Ryan Somma - The Spiraling Web

"That code is proprietary," Carl snapped, "which is why-"

"Exactly," Zai and Lessig said together.

"...which is why DataStreams intends to sue the IWA for this obvious breach of public trust," Carl continued. "Someone in that organization decompiled proprietary information and used it to destroy not only the company I represent, but every corporation on this planet. This class-action lawsuit's magnitute, every major corporation suing the world-wide governing body, has never been seen in history..."

Zai suddenly felt immensely burdened, "Would you mind flipping it to SSDD?"

"Certainly," Jodie said, tapping in the address. "You know, I'd heard this was a good newsfeed, but I could never my system to download it."

"I bet it'll work now," Zai said, the burden lifting. "I bet all the independent voices are being swamped with online traffic right now."

"Rather like a Renaissance in Cyberspace," Jodie offered, and then, "I used to teach University Literature."

"I used to take Literature," Zai's face split into a goofy grin.

Both fell silent as the media stream resolved, "You're online with SSDD News. Today's top headlines: World Bank Struggling to Recover Accounts Destroyed by IWA Anti-Virus, Computer Scientists Debate the Web Architecture Flaws That Allowed Flatline Virus to Propagate, IWA Apprehends Suspected Author of the Flatline Virus-"

"That one!" Zai clutched Jodie's arm. "I want to hear that story!"

The link opened with a click, "Welcome to SSDD News. Today's top story, the International Web Authority this morning announced it has apprehended the suspected engineer of the Flatline Virus. While they were unable to reveal the suspect's identity due to his status as a Juvenile, Reuters Headline News has learned they were apprehended in Norfolk, Virginia..."

Devin? Zai wondered, and continued listening.

"...at a public library after police and IWA officers were unable to locate him at his home," the woman said, "Authorities believe he will be an important factor in preventing future outbreaks of the virus."

That hacker is too powerful to let himself be caught , Zai thought to herself, and only Devin would hide out in a public library.

"Where are they holding him?" Zai demanded.

"They didn't say," Jodie offered apologetically. "I would guess at the IWA headquarters."

"Yeah," Zai frowned, "but they've got headquarters in every state and country across the globe and the means to ship him to any of them in under an hour. Damn."

They sat in silence for several long moments.

"SSDD," Jodie finally mused quietly. "I wonder what that stands for."

"The name doesn't make much sense to me," Zai shrugged, weary. "Same Dollar-sign Pound Exclamation Point Question Mark Different Day News."

Jodie typed this out on her palm computer, "Same $#!? Different Day News."

"It reads 'Same Stuff Different Day'," Jodie described, "only replace 'stuff' with the s-word. You know, poo."

"How do you get that out of it?" Zai puzzled.

"They symbols look the same," Jodie explained. "The dollar-sign looks like an 'S,' the pound sign like an 'H'..." She trailed off, obviously uncomfortable with going further.

"I see," Zai said, absorbing this new perspective on something familiar, a new layer of understanding. "It must be like that Leet-Speak Devin once told me about."

"Leet-Speak?" Jodie asked.

"Short for 'Elite Speak.' Hacker cryptography," Zai explained. "They use it to communicate though public channels."

"Hm," Jodie mused thoughtfully. "How clever. They communicate right out in the open and only someone thinking along the same lines can read it. It's so simple, it's brilliant."

"That's the point. Like minds..." Zai drifted off, thinking. She said, "Are you tired of me yet Jodie?"

"Of course not," Jodie scoffed. "I am thoroughly enjoying this tour of the Internet by one of its experts. It's like being taken around to all the best shops in town by one of the locals."

"You want to explore something with me then?" Zai asked. "I need your eyes and your imagination to do this."

"Okay," Jodie offered helpfully.

"You know what SSDD did with sh-uh... With the s-word," Zai began. "Could you try doing that with the term 'Legion of Discord' and plugging it into the ideonexus search engine?"

What followed was the most infuriating twenty-minutes of Zai's life. Zai knew what result the right answer would get from ideonexus, but lacked the visual acuity mandatory to figuring out the puzzle. All of these characters were sounds to her, their pattern similarities were complete unknowns to her, but if she did have sight, she was certain she would fair better than poor Jodie.

Finally, one of Jodie's inputs returned over a hundred thousand results:

|_[-6][()|\| ()|= |)()()[V]

"Awesome!" Zai exclaimed at first hearing the news, but browsing the links, she knew they had to narrow down their results. "Add IWA to the end of that string in Leet-speak."

"'eye \X/ 4,'" returned the best results out of the character combinations Jodie could come up with.

Zai was actually thankful for the one-hour delay they experienced in Philidelphia when she realized they needed to narrow the results down even further, "Add 'Devin Matthews' to that."

"Is that you're boyfriend?" Jodie asked with a touch of humor.

Zai was caught off guard, but managed to answer, "He's the closest thing I've got to one."

" '|>{-\/!<\> []V[]@++]-[3\_|_/$'," Jodie entered on her last attempt. Growing more confident at this she said, "That one isn't returning anything."

Zai thought it out, "Try 'Omni.'"

Apparently Jodie was getting the hang of this, because the portal responded to her third query, "Did you mean '()|\/||\|]['?"

"Click that. Click that! Yes! Definitely that's what you meant!" Zai urged excitedly.

"It's a paper," Jodie said, looking over the single link. "It's for breaking into the International Web Authority's Intranet. There's a web address."

"Go to it," Zai ordered.

"Are we hacking IWA?" Jodie asked.

"We're trying to," Zai answered.

"How exciting."

Although Zai felt the tension, she could not observe her knuckles blanched from her fingers griping her seat's armrests. Forty minutes had passed following the Legion of Discord's directions for breaking into IWA's website to no avail. The intercom announced their arrival at Penn Station, and Zai knew this avenue of investigation had come to an end.

"I'm sorry Zai," Jodie said, gathering her things to take on Baltimore. "I really hope you find what you're looking for. I'll e-mail you when I get to my hotel."

Zai nodded, the lump in her throat prevented her from speaking.

Jodie took Zai's hand in both of hers, "You're a very brave girl, and I know the Cosmos is looking out for you."

They broke physical contact and Zai struggled to push the sobs welling up in her down. She picked up her palm-computer, rubbing its smooth screen. It was turned on, broadcasting light-waves that signified mass quantities of data to the dead receptors that were her eyes. The world was a great big lonely place designed exclusively for people who could see it. Zai was an aberration, unable to function within the world.

A man grunted as he sank into the seat beside her, his oversized mass shifting the incline of her seat. Zai's desperation transmogrified into anger, but she cognitively willed herself to remain diplomatic.

"Pardon me Sir," she began in her best estimation of meekness. "Do you have Internet access?"

"What?" he grunted. "You can't afford it or something? Get your own service provider. You can even get them free you know."

"No sir," she said, her innards contorting to prevent her from gouging out his eyes. "I'm blind, and my headset is on the fritz. Could you run a few online queries for me? It won't take but a moment."