IRISH BLUE 5 BRING ME A DONKEY A novel by Sheila Willar Copyright 2016 Sheila Willar ISBN 978-0-9867101-4-8 Untie them and bring them to me. - Matthew 21:2
CHAPTER 2 ............................ ANSEL
In the North, Autumn is the shortest season of all. One day the trees are a brilliant colour, and the next their brown, brittle leaves are tumbling along stone walls, chattering and prophesying as their brittle edges rustle together in the wind. Wise people though, do not put their cameras away, because a great beauty awaits them in the mist that rises from off the still rivers, and shrouds the ferns and tall grasses in veils of frozen dew.
Erin loved Autumn and was thankful to be home in Dublin before the onset of Winter. She needed to rest and recover from the trek through Turkey and down the Tigris River Valley. She and Father Michael had escaped unharmed but they had left their prized possession, Thee Irish Blue Stone Chair, “hidden in plain sight” in Jerusalem. Even though she was glad to be rid of it, she hoped that the chair was safe from the hands of treasure hunters and the likes of Mrs. Mancinni, who wanted the supernatural icon for her own personal power and show.
Erin was glad to leave the past behind and to immerse herself back into academic life. As a full time architecture student her plate was full, but she had to choose an elective and so Political Science became the side dish to the main course. She didn’t intend to invest much time on it, but the professor asked the class to post blogs about the current election, and as the candidates and the issues heated up, so did Erin’s point of view.
At first, her posts were a collection of bland commentaries but as she became more invested and realized that there was more to say than the course material would allow, she began to write additional posts under the pen-name of “Ansel”. The topics for the essays that were required for the professor were spurned by his decades of political insight, and they were the jumping off point for Ansel to be as free and provocative as the times would allow, and soon it took on a life of its own and became a popular hit.
For better or worse, Erin’s Ansel found its way into many homes and businesses, where her words were bantered around dinner tables and office water coolers. However, her words also made their way into a very unconventional setting, where they were being sifted by military personnel for a very special project.
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“Find me a new mule people!” yelled Captain White. “And make it quick! We don’t have much time!”
Captain White led a team of software spies, who were tasked with sending coded messages all over the world. One of their methods was to use a known website as a “mule” to carry embedded instructions. It did not have to be a political site, but it did have to meet the criteria of a government mule. It had to contain a significant sample of words from their target list including the names of major political figures, names of geographic references and enough numbers, nouns, adjectives and verbs to convey their secret messages.
“I’ve got one sir!” yelled Ryan.
“Let’s see it,” answered Captain White. “Hmmmm … What’s its correlation?”
“It’s high. It’s 70%,” replied Ryan.
“What’s its name?”
“Ansel. Sir!”
After a few minutes of inspection, Captain White announced, “Do it! And make it fast! We’ve got work to do!”
Immediately, Ryan ran more diagnostics on the Ansel website. He recorded every single keystroke that Erin made, including what was deleted. They calculated the statistical probability that she would change information, and they sealed all the doors to her peripherals in order to block hackers. They seamlessly became her internet service provider and her search engine, so that all of her online communications were routed through them. They only allowed information in or out, that served their goals.
For all intents and purposes, Ansel had become government property.