Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 05:34:07 EDT
From: BaronAVR@aol.com
Subject: Where no one owns the Rain, part four SF/Fantasy
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As the Author of "Where no one owns the Rain", I retain all rights to my
story. This is a work of fiction. Only the main character and the brief
mention of his boyfriend are based on a real individuals. All others are
fictional and any similarites between persons living, dead or not yet born
are coincidental.
The author is Andrew Simon van Ryan. Copyright 2000. All Rights Reserved.
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Where no one owns the Rain..
Part Four
by Andrew Simon van Ryan
Copyright 2000. All Rights Reserved
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dateline: Oct 04, 2000.
Mexican Leader Seeks German Investors
BERLIN (AP) - Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox appealed to
German business executives Wednesday to invest in his country, and won a
promise from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that there would be a ``new
dynamic'' between the two countries. While visiting Berlin as part of a
week long campaign to boost economic ties with Europe, Fox voiced concern
that high oil prices could stifle economic growth. He urged German industry
to take advantage of 'a recently signed free-trade agreement between Mexico
and the 15-nation European Union' and offered his country as a platform for
German companies to export to the U.S. market.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Zeke suddenly leaned forward and kissed me. Not knowing how to
react, I gave a small return to his kiss. However, my mind was with
Terry. Zeke looked at me sheepishly.
"I hope you don't think I'm being heartless. I know you were with
your boyfriend a long time." He said.
"I don't think you're heartless. I'm just overwhelmed by
everything." I answered.
He started to turn away. Suddenly, I felt the loneliness that was
holding me hostage inside begin to boil over. I grabbed for his waist.
"Don't leave me." I said and kissed him, hard. He responded in kind
and I held the boy who had rescued me from the shoreline in my arms. I
kissed him passionately for what seemed forever. I broke the kiss as I
began crying.
"Andy, are you OK?" He asked.
"No. I don't... Oh, god I don't know.." I sobbed.
He helped me to lay down. I was crying my eyes out now. Zeke laid
next to me and took me in his arms.
"It's OK, Andy. Go ahead and let it out. I'm here and I'll help you
get through it." He whispered. Ezekiel, it seemed would rescue me again.
"I can't believe this has happened!" I sobbed uncontrollably. "They
killed him for loving me! Why?! Why?!"
"Conner needs people to blame for the countries economic mess, just
like Hitler needed a scapegoat" Zeke said. "Hitler killed the homosexuals
first, just like Conner's doing. If we don't stop him, there's no telling
who he'll go after next." Zeke paused and held me a bit tighter. "But we
will stop him."
I laid on the bed sobbing until it got dark. I cried until the
tears wouldn't flow from my swollen, crimson edged eyes any longer. The
entire time Zeke stayed there next to me. At times, I felt great comfort
having him hold me. At times I wanted him to go away. At times I wanted to
hit him. Who was this boy and just what did he think he was doing, coming
on to me right after I'd learned of my boyfriends fate?! Nothing really
made sense now. Not that I was looking for sense to be made in the actions
of the President. It would have been a waste of my time, like a 'snipe'
hunt for reasoning that didn't exist. Conner had no need of reason or
sanity. He only needed to continue performing his amateur magician act,
giving the public 'Proof' out of the thin air that his policies were
working.
"Andy?" Zeke said softy.
"Yeah..." I sniffled.
"Please don't think I'm coming on to you right now. I know how it
is, losing someone you love. I lost my boyfriend in the first sweep." He
said. "I'm just here if you need me, OK?"
"OK...." I sighed.
Within ten minutes I was asleep. I didn't wake up again until the
sound of movement made me jump. Zeke was standing in the open door way,
holding two plates of food.
"Hi. I thought you might be hungry." He said quietly.
"Oh, Zeke." I muttered, sitting up. "I am. Thanks."
As we ate my mind thought of a thousand questions, but I asked
none. I preferred the silence for now. The time to talk would come
later. Right now I was busy considering how to change the scenario of
DatManDead.
In the book, using the Internet allowed the seemingly random hack
of Government sites. During the hack, a small file was left in the
government system files. They lay dormant until the government traced the
hacks back to the sender. The sending site held a file containing a
compiler code. Once the government accessed and opened this file, it linked
all the bits and pieces left in the governments system files together,
resulting in a command code to shut down and not restart. All the computer
systems within the Government went off-line within seconds. Everything went
down, including the Internet, USnet and Govlink. While the computer
controlled military systems and government communications links crashed,
the liberators had enough time for their overthrow attempt. In the book
they succeeded.
The Data Management system known as 'DatMan' had been the
Governments downfall. DatMan was a 'snoop' system and it automatically
checked e-mail, transfer files and data packets for possible terrorist
messages. It then compiled what it found into 'group' files. The
'DatManDead' program was written in such a way that when the attachments
had been filed together and the compiler code at the sender site was opened
by the government, it sent a command back through the Internet to the
'markers' left inside the government computers system files by the original
e-mail transfers. Once the markers were found, it 'executed' the entire
system and everything linked to it. The resulting shut down left a large
window of time during which the Government and Military would be without
any computer systems.
