The Nexus

By Nowfal Dhanish

Prologue:

Whizzing past, I cruise through the city, skipping the red signals, dodging the traffic, riding my bike so recklessly that I would have at least had a dozen close calls with the oncoming traffic.

I look back only to see huge black juggernaut SUVS still following me, damn these guys they never give up.

I needed to lose them fast, so decide to move out of the fast lanes into the narrow corridors which would block away the SUVs.

I keep going and going and look back again, and heave a sigh of relief, there was no one now.

And then BOOOM

As if being crushed by a rock, my shoulders are the direct site of impact, I feel the pain radiating

And before I could realize what happened, I find myself lying down over my bike and as I look forward, I see a black SUV in front of me.

I try to get up but only feel numbness in my legs, so give up and decide to crawl away, with every inch I move up, I see more and more SUVs rounding me up.

I finally gather enough strength and overcome the pain and get up, and just as I am about to limp away, an army of men start gathering around.

I don’t mind them and just continue to move away, as I gather a bit of speed, I feel a hand over my shoulder and am pulled back, I turn my head towards only to be smacked in the face, and before I could register that in my mind, there was another blow to my stomach, making me fall in my knees.

My vision is completely blurry and see the 2 guys who hit me, on either side of me holding me down.

As I rub my eyes to see clearly, I see a lady walking towards me, with every blink, she appeared to come closer

I could feel my heart pacing, I struggle to move around but the guys beside me keep me in place,

As I was pondering a million ways to get out of this situation, I suddenly find the lady in front of me,

I hear a clicking sound, and then feel the coldness of metal against my forehead

With each second passing, I wait for the trigger to be pulled,

I wait for the darkness to consume me,

I wait for my life to end...

And just like that, I feel a surge of pain over back of my head, and then everything goes black…

Chapter 1

Madhan

As I wake up, my vision still foggy, I realize that in an unfamiliar room with no one around.

I try to move but realize that both my hands and legs tied up, I turn my head left and right to get more familiar about my surroundings. I was a probably in astorage room as I could see lots of boxes lying around and a variety of things completely covered in dust not used for a long time.

The air too was stale, and you could those particles of dust floating around.

I try to listen for any voices around, but it was deadly quiet.

As I lay there struggling, I finally realize that there was no point in trying to escape and just wait for my captors to come. I think, so if I am alive, that means they need me for something, I immediately think of my pocket, The USB, was it still there, did they take it?

I try to feel its presence, but with my hands tied up it was no use,

The USB, it was the sole reason I was in this mess, the lady had warned me, but I had ignored her and now I am here, but the question I didn’t understand was why they didn’t kill me.

If only I knew if I still had the USB or not.

And suddenly the only door in the room opened, blinding me with the light that poured in followed by the lady walking in, she was Radhika, an officer in the cyber-crime department or that was how she introduced herself to me long before all this.

She put a chair in front of me and pulled out the USB from the pocket.

Radhika: Is this what you’re thinking about Madhan? didn’t i tell, you would be in so much trouble, if you didn’t follow the instructions, we gave you.

Madhan: So, what now? now you got me, you have the USB, why are you keeping me alive?

Radhika: ha ha ha,. What do you think Madhan, this is all a huge conspiracy and you’re a hero in a movie going to stop an evil organization and save the world. We are living in the real world madhan, we are just government officers trying to keep our country safe, the people who you came in contact with cyber-terrorists, and I don’t know what they told you to brainwash you to side with them

Madhan: I was not brainwashed and all, I …

Radhika: Oh stop it, I don’t care and I don’t want to know all that, every terrorist tells the same thing, now just listen to me, first thing we are not going to kill you, we are a government entity and we go strictly by the books and the law only, so as per the law, since we now have enough information, thanks to the USB, we can convict you as a terrorist and send to you to prison till the end of your lifetime.

Madhan: why don’t you come to the point the directly, if you were going to imprison me for my entire life, you would have done it already and not get me bound like this, so tell me clearly what you want from me?

Radhika: well at least you’re not a fool as I thought, as you said the point is, since the terrorists trust so much, we want you to complete your mission, that is what you to deliver the USB, wherever it was supposed to be delivered to,

Madhan: wait what?

Radhika: Madhan why do you ask so many questions, just do this for us and go back to your normal life

Madhan: fine I will do it, it’s not like I have any other choice

Radhika: finally, you have come to your senses, now let me untie you.

She untied me and handed me the USB

Radhika: here you go, take it and do your job properly and we will all forget this ever happened

I take it and put it in my pocket, and as I head towards the door, I realize that my bike was completely totaled, so I ask her

Madhan: what about my bike? Since you guys thrashed it.

Radhika: seriously? You’re asking about bike? I am talking about your life and all you can think of is your bike.

Madhan: We, I still must complete the delivery, don’t I?

Radhika: You can always take the Mag train, Its much faster than that electric bike of yours

Madhan: I was just pushing my luck you know.

Radhika: Just stop it, and get the job done

Madhan: All right, all right

I exit the building and realize that I was in a entirely different location than the one where they picked me up. I pulled my phone and opened the maps to find out the closest the Mag train station.

It was just a few streets nearby and start walking towards it. I take one glance at the building that I came from, it was not a police station, it looked like that one of those secret hideout locations used by the secret organization in the movies, I also wondered where all those men who came to arrest me went.

Radhika had told me they were just government officers, but if they were, why wasn’t I taken to a regular police station?

A lot of questions like these were popping in my head, a lot of “whys” and a lot of “who’s”, But most important question was, why did Radhika want me to complete the delivery?

What was the meaning of all this, who were these so-called cyber terrorists, why did I even listen to them, why was all this happening.

