Day 71 - Darwin's Game - Chapter 20 (2341 words)

©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

DARWIN'S GAME

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 20

There were twenty other people on the hotel floor with them and armed guards at every conceivable entrance to their level. The Facts Alone crew, those that were still actively working the Darwin story, were in hiding of sorts in a high rise hotel, a floor booked out completely for them. They were not short of money based on the popularity of their service prior to this outbreak of interest, now they were being offered book deals and exclusive interviews every day, a glimpse behind the curtain and more scrabbling about for clues and dirt on the Darwin phenomena.

Blake had taken steps immediately after Jacob's short term kidnapping, Darwin was obviously making a point and it was the height of arrogance to ignore that, as if it had not happened, in his mind. He had contacts that knew some people who knew some people, and before long a private security firm known for contracting services to the military in hot deployments overseas, were on board and taking on the high visibility clients of Facts Alone.

Dragon Ridge were named for the area of Montana where the founder had grown up, and it certainly came with a certain cache. They had more than a few run-ins via the Facts site, as reports and statistics on military deaths and expenditure were one of the more popular features on Facts Alone, and without the spin and framing of an interested and supportive media partner, the figures on their own spoke volumes to those interested in reading them. There was little to fight with on Facts Alone, as no voice or commentary ever accompanied the data, but they had taken them to court over irresponsible use of sensitive data, despite the fact that all of the facts were publicly available in many places and formats. The difference was collation and centralisation, and argue as they may and no matter how many pet politicians were backing them, the suits just created more publicity for the site and generated more views, more interest and more sponsorship.

This though was too good an opportunity to pass up and many media outlets took the angle that Dragon Ridge could work with anyone, the picture of professionalism, and that they were the go-to company when the government was not cutting it. The temporary abduction of the agent along with Jacob had been extremely embarrassing, and despite having four episodes, four weeks of investigation and a personal involvement in the latest Darwin event, the federal authorities were no closer to knowing who Darwin was or stopping/saving the remaining players.

With no real target in the ethereal Darwin, no idea who or what that was, the Facts Alone partners were now seen as victims, not perpetrators and the FBI, the police and the politicians who were powerless to stop this flagrant abuse of the due process of law were the best target for opinion makers to fire at. Daily now there were questions being asked about who was behind this game, and how powerless and ineffective the FBI were at dealing with them. However the media went after the politicians, the law enforcement chiefs and anyone disagreeing with whatever narrative they were pursuing, there was no drawing the Darwin character out of the woodwork. Invective and plaudits were hurled at varying levels of mania, but there was not even a hint of a return.

The closest thing that there was to a communication was the temporary detaining of Jacob and his FBI shadow, and that seemed like it was sending a message one-way, that Darwin is in control, not that it was a reaction to anything in particular that had been said or threatened. If it was in reaction to the FBI getting close to a lead or a breakthrough, it was new to them as they were no closer than ever before.

There was also the simple fact there was little evidence of a crime directly tied to Darwin whether he was a real person or an entity made up of other individuals. There were some directly evidenced crimes for the players who had escaped from jail. There were obvious associated crimes if Darwin was found to have been a party to a jailbreak. The executed prisoner was already legally dead, so having them alive meant that someone had perpetrated a fraud on the prison service. While everyone 'knew' it was real, it certainly looked so, there were no bodies to prove that a murder had even happened. No one thought for a second that it was a defensible position that Darwin was not complicit in the deaths of the players, however deserving they might be, but still there was no proof that a death had occurred. There was no DNA, there was video evidence that according to most sources looked real enough, but was it proof? Calls of fraud and cowardice, more name calling was thrown in to provoke again, but if Darwin was listening, he was certainly not interested.

The masculine pronoun got the most amount of work, but a debate for a few days as to the gender of Darwin raised a lot of questions about the potential psychological profile of the mastermind and social experimenter. A contempt for the current justice and punishment system was obvious, a need for retribution and a clear cut vision on guilty or not. No one on the player list was in doubt of their guilt, they had all played and won or lost their own versions of reality but in no cases were there any grey areas for doubt to creep in. Meticulous planning and an amazing attention to detail, care and attention were as important as the dispassionate approach to affecting the outcome of the game. Could Darwin be a she? There were plenty of arguments for an against this, with both sides chewing up air time and extending the national discourse on the validity of the game.

A ex-profiler from the FBI spent his days doing the rounds of talk shows and panel discussions adding some psychology to the character of Darwin. Highly efficient and intelligent, everyone knew that of course, driven by planning, multiple contingencies, a vision of the big picture, a masterful chess player, several steps ahead, probably represented in less than 2% of the general population, reserved and detached in social situations, a leader of some kind, politics or business experience. The middle aged white businessman with a high IQ and a arrogance in his own abilities. Could Darwin be a woman? In his professional opinion that was statistically unlikely, but possible yes.

