Day 63 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 12 (1797 words)

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DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 12

Blake turned off the screen and poured himself a drink, the FBI agent was staring at the blank screen even though it had already turned off. Jacob picked up his phone and sent a message to someone and then nodded to Blake.

“Warning message?”

Jacob nodded. “And a double confirm to proceed, this is just ...”

Agent Dan Levy whistled, and he too sent a message to his superiors, telling them to be aware of the brutality of the latest video. He had seen some things in his career, and he had seen two previous episodes in high definition, but this was more visceral and more impacting than the previous two.

“What's your name again?” Blake prompted the agent.

“Levy. Dan, call me Dan. Some … disturbing stuff yeah?” He raised his eyebrows and tried for casual but he did not feel that.

“The thing is we knew that this is what it's all about right? This is the sharp end of the process, literally. Someone dies, what every week and we've seen at least two people die already. This was just ...”

“Brutal?” Levy offered.

“I guess, is electrocuted to death not brutal?” Blake was looking at his partner who looked neither shocked nor upset by what he had just seen.

“Technically the 'to death' part is redundant.” Levy said, in an offhand way.

“What?”

“Electrocuted 'to death', the 'to death' part is redundant. The definition of 'electrocute' is to kill by electric shock. It's a word that was made to match 'execute' – but by electricity. Just saying, the 'to death' part is not necessary.” Levy shrugged his shoulders and looked at his feet. “You seemed like the pedantic type.”

“Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.” Blake’s response was dry and dripping with sarcasm, while his partner was smiling broadly, knowing full well that a semantic mistake was the kind that Blake hated making, hated having pointed out to him in ignorance, and most definitely would be at pains to never make again. “What is wrong with you that you're not upset?” He pointed his anger derived from embarrassment at his business partner who was more than used to the tactic.

“Because I saw what I expected. What did you think was going to happen? This is not the end Blake, there's eight more deaths at least, assuming the 'winner' gets to live right? This is going to get bloody, though actually more bloody seems unlikely. Have you ever seen anyone bleed like that?”

Agent Levy shook his head. “No, and I have seen people shot and mangled and bleeding pretty bad but this was, Jesus Christ like someone turned on the tap.” He looked at Jacob keenly as he picked up on the same cue that Blake had, he seemed okay with the level of what he had seen. He tested the waters a little. “You know that guy who came up behind, the big guy Wynton he did not look that upset, he looked disappointed. Not fazed at all by the blood, and that would have smelled too, nothing the like smell of blood.”

He watched as Blake scrunched up his face in reflexive response to the thought of it and saw no reaction in Jacob at all. “That's the mark of a socio-path, no response.” He said it to the air, but intended it to sink into Blake's consciousness. Maybe plant a little seed, drive a little wedge of doubt between them. No one had a clue who Darwin was but it was obvious he was smart, resourceful and able to handle the brutality.

“Jacob?” Blake was staring at his business partner who was checking his email on his smart phone, like nothing was happening.

“What?”

“You have no reaction?”

“I already said we expect...”

Blake cut him off with a laugh, that barking dog like sound that clanged around the room where they had seen the latest Darwin video. “No you idiot. Levy here just called you a socio-path, and you have no reaction to that?”

Jacob looked bemused by the suggestion. “He did?” He looked at Agent Levy with a flat stare, devoid of any emotion and hard as stone.

Levy shifted his weight slightly, so if he needed to reach for his holstered weapon in his jacket, he could do so in one fluid motion. “Yeah, guess I did.”

“Aww man, I was just getting to like you too.” Jacob went from the stony face he had been putting on to a mimed over-exaggeration of mock pain at being labelled in such a way. Blake laughed again and stood up to slap Agent Levy on the shoulder, making him move in such a way that he turned to him and put him a little off balance again.

“Come on man, we've told you before that we are not behind this, we're not. This guy? He's just a freak who's seen too many Tarantino movies.

They walked out of the office together, the three of them and went to a local Mexican joint and got some food. They may have been put off by the initial shock of the bloody death of the Trust Fund Killer, but food and a couple of bottles of beer apiece settled any nerves they had and allowed Agent Levy to keep close tabs on them. They were there less than a half hour when both of their phones started ringing and the emails and messages poured into them calling for comments on the new, detailed and gory episode of the biggest show in the world.

The news anchors all reported the story, all with warnings and advise to not let children or the easily upset see the gory detail. They blurred out the more visceral details, like they had the electrocution and the original shooting on the television. They also hosted the uncut video on their various internet sites and it came with an R18 notice and like Jacob had suggested to their own IT guy, a double conformation step. You had to confirm that you wanted to see it, and the confirm that you were really sure about it.

Religious and moral thought leaders were outraged by the barbarous detail and the reveling of the public in the bloodstained death on their screens. There were no people supporting the brutality, even those who were strong supporters of the justice angle, that these players themselves were far from innocent and left their own blood soaked trails, were keen to distance themselves from method and level of detail shown.

A few people pointed out, that while everyone was pointing the finger at how shocking and terrible this was, that no one should be reveling in the bloody details, no one was actually doing that. For all the outrage and finger pointing about how people were reacting, there was not one example of anyone who was publicly saying that this was in any way a good thing.

However, much was made of the ratings of the shows that played the footage. It was on every channel and on every net service and a number of the initial sites, including Facts Alone themselves crashed due to high traffic demands as word of mouth spread about the latest video. The people who shouted the loudest, spoke the strongest language of condemnation were the same ones who showed the video, in whatever context and in whatever edited form they could to get their point across.

The knives were out for Facts Alone, the accusations started again that they were complicit or even behind the entire thing. Screaming red faced men called them the agents of the devil, that the godless nature of the name Darwin, showed exactly how unholy they were. The rhetoric and the damning of the two men who were the public face on a website that thrived on the anti-opinion groundswell that had been rising in the internet over the years did nothing to defend themselves. They never did, it was pointless to try and win a game you think should never be played in the first place. Their sites were trolled for comments, and they let them – ignoring all of them except the threats to personal safety and security.

A few days of this passed and the topic of conversation changed from accusatory to predictions. Who was next, what kind of barbarous and inhumane method of execution would be next. The audiences got to play along, they put up polls and created fan sites where people could make a suggested 'game' for the following episodes and then people could vote on the ones they wanted to see, and who they would like to go next.

By the time the end of the week rolled around they conversation had changed yet again, the blow hard noise of the screaming, corpulent opinion merchants were being challenged by their viewers, audiences and ratings to engage with the game, not to attack it. So they dialed it down, as there was no one to really attack anyway. No one was any closer to knowing who Darwin was, or where he was or even what would happen next.

The one thing that everyone thought they knew was 'why'. A painfully obvious point to most people, these men were all guilty of heinous crimes. No one was in any doubt about it at all, and they all deserved to be punished. People who supported the death penalty, supported the concept of the game and the fact that their taxes were not paying for it. People who were opposed to the death penalty were opposed to the game as could be expected. The difference was that there was no one to go to, to appeal to and to fight against. As far as anyone knew it was not a sanctioned

government activity and was denied and decried by any and all in power. They understood the reasoning behind it, they did get that it was about justice and retribution. They still disagreed with it, still believed it to be wrong but it was like protesting a murder committed by a private citizen.

There was no precedent, no suspect, little evidence to go on. There wasn't even a body for the literal

translation of Habeas Corpus. They got why it was happening, but had no idea on how to stop it other than let the police and federal authorities do their thing. So they jumped on panel discussions and brought the balance to the argument for and against vigilantism, but ultimately the left, the right, the justice supporters and the human rights advocates all watched and made their speeches impotently.

What else could they do?