The Message from God 2

I was left with a search box on top of the page. Numb, I stood up and clasped my hands behind my head. A mosquito landed on my forehead and drained the blood rushing through my veins. I leaned against the white wall and shut my eyes. I had to think, think, think.

I thought maybe this was some kind of elaborate psych experiment. There could be hidden cameras all around the house. My computer could have been hacked already, and renown so-called researchers at some institution could be monitoring my moves to analyze how my actions were demonstrative of human nature shaped by evolution. A bummer, but a plausible scenario. Dad would have signed an agreement to green-light this crass experiment for a couple of bottles of soju.

It was best to assume I was being watched like giant pandas in a zoo. The website was very likely a hoax or a prank. Why trust this sicko named Z? What does “hacking into any computer” even mean? How can I be sure I’m not in some kind of nasty trap? What if this tool doesn’t let me be completely anonymous? What does Z want from me?

I walked back to my desk and set my fingers on the keyboard. My first target was a celebrity who was world-wide famous and really far away from where I was. I could think of a few “safe” names and eventually looked up “Angelina Jolie’s real name and birthday” on DuckDuckGo. After turning the VPN on, I typed “Angelina Jolie Voight, 19750604” into the search box and hit the button next to it.

She owned 18 devices, including three iPhones, four MacBooks, and three iPads. The real-time dashboard showed how long she used these devices every day. I could even see which services she accessed on each device. Without thinking much, I clicked “iPhone 1” at the top because it was in green text. She was currently using the phone.

A new window popped up, streaming a real-time view of her phone. I watched, like in a theater, as Jolie wrote an email to her friend Joan. I almost moved my cursor to the Photos app, but was afraid that would incriminate me later. I felt that at any moment she could sense a stranger watching over her shoulder. Before crossing the line, I had to experiment further to learn what this tool was capable of and what I had to avoid at all costs.

I deleted the name and birthday from the search, and the page got wiped clean. I was already drenched in sweat, convinced that the website was real. I still had to double-check that I was undetectable while spying on other devices. A month was a long time, especially for people like me. Z knew I would make the most of this opportunity. There was no doubt about that.