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DARWIN'S GAME
By Wayne Webb
CHAPTER 10
Another week of guessing and putting words into
mouths followed the release of the second video with interest in the
game running at a even higher rate than following the first episode.
Blake and Jacob were obviously the conduits for the mysterious and so
far stoic Darwin who had engineered the game and the release of the
information.
Accusations were being levelled that they were
somehow involved with the Darwin Conspiracy or that they were the
people behind it themselves. No one took such statements seriously
though and it was a useful tactic for putting the partners on the
back foot in interview settings, which they were called more and more
to do. The FBI wanted them to hand over all material relating to
Darwin, which they did. They demanded that they hand over new tapes
immediately before copying them to the public domain, which they
refused to do so, lawyers and agents arguing all week the finer
points of source protection, free speech and the exact crime that
Facts Alone were committing, while never being formally charged with
anything serious.
The public would never have let the FBI sit on
any future tapes, not now they were known to exist and were in the
ether already. They demanded them, needed the closure of seeing them
and debated them back and forth on panel shows, news magazines and
even comedy shows got in on the act. Fantasy rosters of who would
make the second season among politicians, world leaders, despots and
dictators were the go to players on panel shows, while vocations such
as lawyer, IRS agent and used car salesmen were the reference points
for talk shows, stand ups and spoof news sites.
A week after the second video had aired and
once again all eyes were on the Facts Alone site, the co-creators and
the FBI. Twitter posts charted their every move, the Federal agents
found it harder and harder to follow covertly, or even overtly
without being outed by eagle eyed fanatics with mobile phones,
tweeting invisibly their locations, the licence plates of their cars
and even blurred pictures of people who may have been agents, may not
have been agents or may have been imposters posing for the fans.
The signal to noise ratio was tipping every
minute to the volume of cacophony in favour of the noise, and the
movements of the partners was finally out of anyone's control due to
the massive interest in them being the only way to the next episode.
They constantly reaffirmed the commitment to
publishing the videos unedited, with warnings and on international
sites if need be and that there would be no editing and no delaying,
most importantly their would be fair and equal access across the
board. The Feds, the Press and the Public shared an equal footing.
Episode 2 had the Facts Alone partners seeing the video after
everyone else, by at least a day, a factor that endeared them to the
masses hungry for what came next. Even the people opposed to the
game, and that was maybe close to half the population, they did not
want the game to be secreted away and only in the domain of a shadowy
government agenda. It was out there and it was wrong, it was up to
the police and the FBI to catch them, but they knew the power of the
crowd when it came to tracking these criminals down.
There was a forgotten crime beneath all the
buzz caused by the morally outrageous game and the engineering of the
murder of at least eleven people, hardened and heinous criminals
themselves notwithstanding. This was the biggest kidnapping case in
American history, no ransom and no demands but none the less Darwin
or his group had detained a dozen people without anyone knowing, or
even realising that it had happened. Logistically it would have taken
the combined efforts and expense that was beyond the ability of
governments let alone a private individual or company.
Conspiracy theorists abounded, it was an inside
job, the CIA or the NSA were obviously behind it. They were certainly
keeping quiet about it, the office of the White House condemning it
at any opportunity, and denying any involvement, not that any one
took any such denial too seriously. After all no government would
ever admit to such violations of basic human rights and international
law, not even if they were at the core of it. Inside offices and
behind closed doors those agency heads were all attacking each other,
all assuming that they were behind it and not knowing about any of
the details made the usual back stabbing between agencies worse than
usual. It was matter of potential national security, while nominally
a Federal investigation, they were shadowed and watched by the more
effective branches of government, designed to find secrets, no matter
how deeply hidden.
The reporters who were working on the Darwin
angle were trying to figure out the identity, it had become like a
modern day hunt for the Ripper, there were outlandish and
unbelievable theories and suspects, and ones that were possible and
credible. Proof was in short supply, evidence in shorter supply and
clues too far and few between. The videos themselves were stripped
bare of identifying marks or items that could have pinpointed or even
narrowed the search in any helpful way.
The chairs and the table that featured in the
'Jury of Peers' episode as it was being called, were generic and
available in all states, and had been modified with some conductive
material in order to deliver the lethal electric shocks. They were
aluminium and plastic, in themselves innocuous and cheap and
available everywhere. Orders of a dozen chairs, eleven or even two to
three at a time were investigated by the authorities and the
reporters chasing the same details in a race to identify the identity
or even the location that the game was taking place.
There was a decent chance it was in California,
that Darwin was here and organising the drops to Facts Alone. Blake
and Jacob were not trying too hard to locate or identify the
organiser, they were already in the loop as far as the videos were
concerned and they figured that they likely knew the person, that was
a potential outcome from the previous exercise with the Mission and
the grave site. They were curious, fantastically so, about who and
why anyone would do this bizarre and deadly game show of death and
retribution, but it was already under way and did they really want to
stop it? They could not say with any certainty if either of them was
for or against it, it was just the way it was. They made a living out
of just reporting the facts and not providing the commentary and
opinion that they hated so much. This was not a question of sitting
on the sidelines and assisting in the death of innocents, or even
assisting in the vigilantism of a person, organisation or agency that
had no remit for this kind of nefarious justice.
