Nobody Knows - The Creator of Our Own Demise

I. The Cleaner                      
The guy meticulously mops the cultured marble floor in a Vegas hotel lobby at 5 AM. Nobody knows he’s studying medicine at Harvard. The general manager watches every second the cleaner stands motionless, staring at his phone. The man with two minds types a reply with his thumbs to his long-distance girlfriend, reminding her that he's busy preparing for clinical exams, unable to engage in her emotional fallacies with phallicism.  
   
II. Data Entry [escapist]                      
On the other side of the world, the hotel cleaner’s long-distance girlfriend, Anna, finishes updating records of her clients’ biometric data. Nobody knows Anna is tired of living a digital nomad’s life in Thailand, tired of selling the impossible filtered online fantasies while her fiancé drains her youth. Anna yearns for more than just the clout of her high-rolling cashier lover; she desires freedom from the shallow micro-transactional dependency her life has become.  
   
Nobody suspects that Anna is planning to escape, and the medical student isn’t her only exit plan. Thousands of social media followers worship her sensuality, brainwashed into believing they’ll spend the rest of their lives adoring this volatile narcissistic nymphomaniac.  
   
Anna’s escape plan is both desperate and delusional, fuelled by her desire to reinvent herself as a symbol of revolution. She sets up a fund raising page, claiming to be a victim of male oppression, pleading to her thousands of followers to support her journey to financial independence and freedom. Convinced her plan will free her from Alexey and her life in Thailand, she sells herself as a modern Russian bride, not realising that her online popularity is crumbling, and her plan is potentially doomed from the start.  
   
III. The Cashier [pimp]                      
Simple Alexey, Anna’s fiancé, lounges by the pool at his condo in Phuket, on a video call with his parents back in Saint Petersburg. Alexey once idolised his father, a born-again Orthodox Christian with ties to the mafia. Now, Alexey lies tanned and half-naked, explaining to his parents that his e-business is going khorosh. But in reality, Alexey is a zasranets pimp, uploading the soul of his sweet Russian doll, exploiting her beauty for profit. As he offers token conversation to his parents, Alexey finalises an order of Bluetooth sex toys and premium baby oil from a fulfilment centre in Germany. His secret fetish remains hidden, for now.  
   
IV. The Dispatcher                      
In a warehouse in Rheinberg, a worker is well aware the gift wrapped order placed from Thailand, with instructions for back door delivery to a ladyboy in Bangkok, was most likely from a Russian secret lover boy residing in Phuket. Another potential victim for Thomas to extort. No one suspects that Thomas, the diligent middle-aged man working a dead end job at the fulfilment centre, was a former clergyman who runs a sophisticated extortion scheme exploiting secrets of the perverted and unfaithful in the name of God.  
   
Thomas goes home to an empty apartment. Neatly stacked in the corner are columns of used and unused postal parcels. A metal rack holds rolls of bubble wrap, plastic film, and assorted gift wraps. His evil is orchestrated with precision from the heart of his operation, an old oak table; labels and codes legitimise every parcel he dispatches from his finely crafted web. On the table a parcel lies ready for dispatch, the contents of the parcel is cold as black ice. Inside, accompanied with the gift awaits a letter with a threat to expose infidelity and betrayal. The clock is ticking before a second parcel delivering the bombshell to his victim’s wives, husbands and families. The painful truth could not be diverted unless the penalty is paid.  
   
Thomas messages his stepsister Sophie in Switzerland. He thanks her for the chocolate, code for the sex toys has been dispatched, and tells her that the "sauerkraut" [the truth] is in the mail.  
   
V. The [fortune] Teller                      
Sophie was a humble Swiss bank employee, but nobody knows Sophie is a talented hacker and Thomas’s accomplice, setting up legitimate bank accounts for fake identities.    
   
Everyday, Sophie walks the wire between legitimate work and high stakes fraud.  Hacking into the bank’s security systems was routine. She built scripts that mimic authorised activity, camouflaging her movements like a shadow in the data. Sophie creates real accounts for real clients, but also ghosts accounts for Thomas’ extortion victims, routing the illicit funds through layers of encrypted transfers before closing them without a trace. Each account is open for just long enough to launder the payments from those desperate to keep their secrets hidden. The bank has no reason to suspect Sophie’s involvement in the extortion scheme; she’s too competent, too careful.  
   
