The algorithms forced Gina to kiss the goat while her partner, Frank, stood over the snorting animal and slit its throat. Blood gurgled out of its quivering lips into her mouth. She held the blood on her tongue for a moment, feeling its heat. Then she parted her lips and let the crimson liquid drain onto the pentagram drawn on the concrete basement floor. The candle flames on the outer edges burned suddenly higher. The blood boiled away, leaving behind a complex series of brackets, arrows, letters and numbers. The code.

“Remember when getting websites to rank in the search engines only required stuffing them full of keywords?” Frank asked as he nudged the twitching goat corpse with the tip of his sneaker.

Gina remembered. She and Frank – AKA the Optimizers, the premier search engine marketing firm in the Midwest – had spent years on the periphery of the business, doing keyword research until their eyes blurred. That was before they discovered what the search engine algorithms really wanted.

“That was boring anyway.” Gina checked her tight black mini dress to make sure she hadn’t gotten any goat blood on it.

As usual, Frank moved in. He put his shaking hands on her hips and made a smooch face. As usual, she shoved him away. What was it was about animal sacrifice that got him so riled up? The reek of shit spurting out of the goat’s death-loosened anus? The blood dripping down Gina’s chin? Of course, she probably could have done her part without the four-inch heels and cleavage-baring outfit, but jogging pants didn’t seem to fit the mood.

“Come on, Gina. Just once?”

“No. Now get the code to the developer, okay?”

After the website – the online home of a high-end fashion boutique – went live, Gina and Frank found themselves with a disgruntled client on their hands for the first time in a long time. They had promised that the site would appear at the top of the SERP, the search engine results page, anytime someone searched one of several fashion-related terms. That didn’t happen.

“Did we do something wrong?” Frank asked, entering one search term after the next into the computer that sat in the corner of the basement, nervously fingering the blood-encrusted knife beside the mouse pad.

“No. We did it perfectly, the same as always, only with a goat this time.” Gina stood behind her partner, massaging his tense shoulders.

“You don’t think…”

“Probably.”

In the early days of the Internet, optimizing a site was easy: just jam it full of keywords. As more and more sites hit the Web, the competition for the top of the search engine results page became fiercer. Keywords weren’t enough. Meta data. Title tags. Inbound links. The algorithms demanded more and more. It was only a matter of time before they asked for blood.

Gina and Frank had started with rats. That had been enough, at first, to provide top ranking sites for their clients. Maybe other SEO specialists had reached the same conclusion. Maybe the algorithms just grew thirstier. Either way, the Optimizers had been forced to upgrade to raccoons, then dogs. Then a goat. But apparently that wasn’t enough. Apparently, the algorithms wanted more.

Gina leaned forward and kissed Frank on the neck. He froze, confused. Adjusting his glasses, he asked, “Is this really happening?”

“You’re my partner, baby.” She spun him away from the computer and sat on his lap, diving tongue-first into his mouth. The goat had kissed her with more confidence. It saddened her. Had he never kissed a girl before? Sure, he had moobs and his head hair looked like pubic hair, but he was smart and newly rich.

If she worried about it, she would second-guess herself. The future success of the Optimizers would be jeopardized. She would just give him the best kiss of his life and that would make her feel better about what she had to do. She kept her face pressed to his, reaching behind him to feel around by the computer.

When she wrapped her fingers around the handle of the knife, she moved quickly but carefully. She did everything she could to make sure he didn’t see the blade before she dragged it across his throat. Still, when steel bit into skin, he tried to pull away. Gina kept the lip lock, sucking the blood that he coughed into her mouth. She kissed him tight until the life drained out of him, one last thank you.

Then she spit his blood into the center of the pentagram, waiting for a new code, one her competitors wouldn’t have the guts to top. She was not going to give up everything she had earned. Frank would understand. The Optimizers would always be the best, and that meant the algorithms had to be appeased.