Consider that you have turned down an offer from E2 to become one of its puppets; perhaps you had an attack on conscience of something. E2 is miffed... It tries simple things like canceling your credit cards, but you persist in staying free.
The heat starts to get too much to bear, so you hop in your car and head off towards Mexico. While driving, you are pulled over by the police. You go to present your license and registration (even though, for once, you weren't speeding) but the cop orders you out of the car, slams you into the hood, and cuffs your hands behind your back. You are placed under arrest and dragged down to the police station, where you wait for three hours in a holding cell before being questioned.
Fearing that something is up, you call your lawyer, but she has just had her house repossessed for failure to make payments and has been let go from her firm due to 'inappropriate' e-mail messages that were sent from her terminal. You are stuck with a public defender, and assigned the kid fresh out of law school (E2 has a puppet down at the courthouse...)
It turns out that there was an APB out for your arrest, and an anonymous tip alerted the police to your whereabouts (good thing you have that car phone by which you can be tracked instantly via satellites). You are accused of a series of larcenies in a hotel you stayed in during a vacation you took to Miami a month ago. Aha! E2 has slipped up; you took your vacation to Denver, not Miami! Unfortunately, the hotel in Miami shows that you stayed there for six nights, and there is no record of your staying in Denver. All the charges on your credit cards during that period have transformed to Miami stores and restaurants. Airline records show that you flew from your home city to Miami and back again. The entire electronic trail you left points in every way to your having spent your entire vacation in Miami. Things are not looking good. E2 didn't even need direct access to every computer system it modified; it has puppets in many places.
But, you protest, that is all circumstantial evidence! Even if they can place you in Miami during the time that the robberies took place, they have no direct evidence to convict you. However, after you left your house that morning, E2's puppets planted evidence there, some of the stolen jewelry (access was easy since the puppets had the secret code-key for the security system you installed). "I was framed!" you protest. Then the DA places the final nail in your coffin: a security videotape from the Miami hotel, showing you break into one of the burgled rooms. You see, E2 has access to some of the most advanced computer visualization labs in the country, seeing as they're mostly on university campuses connected to the Internet. Putting together a convincing fake tape was child's play. And one of E2's puppets is an expert for the prosecution during your quick and speedy trial.
Now don't you wish you had accepted E2's generous offer?
Copyright 1995 David S. Carter. All Rights Reserved