The Liberation Paradox

Mrs. Kundertson, I presume?

Danny

08:53

Danny walked along deserted side streets in the strange, reddish light of the Distortion morning. He was looking for a crossover bridge where he might dispose of the liberated cell phone. As he walked, he started to read the exnet news feeds, but it was mostly depressing stuff. The day's biggest headline read:

WAR ESCALATES!

—Olost Defense Ministry Hit by Missile Strike—

It was the first time that either the Kell or the Olost home worlds had been hit directly, and it signified a significant escalation in the war between the two major powers. Some Brigadier General named Siskin Lia and sixteen others of lesser ranks had been killed in the attack. The news article showed a picture of what was left of the Olost Defense Ministry. Even though the building still mostly stood, it was severely damaged. The upper third of the tall building had been reduced to charred, twisted I-beams and crumbling rubble. According to the article, the attack was believed to be the work of Kell saboteurs in retaliation for the recent hijacking of one of their military transport planes. The article went on to say that the hijacking had been carried out by some notorious terrorist (and suspected Olost operative) named Sallie Starlinger.

Danny decided he didn't want to read the news after all. It was all terrorists and hijackings and death and destruction. Instead, he decided to see if he had any messages. He logged into the account of Mrs. Ethel Kundertson. Mrs. Kundertson had been dead for a couple years now, but Danny had her password, so he used her message account and identity for his own purposes.

I know what you're thinking.

No, he didn't kill her.

Actually, he'd married her.

Long story.

Danny logged in to Mrs. Kundertson's account and was greeted, as always, by the old woman's heavy-set, jowly face set in her permanent frown. He looked at the inbox and that's when everything started to change.

Some joker identifying himself by the name "Fetch DeCodeExecute" had left almost twenty messages over the past three hours. Danny recognized the caller's pseudonym as being some computer reference, but he didn't get the reference. Fetch DeCodeExecute had left text messages, voice messages, and video messages. Danny suspected it was likely a scammer trying to rip off old Mrs. Kundertson.

Amateurs, he thought with disgust. He considered just deleting all the messages. Ultimately, he decided to open the most recent message, just in case it was something interesting. This one was a video message. Fetch DeCodeExecute was using some kind of filtering software to disguise his face and voice. It looked like he'd filmed the message in a bathroom. Fetch was speaking into the camera in hushed tones made more difficult to understand by the voice filter.

"Listen here, you son of a bitch," the mysterious caller had said to the camera just fifteen minutes earlier, "you can't ignore me forever. It's your fault all this is happening. They're gonna find me and they're gonna kill me. If I don't complete my mission, the Boaters'll hold you accountable. Do you know what they'll do to you? It's worse than death, motherfucker!" At that Fetch DeCodeExecute had ended the message.

That was...interesting, Danny thought. The mysterious caller's mention of the Boaters got Danny's attention. Danny knew very well who the Boaters were; he'd had dealings with them before. While Eddie Daniau was a hoity-toity, keep-your-dick-in-a-jar kind of psychopath gangster, the Boaters were just good old-fashioned, blue collar, break-your-kneecaps kinds of gangsters. At least ostensibly. Danny was pretty sure there was more to the Boaters than was commonly known. They were too well-funded and too organized for there not to be. Whatever this was all about, if the Boaters were involved, Danny would do well to at least return Fetch DeCodeExecute's calls.