VICTOR NUGENT and Tyler Wilkens just stood there, astonished, while Clarence Rainer made the urgent call to the president’s office.
The tech team had discovered a massive viral infestation within the World Government’s financial sector computer systems. The President’s office startled them even more by granting them Carte Blanche to deal with the situation. With a massive government payment due within the week, they weren’t taking any chances.
“Hold on,” said Wilkens. He approached one of the viral blobs. It reacted to his touch. Using his virtual hands, Wilkens picked up the quivering mass. It felt oozy in his hands, like a mass of gelatin. Swiping his hand from left to right, a virtual window popped up. He selected the magnifying glass function, and the image of the blob zoomed up on the screen. He examined it from all angles. But when he looked underneath the blob, there appeared a circular greenish glow. It was pulsating.
“Now this is interesting,” said Wilkens excitedly. “I didn’t expect this.”
“What do you see?” asked Victor, confused.
“I configured my rendering software to pick out certain code fragments that I’ve identified in my programming sequences,” said Wilkens. “See that pulsating green glow underneath this virus?”
Both men uttered at the same time, “Uh huh.”
“Well, that’s the kill code that I put in my programming,” said Wilkens. “It’s no secret that hackers and certain programmers will put secret backdoors or kill switches into their programs. I put in a kill-switch fragment in my coding. Only I know about it. Anyone mimicking or trying to build other viruses, even weaponized ones, will end up incorporating a kill code that renders the virus inert.”
“What does that mean for us?” asked Clarence.
“Watch this,” said Wilkens. He opened the virtual utility folder and pulled out an eyedropper which he placed onto the glowing pulsating greenish glow. He squeezed the bulbous part of the dropper and suctioned up some of the glowing essence. He activated another folder, pulled out a device, and inserted the dropper.
The device had a numerical keypad with selection display. Wilkens scrolled down the selection bar and highlighted Dispersion Grenade. He set the numerical counter at 1,000. Then he pressed the <RUN> button. In a matter of moments, dispersion grenades started popping out of the device.
“This is it. Everybody, pick up as many grenades as you can handle and put them into your rucksacks. I’ll show you how to use them,” said Wilkens.
After the device finished producing the full number of grenades and they were packed away, Wilkens and the group moved on to each virus-infected virtual corridor. He plucked a grenade out of his rucksack and pulled the pin.
“Although we’re in a virtual environment, you should plug your ears and take shelter. You’ll have only a few seconds to find cover once you launch,” said Wilkens.
“Do as I do when we’re in the vicinity of these viruses,” said Wilkens. He tossed the activated grenade into the center of the infected corridor.
The team ducked around the hallway from the main corridor where the grenade was dropped. A split second later, a boom sounded, and they felt the virtual chamber shudder. Wilkens peeked around the wall to assess the damage. He signaled for the others to join him.
“The coast is clear. It’s safe to come out,” said Wilkens.
The group emerged back onto the corridor, but now all they saw was the red goo of the destroyed viruses throughout the corridor. They were annihilated. The gooey mass was fast turning into red dust, falling and disintegrating into nothing. The corridor was completely clear of the virus.
“Now all we have to do is proceed throughout the financial section of this computer system to clear the entire mess of viruses there. With the three of us, we should be able to rid the system of the virus in a matter of hours.”