He flicked back and forth between the BBC news and Sky News until he saw the first of the ‘Breaking News’ tickers scrolling across the bottom of the screen.  Gray checked his watch and saw that his prediction was out by three minutes, which was no big deal. It simply meant he would record more IP addresses than anticipated.  If the security services hadn’t visited by now, they never would.

With the IP addresses recorded, he would now be able to filter out any votes coming from the same range.  In considering possible ploys against him he had reasoned that the authorities might send a few million emails with the word ‘Live’ in order to rig the vote, but his software would disregard any votes coming from the recorded IP addresses, or any with a certain range.  In addition, with the click of a button he could redirect any requests for his website from these IP addresses to any other page on the internet.  His choice had been to redirect them to a page on the number10.gov.uk petitions website which was asking the government to reintroduce the death penalty.

Gray also considered the fact that they might try a few ways to influence the results, but this had also been factored in when he had commissioned the software.

He settled down to watch the news, wondering how long it would take them to brand him a terrorist.  He didn’t have to wait long.

“News is just reaching us that a former SAS soldier is threatening to kill thousands of people unless the government allow him to execute five suspected criminals live on the internet.”

A photo of Gray appeared on the screen next to the female anchor, a picture he recognised from his Army days.

“Tom Gray, who spent eight years in two-two Regiment, Special Air Service, has demanded that the government allow him to poll the nation to decide whether or not his captives should live or die.  According to a video shown on his website, www.justiceforbritain.co.uk, if the government do not allow him to collect and act on the votes sent in by members of the public he will kill his prisoners and take his own life.  If he does this, Police will have little or no chance of finding his bomb.”

The camera angle changed to show a live video feed on the studio wall.  A grey haired man in his fifties, with heavy jowls and a ruddy complexion, waited patiently for his introduction.

“We are joined now by Home Office spokesman, Adrian Goode.  Mr Goode, Thank you for joining us.  What is the Home Office’s response to this terrorist threat?”

Gray watched the spokesman spend four minute talking a lot but saying absolutely nothing, promising that the government was doing everything within its power to protect the public while giving no indication as to how it would do this.  Questions were thrown at him and he answered with prepared statements, never once deviating from the script.  It was just what Gray had expected.