"They're ready now." "Perhaps we could begin with your earliest recollections of the events of last May." "Well, I first got involved on the 15th." "Could you move the microphone a little closer?" "Here?" "I first got involved on the 15th." "Chancellor Tom Pickering has defended the government's stance on disability benefits as outrage over the death of so-called "Wheelchair Martyr" Gwen Marbury grows." "More than 20,000 people have signed a petition demanding the sacking of newspaper columnist Jo Powers following her controversial article about Gwen Marbury." "Conservationists have announced another extinction." "The Siberian crane has died out following an unprecedented reduction in its wetland habitat." "And the honeybee-mimicking drone insects known as ADls have been activated for their second summer." "Hope you're ashamed of yourself." " Bitch." " Pleasure's all mine." "Yo Powers?" "Jo Powers." "Whatever's in there, will it detonate?" "That's from bakery." "For you." " Thank you." " Thank you." "Hello, darling!" "Creative, your well-wishers." "Don't eat it." "It's a cake." "That's its job." "I'm going to have a bath." "Ah!" "Grammy-award-winning rapper Tusk is still with us." "Now, Tusk, there are loads of online videos of people trying to emulate you, but this is our favourite." "Take a look at this." "It's a young chap called Aaron Sheen." "He's nine years old." "Thatisonegoofy-lookingkid." "Not a good dancer." "He's nine years old!" "Come on, he's a pretty good dancer." "That young motherfucker can't dance for shit." "He should probably just give up now, actually." "Don't hate on me for keeping it real." "That's a goofy little motherfucker, and he can't dance for shit." "Heisabig fan ,Tusk." "Don'thateon yourboy ." "Everybody's got to start somewhere." "Startsomewhere?" "I looked better than that..." " DCI Parke?" " No press." "No, I'm not press." "Um..." "TDC Blue Colson." "I'm your shadow." "My shadow?" "They said..." "Sorry." "Call me Karin." " Did you say your name was...?" " Blue." " B-l-u-e, Blue?" " Yeah." "It's not a nickname." " My dad liked the sound of it." " Uh-huh." " Seen a body before?" " A couple." " On video, I mean." " Boss?" "This is Blue." "She's my shadow." " DS Nick Shelton." " What've we got?" " Jo Powers." " As in..." "As in actual Jo Powers." "Saw something she wrote the other day about the wheelchair woman." "Clickbait piece." "Pissed people off." "That article was fucking horrendous." "Even I signed the petition." "To get her sacked." "Come on." "Neighbours heard her screaming and called it in." "Hell of a struggle." "Anyone else at home?" "Husband." "Found slashed across the stomach." " By her?" " Don't know." "He was unconscious." "They've taken him to St. Columbus." "Her mentions are still pouring in." "Restraining bolt's in place." " No other points of entry?" " No." "But the outside's ringed with CCTV." " We got the code for the cams?" " Uh-huh." "Okay, then." "Check the recordings." "Bag that, send it to Toxicology." "Full autop for her, and we question the husband as soon as he wakes up." "Come on." " You think it's the husband?" " I'm keeping options open." "Cutting the throat, that's unusual." "Thanks, chaps." " But you do think he did it?" " Don't know anything yet." "These things are almost always either drink, drugs or domestic." "It is how it is." " You driving home?" " No license." "Never passed." "I'm sort of waiting for driverless to go mainstream." " Get in." " No, honestly, I'll get the Tube." " Get in." " Oh." "Okay." " So you were in Tech Crime?" " Digital Forensics." "Computer murk." "What happened, you get bored of it?" "Not exactly." "You've seen what people tuck away on these." "Schemes and kill lists, kiddy porn." "It's not boring." "I'm old enough to remember when they walked around with that stuff just tucked away in their heads." "Right." "But now they can't help but entrusting it to their little companions." "These things absorb who we are." "They know everything about us." "If it's interesting, why leave Forensics?" "The Rannoch case." " Ian Rannoch?" " The child killings, yeah." "I was the one who cracked his souvenir folder." " So you saw those pictures?" " Mm-hmm." "And the videos too." "Saw them all." "You see something like that, it changes you." "You either get defeated or you think..." "You think, "Fuck me!" "I've got to help stop that shit."" "Yeah." " I mean, out here in the field..." " What fucking field?" "You know what I mean." "Out here in the real world, you