Till yesterday I was normal computer science graduate, but today I was a rebel, a terrorist and what else not.

I always questioned the purpose of my life, my existence, what my role was in this world, how I fit in and was I to make any difference in this world.

And today I am being given a chance to prove it

I felt this was my time, I felt I was chosen for this, it was my computer that the programmed got installed, which led to all these events.

The fact Radhika kept telling this was all normal again and again, made it feel like that something was being covered up.

And those words, that voice, the one from the program, it was a cry, a final cry for help, a last resort

Save yourself, save us, save humanity

These didn’t feel like the words of a terrorist,

I was convinced, I needed to get to the bottom of this, I needed some time to think

But time was short, I needed to deliver the USB before 6pm today, it was already 4 pm.

I reached the train station and boarded the train.

I would take a while till I reached my destination, so i look out the window and think back how all this started.

Chapter 2

I am Madhan, I live in Chennai, Tamil Nādu, India. It’s been 3 years since I graduated and like millions of others, I too was jobless. So in order to survive and to feed myself, I opened an internet browsing center which itself was a hand down from my great grandfather, who is by the way is still alive, how you may ask, well it is after all 2100, and due to several advancements in medicine, the average life span of a human was extended almost infinitely, not that you could live forever, but your consciousness could now be uploaded into a virtual network, there by keeping you alive essentially forever, there was also this option of uploading yourself into another living body but that was only meant for the humanoids.

Humanoid? What are they? Are they cyborgs, robots, or something else? HA, HA, HA, na na, nothing like that, humanoids are just normal humans, but they are humans who can afford human touch.

Human touch, now what is that? what world are we living? did some alien civilization conquer us or something? Okay, I will explain everything very clearly...

After years of repeated wars, disasters and epidemics, the human population was thinned out massively, almost all the people who were considered as poor were wiped out, the working-class people who were laborer’s, masons, cleaners, plumbers, cooks etc. where all gone, so those who remained were the highly educated and the so called rich. They had no option but to take up the so-called poor people’s jobs even though they are overqualified for it. But as more and more advancements in technologies were made, man found a way to make machines to do these jobs for him and thus machines replaced man for his most essential activities. The idea of a person providing these services became foreign and things made by men got associated with more value than those made by machines. This was how my world came to be, where human touch was given more value as compared to the ones made by the machines and those who could afford human touch were considered as humanoids.

Great, now look at me, I went off track, where was I, oh yes, my great grandfather, and no me nor any of my family members were not humanoids.

And coming back to my internet center, you may be surprised and may be thinking how come people still don’t have access to internet when people can upload their consciousness into virtual networks. well again let me explain.

Yes, we did have super-fast internet, which was accessible by everyone, but in my world, what mattered was privacy, you see even though everyone got access, nothing was private, everything was connected to a common server, and anyone could access it and you had no say in it, while my internet center offered a private network so people could keep their activities unknown to all.

So, this was my life, a regular 26yr old with a regular mundane life with a normal family, and speaking of my family, it consisted of my parents, my grandparents, and my great grandfather, out of which only my mom existed in the real world whereas all the others existed in the virtual network.

Nice is it not!!! Well look at me again, I have gone off track again, so let me get back to the story...

The starting point, what got me into this mess, how did it all begin.

Chapter 3

It all started with this stupid program that got downloaded automatically. Like any other day I was just operating my system and running diagnostics to make sure everything all right, then a pop up appeared, I thought it was just like any other and just closed it but instead of the pop up disappearing, something started downloading, I panicked, I started troubleshooting but nothing was happening, and as soon as the downloaded got completed, my screen got blank, for a few seconds nothing happened, and then a command prompt appeared.

It had just said a simple hi, I was perplexed, I tried control alt delete, but nothing happened,

Another few words appeared

Please listen to us, we don’t have much time

I typed back, see this is just ordinary internet center, I have got no money,

To which I got a reply

We are not looking for any money, just listen to us

I typed back,

Who are you? What do you want?

For which I got a reply

We don’t have time, you will find a folder in your desktop, please look into it

Before I could type,

The command prompt disappeared, and my screen was back to normal showing the regular desktop, I notice a new folder and click it

I see an executable file and an audio file, I listen to the audio first,

I know you must be wondering, what all this and who we are, you may get calls from your local law enforcement claiming we are terrorists, but I assure you we are not anything like that, I know you have a lot of questions but there is very little time to explain everything, so I will just tell you this, copy the exe file you see and upload it into a public network, that’s all we ask.

Whatever you do, just keep this in mind,

Save yourself, save us, save humanity

And that was it, it was a female voice, that’s the only thing I could decipher from the audio file and immediately after that the phone in my center rang, and I rushed to pick to up.

Hello, I am officer Radhika of the cyber-security department, I believe you have been in contact with cyber terrorists and in possession of a malicious file in your center, we are sending officers right away to neutralize the situation, we expect you to kindly remain in the same location and cooperate with us when we arrive at the location.

Thank you for your cooperation

Before I could utter a word, the phone got disconnected

I could not believe what happened, as predicted by the voice from the computer, the police had contacted me and advised me to turn over.

How was this possible? What was happening?

Obviously, I did not trust the police as much, more over what is the worst that could happen, all I was asked to do was to upload the exe file into a public network. The closet network was in Parrys so I decided to go there…

And that’s how i got into this whole mess.

I didn’t think that I would really end up in this much trouble, but boy was I wrong!!!

Just as I was clearing all these thoughts

I realize that the train had almost arrived in Parrys

I get up and head towards the door

I didn’t know if what I was doing right or wrong, but I knew this, this was the beginning.

This was the nexus.

The nexus that directed my destiny.

By Nowfal Dhanish