I was sure Conners people already knew about the book and was the
reason why I was sent to Panama. Now the question was how to rewrite the
book so they wouldn't know the ending, but they also wouldn't know it was
going down differently until it was too late.
I wasn't a computer hacker myself. I had very limited knowledge of
that. I had written the different versions of my book and asked a friend
who was into the Digital VooDoo to read them. He picked the one he felt was
most likely possible, made some changes to the text for the sake of
accuracy and I sent it to the publisher. This meant I needed someone with
top hacking abilities to help me out. We'd also need a whole lot of luck to
succeed.
As I began thinking about changing the book, I began having
questions about the encampment and it's residents. The thought that I was
in 'Heaven' suddenly struck me funny and I began chuckling softly.
Ezekiel looked at me with a quizzical face. I grinned at him for a
moment before I spoke.
"I guess Conner and his followers were wrong." I said as I smiled.
"About what?" Zeke asked.
"About homosexuals not going to Heaven." I giggled.
"That's exactly why we called it Heaven." He stated with a
grin. "If he hears about this place, that's a sure bet to piss him off."
Zeke looked at me and we both grinned before he continued.
"We do everything we can to fuck with Conner. Last week, everyone
in the camp wrote hundreds of e-mail's which we sent to random addresses
through our third and fourth party forwarding sites. We each wrote the most
obscene propositions for a homosexual encounter we could dream up. Each
e-mail was signed 'President Joshua Conner'." He laughed. "I thought it was
a great way to piss the prick off."
"Oh, if he heard about it, I'm sure he's boiling with rage." I
smiled.
"We hope it makes people think about his anti-gay policies as
well." Zeke continued. "You know,... make them wonder 'What if the
President was gay? What if he wasn't our Leader. Would our country still be
sending queers to forced work camps or letting them die by the hundreds
every day if Conner wasn't the President?' Maybe, just maybe we can get the
pendulum to begin swinging back if enough people believe what he's doing is
wrong." ` "Zeke, have you read the book 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell?' I
asked.
"Sure." He replied.
"All of 'America's Average Citizen's', as Conner loves calling them
are like the sheep in Animal Farm. " I stated. "If the President said 'Four
legs good, two legs better' during the evening news, those people would be
shouting it from rooftops by the next morning. He's got them believing the
bullshit."
"I don't think everyone believes him." Zeke responded. "And of
those who don't believe his lies, there might be a few who see it our way,
or they at least would be sympathetic to our plight. If we can get the
revolt against Conner started, perhaps they'll join us in bringing him
down."
I gazed at my new room mate while he spoke from his heart. Zeke's
optimism was a welcomed lift, even if I didn't say it to him. Even if I was
too emotionally torn to tell him so.
"Zeke?" I sighed. "Do you know if the camp has any computer
hackers? I don't mean guys who break into software so they can steal it. I
need someone who's made High Priest or Top VooDoo. They gotta be able to do
all the 'Black Program' tricks and more. Preferably someone who worked for
the Government or the Military before they got into messing with Digital
VooDoo."
He smiled at me and said "Yeah, we got three of the best. And one
was a Navy Computer Weapons Specialist who worked aboard submarines. He's
got Top VooDoo like no one else."
"OK..." I said with a cold tone. "We start tomorrow."
I laid back on my bed and stared at the ceiling. My mind was
running through randomly linked thoughts and I stayed doing this for
perhaps twenty minutes, dreaming the possible and the impossible. When my
mind recalled a hypothetical question asked by my high school history
teacher, I stopped to concentrate. When our class was learning about World
War Two and the Holocaust, this teacher asked "Knowing what you've learned
now and given the chance to go back in time, would you shoot Adolph Hitler
before he became Furher?" I recalled feeling stunned when three students
said no. Even more shocking was the reason one of them gave. The first two
said they'd be afraid of coming back to a changed future. Both thought it
possible the future might be worse without us having gone through the
war. The third student stated 'Hitler was right' and that 'he was the
greatest man who ever lived'. The entire classroom had sucked air all at
once, making a combined 'Ohhhhhh!!!' letting the boy know he'd made a
lasting impression. This student always tried to shock or outrage the
others. With his remarks, he'd achieved the kind of reaction he got off
on. From that day on, the boy got attention by saying he was a 'Hitler
Youth."
I hadn't seen the boy since my last day at high school and had
almost forgotten his comments. Then, just two weeks before the Relocators
came to arrest me, I spotted him. I was walking home from my publishers
office when I noticed a young man being arrested. I watched as he was taken
from his home in handcuffs and placed into the back of a Relocator van. The
Relocation Officer walking with him was the boy from my class! He was
shouting insults at the young man, treating him roughly and forcing him
into the van with the end of his stun baton. Though it all my former
classmate was laughing, seeming to find great enjoyment at unleashing his
sadistic abuse on the handcuffed deportee. Two weeks later, the boy from
history class was at my door, handcuffing me. Now, as I lay on my bed
thinking of him and of my history teachers question, I knew exactly how to
answer. I would gladly kill Conner, the worlds "New Hitler'. Even if it
meant having to shoot him myself. Even if it meant I'd be killed, I would
do it.
...............to be continued