can genuinely prevent stuff, can't you?" "You are young." "Maybe you're old?" "Steady." "Thanks." " See you tomorrow." " Yes, boss." "Jo Powers has been found dead at her home in West London." "The veteran columnist had been at the centre of controversy over an article she'd written about disability rights activist Gwen Marbury." "The police have yet to confirm the cause..." "It's just the first floor, first door on the..." " Starting early?" " I asked Nick to show me the CCTV." " Oh, yeah?" " Yeah." "No one came in or out." "Just Jo and her husband all evening." " And that one there?" " Rear patio." " Bust for months by the looks of it." " Someone could've come in through there." "They'd have to climb the fence, make it in and out, knowing the camera wasn't working, but yeah, could have happened." "Technically." "Okay, sorry." "You're keen to help." " She just asked!" " Uh-huh." "Um..." "So..." "I'm collating every threat or insult levelled at Jo Powers over the previous 48 hours." "Say it is the husband." "That's a coincidence, isn't it?" "Not really." "You've got everyone throwing a shit fit." "Stress levels in that household would've been through the roof." "That Internet stuff drifts off like weather." "It's half hate." "They don't mean it." "The hate in a marriage, that's in 3D." "That's had work put into it." "That's sincere." " Yeah." "I'm divorced." " Um..." "Husband's up and talking." "You're gonna love his alibi." "I heard Jo screaming from upstairs." "And when I ran in, she was walking 'round the room, stumbling." "She was clutching..." "She was clutching her head as if she was in pain." "And then for a moment, she stopped." "And then it was like a seizure, she was... thrashing... clawing at her own skin." "And she turned..." "She smashed her head..." "onto the desk, hard." "Then she... she pushed me over." "That must've been when the bottle smashed." "Then she picked it up, and she started cutting herself." "Here." "She was gouging." "I tried to stop her." "But she did this." "Then she cut her throat." "I tried to stop her." "She cut her own throat with the glass!" "Mutilated and then killed herself for no apparent reason?" "I'd say the odds are against that." "He said it was like she was having a seizure." "Maybe there was something in the cake." " The cake?" " It had "fucking bitch" iced on it." " Could've been something in it." " Like a drug?" " I don't know." " That makes people kill themselves?" "He was sort of convincing." " He just doesn't seem the..." " Don't say "the type."" "He's ordinary." "That is the type." "What, so he bounced her head off the desk?" " Blue." " Held her steady enough..." " Blue." " What?" " Toxicology are looking at the cake." " Okay." "Meantime, let's drop in on the person that sent it." "Got the name this morning." " You don't need to patronize me." " We're doing what you want." " Following another lead." " That you think is a waste of time." "Picking along dead ends just to prove they're dead ends, that's most of the job." "I'm not saying it's a waste of time." "Just... you haven't had a chance to get bored of reality yet." "Okay, that was patronizing." " Is this who sent the cake?" " Uh-huh." " Have we checked her social feeds?" " I don't know." ""Death to Jo Powers." She posted that on Monday morning." "The bakery said that they're not meant to do obscenities, so I said it was for my sister, like just a joke thing, and they agreed, so..." "Not cheap, their cakes." "With delivery, it was what, 80 quid?" "Um..." "Well, I didn't pay for it all myself." " We all put a pound in each." " We?" "Yeah." "I'm on a mums and carers message board." "I held a sort of whip-round." " You crowd-sourced the money?" " Yeah, if you like." "From 80 other people?" "Look, I'm not..." "I'm not being funny, okay?" "I know she is dead." "But did you read what she had written?" "How much do you think she got paid for spouting that horrible shit?" "I don't know." " I was just using my freedom of speech." " To send a threatening message." "It was funny, okay?" "And I can see if I'd done it myself, then that would be a bit weird, but I'm not mental." "You wished she was dead." "Well, uh..." "No, no, I didn't." " "Death to Jo Powers."" " That's just..." "It's a... a hashtag game, you know, like "Death to..."" "You insert the name of someone who's being an arsehole." "It's not... real." "It's a joke thing." "And who started it?" "The hashtag?