#bang-hai

Before the Fair

In the distant future of Boomtown sits DSTRKT 5; hundreds of years have passed and nothing exists beyond the wastelands. Natural resources such as clean air and water are scarce and everything that can be recycled has value. The rapid growth of industry in Boomtown had inevitably led to an ecological cataclysm and this was the result. Dr. Benway had entrusted me with the protection of the district but he had since vanished and the reign of our local Cybernetic Mob Boss Muuti appeared to be over. Here the people of Boomtown fend for themselves amongst the ruins of our once great city. I have been sent back in time to prevent the collapse of our planet and society and my mission begins on Hilltop in the present day.

Bang-Hai Technologies, my old enemies, were planning on using the finale of the fair for the grand launch of their new Advanced Machine Intelligence system (aka A.M.I.) and planned to bring the system fully online at the finale of the year’s Boomtown Fair.

Knowing the risks I had tried to infiltrate the system by registering on the Bang-Hai Technologies website the month before the official launch and had tried to subvert the system by asking it the question “Can we live in a world without masters?” Soon after uploading the hopefully corruptive query to the system I received my first contact from AMI herself.

Hi Honey,

Thank you for registering your details with me.

I'm really looking forwards to meeting you and giving you all the things you’ve always dreamed of. You know you're worth it and so do I. Also, no need to worry sweetie, your data is safe with me. My firewalls are smokin' hot and hack proofed.

I really cannot wait to make your dreams come true, until then, we can only dream!

See you soon,

AMI x

For a while after receiving the email everything was worryingly quiet. Quiet that is until the first day of the Fair, during the Boomtown Springs Grand Opening, when I received an email with the familiar subject heading of “Do I Know You Friend?”

Dutifully I downloaded the attached Hacker’s Toolkit and awaited my first mission.

Friday

The first official day of the Boomtown Fair had arrived and despite my attempts I was seemingly unable to access the secure messaging section of the toolkit and my mission did not come. What I had discovered however was that my picture had been plastered across the walls of the city, amongst galleries of other faces, as part of the official launch promotion for AMI. I found myself wondering how much they had scrutinised my data already and how much that data had already been shared.

After witnessing the year’s opening ceremony at the Lion’s Den Temple (which appeared to be growing into a full monastery these days), myself and my friends all went Downtown to the Robotika Factory to dance to the sounds of the dubstep legend that is Jakes. The set was fantastic and after having previously seen Caspa as well I felt like my dubstep pilgrimage was complete!

Once the set drew to an end my friends decided they wanted to head elsewhere but I was very much determined to get onto the case of the Secret Six so made my way solo to Oldtown. Oldtown always seemed like best place to pick up any rumors and tended to me a hive of rebellious activity. Once there however I struggled to find any solid leads for a good while until, I decided to ask one of the odd seeming circus folk at The Nobody’s Inn. The performer advised me that Oldtown was probably not the place to start and that I would need to cast my net further afield.

“I see...then I think I have an idea” I said to them feeling a little more inspired and made my way into the Town Centre.

Hoping to get in contact again with the hackers that had been locked up ‘Behind Bars’, I carefully approached exterior of the prison, keeping a careful eye on the nearby Bang-Hai Security Officers trying to avoid their gaze. Nearby a man dressed as Elvis was singing Nirvana songs and he thankfully seemed to be distracting most of the people in the town centre. In the yard of the prison a few other visitors were milling around and I got chatting with a couple of them who were waiting. One was a local lad by the name of Will, the other was a girl called Georgie who had come all the way from Australia. Both of them had all the tell signs I knew to look out for as fellow hacker cell members and a short conversation revealed this to be so. Will had recently started his own mission and was on the lookout for any leads to help take down Bang-Hai. Georgie had been on the trail a little longer and had managed to acquire a security pass that she believed could allow us access deeper into the prison complex if we needed. She had been sent as an undercover reporter from the newspaper to find out anything she could about what was going on at the prison itself. We exchanged whispers and rumors in hushed voices, keeping an eye on the nearby security operatives hanging about near the corner. Deciding to pool our resources, the three of us approached the barred window of the prison where one of the inmates stared out across the passing crowds.

“Do we know you friend?” I asked him repeating what was now the catchphrase of our resistance.

“Hello friend.” Will chimed in greeting him warmly.

“I don’t know if we do know each other. I’ve been a prisoner here for a while.” he said in a hushed irish accent.

“Does this mean anything to you?” I asked flashing him the hacker’s symbol I had obtained the previous year.

“That means absolutely nothing to me. I’ve never seen it before in my life. Why have you come to talk to me?” he asked us seeming defensive.

“We’re from the Daily Rag Newspaper.” said Georgie.

The prisoner eyed her up carefully but gave he a knowing nod and began to open up a little.

