Bloodsc0urge
Be careful who you trust and who you ignore
Many had heard the tales. Biomedical papers had failed to explain it, though some suspected a deeper level of truth. The heartbeat of the average conspiracist was now definitely overclocked.
“I am BloodSc0urge,” the message read.
“The time is right. May those without fear be prepared, for my wrath will be righteous!”
At 18.37, Markus Zeff’s heart exploded. The net was flooded with photographs from his lawsuit.
“Injunction error. The matter has been settled out of court. BloodSc0urge.”
While there were no encryption details, there was a note detailing six Black ICE systems. However they’d got in, it hadn’t been easy.
There had been rumours of a bio-assassin for years, though now it seemed to be true. They’d all heard the name, though none had ever seen BloodSc0urge online. Not even Jimmy Analog had a word to say on the matter, though others had their own suspicions about how much he knew.
It was no secret that Jimmy Analog hated Markus Zeff. Many people did. You can’t be one of the lords of a dystopian future without making a few enemies. Analog had sent a few host bodies after him, but none had ever made it back alive. Paul Four met a particularly nasty end. Paul Seven refused every single request.
Zeff was a megacorp. Not Zeff Ltd., Zeff Inc. or any of that. Just Zeff. When you’re big enough, you only need one name. The problem is, you end up forgetting that the other names might just take issue. You get big enough, you start thinking it’s easy to hide. Online you shield yourself behind layers and layers of lies. A little like the cartels. You’ve got plenty of meat shields doing your dirtwork. Hands clean. Yes, officer, I was never there. You may clear any further requests via my lawyers. Thank you very much, officer.
It was easy, really, especially when nobody takes you seriously. Easy to be invisible amongst the sleeping giants. Easy to sidestep security when you’re not considered a threat. Goes double when people believe that what you do isn’t actually possible. Antichristine had got the idea from an old video game. Based on Dungeons and Dragons, or something like that. The spell “Precognitive Death”, sending a message to the brain that the body had shut down, and that was that. After all, the body was ruled by electrical impulses, the same as the rest of the net. A combination of ones and zeroes. All you had to do was reconfigure where a few more zeroes went. The Black ICE disappeared as quickly as renal function. Arteries closed behind her as she left with Zeff’s final exhale.
Payment proceeded, as usual, Jimmy Analog saw to that. She had no need to pay him a visit. He never even knew her name, only BloodSc0urge. The transaction was carried out by a third party. Jimmy knew how to keep his fingers clean, except his trigger finger, but she was safe from his bullets from inside cyberspace.
This one was prompted by Zane Dickens commenting on a character name from one of the genre challenges on Microcosm. I figured it’d be fun to expand the character a little, and Antichristine gained a new avatar.
Interesting to see how the world building plays out when you play with a character’s backstory.