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "I saw it somewhere." "Excuse us a moment." "Toxicology say the cake's clean." "They also said:" ""Thanks, it was delicious."" "We'll give her a caution." "Offensive Communications Act." " Does that cover cakes?" " As far as she's concerned, it does." "What about the others who chipped in?" "Are you going to tell them off, too?" " I didn't do anything." " Start a thread about it." "Hospital's discharging the husband tomorrow." "We'll bring him in for questioning." "Blue?" "We're arresting the husband." "Don't wallow in that." "The Internet will be pissed off with someone else today." "Tusk." "Everyone's pissed off with Tusk 'cause of that thing with the kid." "He's catching a shit storm on social media." " Liza will be organising the cake now." " Yeah." " See you tomorrow." " See you." "Whoo!" "Where my ladies at?" " Yo!" "Good show." " Yeah, that's a good show, brother." " I'm feeling my shit." " You want some of that?" " What you smoking?" " Good shit, boy." "A'ight." "Damn!" "Eyes on, eyes on, eyes on." "Don't stress." "It's legal here." "Pfft!" "Keep forgetting." "Welcome to Europe, I guess." " Kinda takes the joy out of it." " Tell me about it." "Careful!" "You break it, you pay for it." "Always doing some bullshit." "Tusk?" "Tusk?" "Yo, yo!" "We need some help over here!" " I got you." " Get it out!" "Get it out!" "Get it out!" "Call an ambulance!" "Commencing." " Did he say what it is?" " Nope." " Good morning." " Morning." "She's in here." "So I go in, and there's not just the wound from the glass." "There's a hole." "Dug in." "A bore hole, like a tiny tunnel." "So I follow it, you know, how deep does it go?" "It goes all the way from her ear canal to deep in her brain." "Where I find this." "Nestled right in there." "Looks quite cosy." " It's one of those bee things." " An ADI." "An Autonomous Drone Insect from the Granular Project." " How did it get in there?" " I'd say it burrowed in." " Fuck me." " That's not the worst part." "It crawled right through her dorsal posterior insula, which is basically the brain's pain centre." "You're talking agony off the scale." " You'd do anything to make it stop." " Even cut your own throat." " Good afternoon." " DCI Parke." " TDC Blue Colson." " Okay." "Thank you." "They're so fucking fancy-looking, these companies." " Billions on branding." " Well, they can afford it." "The whole ADI project's pretty much bankrolled by the government." "It's why so many people are paranoid about it." "Let me guess, this is some people on the Internet?" "They reckon the government uses the bees to spy on us." "There's a schizophrenic world view." "Jesus, I didn't expect to find myself living in the future, but here I fucking well am." " Karin Parke?" " Uh-huh." "Vanessa Dahl." "Please." "Follow me." "You're after information on our Project Swarm ADls?" "That's right." "Any particular reason?" "Yes." "Rasmus." "Rasmus Sjoberg." " He heads Swarm." " Nice to meet you." " Hi." " Hi." " Nice greenhouse." " Yeah." "So, your bees, your ADis, talk me through them." "Colony Collapse Disorder." "We still don't know what's behind it." "Bees themselves were virtually extinct so what our ADis do is effectively stand in for them." "They're solar powered." "They don't need nectar." "But they pollinate flowers the same way." "They crawl inside, pollen sticks to their legs and gets brushed off the next flower they visit." " Can they make honey?" " Uh..." "No." "I was joking." "How do they know where the flowers even are?" "I mean..." "Well, they have a sensor." "Like a... camera?" "No." "Just a basic visual sensor." "You see, they need rudimentary pattern recognition in order to locate compatible flora and navigate." " They navigate?" " Yes." "You don't..." "I don't know... steer them?" "They're autonomous." "That's right, isn't it?" "They make their own decisions." "They look after themselves." "Yes." "You see, the ADis cover the whole of the UK." "We couldn't command each one individually ourselves." "It's just not logistically possible." "No." "We simply set the behaviour and leave them to it." "They even construct these hives themselves." "They reproduce..." " They reproduce?" " Yes." "Each hive is a replication point." " It's like a 3D printer, basically." " Exactly." "They create duplicates of themselves, create more hives and spread out exponentially." " Cover the country." " Maybe you should work here." "Yeah, well, I read up on it." "It's impressive." "It is." "It's just a shame it's necessary." "The alternative would have been environmental