Final Battle.
The envious malcontents in the Council of Darkness-those
devious schemers who dared to oppose him and were so presumptuous
as to reprove him at every opportunity-they would crawl before
him when he delivered this celestial orb into the hands of the
Evil one.
Everything was in readiness, waiting only for the eternally nagging
question of the Magic Circle to be dealt with. And that would
be done soon…very soon.
Gomez was waiting for Cron to report back with the results of his research on D'Shauneaux and the Cowboy. Gomez had been over all of it a thousand times before, but he had expanded the scope of the investigation this time and he would go over it all again. If there were the slightest grain of information to support the Cowboy's claim of his relationship to D'Shauneaux, then Gomez would ferret it out.
He even had Cron running a data search on the word 'uncle'-not only on the current database, but also on the backup archives that dated back to the very founding of the InterNet. It would be a tremendous amount of information to sort through but Gomez had a division of analysts at his beck and call, waiting for the information to arrive.
Gomez did not relish thinking about what had to be
done if there was the slightest inkling the Cowboy might have
been telling the truth.
As much as he dreaded the notion, his only option at that point
would be to dismantle the InterNet and permanently 'terminate'
everyone involved in its operation. It made him sick to even think
about it. If TeleVision had been the regal crown in his Grand
Design, then the InterNet was the jewel in that crown.
TeleVision had been one of Gomez's greatest inspirations. It had come at a time when he was falling from favor with the Evil One. So many times the Dark Council's plans had failed and always-always-the Council had lain the blame at the feet of Gomez.
When Gomez saw the hypnotizing power of the 'Tube, he instantly knew that it as the answer to finally enslaving the minds of all mankind. His initial endeavors in using this medium to manipulate men's minds were so overwhelmingly successful that he gained back all of his previous power and more. Gomez no longer had to answer to the Council of Darkness for his every action, but only to report to them.
The hand was his to play, and Gomez would use his power well.
Gomez had moved quickly to consolidate his gains. After blunting and capturing the minds of mankind though the power of the media, his next priority was information. In the past Gomez had been thwarted by the sheer number of humans involved, as well as their being spread out into so many disparate groups in terms of both their mental orientation and their physical distribution.
Television would be the tool used to change their mind-set, breaking them into smaller and smaller factions and then re-organizing them into larger, more cohesive units. The problem, however, was that-even when a group-mind was achieved that conformed to Gomez's requirements-the vast numbers of individuals involved would result in an overwhelming accumulation of information needed to track and control everyone and everything.
Gomez, in his brilliance, had recognized the required capability in a new technological tool being used in a few specialized areas of human society-the computer. Gomez understood immediately that the computer was the agent that would overcome the problems that had plagued him in his previous plans for world domination.
His pitiful 'World Conquerors' were a joke. Every
time they came even remotely close to physically controlling a
majority of the masses everything would break down. Too many people,
too many languages, too many societies, too many religions. Too
many 'battle fronts' to manage and control.
Too much information to control…until now.
Gomez was a masterful tactician. He had immediately
maneuvered his lackeys into key positions throughout all areas
of the fledgling new industry. IBM, Sperry-Rand, MicroSoft, various
government and educational agencies.
Gomez had made certain that the main-frames would remain large,
expensive creatures, thus ensuring that their use would be confined
to the larger corporate, government, and societal organizations,
and giving him time to consolidate his behind-the-scene control
structures.
Gomez had made absolutely certain, that computers remained, in
the minds of the masses, tools for computation. Crunching numbers,
adding and subtracting, dividing and multiplying.
Anything that had to do with 'numbers', and nothing to do with 'information'.
Gomez laughed until the tears rolled down his cheeks at the sublime irony of it all.
All his years of defeat during the centuries when
the world-it's countries, its cultures, its societies and its
people-was ruled by force. Era upon era when mankind was not only
ruled by the sword, and by the dictates of the powerful, but also
by their own mind's acceptance of this scheme of things.
Century upon century when the human mentality was oriented in
exactly the way that Gomez required-veneration and unquestioning
obedience of authority, acquiescence to their role of subservience
to those 'above' them.
Everything Gomez could hope for, and more, and he still could
not manage to bring them into unitary subordination under the
dominance of the Evil One.
Now, in an age when all his plans had gone askew-an
age when 'democracy' and 'freedom' had become 'king'-when the
masses had hitherto undreamed of access to information
and knowledge-now was the time when Gomez would
succeed in bringing the Grand Design to completion.
Gomez had moved his pawns into place slowly and cautiously, placing them in positions that were low-key and had very little public visibility.
The general public at that time had a basic fear
of-and antagonism towards-authority. What used to be the norm
was then reviled as fascism, totalitarianism, as dictatorship.
It was an age where 'individual rights' were esteemed and 'authority'
was denounced.
So Gomez had made sure that computers remained basically 'number-crunchers'.
It was something that the masses considered not only non-threatening,
but ;boring; as well. He could move his own agents into place
in key positions and nobody noticed, nobody cared.
