June 22nd, 2042

June 22nd, 2042:

It’d been over three years since Travis was taken. Three years since we posted anything. Three years since we’d found the document that got our leader jailed. The stories never made the papers, but the bombings also didn’t happen. We may have been invisible to the public, but in private we were working. We were discovering new ways to secure the internet that were revolutionary even to us. We’d learned about taking down servers and disabling connections. We learned, in essence, how to privatize the internet with no one’s authority. We knew what our next move would be.

         Travis was in an isolated cell in a federal prison in Fairfax, VA outside of DC. We’d been able to communicate the exact time and date on which we would disarm the locks, shut off the lights, and give him the chance to escape. June 23rd, 2042. 10:15 p.m. The plan was for a few BlackNet officers to wait for him a half mile south car that would drive about 12 miles west to where one of our junior members lived. He would have access to a lumber warehouse. Underneath it was a dug out area stocked with water, food rations, and a server. We’d even sent some books to help keep everyone sane. I’d sent Travis my personal copy of Resurrection Man. The warehouse would serve as a functioning headquarters. No one would be able to come after us anyway because at 10:15 on June 23rd, 2042 we would completely disable the government and private sector’s access to the internet. Tracking devices would become paperweights unless BlackNet enabled them. We were going to be in sole possession of the most powerful technology in the world.

June 23rd, 2042
10:12 p.m.: I turn on music to ease the tension. One of my dad’s favorite old records by LCD Soundsystem. “New York, I love you, but you’re bringing me down...” starts to play. I can’t help but switch it up in my mind. “New York, I love you, but I’m bringing you down.”
10:15 p.m.: Power grid disabled.
10:16 p.m.: Federal servers infiltrated and wiped.
10:16 p.m.: civilian internet seized.
10:16 p.m.: GPS technology shutdown.
10:17 p.m.: Banks, Hospitals, Credit Card Companies, Airlines disabled.
10:27 p.m.: Travis Lothian reaches rendezvous and heads toward Lumber Warehouse.
10:33 p.m.: Message from Travis Lothian received by New York Headquarters “Good work Blacknet.”
10:45 p.m.: white male 24 years old climbs to the top of the statue in Columbus Circle and does a back flip off it. His friends say he thinks he is dreaming.