catastrophe." "Bees were dying out." "So, what is it that brings you here?" "We think one of your ADis may be involved in an unexplained death." "Sorry?" "A death?" "Uh-huh." "Thank you." "Yeah." "It's one of ours." "But, look, these are not designed to..." "Kill people?" "I'd hope not." "Could it have malfunctioned somehow?" "No." "I mean, when they do malfunction..." "It happens, but then they just break, they just hit the ground." "What if someone hacked one and then they found a way of controlling it?" "That's impossible." "You see, it's got military-grade encryption, and you would need a diagnostic controller, which is also encrypted." "So I would say the likelihood is..." "I don't know what he's saying, but it's not the same as "impossible."" "This is every hive we have online." "See..." "These are the hives in the building here." " How many bees per hive?" " Around 4,000." " It's like air traffic control." " Yeah." "Is that the search input?" " Yeah, but, uh... you'd need..." " Sorry." "Jo Powers' postcode." "Is that who this is about?" " You said you get some malfunctions?" " A fair few, yes." "They smack into a car or something." "We even had people trap them." "You know, put them in the microwave for YouTube videos." "And this logs any that drop off the system?" "Logs everything, yes." "Did you lose any around here on Monday evening?" "Well, I can check." "Just one." "Went out at 1903 hours." "Here, I can replay." "There." " That's odd." " What's odd?" "When they pass between hives, they switch from one jurisdiction to another." " It's, you know, like a..." " It's like a phone between cell masts?" "Exactly." "It tried to do that, but there was nothing to switch to." "Unless someone spoofed a hive and then they've used that to commandeer your ADI." "No, you would need a diagnostic controller to do that." "What's the range on one of those?" "Ten, 20 metres, perhaps." "So whoever was controlling it would have to be no more than 20 metres away." " Outside the house." " Yeah." "Sitting in a car, even." " Can you trace back who did this?" " Yes." "I-I'm already trying to do that." "Uh..." "You know what?" "Uh..." "It would be easier without an audience." "Okay." "You two swap numbers, keep a line of communication." "Can you shut the whole thing down if need be... hypothetically speaking?" "Even a short stoppage would damage the ecosystem, and we'd need approval from the Department of the Environment." "We'll need a list of any Granular staff that had access to that system, past or present." "Some were government employees." "Use a different font for those if it helps." "Bye." "Nick, that's a set of Granular personnel records." "Root out anyone interesting." "Maybe not just one." "Could be a group involved." "Technically we should refer this up to the NCA, but there's no fucking way they're taking this off me." "The NCA already knows about it." "What?" "DCI Karin Parke?" " Yes." " Shaun Li, National Crime Agency." "How come you're here?" "There's been more than one." "This is Tusk, last night." " Shit." " They thought it was a fit." "Took him to the hospital." "He had to be anaesthetised to stop him mutilating himself." "X-ray seemed to indicate some kind of plaque or tumour in his brain so they popped him in the MRI." "Yeah." "Basically one big magnet." "Tore it right out of his head, through the eye socket." "Battered the ADI too." "Yours is more intact so I'm gonna need it for analysis." "It's evidence." "Two's a pattern." "It knocks any malfunction theory in the head." " And they're similar victims." " Similar?" "Both in the middle of online shit storms." "Well, if you wanna kill someone, there's a million easier ways to do it." "Pull this off and you've done it from across the street." "No fingerprints, no DNA." "It's like wishing them dead." "Fuck." "Fuck." "Guys?" "Come here." "Okay, so, um..." "Jo Powers and Tusk, both were being kicked around the Internet for hours, but in both their cases, people were also tweeting their photos accompanied with this hashtag: #DeathTo." " Like our friend the teacher." " Right." "She didn't know where she'd first heard of it, but trace it back, and it looks like the first real use of the hashtag was last weekend." " By who?" " Uh..." "Looks like, um..." "Looks like identical tweets from a set of duplicate bot accounts." "Um..." "Automated." "It's like spam." "This is someone trying to seed the tag, you know?" "Get it out there." "It's like bait." "This is someone wanting people to pick up