FAUST.Zip

Short Story — A cunning detective must solve the mind-blowing murder of Geist Industries’ lead engineer, right before the launch of their biggest product yet.

Viktor Geist sat in his reclined leather chair, fat NeuraJack cable protruding from its socket just beneath his ear. The telltale flicker of dataweb activity raced behind his eyes, as he pawed at virtual displays I couldn’t see.

I cleared my throat.

He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them. The glimmer was gone. “Product launch is minutes away. You have my attention until then, Detective.”

"We've learned what killed your engineer."

"Malware, from a bootlegger site?" Viktor scoffed. "I knew that three weeks ago."

"No ordinary malware could translate to the brain,” I countered. "Ron Gray got scrambled by a Zip Bomb."

Viktor folded his arms. "What on Earth is that?"

“It’s an old hacker trick, that took advantage of how data storage used to work. A Zip Bomb hides a ton of huge files inside a tiny one. When you open it, the computer gets overwhelmed. Crashes,” I explained. “Course, it hasn’t worked on anything made in the last century. Human brain though, that’s another story; the way we’re wired… an overwhelming information dump could fry us.”

“So they downloaded a knock-off StimSkill, thinking they’d instantly master something like cooking, or figure skating—" he waved his hand in circles, "—then this Zip Bomb, what, literally blew his mind?"

"Pretty much."

“Tragic.” Viktor leaned back in his chair and folded his hands. "This is why I've been begging the Senate to crack down on knock-offs. If it’s not from Geist, it’s just not safe.”

"You may not have to beg,” I said. “Once the public finds out about this case, and sees what a bootleg StimSkill can do, they’ll only ever except something straight from your servers.”

"I hadn't considered the possibility. But that would be for the best, no?"

"Cut the crap, Viktor."

"Excuse me?"

"The only lab on the planet that can make a functioning StimSkill file is under our feet. You put a poison pill on that site to scare the public."

Viktor jumped up from his chair. "That's outrageous!"

"Security memos dated last October show you suspected Gray was leaking StimSkills for years. Why not fire him?” I stepped toward Viktor “Unless you knew. You wanted a to use the leaker to send a message to everyone else. Kill two birds.”

The founder took a deep breath, and smiled. "Speculation, Detective. Even if you had concrete evidence—only a damned fool would try to arrest me.”

I smiled back. "Vik, I’m not here to arrest you. I'm a businessman at heart. Turns out your competitors would pay top dollar to see StimSkills go out of style."

"You went to the pill poppers?" Viktor's face turned red. "What have you done?"

"Me? If you’re telling the truth, nothing much. I just swapped a file while I had access to your system. If I’m wrong, customers will get a slightly older version of your big new release.

“Of course, if I’m right, then your company is about to kill every single pre-order customer; primed, plugged in, and ready to download.”

Viktor’s hands flew to the plug at the side of his neck, scrambling to tug it free.

“Better hurry, you’ve only got—” I looked down at my wrist interface, “—three, two… one…”

His eyes rolled back, body convulsing violently.

I looked away, turning toward the office window instead.

The Geist tower stood just tall enough to peek over the top of the inversion smog. I wondered how many people down in the undercity were watching their brains leak out through their noses.

Then an alert chime notified me of an incoming credit transfer, and I stopped wondering.

I’m a businessman at heart, after all.

Edit: after an absolutely incredible response to this story, I decided to dig a little deeper into this world to deliver you, the reader, a little more. Check out, “Going Viral” for the aftermath of the event the public comes to call the Geist Brain-Bombing.

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