Now Thome had forgotten what he was trying to think of; it happened to him ever more frequently and had its origins in his absurdly quick mind, which once again was engaged with multiple topics. It was the moment prior to some financial crisis or other that was supposed to bring the country to collapse again. Before a financial crisis is always, of course, also after one. Markets will straighten everything out. The water supply had just been privatized. Meaning. The price of water had quadrupled, and because as a result the natives began to use less water the new owners made losses which were to be offset by tax money from the natives. Beautiful. On it went. The transport system. In private hands. Which consequently led to a dramatic rise in ticket prices and a simultaneous deterioration in the rail system. Then it was the schools’ turn. Which brought with it a wave of mass layoffs of teachers. The social economy. Meaning: the country’s populace paid levies for the eventuality that they might need welfare benefits, disability payments, unemployment, sick pay, or old age pension, the state handed this money over to private companies which spent the majority of the money on their supposed infrastructure, allowing them in the end to save on paying for the upkeep of public facilities, medical supplies, those in need of emergency services, and pensions, and to turn a profit for the owners.

It was the last gasp of the European Community, and

The intelligence services consummated their collection of all data, which according to rumor was stored in a vast so-called research facility in Switzerland. The so-called research facility, which nearly every cash-rich country in the world had a stake in, had an autonomous, neutral status not subject to any legal jurisdiction. Aerial photographs showed evidence of heightened electrical activity. Physical experiments. You understand. It was the largest data trove in the Western world. But back then nobody knew about it yet. What good was it supposed to be to intercept billions of emails and save browsing histories? Who would benefit from all the social media Likes and posts? Who was supposed to read it all? People thought. Who all used computers and smartphones. Hardly anyone realized what they were doing. Except Thome. He pictured himself as director of the intelligence service. Or as owner of a powerful cyber army. That’s where future wars would take place. Wars that would be won with data. Or with the destruction of security systems. Destruction sounded good. That would be brilliant.

MI5 PIET

“Now, just between us, I laugh, to the best of my abilities, which are more suited to a smirk. When we look at the future of this young man’s avatar, his future doesn’t look so interesting. Could you say something more specific?”

THE PROGRAMMER

“Of course. My artificial neural network shows—

“There’s—

“Nothing.

“But—”

THOME