Wipeout: Wipeout Book 1 Read online

  Could they print more money? It was a question Arthur mulled over for no more than a few seconds in his head before deciding against it. He wasn’t sure how far Trident’s global reach spread, but he knew money had a value for a reason. If countries could just print more and more, that value would be entirely lost and any inter-country relationships would suffer as a result. Hawaii was still technically a part of the States, but at times even they felt like they lived in a different country altogether. Would they still be remembered by those at Trident or in the White House when relief was surely delivered as a result of this catastrophe?

  “Have you checked our accounts?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “Where’s my laptop?” Jessie asked, turning to look at her husband. She didn’t know what to think or how to react to this disaster. All of a sudden, she didn’t feel safe. She felt like everything had changed. Receiving her laptop from Art, she lifted the lid and navigated to the Trident website. “Come on,” she mumbled as she waited for the page to populate. The loading circle just spun round and round.

  Jessie dug her phone from the pocket of her shorts and quickly opened her online banking app. “Ugh, come on! Why won’t this stupid thing load?”

  “Jessie,” Art placed one of his hand over his wife’s phone, obstructing her view of the screen. No matter how long she waited, the Trident app wasn’t going to spring to life. It wasn’t working. Trident was down. They couldn’t be sure exactly to what extent just yet, but for the time being they were theoretically penniless. “Jessie,” Art continued, “just leave it. Put it down.”

  “But what if it’s all gone?” Desperation seeped through Jessie’s tone, her eyes pleading with her husband to give her some explanation. “We’ll be broke. We won’t be able to survive.”

  “That’s not true,” Art rationalized. “Think about how many people have their money with Trident. Not just regular people, but those within the government, celebrities, people in power. Even if this is real, that number of people can’t just have their life savings wiped out. Trident will think of something. We don’t need to panic, not just yet.”

  Locking eyes with his wife, Art smiled and tried to comfort her. His own opinion on what had happened changed quicker than the tide outside their kitchen window, new pieces of information constantly springing to mind and shifting his viewpoint. One minute, he was convinced that something like this just couldn’t happen to so many people, the next he was telling himself there was no solution. One thing that remained at the forefront of his mind however was the safety of his family. Jessie and their two little boys were the most important thing. Everything else could come later.

  “Where are the boys?”

  “Down the beach,” Jessie answered almost absentmindedly, before her heart jumped in her chest in a fit of panic. “Do you think we should get them inside? Are they okay?” Common sense evaded her as she thought of her children, jumping to irrational conclusions over how the banking collapse could affect them.

  “Chill, babe,” Art calmed her again, cupping her face with his hand. “They’re fine. We don’t need to worry them with this, do we?”

  “No, but –”

  A knock on their open kitchen door cut short the conversation between Jessie and Arthur, their neighbors and friends Mike and Grace walking inside. However instead of strolling in with smiling faces and an invitation to a cookout or a games night like they usually did, the two of them looked just as frightened and concerned as Jessie felt.

  “Have you seen it?” Grace questioned immediately, her eyes moving from Jessie and Arthur to their television screen. “You must have seen it. But can you believe it? Do you think it’s real? I don’t know what to think. It’s crazy.”

  “Yeah, we’ve seen it,” Art answered. “Come in, come in. Do either of you want a drink? Jessie?” Art looked at the weathered expression on his wife’s face. “Glass of wine, perhaps?”

  Looking over at her husband, Jessie gave him a hesitant smile. No matter what they were going through, Art always knew how to cheer her up, even with such a minor quip. “I’m okay actually darling,” she said with a flick of her hair, “should probably keep my wits about me in a time like this.”

  “Got any sodas, Art?”

  “Yeah sure,” Art nodded to Mike, opening up the fridge to grab some cans, but not before flashing a loving smile back at his wife. “We’ve got cola, orange and grape,” Art declared, depositing four cans of soda on the kitchen island his wife and friends now sat around. “Take your pick.”

  “Your brother works for Trident, doesn’t he?” Grace asked a few seconds later, the sound of ring-pop’s being pulled from cans punctuating her question. “Have you managed to get in touch with him?”

  Jessie nodded, “He’s not picking up his phone.”

  “Ah,” Grace didn’t know how to respond, she had seen the chaos on the streets of New York just like Jessie and Arthur had. She knew that no one in the city could be said to be safe for sure, least of all those in the danger area of Wall St.

  “I’m sure we’ll hear from him once he has time to talk,” Arthur interjected, cautious of Jessie’s mood worsening again. “He’ll have much more important priorities than us right now.”

  “Damn right,” Mike agreed. “Do you really think everything is gone? We can’t even get into our accounts. Most people in the streets are the same. No one knows what’s really going on.”

  “At least it’s not like it is in New York,” Art commented. “I’d certainly rather deal with confusion over mass panic.”

  Mike laughed. “Right on. The way I see it, there’s nothing we can really do until we get more official news through. There’s no point going haywire over something that might just be a hoax or some kind of practical joke.”