The profile was too broad, and too vague to be of any use. The money would be the best way to track the mastermind down, once they could determine some kind of path to the evidence. The FBI and the fans went through every detail of the video casts to try and pinpoint a location based on the props seen, the furniture on display. Then the national records were scoured looking for connections, but none were of any use. The props were either unidentifiable, in the case of the complex water tank system, or generic and available anywhere, in the case of the boardroom furniture. Electricity records were searched for sudden spikes that may have coincided with the second episode, but there was no clear date or time reference and it was pre-recorded.

Again there was little to go on, there was no evidence that this was proven real and Darwin was a shadowy a figure as he was at the start of the process four weeks earlier. The fan sites were in overdrive, and the speculation as to who was behind it was reaching fever pitch. The president, so far silent on the matter was being pressed for an answer on his opinion. The press secretary answered as expected that the rule of law was sacrosanct, that no one was above the law, that however well intentioned all criminal acts will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that the White House fully supported the efforts of the FBI in the case. That last addition had several bureau chiefs examining their CV's, nothing said your job was on the line like an unqualified statement of support from the commander in chief.

Jacob was sitting in his hotel suite, alone and watching nine televisions arrayed into a grid in the middle of the room. He had the major news channels on live, following whatever was going on, and closed captioning on everything he could get. The also had five computers, multiple monitors and live web feeds bringing him every piece of information about the Game that his aggregation service could handle. He had not slept well since the incident and had not left the room all week as soon as he got in. Blake would pop in on him every hour or so and check that he was not completely flying off the handle, but he just needed time to settle and a massive amount of input to his conscious mind to distract him from the debilitating fear that now stalked him.

He had seen no one, he had no idea how he got to the abandoned office building, had no message and no communication from whomever had taken him. He did not recall a single person interacting with him, he had blacked out, been drugged according to the doctors and blood tests, then had woken up blindfolded and bound until he was free hours later. He had held himself together in front of the agents, he had calmly and clearly framed his answers to the questions, but as soon as his lawyer arrived with his business partner he began demanding his freedom and to be let go. They tried to keep him for his own safety, but that argument held no water at all considering his fellow prisoner who had even less recollection of use than Jacob did.

Blake had already started work on getting private security, they purchased the floor of the hotel they needed and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on, technology, personnel and weaponry to defend themselves against a ghostly enemy that could seemingly touch them wherever they were. It was disconcerting and alarming to them both, but to Jacob who had been bound, helpless and clueless for the better part of that day, it was like waking from a nightmare to find yourself in another.

The next tape was due today, Jacob was not leaving the building and had no intention of going anywhere and had sent his partner out to deal with the press and take guards to hopefully make Darwin think twice about another move against them. Except that behind all the fear of Darwin were some niggling thoughts that Jacob could not get rid of. Why had he been targeted? If there was a message, what was it? He could see that there was a clear one to the Feds, they could not stop him, and anything he wanted to do he could do. Why involve Facts Alone at all? If Darwin wanted them dead or kidnapped permanently, he was sure that there was little they could do to stop him.

One of the screens caught his eye and he muted everything and narrowed in on the bottom left screen. With a flick of his mouse hand he used the modified controller to bring the one screen to occupy the full nine screen array, creating a grid effect where they overlapped but he now had a Giant Screen view of Blake Hilliard talking live with a reporter on camera in the Lobby.

They were talking about Jacob and the Game, the interviewer pressing for more details and the traditional humourless come backs from the dry Hilliard putting him his place. His business partner dismissed the camera man and the microphone wielding field reporter and walked away, the camera pulled in tighter to get the head of the speaker, but quickly zoomed out and panned to the right as the cameraman spotted that Blake was being handed a package by a man in a red couriers outfit. On the live transmission a swathe of black coated agents swarmed over him and Blake dodged the man with his hand out and walked deliberately to the reporter and asked if they were still live.

“They want to take the episode and review it before we put it up, they've tried this before and there will be other copies, there always are. Can you take this and just get it away from me? I've had enough of this bullshit.” Blake gave the disc to an stunned reporter who stayed in shot to stare at the disc in his hand, an FBI agent in dark glasses closed in on the camera and put his hand over the lens, the view pulling away and moving erratically to try and keep the reporter and the disc in view. Then they were running, bobbing up and down and exiting through the lobby FBI trailing behind as they sprinted for the broadcast van. Other reporters ran interference trying to film or question the agents, slowing them only slightly but enough for the pair to get into the van and lock themselves in. Within five minutes the discs contents were uploaded and sent to channels news offices.

For good measure they instantly uploaded to a file sharing website and emailed their counterparts with the password to access it, copy it and distribute more instances of the original.

Blake entered Jacob's suite and went straight to him, seeing the coverage on the large monitor bank. Jacob was not watching it though, he was looking intently at his tablet.

“What is it?” his business partner could see a look on Jacob's face, something unreadable and unsure it was good, bad or undecided.

He tilted the screen of the tablet and there in large letters inside an email were the words.

APOLOGIES, THE MESSAGE WAS NOT FOR YOU.

~DARWIN.