126,000,000

116.

The medium, the message and the audience. Concepts born from the genius of Marshall McCluhan, he of the optic versus the haptic, where vision is to light what haptics is to resistance, is the starting point. The arc of this powerful paradox is the game of monetizing, scaling and for the purposes of the MBI effort, militarizing the immense capabilities of a well funded propaganda campaign. A game with the sole purpose of regime change at the highest levels of political office, most often by installing UIs, useful idiots, where the Dunning-Kruger effect has reached chronic critical mass, and who are thereby extremely susceptible to bribery. Bribery in this case using the alias of campaign contributions and PAC support, as well as the tried and true cold-hard cash of corrupt lobbying. As I consider the potential of a well-run army of bots programmed for an information war against America, a lightning bolt of ebonic carbon strikes my spine like a razor-sharp poison dart. The scene from Lord of the Rings with Orcs in mass production as the run up to war, seems frighteningly and graphically appropriate. 

Our mission, having completely changed direction in the last ten minutes, must now pivot on the fly. This will, it now appears, be a battle not fought with conventional weaponry. Computers have replaced cannons and bytes of data, bayonets. This pixel monkey battle for opinion is not the gorilla warfare I am used to. But here we are. I give a silent nod of thanks that we have the Queen inside the MBI war room, and Julie, back in our version of command central. Those two alone can keep us in the game, provide analytical counter measures and suggest computer generated probabilities. Their IT chops are solid and up to date. It is our new responsibility to throw as many wrenches into their machinery as possible until we can develop an overall long-range strategy. As I say, that means by noon tomorrow. 

We start the tedious project of setting up safe houses, boring and absolutely squeaky clean looking urban centers for our local operations. I am particularly fond of the housing track homes where every other one looks exactly the same. Fences are good, as are two car garages. However in this business, as most real estate brokers will agree, it is mostly about location. We need to be close, but not too close, to the action. 

We’ll need three for the present, here in Omaha, for Davis and Saunders in Tucson, and I am having the remainder of our squad, Bromden and Calahan deployed to Vegas and Portland respectively. Bromden will replace the local analyst, LA, who was instrumental in the Luxor operation, but who must now be returned to the agency from whom he was borrowed, and Calahan to the Pacific Northwest, a site still spiking with on-line activity. That will give us the coverage to act quickly should Her Majesty and Julie come up with actionable information. 

With astonishing speed, perhaps a harbinger of things to come, I receive a text from Julie providing the street address of our ‘about to open for business’, Omaha operation. 

“Pays to be connected,” deadpans Drysdale, as we fasten shoulder harness’ and enter local traffic. 

“One hundred and twenty-six million,” he says.

“One hundred and twenty-six million what?” I play along.

“Number of US Facebook accounts reached by Russian bots in the 2016 election.”