  “Can you imagine,” Grace sighed, taking a swig from her can of grape soda. “It looks horrible over there. Oh, Jessie,” Grace stopped herself, noticing how her words were affecting her friend as she thought about Samuel and how he was managing. “I’m sorry. I need to just keep quiet.”

  Laughing awkwardly, Jessie sniffed and tried to pull herself together. “No no, it’s fine, I’m sorry. I’ll sort myself out. It’s not like we can avoid talking about this.”

  “Sam will be fine, babe,” Art reassured her again. “Just give him some time.”

  “When do you think we’ll hear from Trident?” Mike asked, changing the subject somewhat and steering the attention away from Jessie as she sniffed again, trying to stop tears from sliding down her cheeks.

  “They’ll have to release a statement soon,” Art replied. “Even if they don’t really have anything to say. The lack of information is probably what’s driving so many people crazy.”

  “But then what can they say? Hi, we’re really sorry we’ve lost all your money. We’re trying to get it back, but we can’t make any promises. Watch this space.”

  “Don’t Mike,” Grace scolded her husband, placing a hand on his forearm. “You shouldn’t joke like that.”

  “But it’s true!” Mike exclaimed, “I bet they don’t even know what’s going on. What is this ransomware that they’re blaming this on? Or at least, that they’re rumored to be blaming this on.” He laughed, the ridiculousness of the entire situation forcing him to react that way, otherwise Mike knew he might just have a minor breakdown. He was trying to stay positive and believe that it was just a stupid mistake, but he couldn’t completely quash the little voice in the back of his head reminding him that he had quite possibly lost everything.

  “According to this,” Art answered, reading an explanation from his cell. “Ransomware is a type of malware virus that threatens to publish data or destroy information unless a ransom is paid.”

  “So, what does that mean?” Jessie asked, trying to figure it out in her head. “That Trident has used our money to pay a ransom? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “No,” Art shook his head. “I think that Trident has refused to cooperate with some sort of virus
or something, and so as a result, the money has been wiped out.”

  “Wiped out?”

  “Wiped out. Stolen. Hidden. I don’t really know what to call it,” Art shrugged. “But it at least makes it sound like the money can be retrieved to some extent.”

  “Oh great,” Mike scoffed, “so we only lose half of our life savings, rather than the whole lot. Brilliant.”

  “Mike, stop it, please,” Grace pleaded, “you’re not helping.”

  “Sorry, sorry. It’s just a bit of a hard blow to deal with. If this is true, Grace, then we literally have nothing left. We’ll lose the house. We’ll have to take Caleb out of school. We won’t be able to care for your mother anymore. We won’t be able to buy food or new clothes. Won’t be able to leave this island. We’ll be stuck here. With nothing to show for it.”

  “Come on Mike,” Art reasoned with his friend, seeing how distressed his words were making both Jessie and Grace feel. “It’s not going to be that bad.”

  “Isn’t it?” Mike took another swig of his soda, now wishing he had opted for something a little harder instead. “What can we do if we don’t have any money, Art? Nothing. Money is literally what makes everything tick. Our lives will change forever if we suddenly don’t have that anymore.”

  Silence washed over the four parents as each of them let Mike’s words sink in. It was a harsh reality that they’d all been doing their best to avoid thinking about, each of them aware of the countless different ways their lives would change if all their money was truly gone. Jessie looked over at her husband and reached out to him, their fingers interlocking across the kitchen island. Family was the most important thing, but there still had to be other elements in place to support that. They needed money to survive. Without it, Jessie didn’t know what they would be forced to do.

  Chapter 5

  “We’ve got to tell them something. There’s been a news crew outside this building for the last two hours. Whatever we tell them has got to be better than all the speculation that’s going around at the moment.”

  “Are you sure? At the moment no one really knows what’s going on. What is it they say? No news is good news?”

  “No news is going to bring this place to the ground. People are already inside the building. They’re putting our lives in danger. We’ve got to release some kind of statement.”

  “Alright, alright! But saying what?”

  ***

  The two of them continued to argue, completely unaware of the fact that a man had just jumped from a window only three floors below.

  Samuel Westchester sat on the carpeted floor of the finance department hallway, his head in his hands as he tried to process the event. It was impossible for him not to blame himself. Perhaps if he’d said something differently or tried a different tactic, he would’ve been able to talk the man down from the ledge. He told himself that even trained professionals failed sometimes, but that didn’t make him feel any better. People were dying from this disaster now and he was still hidden away inside without a clue what was happening.

  Samuel tried to ignore the fact that he’d just witnessed a suicide and focused on the reasons why the man had jumped. He clearly worked on this floor of the building, which meant he likely knew more than most about what had happened within Trident. It certainly wasn’t good news, but Samuel was still hopeful the knowledge of what had happened would equip him with the means to deal with whatever happened next.

  Forcing himself to his feet, he re-entered the room where the man had jumped, the window still wide open as a warm breeze floated through, occasionally flapping loose papers on the desks. Samuel could still hear the angry crowd down below, the same crowd that was momentarily silenced by the arrival of a tumbling body. Squeezing his eyes shut and trying not to think of it, Samuel walked over to the only computer in the room that was still lit up. It had to belong to that man – and would hopefully contain the answers which had driven him to jump.