on it." "Check out the senders' avatar photos." "Bees." "Shit." "Okay." "There's more." "So each tweet had a sort of instruction video attached to it." " Uh-huh." " There." ""Game of Consequences"?" "It's like an unpopularity contest." "Pick someone you don't like and if enough other people choose the same name, then that's who gets targeted." "Here, watch." "GameofConsequences." " One:" "Pick a target." " Oh, my God." "Two:" "Post their name and photo with #DeathTo." "No." "Three:" "Most popular target will be eliminated after 5 p.m. each day." "Four:" "Game resets at midnight." " Oh, no." " Fuck." "Someone's holding a public ballot, bumping off the top person." " Jesus, it's just mad." " Yeah, and it's growing." "Day one. 63 people used the hashtag on Jo Powers, okay?" "On day two, 223 used it on Tusk." " Who's using it now?" " There's..." "There's loads more people." "There's quite a few votes for the Chancellor." " Yeah." " Um..." "But at number one... is 880 people using it on someone called Clara Meades." " Who's she?" " Clara Meades." "Okay, um..." "it looks like she was at a demo, and she took a selfie in front of a war memorial." " Pretending to piss on it." " Nice work, Clara." "Yeah, it's getting near the end of the vote, and her mentions are blowing up." " Tusk isn't public knowledge yet?" " Um, no." "So people can't know the hashtag works." "They're using it to scare her." " Yeah, but they're gonna get her killed." " We need to get to her before five." "Yeah." "Pulling her citizens details." "You're not supposed to have access to that." "Yeah, I know." "Just getting her location." "There." "Hello?" "Yeah, she is." "All right, all right, hold on." "Clara!" "Police." "For you." "How did they get my number?" " Hello?" " Clara Meades?" "This is DCI Karin Parke, Met Police." "Sorry to track you down like this, but we think you may be in danger." "Sorry, is this a joke?" "Because all this stuff I'm getting is not funny." "I'm not joking." "Stay where you are until we get there." "And keep your windows closed." "I'm setting up a perimeter." "Call Rasmus, we need him across this." " Rasmus?" " Hi, Blue." "I'm sending you a postcode and my GPS." "I need you to monitor the area." "Track my location and see if you get anything unusual, any rogue ADis, yeah?" "Yeah, great, good." "Look, if they come back," "I think I can catch them." "I have basically set a trap." "So if they..." "if they try it again, we've got them." " Are you Batman?" " They only just rolled them out." "This'll turn every red light between here and there to green." "Fuck me." "If this is the NCA life, I should apply for a transfer." "Let's go." "We can take her here." "It's a safe house for terrorist informers usually." "Notargetsighted." "This is a police operation!" "Everybody vacate their premises now." "Please leave..." " What's that?" " Someone's trying to break in." " Rasmus?" " I just picked up an attempted breach." "Granular, they've got a breach." "  One ADI just went offline." " Where?" " 800 metres from your location." " That's outside our cordon." "If someone's trying to pilot it this way, they're gonna turn 'round the moment they see all these uniforms." "Clara Meades?" "I'm Karin Parke." "Did you pack a bag?" " Yeah, it's by the door." " Right, let's go." " Rasmus got a track on them?" " Not yet." "It's just precautionary, and it's only for one night." "Just gotta call in." "Hi." "No, not yet." "Hopefully never." "Granular are onto it." "Understood." "They housed a witness here for a while, Shaun said." " Must've had kids." " Have you got kids?" "No." "No plans." "Up the stairs." " Rasmus." " Still nothing." "I can't trace it." "At least there's an en-suite." " Is there nothing?" " No." "Whoever it is, they've masked their path well." "But that's not..." " Fuck." " What?" " We just lost a whole hive." " What does that mean?" "Packed full of ADls." "Lost them all too." " No..." "Rasmus?" " There's thousands of them." " Where?" " It's close to your location." "Rasmus, say that again." "Blue?" "Blue." "It's close..." "It's very close to you." " Text it." "Text it to me." " Rasmus." "Text it to..." "Shit." "Do I get to redecorate?" "Hello." "Hello." "No..." "They've got the whole thing." "We're not in control anymore." " They've got the whole thing." " What are you doing?" " Fix it!" "Can't you fix it?" " Shut up!" "Shit." "We need to go." "Now." "Now!" "Come on!" "Go." "Go, go, go." "What's... what's happening?" "Karin..." "In there!" "Go!" " Help me