Day 55 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 4 (1909 words)

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DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 4

The police questioned them for a while, and then they took the original disc and the envelope, even the security footage, though there was none to be seen. They had been disbelieving at first, but the story had gone to the web and was beginning to pick up on other services already, the traction it was getting aided by the starting of authenticity flowing in. The man who Tim had identified was indeed who he had suggested he was and the police investigating the crime soon were out of their depth.

The FBI arrived an hour or so later and the whole questioning started again, Blake and Jacob took the lead and sidelined the staff to work on the site as they were instructed. Lawyers were called in before they even got to the initial questions and they monitored and managed the eventual threats of non cooperation and claims of participation in the video. The more experienced among them read the panic and the frustration as more evidence of the level of seriousness the video was being taken at.

The FBI shut down the office and swept it for anything and everything they could find looking for injunctions to shut them down, but to no avail. The courts sided with the press and it was obvious that Facts Alone were recipients who had willingly shared all of their information with the authorities, but had also backed up all the notes, the videos and the information they could glean to off site server farms and flash drives. Within a day the story was already showing on the cable news shows on television, the web services having a twenty four hour head start.

The police took the list and questioned them extensively about the names, how had they come by them, did they know where they were and more questions that were both obvious and yet necessary. Jacob answered everything truthfully, Blake with customary sarcasm and contempt. For every step they took forward with Jacob, they got a dig for more information from Blake, they worked well as a team, turning the good cop/bad cop routine on it's head and gleaning what they could from the San Francisco Police Department before the FBI swooped in and shut them down, by letting them go.

The cops had asked them what they knew about Evan Simpson's escape or abduction from the hospital, about when the coma had ended and a few other morsels that revealed that Evan was at large before the video had arrived, but it gave them little to go on. The list of names was near complete when they had made the call to the police to report the crime and the interns and researchers were sent off from the office before the “Come in for questioning” started, given instructions on when and what to publish, including the length of time that Jacob, Blake and other staff were detained for that questioning without any charges.

A clock started on the website, was ordered taken down by the courts but it just sprang up on overseas web servers and was on again, being shared on walls and feeds all day from then on in. They had spent two or three hours with the local police and less than an hour with the stoic and uncommunicative federal agents before they were let go. When their lawyers escorted them from the station, there was a small group of people to greet them, mixed among them waving placards and hastily printed t-shirts were some of their staff, on hand to give them an update.

The conservative media were of two minds, on one had they started a diatribe about vigilantism and new age internet murder masquerading as entertainment. They had a nice line about how the judge and jury were taken out of the equation and public opinion was going to overrule common sense and the law of the land. At first they were strongly against this, not sensing any irony whatsoever, but within a short period of time the various pundits, tweeters and posters showed an overwhelmingly supportive reaction to the death of the paedophile. No one was in support of taking the law into their own hands, or at least not among the commentators shown on screen. However the cries from the public posts and tweets were unforgiving and pointed about natural justice.

The liberal media went straight to rule of law and mob justice as their narrative and started quoting the conservative media immediately and their supporters to show how far and how vicious it all became so quickly. There were metaphors flying back and forth, from Roman Gladiatorial comparisons to accusations of Social Eugenics and death trials, rule by mob justice without any evidence. Except that it soon became very clear that evidence and guilt were a moot point.

As the list became public, as the names began to fill in there was little doubt to the guilt of the men that were in that episode. The man who had died was really named Peter Rayner, but within a short period of time it became apparent who he really was. He was a former priest, at the centre of a child molestation scandal for the church. He had been moved from parish to parish until he was eventually defrocked and outed publicly. He had never been convicted, he fled the country and had been hiding out in the Caribbean islands away from extradition and from the people who were hunting him. Peter Rayner was the new name he was known by, but he had been Father Francis Grey and when the clean shaven face was digitally altered to show it, and had it's well groomed beard replaced, and the dog collar superimposed then it was plain to see.

