This is the first part of a story that I've been writing lately. Its a sci-fiction story about the Soviet Union. What happens when advancing technology tries to quell the human spirit of freedom?
Please let me know what you think...
Prologue
They came for him at night. Yuri and Andrei Petrovsy awoke to the sound of their door being broken in. It sounded like a small thunder strike. Yuri sat up and turned on the light just as they entered the small Moscow bedroom he shared with his brother. It was the police. Yuri thought burglurs don't break in when you're home.
The six police officers had guns and before he knew it his face was pushed into a wall. They were shouting "Don't move" and asking Andrei a lot of questions.
"What's this all about?" Yuri stuttered.
"Just don't move." One of the cops aimed a pistol at him.
Another handcuffed Andrei and lead him away. The older brother didn't even struggle. His stocky body looked resigned and defeated. Yuri had heard the cops mention accusations of treason against The Party. Also mentioned were names of several of Andrei's friends. But Andrei was always vocally supportive of the Party. Yuri didn't understand what was happening.
Now he was left standing in their apartment less than five minutes after their front door had been busted in. It still swung freely on its hinges.
Chapter 1
"Hey, little brother. You better get up before papa catches you still asleep." Yuri shook his head to clear the cobwebs. He'd been dreaming. With the voice of his brother still fresh he recalled the night. He'd propped the door closed with a chair and cleaned up the best he could. But the small apartment was still in disarray from the arrest.
Yuri was no believer. As a young man he was idealistic but not about communism. He couldn't buy in to it as anything but a failed social experiment. He usually kept his feelings to himself. He recalled a recent conversation with Andrei...
"Communism isn't an experiment its a revolution. Not an evolution but an awakening of what society should be. Little Brother can't you see that our fathers worked to build this and it is ours to hand down to our children?" Andrei never spoke down to him but enjoyed vocally espousing his position. "What of unemployment from layoffs? What about the rich that hoard money so the poor can live in filth? We can provide for everyone if everyone is willing to give up such petty greed. Live and sacrifice the one for the many. "
It was a careful blend of party rhetoric and personal belief. It had been an appeal to keep to the party.
"Hello? I won't be in to work today. I'm not feeling well. Yes, thanks." After calling his work at the office with the drab white walls he hung up the cell phone. What to do now? He pulled out his laptop and got online.
Yuri Petrovsky was 21 and part of the younger generation. His older brother may be able to use email and cell phones but he was 12 years older and of a different generation. Andrei hadn't grown up with the web or instant messenging. He hadn't flirted with girls over text messages. He was a champion of the idea of technology being a means to an end. But for Yuri it was a way to leave their cramped one bedroom apartment and soar.
He'd started building computers at 13. Programming at 14, and hacking at 15. He wrote source code that made its way into the popular open source web browser Mozilla at 18. He understood internet transfer protocols and enjoyed learning things. Like any programmer he was a pragmatist and everything he did had its purpose. But he still enjoyed playing with a new technology just for fun. He was young at heart.
He started with his brother's email. He knew his brother's passwords, no cloak and dagger hacks necessary. He brought it up and froze. There was a new unopened message at the top of the page. The subject read "To Yuri" so he opened it.
To: Andrei Petrovsky <Andrei.Petrov.Sky@Gmail.com>
From: ?? < me@home.com>
Subject: To Yuri
Dearest Yuri,
I heard about your brother and I was deeply saddened. I am a close friend of your brother and he spoke of you often. I would like to speak to you about a business transaction your brother was involved in.
Thank you,
Simon
<<Attachment Cat.1.png>>
Yuri was puzzled. Who was Simon? The return address was faked. He looked at the image attached. It was simply a picture of a black cat sitting on a table. The cat looked bored and Yuri was annoyed.
A year or two earlier he had been curious about image formats and was familiar with the format of the image. He wondered if there might be more than just a cat in the picture. An image file contains the color of each pixel in the image but it also has extra information to help render the image. There are also pieces in the file that aren't important for anything but taking up space. As Yuri pulled up the image as raw data he looked at these pieces of junk data. He was looking for anything unusual. He found sixteen bytes of data that contained another message. It said simply "Call me" with a phone number.
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