The Majority

“Please tell me again why we want the whole world to think that it’s about to be deep-impacted by a giant asteroid? That’s not why I became a part of THEY.” I said as I paused with my fingers above the keyboard. “I hack to expose the truth, not to spread lies.”

“The emergency supplies us with the conditions that we need to be in place to wipe out one of the worst scourges against humanity,” Jimi explained. “It’s like we’re telling a little white lie to get rid of the big lie that has turned humanity against itself.” Her face flushed and her eyes shone fiercely as she spoke.

I was in love with Jimi, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Relationships among team members had to be strictly platonic. I was extremely fortunate to be a member of THEY. The acronym stood for Two Hackers Each Year and I was one of the ones selected in 2024. Jimi was the other one. I would rather be her colleague than not interact with her at all.

“Okay,” I said, “so if I press run and insert this code into the root kits of every radio telescope on Earth and every observation satellite above, it will eliminate poverty? Is that what you’re trying to tell me? It’s just that if we get caught, they’ll lock us up and throw away the key.”

“Yes.” No hesitation in her voice whatsoever. To Jimi, it was a fait accompli. “You’re good at hacking codes and systems,” she said, “but not so good with hacking reality. Remember that reality is a binary code. Instead of off and on, one and zero, it’s love and fear. Always choose love instead of fear.”

“But life isn’t that simple,” I protested. “It’s complicated.” Jimi whipped her braids behind her head with a quick snap of her neck revealing eyes that were dark and bright at the same time.

“Rich and powerful people used to hire architectural geniuses to design incredibly complicated mazes for their gardens. They never got lost in these mazes because they had the key. You always turn the same direction. If at every intersection you turn right, then you will come out on the other side.” I looked at her beseechingly. “Choose love,” she said.

I brought my finger down on the keyboard. We did it when most visual telescopes were hampered by cloud cover. Based on the data coming into their instruments, scientists across the world were convinced that a 5km-wide asteroid had emerged from behind the Sun and was on a collision course. The only way to divert it was for every nuclear nation on Earth to deploy their launch-ready missiles simultaneously. While these engines of destruction were in the air, all banking systems were shut down, allowing Jimi’s bot to populate the entire system. The program was simple. It took all of the wealth in the world and it distributed it equally among all bank accounts. The majority didn’t complain.