Welcome to my online cyber thriller, The Phisherman. In this chapter, you'll finally learn how the cyber weapon 831 works. Be warned - all of my Beta readers found it brutal, yet credible in a very scary way. And you'll see how truly messed up Alan is. If you haven't been reading along, you should learn more about the story first by clicking HERE - otherwise, all the names mentioned in the last part won't make sense.
WARNING - This chapter contains gruesome references to animal cruelty.Alan was ecstatic. After working non-stop on Project 831 for the last two days, he was sure the weapon was ready.
Time for the ultimate test.
Frustratingly, it took him an hour to corner the black-and-white moggy. The scaredy cat wouldn’t come near him, despite the fresh sardine he held in his hand. It wasn’t until he employed his childhood strategy of trapping pigeons with a rope attached to a cardboard box that he captured the cagey cat.
Five minutes and a million scratches later, the feline’s fate depended solely on her captor’s programming skill.
Alan rolled himself a fat cigar as another rock anthem screamed in the background.
He paused to laugh at the agitated animal before him as she howled out-of-synch wails whilst struggling against her ties. She still hadn’t realised she was fighting a losing battle. Two rolls of duct tape secured the moggy to the high-backed dining room chair, forcing the beast’s face to stare straight at the computer’s camera.
Alan enjoyed watching the frantic feline’s vain struggles weaken until her strength was wasted and she could only whisper a pitiful mew.
After blowing a mouthful of smoke into the moggy’s face, he roughly tapped his unwilling test subject on the top of her head, then turned to the desk.
He carefully positioned the two external speakers for his laptop, aiming them at his prisoner’s ears.
Satisfied the animal would be the precise focus of the storm he was about to unleash, he loaded his computer’s customised 831 application.
After a final gleeful glance at his sacrificial subject, he pressed the big red button, something he’d retained from the Agency’s software.
The screen displayed a large violet number thirty as a low sound began.
Alan almost drooled in anticipation as the screen started its countdown. His two additions didn’t merely reflect the two essential aspects of 831’s payload.
They provide more time to savour the experience.
First, with each passing second, the timer’s colour transformed along the rainbow spectrum. By the time the counter reached zero, it would be blood red.
At the same time, each second increased the accompanying sound wave by five hundred Hertz.
Alan’s mind reflected on what he was about to witness as the counter decreased. He hoped the fear he’d fought for the last forty-eight hours as he waited for his front door to be smashed in was about to end.
In twenty-six seconds, he would know if he had created a weapon that could stop whoever tried to arrest him.
To Alan, the theory of 831 made sense as soon as he read it.
He knew the science of how human eyes can only see a specific part of the electromagnetic spectrum – the range from red light to blue.
He also understood that, because red light photons have a long wavelength, they carry less power. And frequencies below that, like infrared and radio, possess even less energy. They could not be weaponised without serious modification.
The dangerous part of the spectrum was at the other end, beyond blue light. That was the part occupied by ultraviolet, X-rays and the meanest mother of all – gamma radiation.
Those photons pack enough power to destroy biological cells.
Naturally, that was the spectrum which attracted the CIA’s interest.
In Project 831, the Agency’s boffins had developed software that could affect the light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, used in modern computer screens. It enabled them to transmit frequencies above what they were designed to send.
831’s software allowed the operator to crank the radiated frequencies of any monitor past the UV spectrum to emit X-rays. And they’d discovered they could push several screen models to transmit Gamma rays into a viewer’s face.
Of course, the power transmitted by LED monitors is low. The only way 831 could cause significant harm would be if users sat within two feet of their screens … which smartphone and tablet users do.
For those within that distance, their proximity would be sufficient to produce substantial damage within seconds. Depending upon the frequency selected and the screen, side effects ranged from partial blindness to exploding a user’s eyeballs.
However, that was not enough for the CIA. If they could destroy someone’s eyes or worse via a monitor, what could they do to someone’s ears via computer speakers? They suspected they could achieve similar results by manipulating frequencies that impact human eardrums. Like a human eye sees specific frequencies as visible light, the human ear can hear a range of frequencies, typically from 20 hertz, known as deep bass, up to sixteen kilohertz. Frequencies below 20 hertz or above sixteen kilohertz could be transmitted but would not be audible.
Subsequently, the second dimension of 831’s software was its ability to change the frequencies transmitted via a computer’s speaker to rupture someone’s eardrum and destroy their ability to hear.
It was the perfect weapon. Anyone connecting a computer with a screen and speakers to the Internet could be rendered blind within eight seconds and deaf within another three.
When they combined both tools into one program, they got the name 8-3-1.
However, the cyber weapon did much more than destroy a target’s eyes and ears.
WARNING - This chapter contains gruesome references to animal cruelty.Merely removing someone’s ability to see and hear was insufficient for the CIA. They had optimised the software’s audio weapon to rupture a user’s eardrum with such force, it could destroy the vestibular system within the inner ear, disrupting someone’s ability to balance and move.