The victims of his molestation, a dozen of them that had stood up and spoke out, a couple of them in suicide notes, had amounted to fifteen known victims, and on his card it stated seventeen. It had always been thought that there were more but they had not wanted to ever come forward or like those who had left notes had taken matters into a different and more permanent end. One of the victims was on the news the next morning, his anger and desire for vengeance had dissipated over the years and now as a young adult he had moved on, the five or more years since the abuse had come to light had allowed to access and deal with the pain and suffering the man had caused.

“I never forgave him, I never will. I have moved on sure, and I don't know what this is all about and I am not sure I want to know. Am I glad he is dead? Yes.” He was weary beyond what his twenty two years should have made of him, but now in the slumping shoulders of relaxed carriage, he saw a closure he never expected. His comments hastily gathered on the front steps of the building where he worked were edited and recut by dozens of media outlets through the night as people rushed to be the first to have the latest spin on the Game as it was now being called.

Blake and Jacob, at first the subject of scrutinisation by the police and then the Federal agencies were largely left out of the mix when it came to the reporting from traditional media as the days moved on. A complete list was soon being touted on all the channels, the FBI and other agencies unable to stem the tide of information as it flowed in and around sites all round America and in international media markets. Out of the list of 12 names, there were now completed with histories, convictions and statuses. Surprisingly three of them were already listed as dead, though usually under less than definitive circumstances.

John Vargas – Murderer (5), Killed three people in a drug deal gone bad, killed two police officers in a shootout – fled to Mexico

Mark Rowlands – Rapist (7) Murderer (3) – Raped seven women and killed three of them before being captured and sent to prison for life. Supposedly killed in a prison riot, buried nine weeks ago.

Wynton Washington – Murderer (3) – Killed his wife and child, killed his elderly neighbour who witnessed him leaving the scene. Was in prison, listed as missing twelve weeks ago. No media coverage of the escape.

Evan Simpson – Murderer (10) – Killed eight rival gang members confirmed suspected in two more deaths – in protective hospital incarceration in a coma for six months. Comatose body now shown to be someone else, unknown when the switch happened.

Garth Parker – Rapist (2) Murderer (2) – Raped and Killed two women tourists in successive weeks, was apprehended attempting a third. Escaped from transit from court to prison three months ago.

Peter Rayner (AKA Father Francis) – Paedophile (17) 15 pending cases of child molestation (confessed partially before fleeing the country) , In exile in the Caribbean Area – Now Deceased

David Wilson– Murderer (3) – Sociopath, killed three people in front of many witnesses, in a secure mental institution, heavily medicated. Unknown when he went missing, the institution being investigated.

Julio Suarez – Rapist (3) Murderer (2) – Raped three women, killed two gang members in his own gang, DNA evidence linking him to all five victims, currently at large.

Evan Jacobson (Formerly Tony Vittorio AKA Tony the Snake) – Murderer (12) – Testified in Federal Court against his mob bosses, now in Witness Protection, confirmed by Federal Authroities as missing from Wit Sec 3 months ago.

Jackson Jones III – Rapist (1) Murderer (2) – The Trust Fund Killer, Raped and murdered his girlfriends mother and killed her father to have her inherit the seventy million dollar estate. Listed as dead in a house fire set by himself when police were closing in.

Wilson Smith – Murderer (5) – Accused of killing five patients in his care in a nursing home over three years and inherited the bulk of their estates. Originally acquitted on a technicality in all five cases, a civil case against him held up in court wrangles over money. Officially declared missing three weeks ago, but not seen in public for several more weeks.

Thomas Somerset – Paedophile (1) Rapist (2) Murderer (3) – With an under-age girlfriend he went on a killing spree before being shot and severely wounded in a gun battle with police. The girlfriend was killed on the spot and Thomas was declared brain dead and his life support removed ten weeks ago.

The full list was being dissected and reviewed, no one had nay sympathy for the players of Darwin's Game, as everyone was quick to point out that was obviously the point. A vicious and mean game, but it played to the core of humanity's need and desire for not only justice to be done but for it to be seen to be done. Most of the news shows on the air blurred, boxed or cut the killing scene, but the internet was awash with unedited footage of the shooting, silent and at a decent distance.

Then the betting started, apps were hastily made to follow the odds and the profiles of the eleven remaining players. Everyone knew there was more to come, it was just a matter of time.