The Return of the Pied Piper

Sarah reached her floor exactly at five minutes to eight in the morning – like any other weekday. The huge floor had hundreds of computers and hundreds of cubes, all silent now. In the next five minutes the hive would come alive with machines powering up and people talking on their phones.

But, wait a minute. Something seemed wrong. All the computers were powering up by themselves! What was going on?

Sarah and other employees who had arrived for their day’s work stood agape. All computer screens where streaming this message over and over again:
BEWARE! THE PIED PIPER HAS RETURNED AND HE IS VERY, VERY ANGRY.

The employees recovered quickly and tried to key in instructions through their keyboards. But the keyboards were not responding. In fact, it was as if the Devil had taken over the computers; for nothing was responding.

Suddenly the screens went blank for a second and then started streaming a new message:
YOUR CITY HAD REQUISITIONED MY SERVICES TO CARRY OUT ETHICAL HACKING IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY AND PLUG ALL EXTERNAL ELECTRONIC THREATS. I UNCOVERED ALL VULNERABLE POINTS FOR YOUR CITY. BUT NOW YOUR CITY IS NOT PAYING. THE CHEATS IN YOUR MANAGEMENT ARE SAYING IF I WANT MONEY, I SHOULD APPROACH THE COURTS.
FOR A DAY SUCH AS THIS I DID NOT DELIBERATELY UNCOVER ONE LAST VULNERABLE POINT. AND NOW I HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF ALL YOUR COMPUTERS THROUGH THIS VULNERABILITY. NOW YOUR CITY WILL PAY. AND IT WILL PAY DEARLY!

A kind of a wailing sound started off from the computers. The mouse of all the computers started behaving wildly. They started twirling round as if in a trance. The electronic mice disengaged themselves from the computers and dropped themselves on the floor. Then all of them at once raced to the door. The wail had a numbing effect on the employees. They remained transfixed, unable to move. But the screens were following the move of the mice. The employees could see the flight of the mice on their computer screens.

The mice streamed towards the stairway. Streams of mice where pouring out from other floors as well. The stairway was choked with mice as they bounded down the stairs into the street. Trains of electronic mice were streaming out from other buildings. All movement of traffic had ceased on the roads. All vehicles and people had become statues. The mice raced between the legs of the people transfixed on the sidewalks. They raced between the tyres of the vehicles on the streets; all headed in one direction. But where were they headed?

Presently the destination became clear to the employees who were still following the race of the mice on their computer screens. The mice were all headed to the ocean.
When the head of this huge mice carnival reached the ocean another spectacle went on display on the computer screens. The first lot of mice – perhaps 50 odd - jumped up into the air as if caught in a whirlwind and then plummeted headlong into the ocean. As this lot of mice finished their death dance another lot jumped up into the air and went headlong into the ocean. Lot after lot did likewise. Now, the invisible camera showing the death dance of the mice panned into the ocean floor. A strange thing was happening there. As the electronic mice hit the ocean floor, one mouse would coalesce into another and become one bigger mouse. A third mouse coalesced with this bigger mouse and the latter became a still bigger mouse. The size of the mouse kept growing. All mice gravitated towards this ever growing mouse and got sucked into it as if by a primordial force. A monster was growing at the bottom of the ocean floor.

The computer screen now came alive with another ominous message:
THE MOUSE MONSTER THAT KEEPS GROWING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN FLOOR WILL BE YOUR NEMESIS

The invisible camera cut back to the ocean’s edge. The mice in hundreds and thousands were still streaming to the ocean’s edge even as all populace of the city remained in a thrall, impotent to do anything. The mice in lots did their last dance and hurled themselves into the ocean as if driven by a death wish.
The final lot disappeared into the ocean floor.
Another horrific scene blinked open on the screen. A Giant Mouse, the size of Eiffel Tower, both in height and across, parted the waters and trundled up upon the ocean edge. As it shook off the water from its body the water reached the transfixed folks on the streets. Slowly, it started moving forward.

A final message came up upon the screen:
THE MOUSE MONSTER IS ON ITS WAY TO THE CITY. IN FACT, IT IS NOW COMING TO THIS VERY BUILDING. I WILL YET EXTRACT MY REVENGE!!