The next time I checked Trench, a couple evenings later, the atmosphere was completely different. Trench Chat and Recent Discussions had almost no activity but Trench Reports was packed with new comments to the point where the site kept buffering and freezing.
It didn't take me long to figure out what was going on, the inquest had been released. I'd sure picked out a chaotic time to join Trench. I half expected there to be a long virtual line I'd have to wait in to get to the article, like there was when buying concert tickets on the normal internet. But instead I found it easily as a "trending search" -- What Happened in Strasbourg: an inquest into the Morozov poisonings.
It had only been released about 40 minutes earlier but already had thousands of reads. I sighed, clicked the article, and prepared to either be bored or entertained by whatever long winded conspiracy it would pass off as the truth.
Just as I was about to read the first sentence I got a text from Ava. "Do you wanna call tonight, I'm not busy?"
Ava and I had a tradition of video calling whenever we couldn't see each other in real life. "Sorry, maybe tomorrow," I said. "I'm busy right now."
WHAT HAPPENED IN STRASBOURG
An inquest into the Morozov poisonings
(Abridged edition)
For: WWW.Trench.Shar
Released on: 5/29/43
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ABSTRACT: After breaking into the French Government's online archives, a group of independent hackers and investigators discovered hundreds of documents pertaining to the death of Mir-Tek's former CEO and his wife in Strasbourg, France in 2035. The evidence in these files was never declassified, wrongly kept from the general public for years, and points towards foul play. There is now substantial evidence that links the American E-commerce corporation Acheron, to the Strasbourg case.
. . .
FORWARD: A year ago this August, our small team of hackers was finally able to breach the security of a French Government archive on the deep web. Years earlier we had been given the job of searching for files pertaining to the Strasbourg incident. During this cyber attack and inquest that followed, we discovered hundreds of classified documents concerning events of the Strasbourg case. From the start these records revealed to us that events were not as they had been presented in the media at all. The story usually believed is that Vitaly Morozov died as the result of an accidental overdose of the opioid painkiller, fentanyl, that caused illnesses around him, and the death of his wife due to secondhand contamination (Fentanyl can be deadly in extremely small quantities to people without a physical dependence.) Though widely acknowledged as the truth, these circumstances proved themselves to be unlikely. We soon found clear violations on the part of Acheron, and its CEO and founder Paul Landry. These included the coercion of governmental investigations into not releasing case details and fabrication of evidence and false information released as truth in the media, suspicious behavior on the part of Acheron employees at the time of the incident, and Acheron's acquisition of a chemical company for no clear reason.
YOU ARE READING
What Happened in Strasbourg
General FictionGracie is a teenage girl living in the UK in the near future where two rival corporations grapple for control of the economy. Acheron, a giant American shipping company, has established its European headquarters in her town and employs both her pare...