block the gap!" " Tell me what's going on!" "You're scaring the shit out of me!" "Oh!" "Fuck!" "The fan!" "The fan!" "Get it away from me!" "Take your time." "I'd seen so many bodies before." "At crime scenes, in autopsies." "But I'd never seen anyone die." "And she was right there." "And can you describe the reaction of your colleague, Miss Colson?" "Blue took it hard." "Uh-huh." "I'll shut it down." "We thought this was one guy, some Mr. Mystery in the vicinity, hijacking one ADI and personally controlling it." "But there were thousands of them." " So it can't be that, right?" " No." " One person can't fly hundreds at once." " No." "Whoever this is, they're controlling the whole system." " Do you know where from?" " Could be anywhere." "You need to fucking sort this out!" "How do the ADis know who to target?" "Could've found Clara the same way you did, the identity database?" "No." "That just gives you the basic area." "We were in the room too, and they only went for her." "Facial recognition." "It's got to be facial recognition." "Which means the feed from their visual sensors, that's been accessed too." " That's not possible." " It's the only explanation." "Now look, the visual feed is secure between each ADI and the hive." " There you go." " Although... one of the government's conditions for backing the project..." "Okay." "Enough." "We had to consent to permitting government security services access to the visual feed at times of quote, "increased national security."" "Which is, as I understand it, pretty much all the time." " I wasn't happy about it." " Your lot went along with it." "That implies a greater range of options than your lot presented." " So they are spying on us." " This is all classified." "So what did you do, did you put in a back door and route it through GCHQ?" "I mean, you do CCTV, you do traffic cams." "So what don't you have your fucking noses in?" "Look, millions of those things flying around, propping up the ecosystem?" "Well, that's great, save the planet, hallelujah!" "Government's not going to pump billions into it just 'cause some lab coat says so, and it grabs 200 green votes." "They saw an opportunity to get more, they took it." "Total nationwide surveillance." "We tracked suspects for weeks in ways they couldn't dream of." " We prevented bombings, mass shootings." " By spying on the public." "And keeping them safe, which is what they want." "Clara Meades isn't safe, though, is she, Shaun?" "Knowing what you knew, that might've helped us, but no, you kept your little fucking secret." "Okay!" "The government's a cunt." "We knew that already." "Word's going to get out about Clara." "The public's going to wake up and find this mental assassination game going on, and soon we're going to have another body." " So what do we do?" " I don't know." "We're totally locked out." "Totally blind." "If I can work out how they got in," "I might be able to reverse engineer some means of getting control back." "Do the ADis have a command log, on-board cache?" " Yeah, but that's encrypted." " I'll need the key to that." "Been through the employee files, found some pols." "Bring them in." "Are you sitting in on these?" "Granular interviews?" "I've got to be somewhere." "It's7 :15." "Three deaths have now been linked to a hashtag circulating on social media." "Controversial journalist Jo Powers..." "Goodmorning." "Have you posted the hashtag?" "Is it real or an urban myth?" "Well, thousands have been taking part, but how culpable are they?" "People are dying, and we want to hear your thoughts." "Line seven, Liana..." "This is real, this is happening..." "I am happy to see her die." "It'snotthehashtagkillingthem." "That's just a game." "Like, if you're an arsehole, you deserve to be shamed." "Steve,linefive." "Yeah,butmy pointis,  someone's gotta be top of the list, yeah?" "So why not make it someone, you know, who deserves it, like a racist." "Withthehashtag,I'veseen  celebrities, politicians, everyone." "This doesn't mean you have to sit there encouraging people to take part." "The point is this is already happening." "And people know that they can jump on board because nobody will ever know if they did or didn't." "Well, let's just pause for a moment and go back to that top five." "As we have been saying, the Chancellor is at number one, and I want us to think about that." "What does that tell us about the choice of the nation?" "Well,I can'tsayI'm surprised that he's number one on the list." "He's been pretty unpopular for