It was 9:30 in the evening in Lower Addiscombe Road, Croydon. I had spent the last seven hours debugging and testing a complex mathematics routine to drive an accounts update routine in Java on my PC for a contracting project I was working on, the code was as familiar as my right hand on screen as I scanned the code for any last optimisations.

The last three weeks had been spent working on this routine, optimising it as best as possible using up to date techniques involving complicated routines and setup algorithms, trying anything to save those precious scan lines that make a program run that fraction quicker. I compiled the code and ran the program directly, immediately on screen the correct amalgamations and department reconciliation totals appeared as expected, I sat back and watched it smiling to myself, it worked perfectly!!!! I spent ten minutes scribbling down notes and ideas on how to improve the look of the system for the organisation I was programming it for, eventually I exited the program allowing my development package Codewright on screen and left my bedroom to the kitchen. I made myself a ham and bacon sandwich and sat there quietly thinking to myself, I lived alone and there was nobody in the flat, just me, my computers and my existence. I`d lived here for three years now and was a freelance programmer for a large software company in London, I had a few weeks to myself so I thought I`d update my routines and run a few test programs before delivering the system to the company in three days.

I leaned against my fridge biting at the sandwich thinking to myself, allowing my thoughts to race and wander. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of the main riff from Blurs` Song2, the album I listened to during the development of a website for a large manufacturing company using online orders and processing. It was the album that kept me going at 3am when a file update program refused to work or a screen update was not double buffering properly.

I returned to my room to check what was going on, Codewright was still there and the source code was on screen, the taskbar only showed that, this made me think. How could my PC suddenly play an MP3 without firing up Mediaplayer or the sound routine I had custom written? Very odd, even odder was the fact it was only playing the first two bars of the song, not when the distorted guitars kicked in. I knew I`d saved the modules I needed and checked the objects to make sure they matched the sources, everything was okay.

I closed Codewright and reset my desktop but the tune still played, harassed ran DR Watson and Mcaffee viruscheckers to see if there was anything rogue in memory, it took ten minutes as my Hard drive is massive but nothing came up, system clean. This worried me greatly as the tune was still playing, I rebooted my PC and the tune stopped, the familiar bootup screen of a Gibson Les Paul plus my icons greeted me, I shrugged my shoulders and put it down to a glitch in my PC, I had played that MPEG earlier, maybe something in memory triggered it.

I looked at my clock, 1:15 am, this system had to be completed on time or my reputation would be in tatters, there was still some debugging to be done but that was not the problem, the problem was getting the commerce functions working properly. The test files were in place and I fired up a program on screen diagnostics that showed profit and loss via different mediums, this was a part I was very proud of, my code was JAVA based but running C++ subscripts for the calculations, brilliant I thought. I went through the system via certain menus and selected "Profit and Loss - Department". I selected a certain department and waited, the screen went blank and I waited the familiar company logo, flashy colours and the figures in a box window with scrollbar. Ten seconds, nothing, twenty seconds, nothing.

Then a message came up on screen.

"Hello Mark."

There was a flashing cursor below it, the system was expecting me to type something into it. My mind went into overdrive, how did it know my name was Mark? What had happened to the object my program was calling?? And more to the point, what was this program on my PC? I knew the program by name and this was NOT mine. Out of curiosity I typed "Hello" and sat back. Five seconds later another message appeared.

"I like your programming, very cool".

I knew instantly this was a virus, the word "cool" gave it away to me. I knew hackers, they used words like "cool", "rad" and "funky" in every sentence.

I typed in "who are you?" and waited.

A message appeared which made me very scared.

"I am ghost, I haunt your systems and computers, I am everywhere".

I shut down the system and turned off my PC, what the hell was going on??? I waited ten minutes then rebooted, I went into Codewright and checked the rogue object that should have been called when I did the system test, it was fine, the screen variables were okay, all was hunky dorey. I tried the HTML that controlled the calling of the program, that was fine too, what was going on?? I spent five hours going through the system with a fine comb, examining every line, looking for anything that would call a rogue program. Nothing leapt out of the screen at me so I decided to recompile the programs that were being called but renamed them for securities sake. I fired up the system and it worked perfectly, no problem. Everything was fine. I breathed a sigh of relief and focussed on the fine tuning and debugging.

