"Are you gonna do it?" Joey asked Richard.
"Do What," Richard replied.
"Take the job they want you to take."
" Probably will. There's not much else
to do in here."
Richard Roseman was 29 years old, with brown
hair and eyes. Before becoming a guest of the New York State penal
system, he had been a computer programer for a beltway bandit consulting
firm in Albany. He was of medium height and weight, a little soft
around the middle. He had the pallor of a man who spends virtually
all his time indoors, as do most all prisoners in the New York State Penal
system. All in all, his appearance was unremarkable, except for one
thing. His nose was the classic Semitic nose. Once he had overhead
another inmate say, "He's Jewish. It's as plain as the nose on his
face." Of course, in 2057 in the United States, it wasn't a very
good thing to be Jewish, and Richard Roseman, despite coming from a family
in Albany which included many Jews, was an entirely secular individual,
an agnostic, in fact.
It was late December and the new year was
not shaping up to be an especially promising one. The prospect of
a job to occupy his time was attractive to Richard.
His cell mate, Joey Lishko, was large, blond
and muscular. They made an odd pair, the former high school linebacker
from Rochester who had made his way through the world by violence and the
former computer programmer who was decidedly neither athletic nor violent.
Still, they got along well, which was fortunate for Richard, since prison
could be a violent place and having a protector was an important thing.
At first, Joey has made it clear that he was to be boss in the cell, and
Richard didn't really mind that. Their relationship had changed fairly
quickly to one of equals. Richard had won Joey over by simply treating
him with respect. Richard talked to him about computers, art, security
systems, music, sports, and anything else he would think of to pass the
time. Because Joey has always been regarded as a dumb jock, he was
glad to have someone who didn't assume he was too stupid to understand.
They grew to be friends over the course of their first weeks together,
and Joey had saved Richard from a beating on a couple of occasions.
In return, Richard had begun to educate Joey a bit about the technology
that controlled the world.
Richard was in prison for seditious libel.
In seems that his on-line joke chat room had been monitored. One
particular joke, concerning a naked Trinity Coalition Minister and three
young women of the church had not been well received. As a result,
last March, the prosecutor had taken a special interest in this chat room.
A new member of the group had contributed several jokes about the President
and one of his college interns. These jokes had been deemed to be
an attack on the good name of the Presidency and by October Richard had
found himself in prison for five years. The "new member" had turned
out to be a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent.
Joey was in prison for robbery. He had
mugged an old lady and taken her purse. Unfortunately, the old lady
proved to be the mother of a local Trinity Coalition minister, and the
prosecutor had taken a special interest in Joey. As a result, he
had gotten 12 years, plus an additional five for using a weapon in the
crime.
One morning, not long after they had been
put together in the cell, their conversation had turned to a comparison
of their sentences with others in the prison.
"I hear Greg Johanssen only got 3 years for
mugging an old lady, and he was a second offender," Richard told Joey.
"Yeah," Joey said, "But his old lady was Black,
and not a church goer. Mine was a Trinity Coalition Preacher's mother.
Maybe I ought to join the Trinity Coalition when I get out. They
sure have a lot of clout."
"You know," Richard said, "I was raised in
a Unitarian Church, even though Dad was Jewish. I was taught that
religion was a private matter, you know, between you and God. I don't
know how it happened, but for some folks, religion has become a big public
thing, like a set of clothes that you put on when you want to show off.
I know for certain that you want to make sure you don't piss off the Trinity
Coalition."
"I guess you do know better now, don't you"
Joey and Richard shared a laugh about that, but, the laughter didn't last
long. Five years is a long time to pay for a bit of sacrilege.
"How did the Trinity Coalition get started anyway?"
Joey asked.
"Well, I guess it goes all the way back to the resurgence
of the religious right back in the late 20th Century." Richard began.
He had a way of adopting the pose of a teacher at times with Joey.
Joey could tell that he was about to receive one of Richard's five minute
lectures, but he was curious enough, and bored enough, to listen.
