Mirage: 2040 …Part 12 …Eye of the Storm
under the smile of safety wounds the world
— William Shakespeare
Before the EMP attacks I knew nothing about the internet other than accessing it and then pointing and clicking at various sites. If you told me it had many layers, I’d draw a blank.
All I knew was the surface layer—the possibility of a deep web let alone a dark web was beyond me. When I did finally find out from Ari about the various levels of immersion my feeling was that the deeper I’d go the darker it would become.
Frankly, it scared the hell right out of me.
Ari laughed at my ‘paranoia’ as he termed it.
“Don’t worry, Pal, the dark web has legitimate uses besides distributing pornography, money laundering or selling guns or drugs.”
“Yeah, name me some,” I naively asked.
“You don’t get it, Alex—it’s routinely used by non-criminal groups, such as political activists, whistle-blowers, journalists, law enforcement agents and the military.”
Well, I guess now that Nestor Marx is building us some kind of dark web mesh network, we can add concerned citizens to that list.
I never pictured myself as a renegade or activist, but sometimes life demands something of you that you didn’t know you had. Wait till I tell Creed—won’t she be surprised.
Creed rolled her eyes. If we weren’t on the expressway, I think she would have gotten out of the car.
“You’re kidding me, right? What do you know about mesh networks, onion routing or nodes?”
“What do I know? Absolutely nothing. But I’ve got a guy.”
She gave me a skeptical smile. “A guy, huh? Has this ‘guy’ got a name?”
I smiled like cat with feathers in its mouth. “Hmm, Hmm.” I grinned inscrutably.
She arched an eyebrow. This girl was tough.
“The ‘guy’s’ name is Nestor Marx, have you heard of him?”
She looked heavenward and gave an exasperated gasp. “Oh, now I now you’re insane. Why not tell me you’re friends with him?”
I shrugged, “I’m not, but my life-long friend Ari is, and Nestor’s offered to build us a dark network where we can communicate and build a repository of important cultural and historical documents to preserve them from any cultural revolution or book burning the government might decide is in their best interest.”
It takes a lot to impress Creed but her jaw dropped and she was suitably awed by my news.
“This is really awesome, Alex—can Nestor also create a sort of neighbourhood page like a community on Facebook where we can organize the local residents?”
“Yeah, he said something about Lan networks for use within our immediate vicinity using Ethernet cables or Wi-Fi routers.”
“This is amazing. I thought we’d be back in those other Dark Ages using carrier pigeons or smoke signals.”
“I thought the same, only I imagined using ham radios.”
But back home in our quiet neighbourhood, the streets were dark and lonely.
The pup greeted us at the door, her little tongue bright as a flame and her tail wagging.
“Happy, Creed smiled, “That’s her name—it’s not only how she is, but how she makes us feel.”
“Happy it is,” I laughed and realized we were now a family. And judging by the perfect calm of the darkened streets I wonder if we’d need a community page at all.
I was soon to realize I couldn’t be further wrong.