That Was You?

This is a quasi-excerpt from a book I’m working on. This was written by me, Brandon Nolet. I say ‘quasi’ because I’m writing it now as opposed to having written it in the past. I intend to actually put this in the book somewhere, but that is not a guarantee. Enjoy!

For context, this is a conversation between the main character, Daniella, and their brother, Andrew. However, neither of them is aware that they’re actually talking to each other and are assuming that they’re speaking to “strangers”.

Daniella: indanial_uh, pronounced In Denial, uh. A play on “In Daniella”

Andrew: androgenius, pronounced Andro-Genius, a play on the words Androgenous and Genius

androgenius: that was YOU?!

indanial_uh: Yup

androgenius: fuck, that’s super cool!

indanial_uh: I guess

androgenius: you guess? cmon, you DESTROYED them!

indanial_uh: Not really, they’re all rich, nothing’s really gonna happen to them

androgenius: so that makes them invincible?

indanial_uh: Pretty much. When’s the last time you heard about a celebrity or politician doing something egregious /and/ going to jail? I mean look at Trump’s presidency, he literally lied to the American public over and over again about matters of national security and never had to /really/ pay for it.

androgenius: i thought he did a pretty good job tho

indanial_uh: Looks like you’re the one in denial then. He was a /danger/ to national security. That’s not my point though. Rich people don’t go to jail, they just get paid. Professional receivers of money, that’s what they are.

androgenius: then what’s the point of stealing all that money?

indenial_uh: To prove a point. The banks are /still/ using systems that date back to the 1980’s. It’s been 60 years since most banks have changed their systems because “if it isn’t broken, then don’t change it”. It’s abhorrent that they have these systems still in production, nevermind having them connected to other systems connected to the internet. It’s just /asking/ for problems.

androgenius: i didn’t know that banks did that…do you think I should have a bank account anyway?

indenial_uh: If you don’t have a lot of money then you don’t /really/ have to worry, but I’d start using a credit card to make purchases everywhere instead of your debit card. That way you’re only exposing someone /else’s money/ instead of your own.

androgenius: ok, and what /will/ happen to the like…executives or whatever of the banks you guys hit?

indenial_uh: Like I said, nothing. Well, not much actually. They’ll probably get a fine each of an amount that makes up maybe a day of their income. Then they’ll publicly apologize, offer one of their services for free for public relations reparations, and then “thank you, next” will happen. People will move on, and will completely forget about it.

androgenius: and the people who you guys stole all the money from?

indenial_uh: They get a front-row seat to their money be given away.

androgenius: whatll you guys do with the money?

indenial_uh: Charity, third-world countries, maybe some for us too. We set up a cryptocurrency wallet and a blog to make this as public as possible. We’ll make donations every week of something like $5,000 USD to parties all over the world. We post a list, people vote on their most desired recipient, and then we contact them to let them know what’s up. A modern-day Robin Hood sort of deal, I guess.

androgenius: so you guys are more like hacktivists?

indenial_uh: Yes and no. We’ve got many shades of grey, to use a dated reference. Some of us lean more black-hat, some others wear a grey hat. For contracted work though? We go where the money takes us, as long as we’re comfortable the client isn’t just fucking with us.

The book will have sections of IM/DM messages here and there. I wanted to do this because I like the duality of a digital life vs. a real life. There will be quite a few dualities like this in the book.