Sudetenland Tales by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Sudetenland Tales
Page 121
At first, Derek convinced himself it was just a phase; a morally gray blip in a disillusioned career. But then one of their bots impersonated a grieving mother to manipulate a city council into fast tracking redevelopment permits. Another leaked data from mental health apps to target vulnerable users with gambling promotions. Derek stopped sleeping.
Eventually, Priya began slipping coded messages into the bot architecture; tiny subroutines that collected evidence and sent it somewhere encrypted. She was whistleblowing. Derek panicked. Loyalty to her clashed with fear of retribution.
One night, the firm deployed a new security protocol. Priya vanished.
Derek knew he had two options: disappear, or reprogram the master bot. He chose the latter; just enough edits to make the system susceptible to his whims. The next morning, half the company’s operations collapsed under the weight of its own algorithmic deceit. The head bot, Seven, was predictably more inclined to go on pursuits which might lead to his discovery of the secrets of immortality.
Derek Cho wasn't a hero. He wasn't employed either.
But he had written the cleanest exit code of his life.