I saw nothing of this "virus" again, the system was delivered perfectly and was fine, the company were extremely pleased and the royalty cheque was paid in, they wanted little tweaks which I gladly did and everything was perfect. In fact I`d forgotten all about it until three months later when I was working in-house for an accounting software house on their on-line database programs. I got a phone call from the boss of the company saying to me that they`d experienced some weird goings-on with the system I`d delivered. Apparently every so often the word "ghost" appeared on screen for no reason before disappearing and had got worse over the past few days. I told him not to worry and that it was probably some rogue online program disturbing the system, I reminded him that the World Wide Web was huge and was impossible to be totally secure, and to let me know if things got worse.

That evening I was surfing the web for some utilities when Hotmail flashed up a new message, I checked out the message and my heart stopped.

It was from somebody called "GHOST".

I checked the email for viruses first before dissecting it myself in zipped format, it was just text with no attachments so I read it, the message had just a few words....

"20th April it ends".

This confused me, 20th April? What ends? It was in eight weeks so no use worrying about it, but the more I tried not to worry the more I did, tying the Ghost virus the past company got with this email my mind was ticking over. Had a virus infected my machine and was now online? If so the consequences would be awful! I would get the blame for releasing it, my reputation would be shattered, it was something that would destroy me totally.

April came with more companies getting this "Ghost" message on their PC`s, the only crumb of comfort was that no damage had been done, no files corrupted at all. Even the company I worked for got it and industry was talking about this "message" that appears then disappears, my boss called a massive meeting and I had to explain that I first got it months ago and disassembled it to find nothing malicious. Eventually they were convinced it was just a system message, but in my head I knew April 20th was around the corner, thankfully it was a Sunday.

On Saturday April 19th I went to bed with my mind racing with thoughts, what will happen?? At 2:00am my phone rang twice then went dead, I did a 1471 and the number was mine, what the hell?? How could my phone ring me? Intrigued I switched my PC on and checked to see if I`d got any emails, instead of my normal bootup screen all I got was a black screen with an image of a phantom in the middle.

A ghost.

I stared at the screen, it had happened. The Ghost in the machine was in the machine. The only thing is, was it everywhere?

I spent the night tossing and turning in bed, eventually drifting into a restless slumber.

The next day I switched on my TV and watched the news horrified. The newscaster reported that a massive virus had wiped out data on over 100 million PC`s, mainframes had crashed, individual online systems had been infected, hard drives were crashed, the World Wide Web was in tatters and business had ground to a halt. Ghost had destroyed the world virtually, and I was the culprit.

I packed a few things and left my flat, jumping into my car I headed out of Croydon and down to Cornwall, think I'll get a job in a library, books it was 9:30 in the evening in Lower Addiscombe Road, Croydon. I had spent the last seven hours debugging and testing a complex mathematics routine to drive an accounts update routine in Java on my PC for a contracting project I was working on, the code was as familiar as my right hand on screen as I scanned the code for any last optimisations.

The last three weeks had been spent working on this routine, optimising it as best as possible using up to date techniques involving complicated routines and setup algorithms, trying anything to save those precious scan lines that make a program run that fraction quicker. I compiled the code and ran the program directly, immediately on screen the correct amalgamations and department reconciliation totals appeared as expected, I sat back and watched it smiling to myself, it worked perfectly!!!! I spent ten minutes scribbling down notes and ideas on how to improve the look of the system for the organisation I was programming it for, eventually I exited the program allowing my development package Codewright on screen and left my bedroom to the kitchen. I made myself a ham and bacon sandwich and sat there quietly thinking to myself, I lived alone and there was nobody in the flat, just me, my computers and my existence. I`d lived here for three years now and was a freelance programmer for a large software company in London, I had a few weeks to myself so I thought I`d update my routines and run a few test programs before delivering the system to the company in three days.

I leaned against my fridge biting at the sandwich thinking to myself, allowing my thoughts to race and wander. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of the main riff from Blurs` Song2, the album I listened to during the development of a website for a large manufacturing company using online orders and processing. It was the album that kept me going at 3am when a file update program refused to work or a screen update was not double buffering properly.

I returned to my room to check what was going on, Codewright was still there and the source code was on screen, the taskbar only showed that, this made me think. How could my PC suddenly play an MP3 without firing up Mediaplayer or the sound routine I had custom written? Very odd, even odder was the fact it was only playing the first two bars of the song, not when the distorted guitars kicked in. I knew I`d saved the modules I needed and checked the objects to make sure they matched the sources, everything was okay.

