[WP] In a futuristic world, you are the official Computer Scientist of the US president. You open programs sent to you for analysis which you then distribute to the population as "informational popups" through everyone's mobile device. One morning, the president sends you "WorldDomination.exe".

The Official Programmer position of government is a strange job, although a well-paying one. Someone sends me code each day to look through, debug, and compile before distributing it to mobile devices all over the United States. In general, all that happens is a message shows up prompting to tap for more information about whatever. I think of it as unwanted social media notifications from the president.

Yesterday's work went quite well. I got a relatively well documented program, all source code easily readable and didn't make me want to punch my screen several times because of how horrible it is. When code quality went up last month, I figured they got a new Council assistant to make this code. I would love to meet the assistant, but the only contact I've had with them was comments in their code and personal messages in documentation. Yesterday, one of the comments in the code was /* Things here are getting weirder */ but I thought little of it at the time. It didn't tell me very much, anyway. At least I know the assistant isn't a robot, so that's always nice.

The weirdness did show up eventually, though, because today the assistant sent me "WorldDomination.exe" and a text file. I laughed at first- "WorldDomination.exe?" What kind of name is that? And what mobile device still runs native Windows executables? I checked the file properties- a Win32 application, no less. I opened the included text file.
I don't know why I had to send an executable program to you and nothing else. I know it's a Win32 application and you can't make any functional edits. E-mail me and I can answer if I can get any answers to your questions.
After that was only the assistant's e-mail address where I could send questions to and maybe get a response. I sat at my chair staring at the screen for a bit and thinking of questions to send. One by one, they popped into my head. Why "WorldDomination?" Why a Win32 application no mobile device can open? Why didn't they at least send me the source code so I can port it to current systems?
I typed up an e-mail to send to the assistant with all the questions I had in mind. Hopefully, I will have all my questions answered so I can make sense of it all and resolve the entire ordeal. I wasn't supposed to distribute a prototype anyway, so it would just end up being stuck at my end if I didn't get any answers. Click. Sent.
A few minutes later, an e-mail came back. It was not the response I was expecting. This e-mail address on the local domain has been seized and the recipient is unable to respond at this time. Please return to your job.
Well then. This can't be good for the assistant, and "WorldDomination.exe" looks like serious business, but what do I do now? I can't edit the program- it's already compiled and is a readily executable binary. I can't distribute it without breaching protocol- prototypes are not to be released. I can't not distribute it or the president is going to yell at me again and possibly get me fired. That's already happened once, and I can definitely say having the president's spit and foul breath on your face threatening of termination is not fun. I wanted a break from the dilemma.
I walked to the break room and poured myself a cup of coffee. If only the program turned into a cup of coffee. That would be nice.

/r/WritingPrompts Thread