"The name Trinity Coalition come from two sources. The Trinity part
of the name comes from the old concept of the Trinity -- the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost -- in Protestant religion. The Coalition part of the
name comes from the Christian Coalition, formed in the 1980s by fundamentalist
Christians who were dissatisfied with American society and government and
became politically active. They wanted law to be based on Christian
values, and they were willing to become activists in the political system
to force change.
"Although society was changed in some ways by the
influence of the Christian Coalition, some members were not satisfied.
They thought that the Christian Coalition was too willing to compromise
with the "sinners" in society. They wanted a whole society based
on Christian values. They wanted law, medicine, art, music, television,
literature, and business to serve what they thought of as God's will.
They started an organization that included not only churches, but also
business, professional, and political associations all under the
same national leadership. Members only did business with other members
and only voted for members running for office. Church ministers are
social and political leaders as well as spiritual leaders. The church
teaches that every single aspect of ones life must serve God's will, and
the decision as to what that means in terms of what to buy, what to watch
on TV, and for whom to vote is made by the Trinity Coalition Minister in
each local church. It has proved to be a very successful idea, as
you and I very well know."
Joey was wary to more lecture, but he still wanted
to know, "What about all the other churches?"
"Oh, they're still there and some still are powerful
because they have a lot of members and cooperate with the Trinity Coalition
at times, but none can match the overall power of the TC."
* * * * *
"What will you have to do if you take the job?"
Joey asked.
"They want me to write computer code for them,"
Richard answered. "The guard said that I would get a PC in the cell
and all the documentation I need to write the code. I think that
the code is intended to be used in the Department of Health and Human Services.
They are having trouble getting all the databases in their system to work
together. At least I will have a PC to play with a bit, although
I'm sure that surveillance will be extra tight given my history.
In any case, it beats working in the laundry."
It was about 11:30 in the morning. A
guard came through the cell block announcing that lunch was about to start.
"Come on you scumbags, shut up and let's get in line." The guard
made a conspicuous show of the little hand held box that had the switch
that controlled their obedience rings. With that little box, a guard
could inflict terrible and incapacitating pain by causing the neck ring
that all inmates wore to deliver a carefully directed bit of current to
its wearer. These rings were also encoded to the cells themselves
so that any inmate who left his cell without having the ring shut off would
writhe in agony until a guard shut off the ring. Before the inmates
could go to the common area for lunch, their rings had to be switched from
automatic mode to manual, meaning that the guard himself had control through
the box.
Joey and Richard, as well as all the other
inmates, stood up and put their hands on top of their head. Each
one waited for the beeping signal that signified that their rings were
switched to manual control of the guard.
One inmate got a little anxious and left his
cell a moment early. All of the inmates could hear his screams, "Turn
it off!! Turn if off!! Oh please, boss, oh please, boss, turn
it off!!" The guard took his time. It was good that an inmate
occasionally got out of line. This gave the guards an opportunity
to show what the rings could do.
"Who is that?" Joey whispered to Richard without
moving his lips.
"Angelo Dupree," Richard answered, using the
same well practiced technique.
"Okay, Okay, I'll shut it off ," The
Guard grumbled. "Now quit your hollering. Boys, you all see
now that it's best to stay in line, don't you?"
In return, the expected chorus of "Yes, boss"
was given.
The inmates marched off in lock step, in complete
silence. Talking in line was punishable with the ring, and no one
with a fresh example in their head wanted to risk that.
Lunch was the same as it was virtually every
day. Dried beans cooked with fat pork, rice and stale bread.
It was enough for most inmates, but not for all, and some, like Angelo
Dupree, suffered from hunger. No one was fat in prison. It
was cheap for the prison to serve, and it was pretty healthy for the inmates,
although new inmates took a while to get used to the diet. It was
said that you could smell a new inmate for at least two weeks because of
his flatulence.
