The Liberation Paradox

Fulcrum

Danny

09:05

The conversation with Marcio Ruiz had put the day into a new perspective. A day which had started out completely devoid of any prospect was shaping up to be far more interesting, profitable, and potentially deadly than Danny had ever dared hope. And it was still only midmorning. He'd gotten a good read off Marcio. The kid was just a scared nerd who had apparently gotten himself mixed up in something he couldn't handle.

But Marcio had potential. Danny had a unique talent was for seeing what people really were and what they were capable of becoming, even if they themselves didn't see it. Marcio had potential. If Danny could harness that potential, Marcio could prove useful to him.

Danny also had another unique talent for bending people to his will. Human beings might seem like sluggish, immovable objects, but like any inert object, people are easy enough to move if one knows exactly where to apply leverage. The critical point of any lever is its fulcrum, the point upon which the lever pivots. The fulcrum point for all people was always their need. Danny knew that if he could figure out what a person's greatest need was, he could bend that person to his will every time.

Danny had the rough outline of a plan in mind. The timing would have to be perfect. The levers would all need to be pulled in just the right way and at just the right times. He needed to get the Boaters their data, raid The Mushroom's safe, and escape the Paradox Hotel. He needed to lever The Mushroom, Marcio, and this Sky Meussen person into their proper places at just the proper times. As Danny saw it, there were a total of four of "levers" which needed to be pulled to produce the desired outcome for this situation.

The fourth lever was Beauregard "Beau Tie" Tyson. Marcio hadn't mentioned Beau Tie by name, but Danny knew there was only one person to whom Marcio could be reporting if he was an off-station spy for the Gonaways Boaters. Danny had done business in the past with the Gonaways Boaters. Beau Tie already knew some of Danny's tricks. Danny knew he wouldn't be able to hoodwink Beau Tie, at least not very easily. But he could negotiate with him. Beau Tie needed his spy and the stolen data extracted from the Paradox Hotel. Fulcrum. Likely, Beau Tie was already awaiting Danny's call and the dickering over his fee that call would bring.

Danny pressed the button to call the Distortion exchange operator and waited as the phone rang twice before a bored-sounding woman came on the line. "Operator Eighteen. What exchange, please?"

"Gonaways. Collect, please." Danny knew it was rude to call light years across the galaxy collect, but he wanted to put Beau Tie on his back foot prior to starting the negotiation. He wanted to none-too-subtly emphasize that he was doing the Boaters a favor. Of course, Beau Tie didn't know about Danny's ulterior motive, the $300,000 or so in The Mushroom's safe and Danny didn't see any reason to tell him.

"Did you say, 'collect'?" the operator clarified his request. Clearly she didn't get such requests very often.

"Yes, ma'am, collect."

"Number, please?"

Danny recited from memory the only number he knew for Beau Tie, hoping it was still a good number.

"Thank you, sir. I'm gonna have to ask you to hold the line for a minute while I connect you." She put him on hold before he could even answer her.

The Distortion exchange was a small space station somewhere in the sky above, probably in orbit around Distortion itself or one of its three moons. To make a call to anywhere on Distortion or to one of the outlying systems, one only needed to dial the number. But calling somebody in a distant system, required a direct, quantum-entangled connection between the Distortion exchange and the distant world's exchange. Danny listened to terrible, tinny hold music as he waited for Operator 18 to make that connection between her own exchange and the Gonaways station exchange. It took a little longer than usual, presumably because she had to get approval for a collect call.