The Bus Conductor
The text box flashed as the words appeared.
“What are you dressed as?”
“A Bus Conductor”, he replied.
“Man! How long ago did we have them….must have been a good 50 years ago or more!” The response came fast.
The Bus Conductor replied; “Why can’t we see your image on the screen? And why do you call yourself The Stranger?”
“Never mind, I like to keep my privacy. Deal the cards and let’s get going!!!!”, was a curt response.
“Okay, who else do we have at the table for tonight’s crazy costume casino poker?”
“I’m in”, flashed the Clown.
“I’m in”, flashed the Pope.
“Count me in”, flashed the Devil.
“Glad to see we have both heaven and hell equally represented”, wrote the Bus Conductor. “Tonight could be a real tussle between good and evil….”
Laughing emojis danced across his screen.
“Makes being a Bus Conductor pretty boring.”
“I dunno, pretty original for mine,” wrote the Devil.
An impatient “Deal the cards”, flashed up from The Stranger.
The virtual poker table dominated the screen with each avatar seated around the table.
Flick, flick, flick sounded as the cards appeared.
The first hand done, then the second, third and forth. The Stranger wins every hand in quick succession. Even though they are in a virtual environment an uneasy feeling settles across the game.
As the fifth hand is dealt the Bus Conductor turns to his second screen and runs his own spyware detector. He then boots up his own sophisticated spyderware creation. His malware program starts flashing.
The fifth hand is done and the sixth is being dealt. The Stranger appeals to up the odds and meets stiff resistance.
The Bus Conductor shifts his focus to the dark web and boots up his deep throat program. Lines of code flash up on his screen.
Just as he assumed, The Stranger is running the latest Casino cheat app. He can see all the players cards and can get a read on the cards about to be dealt.
“I’ve been ridding the world of people like you for five years now”, the Bus Conductor mutters to himself. “You should know better than to mess with the Bus Conductor. Nothing seems to stop these people”, he sighs under his breathe, “they think they we are all fools, well more fool you ‘cause you’ve met your match today….”
A series of IP addresses flash across the Bus Conductor’ screen. He frantically types a line of code, then another, then a query. The Stranger’s IP address appears.
“Let’s see you survive this” he smiles as he boots up what he refers to as his ‘Sonic Detonator’, copies The Strangers IP address into the search box and hits enter…..
He turns to the playing screen and casually types into the dialogue box, “hey, Stranger, you still in this hand???”
The dialogue box blinks, blinks, blinks with empty silence.
Ó Copyright Craig Buller 2021. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted or reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.