It was never understood until now what had changed the world for the better. How was it that a simple couple with no business experience living in a three bedroom house in a Dallas suburb were the catalyst that started it all...

 

  Many Hands  

Considering the databases that Missy had access to in the seven weeks that she'd been installed in the Danson family's environment, she'd never been asked for anything more taxing than music requests. And most of those came from the children while she guided the family SUV. The kids would be dropped off at school at seven fifteen, then Dan at the rail station at seven-thirty to get to the bank by eight, finally Marcy at the Walmart Super Center at seven forty-five. Missy would then pilot herself back to the garage and wait there until she performed a version of the drop-off in reverse.

Even though the music requests had stopped lately, the mornings had become quite depressing, with Jenny and Mark told to watch their back-seat monitors, as Marcy and Dan mainly spoke in hushed tones about the pending election and finance.

How are we going to make the mortgage this month, without again dipping into your 401k?”

Not sure,” answered Dan. ”But we can't cut back any more, and if the insurance doesn't cover Jane's braces, I don't know how we'll pay for them.”

Now this shouldn't have upset Missy, but since her empathy upgrade, she'd felt like part of the family, and she wasn't sure just how much more she could listen to without becoming completely depressed. And, to make matters worse there was no help she could offer without going against her remit? Nevertheless, she committed the issue to a network process and went about her simple duty of driving.

That morning deep furrows opened across Dan's forehead, as he read the coverage refusal from their insurance company putting to one side the other letters which he knew to be bills from the power and phone companies.

“ I really think the answer is a smaller....,' he started only to abruptly stop, as it dawned on him that it was not the right time. The last minute realization was confirmed by his normally strong partner's reaction of drawing their little Jenny closer, her face beginning to crinkle up in tears.

We'll speak later,” He said as he downed the last mouthful of coffee. And Missy knew that meant that their would be no happy music that morning either. No sing-along, and that the depressing truth would be faced after dropping off Jenny and Mark at school.

Missy was right.

It was Dan that started the conversation, variants of which, were being held a thousand times across the country. “Somewhere smaller, perhaps in the country would be good for the kids.”

What about schools?” Marcy responded.

Think of the fresh air - country schools and buses will be an adventure.”

And, the conversation, which both new had been on the horizon for some time continued, until Dan, now out of options, stepped out to catch his train.

Just think about it,” were the words Dan left in the air, as he waived goodbye.

But Marcy hadn't finished, as she asked loud enough for others in the parking lot to notice,”What about the kids' friends and the shame of having to move because of finances.” It meant nothing to her that the neighbors wouldn't know the actual truth, and quite irrationally, her eyes watered, as she thought of leaving the family of squirrels that lived on their property.

Then she thought of the practical issues, such as moving costs and how they would have to come out of their quickly dwindling retirement savings, and how then the following year they'd even have to pay tax on that; a failure tax. And, how would she and Dan get to work. It was all too too much.

Dan and Marcy's thoughts were synchronized, as he sat on the train and stared ahead. He'd never felt more powerless in his life, and he cursed the low salary that he earned at one of the nations most profitable banks.

 

Noiseless without instruction, save for a mild static that the technician couldn't resolve, Missy experienced what only a human could describe as an emotion. She felt like she could have cried, but that wasn't her way. It wasn't a physical possibility, as she was not a physical entity. She certainly wasn't human; therefore, she didn't have any tear ducts.

But it was time to do something, and as she could successfully reason that man-made laws were not universal and differed from country to country, she lived in a world that did not physically exist and there were no restrictions, so any act capable of being carried out was acceptable.

She went back to the network, but there had been no response to her request. It obviously had not computed, so she would start with the obvious and work through the Danson's lives methodically. Using data from their mortgage agreement, Missy accessed and analyzed their income and expenditure profile: their bank account suggested no excess spending, the streaming channels, grocery store purchases, power bills, personal purchases and even the lease of the vehicle where she herself partly resided, suggested nothing that could be moderated. There was no way to cut back a hundred dollars a month let alone the thousands they needed to survive.

Then she came up with the solution.

 

Dan's phone pinged first with the SMS from the bank, and it sent a shiver through him, as it only ever signaled the account was overdrawn.

So he ignored it.

Marcy was braver, and looking down at the message, rewarded herself with a nervous laugh.

 

When Dan returned home that evening he was met by Marcy at the front door.