And their latest version attempted to include an extra feature for devices equipped with cameras. The goal was to enable 831’s operator to use a device’s camera, if it had one, to focus the high-frequency waves at a specific spot on the target’s face.
From the Guantánamo Bay tests, they had successfully blown the nose off several prisoners’ faces, though they could not repeat the results each time.
That was the test Alan was trialling on the cat – a beam of gamma radiation projected from his laptop’s screen and focused via a webcam using facial recognition software to target the animal’s nose.
Excitedly, he joined in the final countdown when the counter reached ten, joyously shouting each number louder as it approached the moment that mattered.
Blast off!
‘Ten … Nine … Eight …’
Alan took several steps back as he continued counting down.
I don’t want to be too close, just in case something goes wrong.
‘Seven … Six … Five ...’
Alan turned his music off. Despite the inspiring song blaring through the house, there would be no noise besides his test subject’s vain protests.
I want to enjoy every glorious sound.
‘Four … Three …’
He started the video app on his phone. He would not miss recording his first 831 test.
‘Two … One … Zero!
At first, there was nothing but silence.
The beast had ceased its struggles in every respect.
As the counter started its count-up pattern, a deepening shade of red in numbers that grew in size, the moggy showed its displeasure as gamma rays bombarded its sensitive nose.
By the time the weapon had been firing for three seconds, the cat was wailing. Alan delighted as she vainly tried to escape her confinement. However, there was nothing the helpless creature could do with two rolls of duct tape holding her in place.
Alan was fascinated when the counter reached five.
The feline’s nose started darkening in colour and a putrid wisp of black smoke began to rise.
He zoomed the camera in.
I don’t want to miss capturing every exquisite detail of the grand finale.
And then, eight seconds after 831 started, the cat’s face exploded.
Alan stood in stunned silence for several seconds, transfixed by the gory scene.
This is so much better than my wildest expectations.
Recovering his composure, Alan methodically videoed the bloody mess around and over him, interspersing his proud commentary with fits of diabolical laughter.
After capturing every gory detail that ended with a closeup of the ex-cat’s taped torso, he swung the camera onto the lower half of his gleeful face and crowed, “Now THAT’s what I call a finale!”
His laughing grew as he cleaned up the cat’s remains. It was the most fun he’d had with a mop.
Probably because I can imagine this mess being Abaddon’s head.
Once he’d cleaned up the gruesome mess, it didn’t take long to configure speakers near each door into the house. If the police came knocking, it would be the last thing they heard. They wouldn’t know what was happening until their ears exploded in their heads eleven seconds after Alan pressed ‘Play.’
He was glad the AFP hadn’t turned up at Griffith. It meant Abaddon was not as good as he thought.
The black hat had uncovered where most of Z’s private group lived.
However, he hadn’t tracked Z.
And it will cost Abaddon his life.
Because Z had 831 working now.
It’s time for the student to show the master how it’s done.
Opening his chat with Abaddon, he started typing the message that would annihilate his mentor and set Z up as the undisputed king phisher.
However, he’d only typed five words when his eyes began to water.
He stopped to rub his eyes.
That was when he became aware of a strange ringing in his ears.
Alan knew something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
Before Alan could react, his screen blurred. Z watched in amazement as the colours merged into a bizarre kaleidoscope of distorted shapes.
That was when lul felt the unknown pressure growing deep inside his eyeballs and inner ears.
Alan realised what was happening precisely one second before his eyes exploded across his monitor.
He wasted precious seconds as shock froze him in his seat.
He realised his error milliseconds before his ears burst away from the side of his head.
It only took eight seconds for his world to become void of colour.
Three more, and he could no longer hear himself screaming.
In a panic, Alan stood up.
Before he could do anything, he collapsed to the floor.
He couldn’t stand.
His balance was gone.
He struggled to crawl away from the speakers.
He knew they were spilling out energy waves he could not hear.
But he could sense them.
He could feel them.
Building.
Growing.
They were filled with an irrepressible intensity that burned deep inside his head.
Z felt Alan’s brain physically vibrating against lul’s skull until it smashed against the hard bone, vainly fighting to escape its confinement. Every pulse released a fresh wave of pain through W@tt0’s head.
As the combined mind of the human and the hackers struggled to focus through a pain sharper and more intense than anything they’d experienced or thought possible, Xenon135’s last thought was …
I hope you weren’t too shocked by this chapter, though I did warn you (and some readers will be disappointed that it’s too tame). Fyi, the science discussed in this chapter regarding colour and sound frequencies is correct. If you’re a subscriber, thank you for your support … and please click the heart-shaped LIKE button at the end of this chapter. If you have any suggestions to help make the story better or want to encourage me as a storyteller (either would be nice), please leave a comment.