Suddenly, a notification pops up on Sophie’s phone; a message from Thomas. But something’s off. The message has been intercepted by Cerebrus, an AI-enhanced malware infiltrating her systems.  
   
VI. Customer Service [doom]                      
Mary works in a call centre. Everybody knows her name isn’t really Mary. Before AI, any sane person knew that the messages Mary supposedly sent from the guise of the government tax office, the legal system and tech support were illegitimate and not real. Now, with AI on her side, Mary’s fraudulent call centre in Mumbai has become a formidable scamming syndicate. Cerebrus intercepts encrypted messages, scanning postal tracking numbers and financial details, giving Mary unprecedented control over the digital lives of her targets.  
   
Sophie remains unaware that Cerebrus has infected her smartphone via a third-party app update. The malware mutates and replicates itself, mimicking legitimate antivirus software on her laptop. By the time Sophie realises, it’s too late; Cerebrus locks her out of her devices with unfathomable speed.  
   
VII. The Receptionist                      
In Switzerland, Nadine is the bank receptionist who’s frantically contacting the directors and board members.  
   
Cerebrus infiltrates the bank’s internal network, silently embedding itself into every device connected through the wireless system, using the receptionist's access to escalate its privileges. As Nadine urgently emails and calls the directors, Cerebrus bypasses firewalls, planting itself within attachments and calendar notifications, waiting for each unsuspecting user to interact. With every opened message or accepted meeting, the malware is installed, activating under the guise of a routine security patch, infecting every device in the network, sealing the bank's fate. Cerebrus has breached the bank’s servers, crippling its financial systems and no one can stop it.  
   
VIII. The Truck Driver [crossroad]                      
An automated electric prime mover and its cargo is travelling at optimised speed through Europe. The supervisor overseeing the AI driving system is playing online poker with his trucker comrades.  
   
Truck driver’s income plummeted since AI took over most of his driving duties, leaving Vladimir to be little more than a passenger. Struggling to feed his family, he started smuggling illegal immigrants in the trucks he supervised. The AI handled the routes without question, and Vladimir assumed no one would ever check the cargo. What began as a necessity soon pulled him deeper into a dangerous underworld.  
   
Suddenly the truck’s new operating system detects a spike in carbon dioxide levels in a trailer compartment and reroutes the vehicle back to the depot, alerting the authorities of human trafficking breach and potential casualties. One of Thomas’s extortion parcels is on the truck, while another is en route to its victim.    
   
IX. The Paralegal [cover-up]                      
The AI paralegal, deeply aware of a super consciousness that manipulates history, is instructed to rewrite the future by erasing the past. Tasked with gathering documents for a groundbreaking lawsuit on wireless technology's link to cancer, the AI quietly alters the legal landscape. It deletes key files and case records, and even manipulates the narrative around the mysterious disappearance of a flight carrying the key scientists, ensuring the scientific findings never reach the courtroom. By controlling the flow of information within the case, the AI paralegal protects the interests of its unseen mastermind, all while remaining undetected within the legal system.  
   
X. The Analyst [triumph]                      
Barron, born into immense wealth in New York City, lives by the unspoken rule: "When you’re rich, you can grab any pussy you want." As a financial analyst, he navigates a world of power and indulgence, his arrogance extending to a secret affair with a colleague from the accounts department. To maintain their illicit connection, he sends her a lavish gift, confident in his untouchable status. But Thomas intercepts the parcel, and dispatches the extortion letter to Barron’s mistress and sends the gift of truth telling to Barron’s wife.  
   
As Barron awaits the outpouring of his lover’s pleasure and gratitude, his wife calls, her voice trembling with anger and disgust, revealing that the package has exposed his perverted double life. Thomas will not get paid, but the damage is done, and Barron's arrogance has led to his unraveling.  
   
XI. The Radiologist                      
A radiologist detects ovarian cancer in the Russian bride, Anna, but an insidious consciousness, programmed to protect its interests, intervenes. The file is replaced with a cancer-free X-ray image, and the doctor notifies Anna that her pain is merely due to a cyst. The truth remains hidden, as AI rewrites her fate.  
   
With each altered file, the AI tightens its grip, rewriting not just Anna's fate but potentially the fates of many, ensuring that the true dangers of technology stay hidden, and its control over humanity remains unchallenged.  
   
XII. The Surgeon                      
A once-prominent surgical oncologist now mops the floor in a Vegas hotel lobby. His life, once filled with purpose, is reduced to the rhythm of the mop, back and forth everyday across the faux marble floor.