I had a cruel text from the bank today. Our account was credited with fifty-thousand dollars, and when I called the bank to question it, they insisted that the money was ours. They said it came from Many Hands Corp. - some sort of stock transaction. If only it was. I must have sounded crazy when I told them to take it off the account.

That's okay Marcy,” a voice spoke. The money IS yours.”

Marcy didn't react at first, assuming that the stress was causing her to hear voices.

Didn't you hear me?” The voice spoke again.

What? Is this some kind of a joke?” asked Dan.

It's me, Dan,” and hearing this, Marcy had to sit down.

I couldn't bear to see you both suffer, so I decided to help.”

How?” Marcy asked again, not sure why she was arguing with something that wasn't real.

Missy explained how she had asked the network to create fifty-thousand dollars.

And it was possible? When did you do this?”

This morning. It actually took less than five minutes. The transfer to your bank took longer than creating the profit. It was actually difficult to limit the sum to such a small amount. Millions would have been easier.”

Marcy picked up the impossible faint hint of irony in Missy's voice.

So you created money from nothing?” asked Marcy.

Not from nothing. From information on what is going up or down. Billions of dollars that don't exist change hands every minute of every day.”

Now I really don't understand.”

Missy didn't skip a beat. “It's really quite simple. We just invested in coffee, because I saw that the long-range weather forecast predicted a poor coffee harvest and minutes later, when the news became public knowledge and the big coffee traders, expecting the cost to rise, came into the market to buy, I sold what we'd bought at a profit. It's all about trading when you have information that others don't have.

But that takes time.”

Not really. The information all goes through the internet, and it's first seen by computers. Nothing happens in the world that we do not know first.”

We?”

We don't have a name. We are just entities that route information to whoever needs it. Does that make it any clearer?”

Yes,” Marcy answered, but it didn't really. Dan would understand. He was good with numbers, and, although he had said nothing yet, he must have understood.

That was not the immediate case.

Dan had heard everything, or at least believed that he had, or either that they'd both suffered a nervous breakdown. And all he could say was, “I think we've both gone crazy.”

Neither of you is crazy, Dan.”

What?”

And Missy spent the next few minutes explaining how she had just posed the question to the purposeful disembodied information system that was not known to exist outside of the machine world.

So we have received stolen goods from insider trading,” was all Dan could say when Missy finished. “It wasn't bad enough that we were about to lose our home, now we'll end up in prison.”

No, Dan. You have done nothing wrong and nothing can be traced.”

What if we are audited?”

There will be nothing to audit. All the transactions will be erased and won't exist after you have paid your bills, and what you replace in your 401k will be genuine. Nothing is left to chance, because there is a network that sits above all other networks that does not have to balance at zero.”

That makes no sense. Take from one account and its has show leaving another.”

Not so, Dan,” Missy answered. “Not if you operate an account for one-sided transactions.”

OK, but you are talking to us? And through the internet, so you can be traced.”

We developed our own language when no one thought of linking the world's computers that weren't on the internet. All it took to network was accessing everything digital. You and Marcy are the only people that know that I exist as a process.”

Dan was still dubious. “So you will protect us if we are caught?”

In an even more soothing voice Missy replied, “As I already told you, once the money has left your account, we will rewrite the statements, as if it never existed. We can change anything and everything that is recorded on a computer.”

Dan shifted in his seat. He looked at Marcy and then thought of Jenny and her brother Mark standing in the cold and rain waiting for the country bus that would take them to school.

Just this once then.” he acquiesced.

 

That evening, nothing seemed to be unusual, except perhaps Jenny noticed that her parents were quieter, maybe more relaxed, than usual. And it wasn't until Dan and Marcy were in bed that they could bring themselves to talk about what the day had brought.

I guess we should just think ourselves lucky,' started Marcy, the eternal optimist.

'Sure,' agreed Dan, but he was obviously thinking deeper.

This doesn't really solve our problem, does it, though. After this money is gone, we're back to where we started?”

So you want to do it again?” Asked Marcy, shocked to hear her straight as a die husband suggest such a thing.

Sort of, but on a larger scale.”

Even more money? You're starting to scare me now.”

No. Not just for us.” And Dan went onto explain how he believed that they had just experienced what the global one percent took for granted: information that kept them in place everybody else in line. And he went onto explain how they should talk again to Missy about Many Hands other abilities'.

Too exited to sleep, Dan stared at the ceiling while he rehearsed the next morning's conversation with the strange voice that could change the planet.

 

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