I closed Codewright and reset my desktop but the tune still played, harassed ran DR Watson and Mcaffee viruscheckers to see if there was anything rogue in memory, it took ten minutes as my Hard drive is massive but nothing came up, system clean. This worried me greatly as the tune was still playing, I rebooted my PC and the tune stopped, the familiar bootup screen of a Gibson Les Paul plus my icons greeted me, I shrugged my shoulders and put it down to a glitch in my PC, I had played that MPEG earlier, maybe something in memory triggered it.

I looked at my clock, 1:15 am, this system had to be completed on time or my reputation would be in tatters, there was still some debugging to be done but that was not the problem, the problem was getting the commerce functions working properly. The test files were in place and I fired up a program on screen diagnostics that showed profit and loss via different mediums, this was a part I was very proud of, my code was JAVA based but running C++ subscripts for the calculations, brilliant I thought. I went through the system via certain menus and selected "Profit and Loss - Department". I selected a certain department and waited, the screen went blank and I waited the familiar company logo, flashy colours and the figures in a box window with scroll bar. Ten seconds, nothing, twenty seconds, nothing.

Then a message came up on screen.

"Hello Mark."

There was a flashing cursor below it, the system was expecting me to type something into it. My mind went into overdrive, how did it know my name was Mark? What had happened to the object my program was calling?? And more to the point, what was this program on my PC? I knew the program by name and this was NOT mine. Out of curiousity I typed "Hello" and sat back. Five seconds later another message appeared.

"I like your programming, very cool".

I knew instantly this was a virus, the word "cool" gave it away to me. I knew hackers, they used words like "cool", "rad" and "funky" in every sentence

I typed in "who are you?" and waited.

A message appeared which made me very scared.

"I am ghost, I haunt your systems and computers, I am everywhere".

I shut down the system and turned off my PC, what the hell was going on??? I waited ten minutes then rebooted, I went into Codewright and checked the rogue object that should have been called when I did the system test, it was fine, the screen variables were okay, all was hunky dorey. I tried the HTML that controlled the calling of the program, that was fine too, what was going on?? I spent five hours going through the system with a fine comb, examining every line, looking for anything that would call a rogue program. Nothing leapt out of the screen at me so I decided to recompile the programs that were being called but renamed them for securities sake. I fired up the system and it worked perfectly, no problem. Everything was fine. I breathed a sigh of relief and focussed on the fine tuning and debugging.

I saw nothing of this "virus" again, the system was delivered perfectly and was fine, the company were extremely pleased and the royalty cheque was paid in, they wanted little tweaks which I gladly did and everything was perfect. In fact I`d forgotten all about it until three months later when I was working in-house for an accounting software house on their on-line database programs. I got a phone call from the boss of the company saying to me that they`d experienced some weird goings-on with the system I`d delivered. Apparently every so often the word "ghost" appeared on screen for no reason before disappearing and had got worse over the past few days. I told him not to worry and that it was probably some rogue online program disturbing the system, I reminded him that the World Wide Web was huge and was impossible to be totally secure, and to let me know if things got worse.

That evening I was surfing the web for some utilities when Hotmail flashed up a new message, I checked out the message and my heart stopped.

It was from somebody called "GHOST".

I checked the email for viruses first before dissecting it myself in zipped format, it was just text with no attachments so I read it, the message had just a few words....

"20th April it ends".

This confused me, 20th April? What ends? It was in eight weeks so no use worrying about it, but the more I tried not to worry the more I did, tying the Ghost virus the past company got with this email my mind was ticking over. Had a virus infected my machine and was now online? If so the consequences would be awful! I would get the blame for releasing it, my reputation would be shattered, it was something that would destroy me totally.

April came with more companies getting this "Ghost" message on their PC`s, the only crumb of comfort was that no damage had been done, no files corrupted at all. Even the company I worked for got it and industry was talking about this "message" that appears then disappears, my boss called a massive meeting and I had to explain that I first got it months ago and disassembled it to find nothing malicious. Eventually they were convinced it was just a system message, but in my head I knew April 20th was around the corner, thankfully it was a Sunday.

On Saturday April 19th I went to bed with my mind racing with thoughts, what will happen?? At 2:00am my phone rang twice then went dead, I did a 1471 and the number was mine, what the hell?? How could my phone ring me? Intrigued I switched my PC on and checked to see if I`d got any emails, instead of my normal boot up screen all I got was a black screen with an image of a phantom in the middle.

A ghost.

I stared at the screen, it had happened. The Ghost in the machine was in the machine. The only thing is, was it everywhere?

I spent the night tossing and turning in bed, eventually drifting into a restless slumber.