  The first thing that Samuel did was click on the home icon at the bottom left of the screen. This opened up the dashboard, with the users log in details displayed at the top of the page. Where his computer showed swestchester, this computer featured the user details of rhauser. The man had been one Mr. R. Hauser – now lost to the world forever. Samuel paused for another moment to silently bid farewell to this stranger, before clearing the incident from his mind and setting about trying to find out what exactly Mr. R. Hauser had discovered. It was a dangerous game, but one he was determined to complete.

  Unfortunately, Trident had other ideas. Samuel was quite used to the intranet the company operated from and the number of password restricted pages each department had. Marketing was exactly the same; many of the firewalls he had insisted on himself, demanding their plans be kept completely top secret until they were revealed to the public.

  That was after the one year when someone had leaked their new advertising campaign to one of their main competitors, leading to a huge flop in new customers and a record-high year for people switching their accounts elsewhere. Cyber security was almost more important than physical security these days, something that had been perfectly explained by the issues of that very day.

  Dragging the cursor across the screen, Samuel opened up folders and scanned through spreadsheets looking for some explanation, only to fall short each time. Shaking his head, he tried to figure out what to do. The hack had only just happened. Logically that meant that he wouldn’t be able to find any answers on work that was already printed or shared elsewhere. He needed to stop looking for the paper trail and try to get a clearer view of the problem itself. The only problem was when it came to the digital breadcrumbs that would be left behind; Samuel didn’t have the first idea what he was searching for.

  As he clicked around on Hauser’s computer, Samuel’s attention was eventually drawn to the NBC New York page, where a live stream was being conducted from outside the Trident building. With no answers coming to light inside, he figured it was worth a shot listening to what was happening in the street below. And watching it on a screen was much more preferable than forcing himself over to the window. As he clicked play on the video coverage though, Samuel realized all too late that Hauser’s death was going to be front and center.

  “…number of casualties is yet to be reported, but we are hearing that this is the third documented suicide from across the city within the last hour. The currently unidentified man is believed to have been an employee of the Trident Banking Corporation and jumped from the sixteenth-floor window no more than twenty minutes ago.

  “Trident is yet to release an official statement on the cause of this collapse, though those close to the source are beginning to put their faith in the idea of a ransomware attack. For those of us who are confused by this statement, a ransomware attack is one carried out by a malicious computer virus, designed to block access to a system until a sum of money – the ransom – is paid.

  “Now the natural question on all of our lips if this is indeed the case, who is blackmailing the Trident Corporation, for how much and when will the ransom be paid? The one positive of this theory however is that the lack of money we are all seeing in our accounts is simply an element of this attack and not a reality. Though many are wondering if this is the case, will the attackers simply keep our money in lieu of the ransom.

  “One thing we know for sure is that we are all anxiously awaiting the official statement from Trident which will inform… oh? What?” The female reporter on screen paused mid-sentence, touching her earpiece and turning her attention from the camera itself to someone clearly standing beside it. “Have they really?” The woman then asked, glancing between the camera and the person she was receiving this new information from.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” she continued, looking back into the camera. “I have just received news that an official statement from Trident has been released in the form of a document posted online. If you’ll just stay with us, we will bring you an update on what that contains.”
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  Now it was Samuel’s turn to pause and look around in confusion, as the woman on screen anxiously waited for another member of her news crew to bring up the official statement for her to read. With the volume still playing on the broadcast, Samuel opened another tab and was automatically taken to Trident’s home intranet page. Posted there for all to see – and likely in a number of other places on the web – was the official statement the woman had spoken of: TRIDENT COLLAPSE: HACKING ALLEGATIONS CONFIRMED

  Returning to the first tab and muting the broadcast as the woman started to speak again, clearly having found the same statement as Samuel had, he shut out all other distractions and started to read.

  Trident Banking Corporation is currently working through a complicated period following ransomware software infiltrating our systems. The current appearance of accounts is a result of this infiltration, which we are working hard to negate and reverse the effects of to maintain order and stability in our financial markets. Rest assured everything in our power will be done to return the missing funds to each individual account and these effects will not be permanent.

  Leaning back in his chair, Samuel let out a large breath of air and puffed out his cheeks. Ransomware. It was just like the reporter had said. He still didn’t understand it entirely, but it at least gave him some sort of answer as to where the money had vanished. It was being held ransom. Whether it was actually gone or not was another matter, because Samuel believed – just as the reporter had suggested – that if the money had all been taken, it would make sense for the hackers just to keep that rather than the ransom they were waiting for.

  It didn’t make much sense, but there was very little else that Samuel could do now. Trident had assured everyone in their official statement that they would do everything they could to get the money back and while the statement didn’t exactly ooze with confidence, as someone who had worked for their company for over twenty years, Samuel simply had to trust them. They’d not only lost billions of dollars but affected billions of lives. He had to believe that they wouldn’t be deliberately misleading that many civilians.