Page 21 of In the Line of Ire

"Yeah,he said it was the funniest thing he'd seen all week. It was prettyhilarious."

"Can youtake it down?"

Lucasstopped laughing. "No," he said succinctly. "That video-sharingsite has a firewall like the digital version of the Great Wall ofChina. Nothing gets through it. I don't even know where the serversare."

"Soyou've tried before?"

"I'mgoing to say no on that one."

"Couldit be done?"

"Theoretically, anything can be done, but it'll taketime."

Ibrightened. "Great!"

"Thatwon't matter. There's a bigger problem."

"Whatbigger problem?"

"It'sbeen shared across countless devices. I've even seen other copiesof it hosted online. My buddy shared it from a TMZarticle."

"TMZ?"

"Yeah!You made the big time!"

"Can youget rid of all of them?" I asked breathlessly.

"Even ifI got rid of the original video, there's still a copy hostedsomewhere on someone's cellphone. Trying to take down the video islike a dog chasing its own tail. It's just gonna keep going roundand round and round."

Coldfear passed through me. "Then how do I get rid of it?"

"Youneed to find the original person who took the video and ask themvery nicely to take it down. Or not very nicely. It’s your call.Then you go after anyone else you find hosting it."

"Can youhelp me find them?"

"Did youcheck on their name under the video?"

"It'sPurple Monster."

"That'snot quite what I meant. Did you click on the name?"

"No.Why?"

"Let'stry that first and see what else they have posted online. It mightgive us a clue as to who they are." Lucas tapped his keyboard andthe central screen flickered to life, revealing a blank bluescreen. He called up a browser and a moment later, the offensivevideo was on the screen.

"Youdon't need to play it again for me," I said as he hovered thecursor over the play button.

"Fine."Lucas made a motion with his fingers and the cursor moved over"Purple Monster" on the screen. He clicked it and the page changed."Purple Monster has six videos in total," he said, scrollingdown.

"Thatlooks like Fairmount Park," I said, pointing to a still of thethird video.

"Yeah,and that one is Century Street," said Lucas, pointing to the onebelow. "None of them are longer than a few minutes. I'll playthem."

We satback and watched the five videos neither of us had seen before. Thefirst featured a bunch of joggers on what looked like an earlyevening run. Then one of them at the front stumbled, causing therest of them to fall over him, sending everyone flying andsprawling into a panicked mess of hands and feet. Another one had adog chasing birds and I recognized the park lake in the background.The other videos were equally humorous snippets that “PurpleMonster” had apparently stumbled upon. I made a note of the viewcounts, which spanned anywhere from a few hundred to severalthousand.

"Peopleare probably clicking through like we did and seeing what else theyposted that's funny," explained Lucas. "All these view counts willkeep going up."

"Andthey get paid every time someone watches them?" I asked.

---