quite a long time now." "Butdoesthatwarrant his place on this list?" "I'msayingpeople don't have to think too hard about it." "Now that's he's number one, that should generate more discussions and probably more votes." "Thanks for your time." " No good?" " No good." " Well, that's all fascinating..." " Shaun." " But when do we shut it down?" " Tom." "Forgive me for being sceptical about your agency's basic competence." " Tom." " I'm on the fucking chopping block here." "Number one on the list." "The people's fucking choice!" "Farrington's number four, and he's a paedophile." " Suspected paedophile." " He did it." "You know he did." "Let's just shut it down." "All social media." "The whole bloody Internet, pull the plug." "Just for today, at least until Thumbelina here pulls his finger out and he actually catches someone." "I wouldn't advise shutting things down." " But it's possible?" "We can do that?" " The whole of social media?" " Yeah." "Pull a North Korea on it." " Well, yes, technically." " Right, so push the off switch." " That's not a good idea." " No?" " Not in my opinion." "Right, okay." "It's just that speaking as a marked man, I beg to fucking differ." "If we shut it down, you'll still be number one." "Guaranteed to be, in fact." "He's right." "If we let it run on, at least there's a few hours." "Anything could happen before five o'clock." "The vote might change." "Yeah, and it might not." "What about that report?" "The archive job?" "From 1985, that memo about Farrington?" " That was over an unrelated matter." " Leak it." "Tom, that would be a smear." "A head-to-toe shit smear, I fucking hope so." "He's in his 80s." "He's had his life." "Fuck him under the bus." "If I could suggest an alternative?" "We move you to a safe location." " Have you secured before five." " Worked out well for you last night." "I'll show you." "This next one's Tess Wallender." "She was a junior." "So not much in the way of technical skills." " Quit Granular for personal reasons." " Nervous exhaustion, yeah." "Worked in Human Resources for Granular until she quit." "She took a photo of a guy on the Tube, said he'd harassed her, lewd comments or something." "Turned out he had a learning disability so she caught a ton of shit on..." "On social media." " Hello." "I'm DCI Karin Parke." " Hi." "It was like having a whole weather system turn against me." "Just hate message after hate message, around the clock, all piling on." "It's hard to describe what that does to your head." "Suddenly there's a million invisible people, all talking about how they despise you." "It's like a mental illness." "Fuck." "What?" "Shit." "I mean, hands up, I made a mistake, but the way people enjoyed kicking me, that's what got to me." "The casual fun they had and, um..." "I just felt I couldn't go on." "Who found you?" "Um..." "Garrett, my flatmate." "He found me in the bath five minutes after I'd slashed them." "I mean, it's crazy." "I'm half-conscious." "He's dragging me out of the bath, and I'm telling him to get out, saying, "I'm naked."" "He tied towels 'round my wrists, kept me conscious, kept stroking my hair till the ambulance arrived, talking to me." "Sort of weird." "I think he always had a thing for me." "And we worked at the same place so, you know... awkward." " He worked at Granular?" " Yeah." "On the ADI thing." " He was a real wunderkind." "Ultra-smart." " What did you say his name was?" "Garrett." "Garrett Scholes." "Garrett Scholes." "We need the whereabouts of a Garrett..." "Scholes." "We were about to tell you." "It was buried in the on-board memory of the Jo Powers' ADI." " What was?" " A manifesto." "A 98-page manifesto." "And check this out." "There's fucking selfies in it." "Sowe'regoodtogo?" "Okay, that's the charge in place." "Okay." "Pull back." "We're all set here." "Detonate." "So, the plan is, we move you to an underground bunker, knock out every hive within a ten-mile radius." "And, what, just leave me there?" "How long for?" "It's a temporary measure." "How long till you take out all the hives?" "There's 20,000, 30,000 of them." "That would take two years." "Two years, a victim a day." "More to the point, the environmental impact would..." "Fuck that." "Shit!" " What?" " Fuck!" "Stay back, stay back!" "Get back!" "Go, go, go!" "Get away!" "For fuck's sake, move!" "What's your Plan B?" "He was on the original employee roster, but we discounted him." "He left the country six months ago." "We thought we were looking for someone nearby." "Run a