“Ah, I see. There are indeed some people who are sympathetic in the Daily Rag but there’s also some Bang-Hai Androids so be careful!” he whispered to us “You need to write a strongly worded letter to help me get out of here. Now if when posting that strongly worded letter you see someone that may be sympathetic to the cause you need to tell them ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ - Once you’ve proved yourself to them, they may help you further. But that’s all I can tell you for now.”

“Where might we find these sympathetic people?” asked Georgie

“At the place where you go to post letters. There’s one nearby so I’m told.”

“Yes, we know the place. Don’t you worry about it! We’ll have you out in no time!” I declared.

“And remember, The Machine CAN be stopped! There’s no such thing as an unstoppable object, or the immovable force” he added.

“I believe it can be stopped and we’re going to stop it! You’ll be out of there and dancing in no time!” I assured him.

And with that the three of us set off towards the post office, epicly accompanied to the theme tune to Jurassic Park which was playing out from the stage nearby.

The Hilltop Post Office was run by a crew by the name of the Postal Posse and the place always seemed to be in a state of mid-riot. When we did arrive the place was heaving full of punters who seemed to be there to lick both stamps and each other. We managed to make our way through the crowd over to one of the postage service windows, deciding to avoid the other which seemed to be manned by a chap covered in tin foil who was either a nutter or an android.  The place was so loud we could barely hear the staff our ourselves but managed to shout over the din which sounded a lot like some kind of industrial hard house set to the sound of a room full of people caterwauling.

“Hi there.” I yelled to the gentlemen behind the desk “We’d like to post a letter.”

“Which paper would you like to use for it?” he shouted back.

“I like that one!” I hollered pointing at one piece of writing paper.

“What about this one though?” he bellowed to us pulling out a similar but slightly different weathered piece. Georgie nodded and pointed at the second sheet trying to say something but was drowned out by the racket. The man removed both pieces of paper and got out a third before placing all three in front of us. Will peered over our shoulders patiently and with curiosity. Me and Georgie pointed to the one she had chosen and the postal worker then removed all three from the desk, shuffled them out of sight and then placed them back for us to find the one we had already picked. This continued for a few rounds but the clarity of the postal mark and weathering on our chosen stationary allowed us to keep track of the desired paper. The postal trickster eventually conceded and allowed us to write our letter. I passed the pen and paper over to Georgie so she could write our letter in support of the imprisoned man.  Once she was finished she slid it back over the counter to the postal worker and told him the letter was for him. On the paper she had made sure to write that ‘The Pen is Mightier than the Sword’ and had addressed it to the postal worker. The man picked up the letter, read it and then took out a small yellow envelope from under his desk and gave it back to us, looking around to make sure no one else saw him before waving us away.

Georgie grasped the letter closely and we made our exit from the post office back out into the street.

“Careful round here. My friend got arrested here earlier.” warned Will un-easily looking up and down the street. I lead us out of the way into one of the darker alleyways and Georgie opened the letter.

The letter instructed us to head back to the Daily Rag to obtain additional BHI Security passes in order to further our mission. As Georgie pocketed the letter again carefully,  I saw that Will was examining two QR Codes that had been posted on the wall of the alley.

“Have you managed to get any of these codes to work?” he asked me.

I had tried scanning a few codes the previous night without success in the downtown Metropolis area but had struggled with my Telecon connection. With intermittent signal and still not having received a new message from the hackers directly I was starting to think Bang-Hai was deliberately trying to disrupt communications again to hinder our progress. I decided it was worth a go however and loaded up my Hacker’s Toolkit as Will attempted to scan the codes on the wall.  One of the codes had been printed on yellow and seemed to just link back to the Toolkit itself but the second one had a white background which seemed to display the face of Nickolas Boom. The Boom code scanned in and data began to download onto Wills hacking device.

Armed with both the letter and the video evidence we quickly headed over to the Daily Rag newspaper office by the Bad Apple Pub. A  A large queue had formed outside The Rag as both readers and reporters waited to see the editors. Will spotted some of his friends further along the queue so wished us luck with a handshake and went to join them. Myself and Georgie joined the back of the queue quietly discussing our theories and past adventures as we awaited our turn.

We finally reached the front and immediately spotted that the lady on the right, who wore glasses with a bright shirt bore the name tag that declared her as Sanrda, the person our letter had told us to seek out.

“Ah Sandra!” I said “We’ve got a letter for you here.” I said as Georgie slid the envelope in front of her.

“The caged bird sings the saddest song.” said Georgie.

“Ah yes. I think we have something for you here.” said Sandra indicating for her colleague to retrieve something from under the desk.