It was happening, it may well have happened
already, there was no indication that these episodes were as spaced
out as the delivery was. They could have all been recorded already,
they could be done the day of or the day before it was impossible to
tell yet. The best they could do is be the open and honest outlet
they wanted to be.
On the day they expected the next drop,
delivery or whatever this arrangement could be described as they sat
in the office, and decided not to go out if they could avoid it. They
had been selected to receive, and they obviously fit into someone's
plan, so running about trying to avoid tails and interested fans with
phones was pointless effort. One way or another the Darwin that
managed to cheat the death of a handful of people, kidnapping more
than that again and holding, manipulating and killing hardened
killers and rapists should have no trouble finding them and giving
them a video.
The sun was finally going down, the day headed
into evening and still nothing had arrived or happened. The FBI agent
in charge had been in contact all day, calling them every thirty
minutes or so, at first with excuses or follow ups but the short
tempered Blake starting answering all calls with “No, it has not
arrived yet, it'll be on the web as soon as it does.” and then
hanging up.
The thirtieth call that afternoon rang through
the office, and nearly everyone was still there, including the staff
who's day had officially finished, the agents and reporters renting
space from office mates and other floors to be co-located at the
source. Everyone was waiting and hanging on.
Blake repeated his mantra and then hung the
phone up, a collective sigh and heave went around the office and it
almost made him laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of the
situation. He stood up and motioned to Jacob who was talking with
Susan and Tim about the leads they were following on the escaped or
deceased prisoners.
“What is it?”
“I think I've had enough of this waiting
business, you?”
Jacob looked around the room and saw dozens of
eyes watching their every move. “Yeah. Yeah I have too.” He drew
a deep breath to announce loudly that it was time to pack it in, give
it a rest and let what happened happen when the fire alarm went off,
shrill and piercing through the floor.
A few seconds later they guessed it was not a
drill and the debilitating pulse of the siren, so loud and so harsh a
frequency that it would make anyone who stayed too long feel sick and
dizzy, needing to get out, was too much to stick around for.
The all trudged down the stairs and out to the
assembly point out on the street, the traffic was light and zipping
past into the darkening twilight of the disappearing day. There was a
miasma of people milling about aimlessly, they recognised some but
not all of the people there, some were their own, some were known
agents and media types, others were belonging to other tenants and
some were fans and supporters who had been outside most of the day
awaiting the news of the third instalment , ready to storm in on the
advice of the initiating tweet to fight for the freedom of the press
and the access to the information that the public wanted and needed
to have unfettered by an interfering branch of the government.
They had been waiting for less that ten minutes
when three engines blasted into their midst, sirens and lights
carving paths through the people, the traffic of onlookers growing
every minute from word of mouth and from live broadcasts from mobile
television remote studios filming and reporting from the scene.
Jacob and Blake were targeted, followed and
shouted at by various spotlight reporters brandishing their mikes
like swords ready for battle, but getting nothing back, because there
was nothing to give.
They were let back into the building
eventually, a faulty switch that had water damage from a burst pipe
two floors above them was the culprit, the FBI were inspecting the
damage along with the fire inspectors along for the ride, even though
it was their scene. There was no squabbling, it was a rare occurrence
for something like this, they could see instantly that the alarm was
false one way or another. The chance to play with the big boys and be
part of the Darwin business was very tempting, so bargaining the
access to the alarm investigation was a better deal that picking a
fight with the agency that ultimately had the power to ignore with
impunity if the desire took them.
Blake got back to his desk, picked up his
jacket and turned on his hell to leave again just as Jacob was coming
up towards him. He stopped in place, frozen as he registered what was
wrong, what felt out of place. Jacob looked at him curiously and
picked up his casual bag, slung it over his shoulder and grabbed his
own coat, and hefted it, feeling the same change that Blake did.
The pockets, respectively had been empty, now
each of their jackets had something light but noticeable in the
pockets. The agents were still monitoring the crowds, checking the
status of the alarms when someone noticed that the Facts Alone men
were not there in sight, and sped off in pursuit of them.
The agent in charge burst into the room to see
Jacob twisting the disc in his hands and catching his eye straight
away he held out his hand to take the disc away from him. Jacob took
a step back and held it away, shaking his head and walking backwards
towards the office and his computer.
The agent stopped, looked at both men, not
realising that Blake had his hand in the jacket pocket of an item of
clothing held but not worn. He dropped his hands and stood there,
weighing his options and resigning himself to a more pleasant outcome
than repeating this same dance week after week for nine or ten more
episodes, or whatever else Darwin had planed. He shrugged and pulled
up a chair, raising his hands in mock surrender.
“Just give it to me when you have it
uploaded, I can wait.” He made a face that tried to convey a
reasonable assertion, one that said “we don't have to make this
that hard, we're not the bad guys, neither are you”.
Jacob looked at Blake who nodded and then
pulled out his own disc, and handed it to the agent. Written on it
was “Episode 3”. The agent nodded quietly, saying nothing but
noting the cooperation and thinking that this was much less effort
for the same result. A win in anyone's book.
“Go ahead and upload the other copy, I'll
take this out in a minute, I mean... it's been a long day. Got
anything to drink?”
The puppyish pleading in the agent's eyes for a
moment of alcoholic clarity to his assignment made Blake laugh. It
sounded like a dog barking.
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