Girl Zero (Girl 0 Book 1) by Mike Grist & Michael John Grist

Author:Mike Grist & Michael John Grist [Grist, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shotgun Books
Published: 2022-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

31

SHOW

The shifting screens were mesmerizing, movements of power ebbing and flowing across the darknet, as visualized by a graphic Rex formulated in real time: thousands of tiny pixels shifting from blue to red from left to right as possession of different servers and nodes swapped.

Incursions came in and went out as spikes of red attacked and were rebuffed, chased by blue counterattacks, which were met by engulfing actions that variously failed or succeeded. Many times the battlefield expanded, with the existing squares reduced in size or conjoined as thousands more were added. At first every square represented clusters of thousands of computers, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands.

Zero couldn't take her eyes away. The screen kept shifting and changing like three-dimensional chess, organically and entrancingly, at a scale she'd never before imagined possible.

This was a data war for a vast swathe of the darknet, and it kept on going until at some point Zero's adrenaline spike crashed and she slumped back in her chair, asleep.

When she woke it was to Hellion's voice.

"Clara Baxter, war is over, time to wake."

Zero blinked, rubbed her eyes and sat up on her chair. Daylight suffused the tent, shining in through the plastic view windows. The detritus of her middle-of-the-night pierogi lay around her, all finished, along with several crushed cans of coke. She peered at the screen until details resolved. At first she picked out the clock, saying it was nearly midday already.

She cursed.

"No need to curse," B4cksl4cker boomed through the speakers. "This is major victory. Very large part of local darknet now belongs to us."

"Not secret shadow line, though," Hellion added. "We could not find this. Connection points, perhaps, where current darknet feeds to shadow line. But these are severed. There is no way in."

Zero stood up. The trails of a nightmare pulled away like invisible roots; something dark and overbearing, trapped in a cell assaulted by dead pigs, while fires burned all around. She shook her head to clear it. There seemed to be so many things happening at once.

"So, what did you find?"

Hellion laughed. "Battle is just over. Looting can now begin. I have also upgraded your Rex. He is powerful now, backed with independent server array, stronger AI, many improvements. I like these ideas you use for him. He can be good bloodhound, find Viktor Anatoly himself, work as overwatch when your friends Hellion and B4cksl4cker are not available, perhaps sleeping."

"So there's no sign of Hope? What about the Blue Fairy exchanges? That's where they sell children. Could you find them?"

"We cannot see this yet," Hellion answered. "We expect many such transactions are on shadow line by now. Not open darknet. There is clear migration of Bratva data and services for some time. Most severe crimes, human trafficking, political manipulation, these are already shifted onto shadow line. It is carrying burden for much criminal activity. We cannot penetrate this digitally."

"Of course, this is bad," B4cksl4cker added. "Real Boys and Bratva together? Yes."

Zero said nothing for a moment, squinting against the light flooding in through the tent flaps.

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