XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, misc.writing, alt.magick   
   XPost: alt.2600   
   From: gerryq@DELETETHISindigo.ie   
      
   In article <1175902284.089008.316720@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,   
   CoreyWhite@gmail.com says...   
   > Backbone - The Plot   
   >   
   > The candidates for the next president are looming, and the story   
   > follows one of the Democratic nominee's who seemed to be our villain.   
   > In the beginning we find him talking on the phone to a man with an   
   > obscure east European accent.   
      
   "Speak up, damn you.  I can't understand your obscure accent."   
      
   > The man tells him that he can secure   
   > him as the democratic candidate for the presidency provided he can   
   > follow his instructions exactly.  Meet him alone, outside of his   
   > building immediately. Then he instructs him to check his bank account   
   > because he will find $100,000,000 dollars that has been added to his   
   > account.   
      
   "You moron.  In the freezer maybe I could get away with it, but with an   
   unexplained $100000000 in my bank account I'm just boned."   
      
   > When the president meets him outside a pick-up truck is waiting for   
   > him.  The driver, still talking to him on a cell phone gives him a   
   > wink.  He is dressed in clothes he must have bought from good will,   
   > and it doesn't look like he has shaved in 3 years.  So our president   
   > gets into the van, and looks down to see an open laptop between his   
   > seat and the drivers.   
   >   
   > The driver clicks on a program and the two of them are left   
   > whispering.   
   >   
   > What the driver reveals to our president is that he is a virus writer,   
      
   And the candidate points out that he isn't actually president yet.   
      
   [--]   
      
   > So what the virus-writing group has done, is find a way to change the   
   > votes happening in our election, because the votes are calculated up,   
   > and put onto a computer system, before being transferred to a central   
   > location.  The average person may not be aware we are using electronic   
   > voting, but all of our votes run over the internet after being counted   
   > by hand.  In some counties in the novel they are already switching   
   > over to electronic ballot booths.   
      
   "I see", said the candidate.  A fit man who believed that regular   
   working out was one of the prices of office, he grabbed the geek by his   
   scrawny neck and had no difficulty overpowering him.  His honesty and   
   quick thinking gave him a permanent boost in the polls.   
      
   > But in the End, the president hacks the system himself.  Once he is   
   > elected he finds a way to rebel in the end, after pretending to go   
   > along with the virus-writing group.  He seems to have a change of   
   > heart, and tries to pass international anti-virus writing laws.   He   
   > sends in the CIA to take out the virus writer groups, and goes to all   
   > out war.  But in the end he is assassinated.  And that's where the   
   > story ends.   
      
   It's more exciting than my version.  But less realistic.   
      
   - Gerry Quinn   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)