After quickly consuming the meal, the inmates
were marched back to their cells. Meals had to be eaten quickly since
there were so many people in the prison. In fact, the main dining
hall could seat 500, and there were 8 shifts for each meal. When
this prison had reached capacity, as all prisons had done so quickly in
the first half of the twenty-first century, the state had simply built
more cells on existing sites. There was no need to build more exercise
yards or dining areas since prisons weren't supposed to be luxury accommodations
anyway. It made the guards grumpy, and quick to use the box, but
was done as the only way society could afford to imprison a total of over
20,000,000 people out of a population of 325, 000,000.
* * * * *
After their lunch, Richard was summoned to
the Block Warden Josephson's office to talk about the job.
"Alright, Rosebaum, you've been told
about the job?" the Warden said very forcefully. Block Warden Josephson
was always curt and brusque with the inmates. He also always made
them stand in front of his desk with hands clasped in front, and he always
had a box in full view on his desk. Richard knew that it would not
have been wise to correct the Warden on the matter of his name.
"Yes sir, Warden."
"And you know that you are to have a Personal
Computer installed in your cell?"
"Yes sir, Warden"
"I hope that you realize that you are responsible
for that machine. If it disappears, you will be prosecuted for theft.
If it is broken, you will pay to replace it out of your personal funds.
If you use it for any purpose not contemplated by your job, you will be
punished." The Warden's voice lowered and the Warden glowered at
Richard over his dark and heavy eyebrows as he said that last part.
"Yes sir, Warden."
"Very well. A power strip will be included
to protect the unit from power spikes. That power strip will have
a small transmitter in it that will allow us to shut off the machine at
our discretion. No playing games, you understand!"
"Yes sir, Warden."
"One last thing. That machine will not
have a direct connection to the outside world. It will have a connection
to our central server. Any data streams between your machine and
the outside world will be routed through our server. Before transmission
to the outside world, one of our operators will check for content and monitor
each transmission. You will be able to get information from the Department
of Health and Human Services, and you will be able to send your competed
assignments to them, but only through our central server and only with
the approval of our monitor. Any attempt to defeat these precautions
will result in prosecution for theft of official information. You
do understand, don't you?"
"Yes sir, Warden."
Richard Roseman understood perfectly.
Some official "monitor" would be tracking his every use of the computer,
but that monitor would only be so good, and he would be busy on other tasks.
In fact, if the government could hire competent people on the outside to
do these jobs, they wouldn't need to use prisoner expertise. In fact,
he was sure, very sure, that the "monitor" would not be able to understand
the tasks he was expected to do and certainly would not be able to fully
monitor much beyond when data transmission took place and when the machine
was turned on. He was lost in thought when he realized that the Warden
was speaking to him again.
"You will be compensated at the rate of $3.00
per hour, such compensation to be placed in your account at this institution.
Is this acceptable?"
"Yes sir, Warden." Richard knew, of
course, any funds in that account would be appropriated to cover the cost
of the inmate's incarceration.
"Any further questions then?" The Warden
asked in a tone that made it clear that there were to be none.
"No sir, Warden. Thank you, sir."
The Warden placed his finger on the intercom
button switch and said, "Jones, come and get Rosebaum back to his cell."
* * * * *
The computer arrived the very next morning.
Its arrival was the occasion for a complete search of both the cell and
its occupants. Such procedures were not unusual, although, like most
interactions between guards and prisoners, a search was fertile ground
for abuse of the inmates. The guards were not in a mood for "fun"
today, and the search was completed quickly. When the technicians
were finished, a somewhat battered computer sat chained to the table in
their cell.
"So this is the key to power" said Joey with
only a small note of sarcasm. He was aware that now they were under
much greater surveillance than before and that they were likely being observed
even as they spoke. Had Richard been able to do so, he could likely
have taken the computer apart and found the offending devices, but the
ring around his neck reminded him often that he must be careful about what
he said and did. He remembered all too well the sensation that his
neck was slowly being torn from his body when he was given the obligatory
demonstration of the ring's function as part of his orientation process
when he came to this prison.
