Cloud to Cloud

Episode 39: To Profit or Help?

The moment Evan dropped into his office chair, Linc appeared on screen.

"Well. It didn't go so well, did it?"

"I think I need a new angle," Evan grumbled.

Linc laughed. "Man, you have never been good with real women. It's not about money. It's not about cars. It's more than that. It's about the connection. Trust me. Don't blow this one."

"Connection." Evan collapsed into his chair. "That damned word is turning into a curse."

An alert on Evan's screen interrupted before Linc could continue.

Evan snapped out of his funk to check the stock screens. "Romance or not, connection is certainly offering a lot in the money department."

He smiled as the summary page of his stock portfolio displayed large green positive numbers down the net return column. Since his new-found ability to query the future, he had made a lot of money in the stock market on simple one day buy and dumps. Using ITower's access to the temporary emergency global network for financial services was a fortunate enabler for Evan's profiteering.

Yet as Evan flipped through the stock links and investment pages his screens flickered again with an emergency weather alert.

"What is this nonsense now?" Evan read the screen.

Warning: China Coast Hit by Massive Tsunami from Undersea Earthquake.

He continued to read the article from the next week where he found the connection to his stock alerts.

Company Stocks Plummeting.

Evan popped tabs open as fast as his fingers could fly. "Damn, I can make millions, tens of millions on this catastrophe. I just have to short as many of these stocks as I can."

As simple as the broker's temporary website was during the tech crisis, Evan began to setup stock shorting orders on the tumbling companies listed in the news bulletin. Flipping rapidly between screens, he suddenly stopped.

His eyes narrowed on the screen as he quietly said to himself, "When exactly did this tsunami happen.. uh.. when will this happen?"

He clicked furiously on the news bulletins.

9:18AM Taizhou, China on the East China Sea.

"It is happening today. Where the hell is Taizhou? And what time is that here?" More rapid clicking on the keyboard. "OK, on the coastline South of Shanghai; North of Taiwan." Clicking continues. "1:18AM GMT... ok, ok, what time ... 5:18pm here. Damn, that's less than three hours from now.

"What is it?" Linc queried, though his tone hosted more knowing than just curiosity.

Ignoring him, "Some company page," Evan's eyes narrowed. "It's a memorial. Casualty count. Shit. That's a big number for just one company. Damn, here's another article from next week. Oh, man, that's a lot of people getting crushed, drowned or washed out to sea. More than 384 thousand people."

"In disasters like this, it's not just money that's lost." Linc exhaled. "Money can always be made again, later."

Evan continued to scroll the death tolls. He clicked to another page. More articles and photos of devastation assaulted his eyes. Evans face contorted.

"Where is the epicenter of the undersea earthquake? How many miles offshore? How fast does a tsunami move? Dammit, I need more time. People have to get off the coast"

"Oh. You do have a heart in there somewhere," Linc responded with a smirk.

Evan continued to ignore Linc's comments. "It hasn't happened yet. The earthquake is... 174 minutes from now." More rapid clicking. "The epicenter is 105 miles offshore... tsunami traveling almost 500 miles per hour. These people are lucky if they get ten minutes notice, even if they knew exactly when the earthquake happened. There won't be time for people to get inland. That's why the casualties are so high."

He looked puzzled as he scanned the room. His face turned from scorn to gritty determination as his eyes flicked in search of a plan.

"This global network doesn't work for shit, dammit. There has to be a way to warn people."

Turning back to his keyboard he searched for contact methods and emergency addresses and sites to Chinese national, regional and also international emergency service agencies. He pulled up lists of hundreds of large companies located in the impacted coastal areas. After collecting lists of contact points, methods and emergency network electronic addresses, Evan glanced at the time. He lost over fifteen precious minutes just gathering basic information. There was hardly two and a half hours until impact.

He rocked back and forth in his chair as if posturing. "All of these corporate security offices and news agencies subscribe to just a handful of international weather and crisis organizations. If I can get these orgs to send out alerts on what is about to happen, people will get evacuated from the coastal areas." He sat back. "That will never happen. They will think I am nuts and demand proof."

Evan pulled his chair back up and began hacking the global emergency broadcasting systems after mumbling, "Thankfully their defenses are down. They're lucky to have any connection at all to this flimsy temporary governmental infrastructure."

Adrenaline and military cyber hacking experience kicked-in. His fingers flailed across the keys intermixed with mad swipes at the touchscreen. He hacked into the China Earthquake Administration warning system admin account.

"Dammit. It's all in Chinese. I can't do a thing, here." He looked down his list and proceeded to hack into the International Tsunami Warning Commission of the United Nations. After gaining full control of the emergency notification admin account he typed out a global message recalling the information he pulled from his search of next week's news articles.

2324 GMT: EARTHQUAKE-TSUNAMI EMERGENCY; East China Sea - At 2318 GMT an 8.7 magnitude undersea earthquake occurred 105 nautical miles off the coast of Taizhou China. A series of extremely dangerous tsunamis are enroute to the central China coast. All personnel in coastal areas of the East China Sea are urged to evacuate coastal areas immediately for at least four hours following this notice.

Evan leaned back as he proof-read the alert bulletin. "That should give them two hours notice and two hours after the tsunami hits." He pressed the enter key. "Now for the other sites."

He sequentially hacked into both the International Geological Survey Bureau and the International Oceanographic Service. After sending the same notice through both of their international alert systems, he sat back in his chair, let out a huge sigh and smiled.

"I can't stop a tsunami, but I can move people."

Linc grinned and clapped his hands in a slow mocking congratulatory gesture. Evan glanced at his ghostly friend. "No cheers, yet, Casper. The proof is in the pudding."

Now that the alert messages had been sent, he pulled up Fred's cloud search engine and entered the same searches for future headlines. The responses popped back on his screen.

Massive earthquake and tsunami hits central coast of China. Billions of dollars of damage occurred while miraculously only 137 lives were lost. A mysterious hacker known only has NetNostradams is attributed for saving potentially hundreds of thousands of lives. According to sources, this modern day Batman sent a fake, yet totally accurate emergency notification to major world agencies two hours before the actual catastrophe. This action enabled local authorities to evacuate the coastal areas. International authorities are investigating.

Shock and relief washed over him as data changed almost before his eyes. His heart rate lowered as did the number of lives lost.

"What have I done?" Evan stared at the screen.

"Saved lives," Linc replied. "It's something you have a lot of practice at."

"Man, I changed the future." Evan whispered as the essence of power washed over him.