NEW WORLD TRILOGY (Trilogy Title) (7 page)

In the week leading up to this, police investigators interviewed all staff, speaking to Ikaros briefly for ten minutes, showing some interest in his disturbingly long list of twenty-two jaywalking offenses that he'd collected over the past five years, many of which occurred directly and brazenly in front of officers who evidently were unable to deter him from doing it again despite their aggressive authoritarian attempts to reduce him to a fear-based and suppressed conformity; he later went to court several times contesting three of these tickets but was unsuccessful.  Ikaros had just shrugged off these offences and perhaps clung on to the practice of jaywalking as it represented a means of rebelling rather harmlessly in an otherwise overly controlled environment, and, in the end, only resulted in the occasional conflict with tall, psychologically and morally profiled adherents of the state and its power.

The investigators also showed some interest in his plans to leave due to their proximity to the events, so they spoke to his editor about it and even contacted two papers that Ikaros told them he had approached about work.  On hearing about this from his editor, Ikaros shook his head slowly and feigned disappointment and anger, saying that he probably had no hope of getting a job there because of it.

The editor attempted to console him by suggesting that it was just part of the process and that he had done the best that he could to assure the investigators that Ikaros was of sound character; the editor also contended that Ikaros needn't worry as they were professionals and were just being thorough, so they should fairly soon come to the conclusion that nobody in the office was responsible for the crime and move on, even give up, as so often happens in cases like these.

Ikaros didn't argue and made it look like he was comforted by the editor's words.  In actual fact, he wasn't particularly worried about getting caught.  His main concern was getting the timing of his departure from the country just right: if he stayed too long without a job, it would look suspicious, but then, if he left the country too early, that would also, so he had to find a happy median and plan accordingly while being patient in the meantime.

The main thing was that he had solved his funding problem and had found a means to deal with the haul discretely: it hadn't taken him long to find and follow a trail of hints and suggestions from one dark corner of a website to another, which eventually led him to what he had only heard vague reports on and really had only presumed would exist out there somewhere, anyway.  What he found was an underground counter-culture that was constantly on the move and changing its shape at a rapid pace to stay ahead of the authorities and prevent identification by carrying out a variety of technical measures, such as implanting hidden code and additional pages in secret locations on already established websites, and building pathways into unused data spaces on servers, where they would create a temporary website called a 'fox hole' with partially hijacked domain names, all of which usually occurred without drawing any unwanted attention, but when it did, everything could be dismantled or abandoned and relocated within a moment's notice, leaving the authorities and their moles always on the back foot. 

Once Ikaros had collected the components for the programs from various hard-to-get-at locations — a nearly seventy-two-hour hunt and hoop-jumping exercise that required an intensity that would be difficult for anyone to sustain, particularly when, for the most part, it seemed entirely likely he was chasing a phantom, and also that the final twenty-four hours needed to be done just about without so much as a piss break — Ikaros found to his relief that the technology was easy enough to install and use.  What resulted from this, however, was an unprecedented way of laundering money: his ransom was transferred to a freshly generated and temporary ghost account attached inconspicuously to a foreign bank's website; upon arriving, it was then channelled through a 'mouse hole' made in a nearby so-called 'super-firewall'; once resealed, over a hundred thousand false traces were disseminated through the Internet for forty-eight hours while the actual data divided into small sub-groups and hid randomly amongst the code of legitimate data strings, thus making any chance of being followed infinitely complex and well-beyond the capabilities of any law-enforcement agency, or home-based hackers for that matter.  Once the data groups arrived at dozens of institutions around the world, inconspicuous amounts of money were placed in accounts previously opened by the meta-parenting program and its developers and were shared by the growing network of users — an inherent risk that Ikaros had to take, the continuation of which was not without its benefits for the developers who became extremely wealthy.  All funds were moved on to other accounts after a short time, and the account being departed from was closed for security reasons, a process that was repeated at irregular intervals until long after Ikaros stopped using the service.

Accessing money was also easy as it could be withdrawn via the Internet from any of the institutions in which small portions of the total amount were being kept by using an access code generated daily by the program hub, which kept in periodic contact with all of the data sub-groups and co-ordinated their movements: the program hub itself was Internet based and only provided updates when contacted by Ikaros after entering a security code on the program's phone app, which had covertly merged with, and buried itself in, a popular science app Ikaros otherwise seldom used.  Only a few minutes were required for the transfer of the requested sum to be processed and money to be drawn from around the network; Ikaros's cash card would then be credited after being swiped through a card reader — a technology that came into use sixteen years earlier when coins, printed money, and ATMs were phased out.  The convenience of the cash card, of course, was that it obviated Ikaros's need for a real bank account and allowed him to make purchases anonymously in a similar way to the real cash of the past.

It dawned on Ikaros that, with just a few modifications, this technology could have been just moments away from being able to generate free money, which would evidently cause rapid inflation if its use became widespread.  He mused that perhaps he should have spent some time looking for such a possibility instead, and that he could have gone to an awful lot of unnecessary bother by conducting the operation that he did.  He dismissed this concern almost immediately as it was too late by then and also because he felt that the approach was ultimately self-defeating by nature; moreover, he felt satisfied that his method hadn't actually added to the devaluing of money in such a way, and resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't do anything to stop such things, anyway, and that there were many more things looming on the horizon that were of a much greater concern for everyone.  He consequently felt the impetus to act fast and with purpose…

• • •

Five weeks after the kidnappings

A couple of hours into a flight direct to Bangkok, sitting in a window seat, Ikaros looks down at the red dirt of the expansive outback.