'Computer geeks'-that's how his agents were regarded in the mind of the average person. Uninteresting people doing uninteresting things in a dull room somewhere within the bowels of a huge, depersonalizing corporation. 'Fun and interesting' had been the bywords of the day and anything less went unnoticed.
Gomez made sure that the information-gathering capabilities
of this new technology proceeded slowly, hardly being noticed,
and were brought into areas of application that dealt with the
mundane tasks that people were more than glad to be rid of and
that computers would thus be well received by the general populace.
Catalogue mailing labels…a wonderful application of the ability
of computers. It freed the workers of the drudgery involved in
the work, made production and delivery more efficient, less costly,
and thus more 'convenient' for their customers.
As Gomez moved computers towards the 'Information
Age', he did so in increments. The buzz words introduced were
benign words like 'number-crunching', 'data storage', 'labor-saving',
and the like.
When any area of the industry began moving ahead of his long-term
plans then 'things happened'. An individual who devised some ground-breaking
new device would have an 'accident'. A corporation that was ready
to bring startling new capabilities to the industry would suffer
sudden 'reversals' and go bankrupt.
When Gomez finally deemed that society had sufficient exposure to the technology to no longer feel threatened by it, he allowed the development of the Personal Computer (PC) to proceed.
Gomez worked the birth and growth of PC's for use
by the masses like a fisherman works a fish when he's bringing
it in to shore.
Set the hook…promise them everything they want, and more.
Productivity, efficiency, fun-the computer will do all
the work and you can sit back drinking champagne and eating caviar.
Reel them in…games-fun games. Get the youngsters involved.
The computer is a valuable educational tool, as well.
Not too much drag-let them take a little line when
they start fighting…Hey, computers are optional. Only if
you want one, only if you think it will make your life more 'convenient'.
No business, 'has' to have one, nobody 'has' to use them, it's
up to the individual.
Reel them in a little more…Your competition's using them,
do you really want to fall behind? Your friends got one for the
kids and they're doing better in school, don't you care
about your kids?
Gomez knew when he had reached the pivot-point, the juncture where his whole plan would swing one way or another upon it's axis.
Gomez had centered his activities around the United States of America, the world-leader at the time, and also the country that he knew would be the first to express disenchantment with the new technology. The 'whiners' he called them, and they were indeed the first to complain.
'Yuppies' was what they were called during the advent
of the computer era. Intelligent and prosperous, the creme-de-la-creme,
expecting the good life to be their God-given right and, oh yes,
they were so liberal and progressive…unless they didn't get
their own way.
"Computers are infringing on our freedom. We're losing our
individuality. We're becoming just another number in the system."
A 'good' fisherman can land his fish no matter how
hard they fight. He brings them in close to the boat and scoops
them up in the net.
Gomez was a 'great' fisherman. He got them to jump in the bloody
boat.
When the resistance to being 'dehumanized' started,
Gomez threw the ball to the Japanese, turning his eastern human
allies loose to surge ahead in technological development, leaving
the United States in the dust. He coordinated this surge with
a parallel onslaught of Japanese superiority in mechanical areas
such as home appliances and surface vehicles.
The results were almost instantaneous. Now, instead of decrying
the 'depersonalizing' impositions of the computer age, the populace
of the United States started 'demanding' that their leaders rebuff
this foreign assault on their position of dominance by dedicating
their efforts to regaining their God-given superiority in the
computer industry.
It never failed to amaze Gomez that his problem with this 'democratic', 'educationally superior' group of self-righteous 'liberals' was not how to get them to succumb to the manipulations he had devised to bring them into any communal mind-set he desired, but rather, how to rein-in their ignominious little pea-brains so that they wouldn't go off on totally new tangents six times an hour under the influence of the 'ten second sound-byte' that was the current fad in their society.
By the time that the masses were ready for computers, Gomez's computers were ready for the masses.
Gomez made sure that the computer industry moved in the direction of 'networking', the tying together of groups of computers so that they formed a common link. How convenient. The creatures could 'share' information between one another. Oh yes, and 'sharing' meant developing 'standards' so that everything would work together and be so much more 'convenient' for everybody.
And the silly creatures were exceedingly enamored of themselves for being so intelligent, so efficient, so organized. "Look what we can do now…we're so smart."
"No," Gomez thought to himself, "Look what 'computers' can do now…'I'm' so smart."
Gomez had brought the 'Information Age' to fruition. Information was power…and computers controlled the information. The more information one had, the more power one had. And the wider the reach of their ability to gather and share information, the more powerful and important these little creatures deemed themselves to be.
"I've got the figures we needed. I pulled them off the database server and ran them through a spreadsheet."
"I found a copy of the contract you wanted. It was in one of the network files of a previous employee. Thank heavens for backup tapes."
"I downloaded the tax tables from the government's computer by modem. We have plenty of time to adjust our budget for next year."
People were no longer anxious about information-gathering infringing upon their 'personal space'-now they were anxious because they couldn't access all the information, any time, anywhere, at their slightest whim.
Gomez smiled. No problem. It was time to introduce
computer technology's step-child to the rank-and-file.
Chapter 22 - Welcome To The InterNet