"This is the primary tool one needs to exercise
power," replied Richard as he began the process of exploring what the machine
would and would not do. He discovered standard word processing, spread
sheet, database and compiling software. There were no icons for games,
no multi-media package and the icon for communication was different than
he had seen before. He knew that this was because of the limits on
his communication with the outside virtual world.
Richard found a readme file and opened it
up. "Let's see what we have here," he said as he scrolled down the
text. It was his first assignment. He was charged with debugging
a set of coded instructions that was designed to link two separate databases.
The most recent spate of welfare reform laws had allowed Churches who required
a tithe from their members to receive that tithe via electronic transfer.
Thus, recipients of child support or other cash benefits could have their
tithe taken out automatically, and thus, avoid the need for writing a check
at the beginning of each month. Richard's job was to fix problems
with the routine that linked up the welfare rolls and the list of registered
church members. It was a fairly easy job that Richard could handle
in a day or two. He began to work on it immediately, preferring to
play with his new toy for a while. Joey watched and waited, occasionally
asking a question or two.
The following afternoon, the program was ready
for transmission. Richard had set up two dummy databases and tried
out the program. It seemed to work. The problem has been in
the way that the program defined the data fields. He wasn't sure
that he had set up databases that were just like the real ones, but he
preferred to proceed with caution. This meant that he would send
the file, with a note that said that it might need to be refined depending
on the actual way that the real databases were set up. If he heard
nothing, he would assume that he had gotten it right. If it
didn't work, he asked for example database files to use.
The transmission worked well enough, although
it took nearly an hour to get approval to send the data. Richard
remarked to Joey, "Next time, the approval will take less time. As
they get to trust me, approval of data transfers will go faster."
The new program did not work, and it was returned.
Richard was informed the next morning that he was to turn on his machine
and prepare to receive a transmission. When it came through, he had
another readme file. It turned out to include several database files,
which collectively were quite large and detailed, with quite a bit of information
about individual citizens, including place of employment, bank account
numbers, marital status, income figures, number of children, and records
of church attendance, among other items. One of the databases held the
membership records of several large churches. Contained within the
database were account numbers for the bank accounts of these churches.
Just as he was going to exit this file to see what instructions were enclosed,
a message flashed on his screen. It said, "Test message. Test
Message. Say nothing. Confirm receipt by subroutine 589."
The message disappeared and the next file came up on the screen.
Joey started to say something, but Richard put his hand on Joey's mouth
just in time. Their lives had just become much more dangerous, and,
more than likely, much more interesting.
Richard put his finger to his lips in the
classic sign for silence and went about his business of editing his program.
When he was finished, he looked at Joey and sighed. He typed in,
"subroutine 589." A message came up on the screen, "Prison slave
laborer, you are not alone. Type Y if you received our message and
want to know more. Type N if you just want to be left alone."
Richard typed "Y." The screen told him to await further information
in the next job and then the last file that he was viewing returned to
the screen. Richard looked in the files for evidence of the messages
or of subroutine 589. He found nothing, and he began to think about
how this could have been accomplished. He also began to worry that
he was being set up by the authorities yet again.
Later that night Richard and Joey were able
to talk in the muted tones they had learned were hardest for the guards
to hear.
"What was all that about the ‘test message'?"
Joey asked.
"I don't know," Richard responded slowly,
emphasizing each word.
"What do you think it was?"
"There are others out there, other doing the
same kind of slave labor I'm being forced to do. I've suspected all
along that the government has trouble finding certain skills among the
law abiding. There are other programmers out there, and they have
figured out how to communicate via viruses."
"Viruses?" Joey asked.