"Would you like a drink, sir?" asks a mild-mannered and soft-voiced flight attendant.

Ikaros looks quickly away from the window and up at her.  "Ah, no … thank you."

She nods and continues to the next row.

Ikaros resumes staring out the window and thinking about the recent events, not only how well the children took to the ensuing media attention, or how their father skilfully incorporated the kidnapping into the promotion of the paper, but also how easy it was to deal with the money and get the police off his trail, not that they were really on it in the first place, it seems: the severely understaffed and underfunded police force, obviously unable to cope with the extent of the endemically severe crime rate across the nation, was forced to limit itself to dealing continuously with readily solvable crimes, and keeping the peace in public places and the suburbs, which meant that very few criminals of significant worth were actually brought to justice and only those crimes of such a heinous and high-profile nature were followed up on, often in a perfunctory manner that saw the case closed as early as possible.  Consequently, considering the relatively innocuous crime that was committed by Ikaros in the context of the times he found himself in, the lack of trauma that the children suffered, which was supported by their psychological assessment, and also the conclusion drawn by the criminal profilers that the perpetrator was a one-time opportunist, not to mention the lack of evidence or any trace of the money, all led the investigation team to de-prioritise the crime despite the best efforts of Big F to maintain interest in it for as long as it was profitable for him; throughout, his newspaper continued to report on and keep up to date with some of the highlights from the endlessly emerging onslaught of crime that was plaguing Australian society and the world at large.

Ikaros reflects for a moment on the disturbingly polished and evidently rehearsed performances of the two children in the news reports and particularly in the extended interview on a local current affairs programme; they played their roles as traumatised victims just about seamlessly, although Ikaros, if no one else, could spot the disingenuousness in their eyes and manner, which, curiously, he wished were absent, preferring a naïve vulnerability than a worldly cynicism in such young people.

Feeling ready to put everything behind him, he shakes these thoughts off with relative ease, closes his eyes, and breathes comfortably.  In doing so, he reflects momentarily on how composed and enlivened he is about this new and unexpected turn that his life has taken, which only a short time ago wasn't a possibility he was even close to considering; now, though, he has created space for something more meaningful and substantial to take the place of the pathetic reality and possible futures of his former life, which he's particularly grateful to be abruptly leaving behind and progressively distancing himself from.

• • •

The condition that Australia found itself in at this stage was ominous of what was to come and far from its apparent high points, now long in the past and only thought of reminiscently, oftentimes erroneously at that.

The series of mounting oil crises that occurred earlier in the century led to a domestic predicament from which the country still hadn't been able to extricate itself despite the frantic scrambling that took place to compensate with alternative energy sources in the early stages of the necessary transition.

The urban sprawl, which characterised so much of the country's cities, was premised on the availability of cheap fuel for the vehicle fleet; when the fuel prices spiralled — quickly becoming prohibitive — and supplies became rationed, the masses living in the suburbs found that they were less able or simply unable to access the necessary amenities or their jobs.  As a result, many moved to the CBDs and to other business and facility hubs that were close to their work, resorting to camping in parks, car parks, and even in or just outside their workplaces. 

Concomitantly, the price of food skyrocketed, which only compounded the issues with the accessibility of the already stretched food supply.  Farming areas had also suffered greatly at the hands of dramatic climatic changes, eroding the country's capacity to provide enough food for its own population; imports were of little help as they too became more expensive due to the generalised international pressure on farming from climate change, population growth, and an overall increase in the pressure between supply and demand; consequently, most local and imported commodities were soon out of the reach of the majority.  Even though the government initially provided many subsidies, this approach could only last a short time because of the magnitude of the budgetary strain and the uncontainable national deficit.  In order to streamline the nation, the supply chains to certain inner-city zones and those areas near the main supply-route hubs were still maintained as a priority, causing the wealthy and the core members of the workforce to move there in droves.

By the time the transition to alternative fuel sources was made nearly five years later, an estimated three million people had already died from the unavoidable famine that occurred — a lot for such a small population, yet comparable to other such nations and only a tiny fraction of those that died around the world during the same period for the same reasons.  As a result, the nation was almost completely reconfigured with swathes of outer suburbs and whole towns and regions all but becoming devoid of human inhabitants, all except those with the unusual facility to live off the available resources with frugality: many of those who thought they were up to the task, though, ended up failing dismally with the ultimate price.

Although transition from oil-based fuels to alternatives in the airline industry was well underway in the second decade of the century, which resulted in bio-fuelled and electric hybrids becoming the norm by the early 2020s, the proliferation of a range of alternative-energy-powered land vehicles lagged behind, despite considerable advancements in the roll-out of the technology during the same period.   Ultimately, it was due to the profiteering opportunities that the times presented, and the severity of the poverty that had become so entrenched in the 2020s and 2030s that saw many people left out of benefiting from the new developments, which only isolated them and limited their prospects still further. 

Predictably, throughout this, the crime rate increased as desperation set in, and even though just about everyone with any kind of wealth attempted to isolate and secure themselves further from the immediate and impending threats where possible, the risk of being targeted by the swelling under-class steadily grew; however, when the dramatic instability of the economy was taken into account, life for many of those with or without wealth and position was particularly tenuous and unpredictable in much the same way.  This was evidenced by the constant stream of citizens sliding from wealth to poverty with all its consequences, such as mainstream socio-economic exclusion, scavenging, criminality, starvation, and ultimately a particularly unpleasant and untimely death for many.