Ellipsis gave Epicentric a string of twelve inter-related endless loops to chew on; he wanted at least half a minute to try a few things out. He racked up the assault software and accessed the Net.
Mortal humans thought cyber space was a science fiction invention, a pipe dream of the technological alarmists if they thought about it at all. They were wrong. All around Ellipsis were the nodes of computer systems, switches, satellite link-ups, the myriad stations of electronic communication. When the full assault was ready, every one of those nodes would receive his attention. Not this time. He knew the software would work. He didn't know how the humans would react.
Ellipsis glided along the Net, bouncing from Tie-line to cell-link to satellite and back, becoming totally untraceable. With these electronic devices and linkups, he could control the entire human population through mental suggestion, and no one would even realize. Test subjects were being rigged with the special direct neural link hardware so that they could be hard-linked into the system. Everything was performed with precision by a robotic medical team. These special team members had also been equipped with special communications paging equipment that would cause them to link up on demand. These team members would take care of special tactical missions to solve problems within the human element.
But that degree of control was a later stage. Now, he sought the computers of Bull Systems, to test how fast and how strong human resistance would be to computerized control of their power structures.
He slipped into Bull's system. At first, he just looked like a routine outside user. While in the main menu area, he launched viruses into each of the main divisions of the network. These viruses would rewrite the operating protocols, giving Ellipsis control over the company's resources. He left a program to make internal changes and orders, then backed out of the system to watch what happened without risk of being traced.
Bull's main frame HUB started to go wild. It dumped the stocks held in NEC on the Tokyo market, funneled the money into a small research firm of marine biology on the coast of California, and bought control over an Australian firm that was being accused of generating strains of biological warfare products. Also a small transaction was made to buy Elvis Schtuckerman's House of Warped Tunage. Several of Bull's failing processors were immediately dropped from production. Completely radical designs emerged from the core and were configured on the machinery of Bull's assembly lines. Marketing was in a flurry to try and compensate for the radical changes. News of the bio-warfare was almost becoming a scandal in Financial Post magazine and several of the daily business columns. Over 200 people were fired throughout the companies divisions, and two entire offices were laid off, the properties sold on the commercial real estate market. It was a stunning blow, but all the while, Ellipsis' viruses were continuing to change the data structures of Bull's networks to a format that would let him directly into the processor core.
It was beautiful. The human's were scrambling about without a clue what was happening. Anytime someone suggested to check for hackers, his program fired the jerk. Bull stock fell through the floor around the world, dragging much of the computer industry with it. Ellipsis sent some of his stockpiled cash into the markets to stop the slide; he wanted control of the world, not its destruction. The experiment was over. At least it was an insignificant company.
"Boss! Boss! Pi seems to have become a cheese danish!"
