A Fatal Exception Has Occurred at...

"A Fatal Exception Has Occurred at..." is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Alan Dean Foster, first published in the 2002 anthology The Children of Cthulhu.
==Synopsis==
A man named Wilbur, who has managed to gain access to the Necronomicon, has scanned the entire book and threatens to post it online unless the American government pays him ten million dollars. FBI agent Bob Hayes explains to his superiors that this would be disastrous, as it would mean public access to spells that can summon monumentally dangerous entities. Wilbur, in fact, has already claimed responsibility for an earthquake in Denver and a ship sinking in Pohnpei. Despite the Bureau's skepticism, they decide to send Hayes off to investigate along with another agent named Spitzer.
The agents visit a man named Herman Rumford, who has great knowledge of occult matters, and who is already talking to Wilbur online, although he hasn't been able to track his location. Wilbur demands the money, and tells the agents to turn on the TV set in a few hours to convince them that he's serious. When they do so, they see the news that the National Aquarium in Baltimore has collapsed into the sea. Wilbur reveals that he's been in contact with the forces of Cthulhu, and plans on summoning the minions of Ithaqua next, so new disasters will keep piling up until they pay him.
Hayes and Spitzer debate what to do, as the FBI still hasn't been able to track down Wilbur's location. Rumford suggests that he might be able to help, but won't proceed without authorization, which the agents grant him. Half an hour later, Rumford announces that his idea has worked, and initiates another chat with Wilbur, warning him not to post the Necronomicon, or there would be consequences. Wilbur shrugs this off, so Rumford inserts a flash drive into his computer and starts hacking. When he's done, Wilbur sends increasingly desperate messages, demanding to know what's going on, and then suddenly stops mid-sentence.
The agents deduce that Rumford sent Wilbur some kind of malware that erased the latter's files and wrecked his machine. Rumford muses about the kinds of things that "can be digitized these days", but refuses to elaborate on what exactly he sent Wilbur. However, he does makes a copy of his flash drive and gives it to the agents, along with instructions on how to use in case something like this ever happens again. The instructions begin with the words "To download Shoggoth".
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Alan Dean Foster works