"Yeah," Richard replied. "These people
have imbedded little bits of programming into the data streams that are
activated when the file is opened. They look like the code for the
comment routines in the database programs, but they have the benefit of
flashing their message and then disappearing. The virus ‘eats' all
evidence that it was there once the message has been displayed. If
anyone were to catch that fact that some unusual code was in the data streams,
it would look just like a computer virus. All that would happen is
that the ‘virus' would be destroyed, and the anti-virus program would be
updated. It isn't traceable to the originator with any reliability.
My guess is that harmful viruses are purposely being created and sent out
to mask the communication ‘viruses'. I'm sure that there are plenty
of people in prison who are skilled enough to outwit government programmers.
After all, when I got out of college, only the mediocre students went to
work for the government."
"You mean that you can talk with other people
doing your kind of job? And not get caught?"
"I think so, but then I thought that the government
had no interest in a few jokes, and I thought that the First Amendment
still had some meaning. I've been wrong before or I wouldn't be here."
"What are you gonna do about it?"
"Wait for more messages."
* * * * *
New messages came with each assignment.
The limitations of the system were clear. The code that made up the
‘virus' had to be brief to avoid detection. Each message was brief,
but taken together they sent a clear message to Richard from his unknown
associates. We have power the authorities don't know we have and
we can use it to hurt them. We want you to use your job to wreck
their data systems.
After a month or so, Richard became more familiar
with the system. He learned how to encode messages himself and began
to ask questions. He asked, "How many more of us are there?"
He got no answer. He asked, "Where are you and who are you?"
He got no answer. He asked, "Do you want me to take action?"
The response was, "Do what you think is best."
During all this time, Richard was given fairly
easy assignments. Each was completed on time and each seemed to work
well. Just as January was about to become February, a guard brought
a basket of fruit to the cell. All he said was, "Good work, Rosebaum.
You people was always smart and the Warden likes your work." Richard
and Joey said nothing, but they did enjoy the fruit.
Richard had been keeping copies of his work
on floppy disks. As he explained to his monitor, "Sometimes I can
use stuff from an old job to make a new job go faster." One night
he was organizing these files into convenient subdirectories when he spotted
the database files he had needed to figure out that first job. An
idea began to take shape in his head.
He tried very hard to remember the pranks
that he had played on his fellow computer geeks while in college.
He could remember well putting a piece of code into a machine that caused
a pornographic video to be displayed on screen in a classroom. That
code was triggered by the first attempt to open a slide in a presentation
software package. When the command to open a slide was given, the
routine caused the computer to link to a web site in Singapore and download
the video. The professor was not amused, but the students were.
What was even better was that Richard had been able to make it look as
though the whole prank was done by another student. That student
had been able to avoid penalties, but just barely and only because he was
bright enough to keep all logs of his activities. Richard had never
been caught. It was just a matter of waiting for a job that would
be right for hiding the virus.
* * * * *
It was in early April that Richard was asked
to help create a system to automatically update a set of database files.
When people got jobs and got off of welfare, their status in a number of
files had to be changed. His job was to link up these files by creating
a system of logical statements that would look for inconsistencies, and
then automatically change a given individual's status in a variety of agency
files. It was perfect for what he had in mind. He did the job
on the 12th, but added in a bit of code that would cause one church to
apparently "raid" the membership lists of fellow churches. The First
Trinity Coalition Church of Albany would add a number of persons to its
list of members. Each person would turn out to be someone for whom
electronic tithe was in place. Each person would be a member of another
church in the area. It would appear that the code to make these transfers
of membership would originate in the First Trinity Coalition Church of
Albany. It only remained for someone to detect the fraud and turn in the
minister. Richard's ring seemed to tingle with potential energy as
he wrote the code. He knew that his fate was in the hands of an unknown
group of incarcerated hackers and in the incompetence of the monitor on
site at the prison.
Despite the sense that something awful was
going to happen, the 13th passed uneventfully as did the following week.
On the afternoon of the 21st, he was summoned to see Block Warden Josephson.
Richard was shaking as he entered the office, and his palms felt damp.
To his surprise, the warden had a smile on his face as he entered the room.
