by John Statton
She is the death of digital privacy and my greatest coding achievement.
Now it's up to you. You have to be my voice. Our voice. You have to give our testament. It’s the only chance to be a free people without the tyranny of secrets.
I don't know what the world will look like after Hope is released, but it will not be one where a few can control the many by exploiting their secrets. We are all going to own what we do, for good or bad.
In the end, we wish for so many things and are grateful for so many. I love you as I love myself. Be strong for both of us. Give Hope a chance.
Mariana
That evening he hiked up to a large granite outcrop along the rim of Lake Tahoe and sat back on a boulder to watch the sun dip below the mountains. The high clouds turned brilliant orange, then fiery red, and then faded to black. As the woods below darkened and the stars slipped in to fill the night, he remembered riding the rails and their conversations.
He knew what it was. What she’d created. The perfect antidote to perverted privacy, but it required a complete upheaval of society, necessitating a new way of life.
Is the cure worse than the sickness? In this corner, a totalitarian state vs. an information-transparent world, which he labored, under no illusion, would carry its own brand of hell for erring on the side of too much access.
Do you trade off control of humanity for privacy? Do you even get to have the debate? No, he reflected, you don't even get to raise the question. Evil was in charge of the country. No going back to the past when privacy existed. It was an illusion.
When Mariana revealed her assault on privacy, he remembered her saying, “We have to weave a new social fabric. Somehow, we must rebalance society's equation now weighted against the individual. It’s radical but necessary in light of the election.”
He thought, Mariana had made a choice, exposing the conspiracy was not possible, but the code she left behind was unstoppable, and it will halt not just this subversion of privacy but all others to come. When faced with the choice, she made a decision that reflected her genius.
He could let the world hear her voice. She loved Whitman's poetry and in his words, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Still, the choice bothered him deeply. At what cost to the world to hear her verse? He could not look around corners; he could not glimpse what the new world would bring. But he knew in this one it was almost too late to allow good to be an option.
Above, the stars spread like diamonds tossed across the clear high-elevation sky, a satellite swept along its track, perhaps peering down, digitally cordoning off this boulder. Orbital scanning, even at night, could not be disregarded. He hopped down, and under cover of the forest, made his way back to his cabin.
***
Sander rose before dawn the next morning, and from a hidden vantage behind the tree line, kept an eye on the local Library. He was being ultra-cautious to be sure that nothing seemed out of place; no security agents hiding behind the big pines. He was the first one in the door after the staff unlocked it at eight. Etched in marble over the portal, it proudly announced to visitors its history as a Carnegie library. He wondered what the former oligarch would think about how his philanthropy had been used?
He’d spent some time in the stacks over the winter and became a familiar sight, quickly dismissed by the staff. Just one of the locals who liked to use the Internet. He’d even gone through the trouble of registering for a library card using a fake address in the adjacent town. It gave him reasonably anonymous computer use so long as he did not launch any interesting searches like, “Mansfield and Politburo” or “Mariana disappearance and Rainy”.
Certain thoughts, if expressed inappropriately, could get you killed in today's America, Sander mused as he pulled up one of the lightweight molded plastic chairs and sat in front of the newest technology in this old building. He typed in his library card number and his hour of Internet access started.
Looking around to be sure no one was watching—especially the staff, because users were not supposed to connect anything to the public computers—he slid his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out Mariana’s fob. Reaching around to the back of the computer while trying to look nonchalant, he found the USB slot and pressed it home. He saw the Hope folder appear on the desktop.
Sander clicked on the icon for Hope and the folder opened. In the center of the screen appeared two buttons:
UPLOAD or DELETE.
He paused to consider. He was the only one who understood the stakes. He knew it would irrevocably change everything, not necessarily for the better.
He reached out, pointed the cursor, and clicked the button.
<<<<>>>>
Author’s Note
Which would you choose? What kind of society do you want to live in?
It was a couple of years ago when I started to sketch out this story. I was overwhelmed by the Snowden revelations—as so many were. A number of this book’s elements are rooted in his whistle-blowing, and there is no reason to think that the state’s power to watch our activities has lessened. By the 2016 national election, the story was substantially finished, and election meddling was picking up attention. Sometimes reality really is stranger than fiction. The only certainty is technology’s impact on our governance will continue to accelerate.
A book becomes the result of a community of input and creativity. Nick Lowndes was able to capture the novel’s themes in his wonderful cover. Erin Young provided valuable early editing. Rachel Eley did an outstanding job with later edits and support for the story. And a loving bow to my partner, Anne Leonard, who has encouraged this effort from early drafts to first novel.
Finally, thanks to you the reader. I appreciate the hours you have spent with the book and hope it was entertaining. If you like the story, please tell others and consider leaving an honest review on the system where you bought it. It helps build an audience and is deeply appreciated.
San Francisco, July 2017
