Kill Switch

by William Hertling

  As a modern society, we have discovered better ways to educate, collaborate, organize, and grow as individuals. In other words, to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In the course of this ongoing discovery, we have come to value:

  Distributed information over centralized information.

  Community organization over authoritarian or hierarchical systems.

  Practical and pragmatic working systems over theoretical systems.

  Freedom of information over information controls.

  These values can only be achieved through an independent, secure, and free system of global Internet communication, owned and controlled by the people.

  The establishment will argue for the illusion of security through control, but they cannot promise you safety. At most, they can lie and pacify while the world disintegrates around you.

  We can build a better world, better systems for better human beings, by giving you communication you own and control, which no establishment can take away.

  Today, we give you Tapestry 2.0.

  The text faded away and a video started, a woman in the foreground of a semi-dark room. The dark grey cots in the background and bare concrete walls gave the appearance of a military compound. She had deep bags under her eyes, and a haggard appearance.

  “My name is Igloo. I’m a cofounder of Tapestry. For the past several days, I and a dozen engineers at Tapestry have been on the run from a rogue branch of the U.S. government called BRI that is trying to kill us in order to keep us from releasing Tapestry 2.0.

  “The leader of BRI is a man named Enso. Enso killed Angie Benenati, the CEO of Tapestry, and made it look like an accident. The government is hiding this information.

  “Enso is trying to discredit us or kill us, whatever it takes to prevent Tapestry 2.0 from being released. This is not just conjecture. I have proof.”

  The image of Igloo cut away and was replaced by a grainy video with obvious fish eye distortion. The video showed a desk, and on the desk was a bank of monitors three monitors wide and two high. Each of the displays was distorted by heavy flashing lines suggestive of anti-copying technology.

  But visible through the distortion, in bits and pieces, were people. An undistorted digital overlay, obviously added in post-production, overlaid captions under each of the monitors:

  Enso (BRI Head)

  Signals Intelligence Director Feldson, aka “Griz”

  Special Agent in Charge Haldor

  The audio track was less distorted. The meeting participants spoke about infiltrating and compromising Tapestry. They discussed fabricating an evidence package, compromising Igloo, and stopping T2 at any cost.

  The video conference meeting faded away to be replaced by a new face, also in the same military bunker as Igloo.

  “My name is Robin White. I was assigned as an undercover agent covering Tapestry a year ago, and I spent months training to infiltrate the company. My mission was to provide inside information on Tapestry’s most secret activities by getting close to key Tapestry employees. But what I learned over the course of a year is that Tapestry was doing nothing illegal. What I found instead was a company driven by a social mission to protect and help people, to prioritize individuals over financial profits. The employees of Tapestry have consistently behaved in the most ethical manner.

  “When it became obvious that Tapestry had done nothing wrong, my former boss at BRI, Enso, overstepped his legal authority. He asked for the fabrication of evidence against the company as a whole and against key employees. In doing so, Enso has compromised the United States government, both legally and ethically. I believe Enso also ordered the death of Angie Benenati, the CEO of Tapestry.”

  Igloo reappeared onscreen.

  “The future of democracy and personal rights hangs in the balance. For too long, we have delegated responsibility for our personal rights to governments and corporations. With Tapestry 2.0, we’re putting the power to ensure privacy, freedom of association, and the power of secure communication back in the people’s hands.”

  Chapter 61

  The plane landed at Portland International. The runway itself was clear, but nearly every square foot of tarmac surrounding the runway was covered with emergency response and military vehicles, as far as the eye could see.

  The National Guard was there in force. As were the Port of Portland police. The FBI. The Portland police department. The airport fire suppression team. The Portland fire department. Surrounding the airport, outside the chain link fences, hundreds of cars, with more arriving by the minute. Every online medium was afire with news of Tapestry 2.0 and the government’s showdown with Igloo and team, and now ordinary people were coming to see the spectacle, or to lend support for one side or the other.

  Once they landed, Igloo and Doug peacefully barricaded the Coast Guard pilots into the cockpit cabin and explained through the door that they had no beef with them, but they couldn’t surrender the plane quite yet.

  Meanwhile, everything at the airport was at a standoff. There were hundreds of weapons trained on the plane, but no one fired while they sat there on the tarmac.

  Even from here, Igloo could see dozens of media vehicles with their tall antennas and oversized cameras protruding above the crowd.

  A few times, National Guardsmen approached the plane. By then Igloo and the T2 team had hacked into the controls. Anytime someone approached, they moved the plane forward or back. That was enough to forestall the approach, until the National Guard wedged armored vehicles in front of and behind the plane. Now they had nowhere to go, and Igloo expected it was only a matter of time before someone forced a door open from the outside.

  The rest of the T2 team was online, talking with the public, encouraging more people to come forward, to call their government representatives, to get involved in the T2 community leadership.

  National and international mass media covered the standoff, making it the number one trending topic on nearly every site. Igloo glanced through the main media organizations she was familiar with, and they all had live coverage with commentary. This surpassed anything she could have imagined.