"Well, well, Roseman, it seems you have inadvertently
helped us out a great deal, although you may not know it. It seems
that your most recent job helped the police catch a thief."
"I'm very glad to help, sir," Richard told
the Warden. Maybe his little scheme had worked after all. He
certainly was very curious about the punishment to be meted out to the
offending clergyman, but knew better than to ask. He would just have
to resign himself to not knowing since inmates were denied access to television,
radio, and newspapers.
"I wanted to let you know that we are pleased
with your work here and ask if there is anything we can do to make your
job a bit easier," asked the Warden.
Richard thought for a second. He wanted
to have more free time to work on the computer sabotage. His little
scheme had apparently worked and he wanted more freedom to use it again.
"Thank you for the fruit, sir. It was much appreciated. Well,
sir, I like to stay busy. Perhaps you could allow me to teach my
cell mate, Joey Lishko, how to use a computer. It would give him
a chance at a job when he gets out."
"Lishko, Lishko," the Warden mumbled as he
called up Joey's records on his screen. "Ah yes, here it is.
Convicted of armed robbery, sentenced to 17 years. I will have to
think about this. Check your screen tomorrow for my answer.
I understand that you have another job coming in from Health and Human
Services and I will append my message to that."
* * * * *
Richard had a lot to think about as he was
returned to his cell. When he got there, he told Joey that he would
find out tomorrow whether they could begin computer lessons. Of course,
he had already taught Joey a great deal, but having official sanction for
doing so would free him up from scrutiny from the monitor since he could
always say that he was preparing a lesson for Joey if he was asked what
he was doing on the machine while he was preparing his next attack.
The next day, Richard checked the machine
for the job he was expecting. As he anticipated, he was given clearance
to begin official lessons with Joey. The new job was different that
the last one in that he was charged with writing program code that would
link databases containing information about the salary of workers to databases
in the juvenile support system. Automatic deductions for child support
from the salaries of divorced workers were commonplace, but it was hard
to track workers as they changed jobs without regular communication between
the databases. Richard's next victim was to be an administrator in
the Albany County Public Aid Office. He was going to have the county
appear to pay the tithe of one Harold Young, Associate Director of Public
Aid and a member of the First Trinity Coalition Church of Albany.
The instructions to do so would appear to originate in the Public Aid Office
itself.
* * * * *
Over the course of the next few months, Richard
continued to do the jobs he was asked. He taught Joey the rudiments
of word processing, spread sheet, and database programs. He thought
up new ways to attack the system. He occasionally was in communication
with his unknown fellow prison slave laborers. As is always true
in prison, life droned on with little variation from day to day.
Richard grew bored with the tasks he was asked to do, grew bored with teaching
Joey how to use a computer, grew bored with attacking the membership of
the First Trinity Coalition Church of Albany. He had been in prison
for 18 months now, and the prospect of 42 more months hung heavy in his
mind.
On morning in December, Richard turned on
the computer to get a new assignment. As he opened the file containing
his instructions, a message flashed across the screen: "Whatever you are
doing, stop it! Every Jewish accountant in the city of Albany has
been put in jail."
Richard felt sick to his stomach as the implications
of this message sunk in. He should have known that a scapegoat would
be found. He should have known that entrenched powers would not be
vulnerable to subtle attack. Now, even as he spoke, dozens of men
were suffering because of his actions. Dozens of families were reduced
to destitution. Dozens of children would likely be hungry tonight.
And, the Trinity Coalition would be stronger than ever because yet one
more profession would be dominated by members of the Church.
That afternoon, Richard asked to see the Warden.
When he was taken to see Warden Josephson,
Richard made one simple request. "I would like to be reassigned to
work in the laundry, sir."
"You no longer wish to do programming work
for us?" queried the Warden.
"No sir, Warden." Richard hung his head
as he mumbled these words.
"What defense can you offer for this sudden
refusal to do the productive work for which you are so well trained?"
The Warden demanded angrily.
"There is no defense for my actions, sir."
fin