Heller and Shannon: Conspiracy of Silence

The tiniest germ of an idea had taken root in Shannon’s mind just before the branch closed.

She knew that Heller wouldn’t be home for at least two-hours after she arrived if she drove straight home.

She remembered passing the public library in Ionia when Joyce took her out to lunch. Heller was a great guy in a lot of ways but he did not have internet in his house. Shannon had an itch that needed to be scratched and she wanted a fast connection.

Shannon asked if she needed a library card to use the computers in the library. The librarian said that she only needed a picture ID.

Shannon handed the librarian her driver's license and the librarian wrote her name on the line of a form and the time and date. Then she handed Shannon the “key’.

Shannon chose a kiosk that was out-of-sight from most of the traffic that might enter the library. She valued her privacy, especially when she really didn’t know where her searches might lead her.

Her first half hour was an intensive lesson on “Catfishing”. Her take-aways were that it was endemic on dating sites and that the biggest clues were when the romance-interest started to ask for money or gift-cards and was never available to meet in reality.

Clearly, Rusty’s “foreign girl-friend” had a ready-made excuse for why they couldn’t meet in "meat-space".

The rest of the library session was spent looking at pictures.

The idea in Shannon’s head was taking form. SHE could go Catfishing for the predatory elites. Knives could cut both ways.

But first she needed some pictures. She couldn’t exactly define what she was looking for but she knew that she would recognize it when she saw it.

Shannon quickly zeroed in on Asian women. If the “Frat boys” were only interested in girls who grew up more than 100 miles away from East Lansing then 7000 miles then seventy-times better. Another advantage was that Asian faces are easily identified.

Shannon had to knock-off her search after about an hour. She wanted to do some grocery shopping and make a nice dinner to thank Heller for letting her stay in his home.

*

The next day, Fred took the employees into his office, two-by-two and had them read and sign a policy notice regarding “...mis-use of company computers”.

Shannon was glad she was using the library. She was pretty sure what she was doing did not qualify as “...authorized use...”

Shannon mentioned in passing that she really didn’t understand the content of the message except in the most general kind of way and she wondered what the cryptic jargon meant.

Joyce looked over at Shannon and said “I think I can give you a little bit of background because I was here when it first came out.”

“When was that?” Shannon asked.

“It was about 2005” Joyce reminisced. “That is when the Credit Union fired about ten employees, including a young gentleman named ‘Eddie” who worked at this branch. So you know it made quite an impressions here.”

“The Credit Union FIRED ten employees? What did they do?” Shannon wanted to know.

“I really don’t understand all of that computer stuff, but we got a virus...a really bad virus. The IT guys said that it opened ‘back-doors’, whatever those are” Joyce said.

“IT was being run ragged because the virus kept popping up in different places at different times.”

“Eventually, they figured out it was hiding in something called a script that was buried in a video” Joyce said.

“I still don’t understand” Shannon said.

“The video was porn, dear.  The ones who just opened it up and watched it were counseled and a letter was put in their files. The people who were fired are the ones who passed it on to their buddies” Joyce said.

“The reason it was so hard to kill was that the people who were passing it around and the people who watched the videos knew it was wrong and they weren't about to implicate themselves or their buddies. It became a conspiracy of silence" Joyce said.

“People do that?” Shannon asked. “e-Mail porn to other people?”

“All the time. And dirty jokes, too” Joyce said. “Don’t ask me why. Maybe because it makes them feel sneaky or clever or like they are a member of some special club.”

“So how did IT clear up the problem?”

“We shut down one full weekend and IT replaced every computer on every desk with new computers. They also sanitized all of the files on the main server” Joyce said. “Of course, there were all kinds of problems when we started back up on Monday.”

“Let me tell you, the Board was screaming about the cost. You know Credit Unions are owned by the members. It was an expense that nobody had budgeted for” Joyce said.

“I am guessing that nobody does THAT anymore” Shannon said.

“You would be surprised” Joyce said. “If you keep your ear to the ground you will notice that the Credit Union terminates at least a couple of employees every year. They are pretty quiet about it. And another thing that will surprise you is that you cannot predict their age. Some will be in their twenties and others will be almost old enough to retire..and everything in between.”

*

Toward the end of the day, Fred asked Joyce if he should say something to Shannon. She seemed very distracted and failed to offer various “up-sell services” to her customers.

Joyce told Fred to give Shannon a couple of weeks. She had been through a lot that week and it was clear that she was “processing” all of the changes.