Days of Reckoning - a GunCraze Story (Book 1)

Prologue

Economic turmoil throughout the 21st century led to the creation of the World Economic Council (WEC). The purpose of the WEC was to bring balance by fostering relationships between the world's economic leaders and reducing the effect of negative media and speculation on the stock markets.

Within a few years the economies of the world were brought into balance, and the world moved into prosperity never before imagined. All forms of industry moved ahead at lightning speeds, new inventions that improved way of life for the citizens of the world became abundant. Among the many different advances were those relating to robotics, computer science, medicine and engineering.

Moving forward with their plans of Globalization, the WEC created the Inter-National Currency Agency (INCA) to bring the entire world under a single currency. Many people throughout the world rejected the idea, but the rhetoric of powerful politicians saw INCA into existence.

The INCA established an electronic bank whose data was protected from encryption by complex algorithms created by the brilliant Doctor Paul Winterman. To aid him, Winterman created the Intelligent Numerical Tracking Interface, or INTI, which was a single artificial intelligence subroutine of the INCA Bank that would monitor its trillions of transactions per day. INTI would keep track of the entire world's finances including government accounts, business accounts, and individual user accounts, and instantly report security flaws to administration for review.

The currency's of old were exchanged and destroyed, and soon the WEC had total control of the world's economy. There was no more circulating paper or coin currency. Every user held an INCA Card which looked exactly like a early 21st century credit card, hence the currency was named "Credits." The user would simply hold the card in front of a reader and then type a code to access or spend money.

The INCA system was incorporated heavily into the internet, reaching to almost everything that had a computer and increasing the necessity and permanency of the 'Credit', as well as the WEC. People could travel anywhere and not have to worry about currency conversions.

The world rejoiced at its new economic freedom and security. Crime around the world was reduced significantly because INTI was able to memorize spending habits of users and would not authorize unusual transactions, even if a password was entered. In this case the user would have had to call and voice authenticate through INTI to complete a transaction.

Additionally, since the only way to purchase goods and services was through the use of credits, tax rates were lowered significantly because taxes were paid during transactions allowing 100% of all income and spending to be appropriately taxed. Basically, if you moved any money at all, you were taxed. INTI would monitor the purchases through each account and the more Credits that were spent by an individual account, the higher the percentage of taxes would be taken out after each subsequent purchase.

Then things began to change. Beginning 2049, The WEC started charging a fee for the use of the INCA Bank, and soon they included their own sales tax on all purchases. The WEC declared the money was necessary for the continued operation of the INCA Bank. Many all over the world cursed the added fees and taxes, but they could do nothing about it.

Here is where the story begins. A tragic tale of survival, life, and loss. The Days of Reckoning begin.