  In the midst of all this, there was a renewed and escalating public debate over the BDSM videos that BRI had released several days earlier, calling into question Igloo’s credibility and authority. A good portion of the tech community, which was liberal and weird by normal social standards, didn’t care much what Igloo did with her own time, though others did. To Igloo’s surprise, people were suddenly coming out as kinky and defending her.

  Developers were already inspecting the T2 source code, which had been posted publicly. The team shared the details of the online stewardship community that would be responsible for T2 going forward. Notable members of the open source community were signing on.

  Igloo opened a channel with Tapestry’s lawyers, who were working on the T2 team’s legal options. The Electronic Frontier Foundation activated all of their legal resources and joined forces with Tapestry’s legal team.

  Citizens had drones flying, ignoring the no-fly zone around the airport, keeping an eye on everything. The National Guard shot down dozens of drones at first, but they kept coming, and eventually someone decided the risk of injuring bystanders wasn’t worth taking down every drone.

  Around eight that evening, David Schwartz, Tapestry’s lead lawyer, relayed the first firm offer from the government: “They want T2 shut down, and a peaceful surrender of the T2 team.”

  “They’re not offering anything,” Igloo said.

  “On the contrary,” he said. “What they’re offering is legitimacy. This is coming direct from the deputy director of the FBI, who will take it out of the hands of any rogue agencies. The offer is coming from a direct and well-known person. We can at least expect due legal process. You won’t disappear into some black hole.”

  “No deal,” Igloo said. “Besides, we’ve destroyed our copy of the private keys, so we can’t be forced to change T2. It’s out there, and there’s nothing w
e can do to take it back.” That was a half lie, but at least it gave them a plausible way to avoid being compelled.

  She checked the stats. Nearly thirty percent of Tapestry clients had updated.

  Igloo wrote down the details of the government offer and leaked it to CNN through an anonymous account. If evil flourished in darkness and secrecy, then she had to fight with transparency. Within a half hour not just CNN but every mass media outlet was reporting on the government deal and offering predictions on what else each side would barter for. Every expert they consulted spouted off more theory. Eventually she got tired of watching.

  Night came. Tapestry updates were still increasing, minute by minute, but there was a long way to go before T2 was out to the majority of people. Igloo glanced out the airplane windows from time to time, careful to ensure the interior LEDs were off to avoid backlighting in case some sniper got excited. There was a sea of lights as far as Igloo could see. She desperately wanted sleep, and yet she feared that the moment she closed her eyes, something would happen. The lawyers kept telling Igloo to wait.

  She found herself curled up next to Essie at one point.

  Eyes closed, she reached out to grab Essie’s collar, found only bare skin, and remembered belatedly that Forrest’s team had cut it off.

  “We’ve made so many mistakes,” Igloo said, running her fingers over Essie’s collarbone. “I’ve been so angry about you spending time with Michael. I’ve let too much distance come between us.”

  Essie sighed. “I have as well. It’s not easy watching you go off to play with Charlotte. You always have this look on your face when you’re texting her. It eats me up inside.”

  Igloo opened her eyes to meet Essie’s gaze. “Why did you never say anything?”

  “It was too hard. It was easier to go set up another date with Michael. At least he’s always excited to see me.”

  “I didn’t know you were struggling. I thought you were totally happy with poly.”

  Essie laughed. “Totally happy? You know I only wanted to go out on some dinner dates, right? I never actually thought we were going to have relationships with other people.”

  “What?” Igloo sat back up. “You said you wanted to date.”

  “I wanted to go on dates. Not get involved with people. Not fall in love with anyone else.”

  “Are you in love with Michael?”

  Essie was quiet for a moment. “Not really. But I’ve been having sex with him. I know I said I wasn’t. I don’t know why I lied. I knew you would be hurt, and I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  Igloo tried to decide how she felt. There was mostly a void inside her. Finally, she decided. “I think I knew, on some level. I’m not surprised.”

  “We’ve made things so much harder on ourselves,” Essie said. “If we’d been honest with each other throughout, especially you—”

  “Especially me?” Igloo said. “You just told me how you lied about having sex with Michael.”

  “I know I’ve lied about a few big things, and that was a mistake. I’m sorry. But you’ve been using dishonesty as your primary mechanism to deal with any discomfort or conflict. You’re dishonest with yourself every time you attribute all the blame to me for a difficult poly situation, rather than examining the role you played. Just look at the past few months. How many times did you fault me for what was happening rather than look at what you were doing?”

  Igloo rubbed her face. Was Essie right? She had always blamed Essie for getting upset when she planned a date with Charlotte, yet nearly every single time, she’d made those dates without checking in with Essie first.

  “Let me make sure I understand this,” Igloo said. “You used to always get upset when I would make a date with Charlotte. Was that because I was having a date or because I didn’t check in with you first?”

  “Because you didn’t check in with me. Isn’t that obvious?”

  Igloo shook her head. “I thought you were angry because I was going on the date, period.”

