It was dark and stormy when he stepped into the study. Lightning flashed sporadically through the drapes as he fumbled for the button to switch on the monitor of the computer that had changed his life.
A flash of lightning revealed his haggard reflection in the monitor a moment before it kicked in to life and became a central beacon in the musty, now rarely used, room.
He knew he had to do this. He had put it off too long.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he reached for the mouse. The cursor sprang to life and began its mysterious dance across the screen as his hand trembled in anticipation of what he was about to do.
He had to go in and find out what had happened to his wife. She had been the last person in this room some weeks before and came out a trembling incoherent wreck.
All he'd been able to get from her was the words 'STAG got me'. He now had to find out what STAG was and what it had done to make his wife this way.
He hesitated momentarily, then steeled himself with a deep breath and clicked ‘connect'. The computer burst into action and began to take him into the other realm, a place filled with junkies, the lonely, the sad, the sick minded and people that go to Bali.
It connected swiftly and he began to harden his resolve ‘I must find the cause' was his firm thought. He opened up the computers history and began to search where she had been and look for some mention of STAG in amongst it all.
Nothing.
All she had done was search travel forums for family holiday information. What could have gone wrong?
He opened up one of these sites and looked through the pages. Nothing jumped out at him. The site was not used very much and looked harmless enough, almost boring really.
Then he spotted something. The pet name he used for his wife in private was at the head of a question back on a page deep in the forum. The date was the last day she was in here, early in the day and the question had been answered a few minutes later.
He opened her question to find that it was quite a simple one, 'Can anyone tell me about family Accom for 5 at such and such a place'
The answer ' Search the archives for that info. It has been posted before'
He felt something start to tingle in the back of his mind, something nagging that he should have grasped straight away.
He moved to another forum and found a similar thing. A pattern began to emerge. Some forums were once busy and vibrant, but as the archives began to fill with all the information, people began to refer newcomers to archives rather than answer the question.
The thing that intrigued him was the way they went about it. It seemed that they were once happy to answer the questions, when they had first found a particular forum. But as time went on they treated these forums as their personal property and tended to drive away newcomers and old timers alike, hovering like electronic vultures over a multitude of forae. As a consequence the newcomers only posted once before fleeing. The old timers couldn't get in quick enough to answer (they had jobs probably) and by the time they got there the 'Search the Archives Gang' had scared off the newbie with little or no chance of retrieval.
Bang, it hit him 'Search the Archives Gang' STAG. That was what his wife had been rambling about for all this time.
He continued his search until he finally found it, the one he was after. It was a travel forum for an Asian destination, one of the fastest on the net and one of the most visited. He searched and found the right date and there it was. His wife had asked a question on shopping and they had attacked mercilessly. They came from all sides to dissect her question and make her look foolish. None tried to answer her. That was beneath them. They were experts in their field, or so they thought. It became obvious to him as he read that they did not get the pleasure from the destination that they claimed. Those that still did get pleasure from answering had long since stopped doing so as STAG tried to recruit them at every opportunity.
He decided, foolishly, to fight back. He didn't understand that they would not remember. They never did. Once they had done their deed they just pulled back and hovered once more, waiting, refreshing the page, looking for their next inevitable victim.
It dawned on him that his wife's password would be the same one she always used and he could pose as her on this forum. He cut and pasted her last question here, the one that had sent her over the edge, entered her user name and password, then hit send.
He could have waited for STAG to turn up and try to fight with wisdom but he had seen the evidence of failure where some on the forum had tried.
He had another idea.
As the vultures turned up, surprised and somewhat taken aback that his wife's posting had returned, freshly posted and under the same name, he went to work.
He found the secret little ‘Search the Archives' button just below a ducks bum at the top of the page, took a moment's pause, and entered.
The results astounded him. Pages and Pages of postings all answered by STAG, it went on forever.
He had to search deep into the history of this site to get what he had hoped was there. He found it, faded and possibly out of date, but there all the same.
It was the answer to his wife's question.
The back button was hit with confidence.
STAG had been at his posting like lions at a fresh kill. Tripping over each other to finish a job they thought they'd already done. The level of vitriol staggered him and made him wonder if he was doing the right thing.
He knew he was. He could end it all here and now.
The postings were running rampant and unchecked. They expected no resistance.
He quietly registered a new user name and password, added the cut and pasted answer in the correct place then waved the cursor over the box titled ‘Subject'
He began to type one single line that would erase STAG forever.
SUBJECT: From the Archives
CBE
Cracker ;-)