THE LAST ARK

CHAPTER 14: INSIDE OUT

Maison Godin Prison, Quebec Five Days Before Temple Ceremony

Jester surrounds himself with forty-foot-long walls of active monitors the ultimate attention-defi cit nirvana. With a shaved head, body tattoos, pierced ears, and a hipster beard, Jester practically vibrates with a hyper restless, genius energy. Fingernails painted black and green hemmed by leather and silver bangles tap an erratic, nervous pattern on his scalp as he studies the screens. One entire wall features dozens of live news or active cybersecurity data screens, which he secretly siphons from multiple secure government and commercial sources. A global view of wars, cybersecurity, climate, refugees, starvation, and political corruption. Th e perfect apocalyptic mirror for Jester’s chronically paranoid mind. “Like, Putin has a plan, you know. Th e dude is slicker than slick. Th e master Machiavellian, and the Lex Luthor in the Lord of the Lies,” Jester banters to himself. “He won’t stop with crushing Ukraine. Putin wants revenge on the west. He wants the world to fear him. What was it he said last year? Oh, yeah. Digital giants have been playing an increasingly significant role in wider society. We are now talking about economic giants, aren’t we?” Jester paces a figure eight on the floor, his hands tapping on his shaved head, thinking, until he spins a little dance move. “Putin plans to use those giants against us. But how?” “Please restate your inquiry,” replies the WITNESS. For decades, Taylor worked to expose the Concilium Tredecim even after Jester advocated SNO shift attention to the Kremlin Killjoy, the Crime Czar, the Moscow Madman. Social media and independent news are illegal in Russia, but Russian hackers still need the internet to launch cyberattacks on the west. After Ukraine, the hacktivist group, Anonymous, launched a cyberwar on Russia, causing temporary disruption to several Kremlin networks. Putin will retaliate in a major unspoken declaration of war type of attack. To avoid retaliation or full-scale war, he will need something untraceable. T he opposite monitor wall divides into segments covering artificial intelligence, quantum research, intelligence networks, national defense, and social media filters to capture trends. The entire neural network of human endeavor grows at exponential rates. The global web added over 59 zettabytes in 2020 and 74 zettabytes in 2021. By 2025, the global data sphere will grow 175 zettabytes annually. Given that a zettabyte equals a trillion gigabytes, even Jester has a hard time wrapping his noggin around that much global activity in every language. No government or technology on earth can ensure the security of that much data. None. His mind forms patterns of data clusters connecting and interacting in a dynamic cascade. “Dig it, like, maybe the internet is the image of the beast, you know. Like in the book of Revelation. A digital reflection of the best and most immoral parts of who we are, you know.” “Please restate your inquiry,” WITNESS replies. An autistic savant regarding hacking, cybersecurity, and quantum cryptology, Jester never fit in; not at home, or at his dad’s evangelical church, or at school, or at the stodgy CIA, where he never drank the hyper-patriotic Kool Aid. Some at the CIA believe he has a rather fluid grasp on reality. They’re right. All of them are a bunch of metal-head thinkers who live and bleed the red, white, and blue in a changing kaleidoscope world. Taylor was different. Nonjudgmental. A visionary with a global mindset. Taylor built a domain worthy of the wizard. He jives why Taylor wants to find the SLVIA, but he’s never seen the flapjack so unhinged, so reckless. “Like the flapjack has gone sizzle on the griddle a little too long, you know?” Jester banters as his train of thought leads him. “Please restate your inquiry,” NIGEL replies. Following the discovery of the SolarWinds and other software update hacks, AI systems worldwide have experienced minor glitches. Water treatment plants, air traffic control towers, missile launches, spoofed radar, and car deaths. Those patterns combine with a sharp rise in ransomware. A pattern develops but is still too vague to paint a picture. “OK, OK, the Kremlin uses corporate social media to spread disinformation to divide Americans and agitate hatred. Elections, climate, vaccines, race, religion—everything is on the table as long as it divides. Pin it.” Jester follows the kinetic data he envisions in his head as he spins around the room. “Pinned,” repeats WITNESS, an aristocratic preteen in a three-piece suit. Jester’s fingers tap an erratic beat on his chest, then his arms swing out in a dance move, folding back into a self-hug. “Putin uses ransomware to fund a badass crypto cyber war chest. Pin it.” Cut off from international banking, oil, crypto-ransomware and trade with China are Putin’s only other sources of cash. “Pinned,” repeats WITNESS. Jester spins on his heels and goes back to his figure eight. “Dig it, we also know the Kremlin bought up the video kompromat from Epstein, Brunel, Khashoggi, and Yankovic. Enough slime to manipulate politicians, lower cyber budgets, delay prosecutions, and let regulations slide. He’s using kompromat to lower our shields. Yeah, but for what?” “Please restate the inquiry,” WITNESS responds. “Disrupt and destroy, baby,” Jester states. “Like cancer on democracy, a plague on human decency, eating at us constantly. Bringing the high life down to mafia low life, you know.” Jester pivots to do an impromptu Michael Jackson crotch grab, then releases. “Nah, I’m missing something. SolarWinds was, like, only the tip of an iceberg. It changed the game and uncovered an entirely new strategy of attack, like sneaking in through the back door. There was no ransom, no digital data theft. What are those Putin pixel-ponies doing in there?” T he unfettered introduction of AI and quantum into the global net chemistry seems blind to the inevitable penetration of the dark web or despots. Building AI into cyber defenses and cyber malware will proliferate and mutate without control. Cyber and AI flip all the rules for winning a war inside out. Jester comes to the only conclusion a rational mind can reach: there will be no winning this war. T hen an epiphany stops Jester in his dance tracks and freezes the tapping f ingers on his chest. It strikes him like a lightning bolt. Inside out, eating like acid. He knows the Kremlin’s cyber strategy, and if Jester is correct, we have few defenses and even less time to stop a disaster.