  “We’re non-monogamous. Of course you’re going to go on dates. I just wanted to feel like I mattered enough for you to check in with me.”

  Igloo felt like the plane was spinning. Her whole view of everything was wrong. “I’ve been an idiot, haven’t I?”

  Essie raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Then she slowly nodded.

  Igloo rested her head on Essie shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  They sat together for a moment in silence.

  “Where do we go from here?” Essie asked. She played her fingers over Igloo’s lips.

  Igloo was still quiet, thinking. She hated that poly was so hard. She was used to being good at what she did. It was hard to cope with this feeling of—

  “Don’t do that,” Essie said. “Don’t sit there and try to figure it all out in your head. Tell me what you’re honestly thinking.”

  Igloo took a breath. “It’s hard for me to admit when I’m wrong. Because if I’m wrong, then it means I’m not doing something perfectly. I want to be perfect.”

  “You’re not perfect,” Essie said. “Nobody is. I still love you. But this pretend version of perfection makes you unable to see or work on the problems that exist. And that’s what I want—for the two of us to be able to work on things together.”

  Igloo slowly nodded. “I know,” she said. “I want to work on things together. I love having you as my partner. And part of me cringes to say this, because I know how difficult poly makes things, and the stress that it puts on our relationship, but I still want to play with others.”

  Essie rested her head on Igloo’s chest. “I feel the same. I want to be with you. And I want to keep seeing Michael. But we can’t keep going at it the way we have. We need help. We need to see a therapist together.”

  “We can talk to Alan. He’s starting to really help me get a handle on things.”

  “Is that your chatbot thing?” Essie said. “Because I can’t do that. I want to see a real person. I want us to talk face to face, like human beings.”

  Igloo felt herself freezing up. Talk to a person about her feelings? She just wanted her feelings to go away. But that strategy didn’t seem like it was working very well.

  Igloo stared at the wall, unable to meet Essie’s gaze. “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll see a therapist with you. I want to spend my life with you, but not only am I not perfect, but I think I have quite a lot of work to do. I’ve always been scared of what’s inside me. It means a lot to me that you’d be willing to be a part of this with me.”

  She glanced back to Essie. Essie, her head rolled back against the chair, eyes closed, was snoring softly. Damn. She was going to have to work up the courage to say all that again later.

  She closed her eyes.

  Finally, just around midnight, Doug shook her awake.

  “The lawyers have an update,” he said.

  Igloo got herself back in front of a computer to video conference with them.

  “We have a joint offer from the FBI and Department of Justice,” David said. “They’re agreeing to take you into custody at Whitehall. It’s a minimum-security luxury prison reserved typically for the wealthy and influential. That’s the most kid gloves treatment you’re going to get.”

  “What do they want in exchange?”

  David sighed. “They want you to shut down T2.”

  “As I already told you,” Igloo said, “we can’t. We don’t have the keys. It’s all turned over to the community now.”

  “The government doesn’t believe that. They think you’re holding something back.”

  “Obviously the government would try to force me to shut it down. So logically, I had to take steps to make sure I couldn’t do that. No deal,” Igloo said. She disconnected, and again anonymously shared the latest offer with CNN. Anyone could predict it was 99% likely Igloo was the one sharing the offers, but the cloak of anonymity created some uncertainty.

  The open source community rallied during the night, the Europeans getting an early start on the d
ay due to the time zone difference. Igloo must have fallen asleep again, because when she woke, eyes crusty and clothes feeling grimy, the first thing she got was an update from Melanie and Carly.

  “They released a patch for OpenWRT during the night,” Melanie said. “It bridges traffic onto t2_net, routing legacy non-Tapestry traffic onto the Tapestry network.”

  “Eighty percent of Tapestry software is now on T2,” Carly said. “And new Tapestry downloads are actually outpacing updates at this point.”

  At 8 A.M., they had another offer relayed. “They’ll let the rest of the T2 team go,” David said. “They just want Igloo. They only need one scapegoat to pin things on.”

  “What about T2?” Igloo asked.

  “They want that too. They don’t believe you can’t recall it.”

  Igloo didn’t know what to do. She wanted to say no, but she couldn’t make that decision for the rest of the T2 team. “You guys have to decide. Vote on what you want to do.”

  “No way. Accepting their offer is stupid,” Diana said. “We didn’t do all this for nothing.”

  Nobody voted to accept the offer.

  Igloo’s stomach felt like it was digesting itself. “Any chance of getting some breakfast burritos?” she joked the next time she talked to someone in the law office. They broke into the emergency landing kits, found some barely edible bars, and passed them out among everyone.

  T2 adoption continued to spread.

  “EFF is reporting that Internet traffic just hit 30 percent encrypted for the first time in the history of the Internet,” Mike said. “Backbone traffic is down 35 percent as more and more content is served up locally and distributed through T2.”

  An hour later the government offered to let Igloo leave the US, promising they would not extradite her. “You’d have your freedom,” Carter Schwartz said over a video call. “You couldn’t come back to the US, but you could always build T3.”