The next day I switched on my TV and watched the news horrified. The newscaster reported that a massive virus had wiped out data on over 100 million PC`s, mainframes had crashed, individual online systems had been infected, hard drives were crashed, the World Wide Web was in tatters and business had ground to a halt. Ghost had destroyed the world virtually, and I was the culprit.

I packed a few things and left my flat, jumping into my car I headed out of Croydon and down to Cornwall, think I'll get a job in a library, books are safer than computers.

I glanced at my watch, 9:25 am, perfect. The prime minister will be along soon with his entourage shaking hands with the people and generally arse kissing for his vote in the oncoming election. Things had been okay when he got in power, things were good in fact, my business thrived but then spin after spin put my business out of pocket, my wife left me and i am now jobless and living in a bed-sit whilst the rich get richer. Is it my fault i`m weak and he and his cronies don't care? I had suffered a breakdown after my business collapse and had severe treatment for months before returning to the community, instead of 55 pounds an hour i now survive on 55 pounds a week. Well i`m sick of it and its time the whole country knew.

I lit a cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke, this was to keep the adrenalin racing through my body as i stood in the alleyway a little off the main street in my home town in the East Midlands. This was my chance to get the bastard back for screwing the country, well I was going to screw him. I put my hand in my pocket and the relaxing feel of the lugger pistol calmed me, this was what i was going to use to kill him, I've had enough of this country, its time for change. The small crowd a little way out of the alley started cheering, he must be near on walkabout. This is it.

I could almost smell him as i walked forward out of the alleyway, then a noise made me spin on my heels. A man in a long raincoat stepped forward from the shadows slowly, silhouetted at first. I recognised that walk, I then heard the sound of a gunshot and all went dark.

Light.

Filling the room, blinding me. I blinked as my eyes got accustomed to the neon glow above me, where was I? Slowly my eyes took in details, I was in a hospital bed in a small cubicle with a single window and door, a television screen was nearby, I was strapped to the bed making movement impossible, what was this, where was this?? I tried struggling but to no avail, it was then i noticed the camera in the top left corner of the room, its eye watching me intently, I wondered who was watching me at that precise moment. I struggled again, useless, then the door opened and two people walked in, one male and one female. The male looked at me from a distance and spoke.

"Mr Coombs, glad you`re awake".

"Why am I strapped down?" I asked with intent.

"So you don't become angry".

"Why would I do that?".

"What year is this Mr Coombs" the man said, his voice colder than the North Pole.

I thought...

"2002".

"Wrong"

The man flicked on the television screen and i watched. Slowly things filled my mind about what was happening, the female presenter spoke with authority and I saw the date in the top right hand corner of the screen.

August 14th 2012.

2012!!! Impossible.

The presenter spoke again.

"The official opening of the new World Trade Centre happened today, ten years after the worst terrorist attack in history". I watched dumb as newsreels were played, the death of the Queen Mother, massive earthquakes devastating regions, religious wars that had spread throughout the world and worst of all a totalitarian government in the U.K the oppresses regimes and spreads fear throughout the world.

"Do you know why you`re here Mr Coombs?" the man asked.

I shook my head.

"We have developed a machine that sends people back in time to any place, any time, anywhere. We are sending you back to Leicester on February 19th 2002 so you can kill someone".

"Who?" I asked, totally spooked by this.

The man got closer.

"You".

"Me??" My brain replayed things. I was the man in the alleyway!!! I had killed myself!

"Just one problem though Mr Coombs, the person evaporates five minutes after arriving, so you only have five minutes to kill yourself".

My mind turned over, so many different thoughts jostling for space in my head.

"Why me??".

"Because you are perfect Mr Coombs, if we don't send you back then we have to send somebody else, and that way two people die, this way one one person dies".

My head was close to exploding, I wish it would hurry up.

The man walked around the side of my bed and continued unabated. "Look, we are creating a utopian world in a different paradox Mr Coombs, if you don't kill yourself then you kill the prime minister and the opposition gets in, take a look at the country now". He showed me newspapers, the United Kingdom was like Germany in the 1930`s, people were terrified.

"If you don't do it Mr Coombs we will switch off your life support machine and find somebody else to do it".

My mind raced, I must have done it because I recognised the walk of the person in the alleyway, I must have gone back in time to kill myself or I would`nt be here.

"But you cant do this" I screamed with every ounce of energy in my body.

"I'll die!".

The man got up and looked me in the eyes.

"Think of it like this Mr Coombs, you`re already dead".