full trace on him." "Everything we can find." "Lunatic with production values, that's the worst kind." ""Thanks to the technological revolution,"" "we have the power to rage and accuse, spout bile without consequence." "Only by being forced to recognize the power technology grants us," ""to acknowledge individual responsibility..."" "Is it all like this?" "He likens the population to insects, says we revel in cruelty, that it's a weakness that should be bred out of us." "Recurrent theme is he wants people to face the consequences of what they say and do." " Wants to force that on them." " The whole thing's a moral lesson?" "He wanted us to find this and spread it about." "Well, fuck him." "Fuck." "Shit." "Karin." "Karin." "He's messed up." "He's put this document together himself, right?" "His author name's in the metadata." "But he stripped out everything else, so we don't know when he's written it, for example." "Mm-hmm." "Most of the photos are clipart off the Internet, except this one." " The selfie." " That's where he's screwed up." "He's taken it with his phone, and the phone left a geotag on the image." " So you know where he took this?" " I know precisely where." "He's here and Granular HQ is there." " Armed police!" "Stay down!" " Armed police!" "Armed police!" "Stay where you are!" "Armed police!" "Show yourselves!" "Move!" "Left." " Clear!" " Clear!" "Clear!" "Lifestyles of the rich and famous." "There." "The forge." "Nice one." "Half the drives I sifted in forensics had scorch marks on 'em." " What do you think?" " Yeah." "Looks like his toolkit." " You can use it?" " Pretty much the key to the door." "So you can get control back?" "Send the deactivation?" "Well, I've got his source code." " I should be able to bounce him out." " Be quick." "Key to the door?" "Our guy doesn't seem the type to leave keys lying around." "Well, I'm in." "Okay." "Deactivate her." " Yeah, I need to repair permissions." " Fucking hell." "That's weird." "What's weird?" " Time's ticking." " That file." "Wasn't there before." " This file?" " Yeah." "What is it?" " Blue?" " I think they're IMEI numbers." "What does that mean?" "Every phone, every device has a unique number, an IMEI number." "It tethers it to a unique user." " Yeah." " But I can check, just... reverse lookup." "Take it easy." "Who are these people?" "I don't know." "There's 387,000 of them." "Are these IDs your spooks have been collecting?" " No!" "Are you ready yet?" " Yeah, almost there." "Wait." "Wait." "What was the name of that teacher?" "Hate cake." " Liza." "Liza Bahar." " Liza Bahar." "Fuck's sake." "This is a list of everyone who's used the hashtag." "What?" "Everyone who took part in the Game of Consequences." "They've hoovered up their ID from GCHQ by the looks of it." "That backdoor worked both ways, it seems." " See if I'm on there." " What?" "I posted the tag earlier with Scholes' face." " Just trying to get a reaction from him." " Yeah, yeah, almost there." "Yeah, you're there." "Almost there." "Why has he collected everyone who took part?" "I mean..." "Okay." "I'm ready." " Shit." " Run it now." "No." "Think." "He left us a trail." " Oh, come on." " That photo with the whereabouts, it's too big a mistake for him." "He knew we'd do this." " Now we're shutting it down, all right?" " And maybe that'll trigger some endgame, something to do with that list." "What if those are his real targets?" "The people on the list." "Everyone who took part." "Consequences." "The hate figures were the bait." "The players are the target." " Run the deact command." " Now just wait a minute, okay?" " Run it." " No!" "Yeah." "Yeah, it worked." "Sorry, but that needed doing." " No, no, no, no, no." " What?" "No." "No." " Fuck!" " No." "Shit." "Oh, no." "There's..." "We're all tragically familiar with the rest of the events of that week." "And we need no reminding of the sheer scale of the loss of life that followed." "No." "No, we don't." "And what became of Ms. Colson?" "I think she blamed herself." "No." "I know she did." "She felt she'd followed his breadcrumb trail and sprung the whole thing." "She left the force." "I didn't hear from her." "Rang her, tried emailing, but no response." "Then, um..." "About four months later, they found her things." "On a beach." "With a note." "She killed herself?" "That's the base theory, yes." "Ms Parke, I would like to commend you for sharing your testimony and your time." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Señor." " Gracias." " Gracias."