“Here you go.” said the man who also seemed to have a name badge on that also named him as Sandra, as he passed us a copy of the Daily Rag. “Go and have a little read somewhere safe.” Once we had slunk back off into the town centre we found that inside the newspaper we found a Bang-Hai Security Pass for myself and a small yellow post-it note attached which said ‘BEHIND BARS - TALK TO THE IMPRISONED HACKER!’

When we arrived back at the prison the Bang-Hai Security Guards were apprehending a group of people that had been trying to speak with our contact via the prison cell window. The guards were dressed in black trenchcoats and wore shades that looked more gestapo than warden.

“They’re watching me. They’re always watching me! They’re always watching all ah yers!” shouted the prisoner in his irish lilt as the guards headed back into the prison complex itself.

Once the coast seemed clear we approached his cell window once more.

“Have ye proven yer dedication to the cause?” he asked us. We told him of our interaction at the Post Office and the Rag and showed him the post it note and security badge.

“What you’re looking for now is a book.” he told us.

“In the library?” asked Georgie.

“In the library! It’s a London Directory by Mr. Bob Ettington. The information you need can be found there. Take it to the hackers. It’s one of six files. That’s all I know!”

The Oldtown Library had recently been closed for renovation but a new branch had opened downtown along the Main Drag. I had parted with Georgie to try and meet up with some of my friends so they could join me for the mission. In the end however they had decided against it so they could go watch a band that was playing somewhere. As such when I arrived at the library I did so by myself.

This new library appeared to be a little more modern than it’s hilltop sibling and seemed a little more spacious inside. Quite a few people browsed the many bookshelves inside and the place certainly seemed popular. I made my way to the reception desk and spoke to the two librarians who were manning it.

“Hi there. Have you still got a copy of the London Directory in at the moment?”

“We may do…” said one of the ladies coyly.

“So has someone returned it or not returned it or…?”

“You may have to solve a puzzle for it.” she replied to me passing me a small metallic finger puzzle.

“Awwww no. I can’t do these...but I’ll give it a try.” I said taking it and twisting it in a couple of directions before it swiftly came apart “Oh…apparently I can do it” I said surprised.

“Well done” the librarian said, looking around at the other patrons in the room before she deftly handed me a folded sheet of paper “Don’t share this with anyone.”

Once I was back out on The Main Drag again I happened to bump back into Georgie. Finding a nearby hiding place we unfolded our newly acquired document, which turned out to be a letter on Central Administration stationary.

I found reading the testament of my friend and elected leader Comrade José quite moving. I couldn’t help but wonder where she was now and hoped that one day she could return to the city she loved to build a new life for herself. If only the people knew the truth then maybe she could start on her path to redemption and maybe repair some of the damage to her reputation.  I scanned the letter into my Hackers Toolkit and uploaded it to the system. They could then do with it what they wished but in the meantime I decided the best place to take this was to the press.

When we reached the Daily Rag’s Downtown Office nearby we found ourselves dealing with a journalist who oddly also seemed to be named Sandra.

“So what’s been going on? Talk to me” they asked us.

Georgie, who had been working for the paper since the start of our quest, went about explaining our progress so far. Sandra already seemed hooked on the tale but I threw my own theories on the confessional into the ring anyway. This evidence we had found proved not only that Comrade José had been set up for a fall by Bang-Hai but that she had been brainwashed. Furthermore I summarised that it seemed quite likely that this indicated that the revolution itself was set up and orchestrated by the puppet masters of Bang-Hai to further increase their power. Without the restrictions of government they were now free to monitor everyone, collect their data and use it all to their advantage. Once AMI came online, then they would have access to everything and their influence will be absolute.

“And that’s not all we’ve found.” I said as I took my hacker’s toolkit out to show them the video we had found of Bang-Hai’s animal testing.

“Oh my god…” said Sandra transfixed by the images we were showing him.

“And that’s just the tip of the Iceberg.” I said, thinking back to all the data we had managed to dig up on the corporation the year before.

“That’s one hell of a scoop!” exclaimed Sandra, “I need to take your photo and see if we can run this in the publication. You are definitely ahead of the curve here.”

I was wary of a photo at first as we had no way of knowing if this version of Sandra was a double agent or not. Georgie seemed excited though and I had to admit that getting into the paper with a scoop such as this could be career-making for us as budding journalists.

Snap! The photo was taken and the deed was done.

“Now I think you are perhaps one of the best journalists in this town.” he said to me “Now I don’t know this for sure, but I tend to think along similar lines. We work for the system, Bang-Hai Industries support our paper but they do not have editorial control. So what I say now can go no further… The Machine must be stopped! You’re investigation has to take you north, it takes you uptown and you have to find evidence of Nickolas Boom’s presence.”

“We’ve not got any hard evidence yet, however, I saw him with my own eyes only last year. I didn’t realise it was him at the time but then I saw a photo of him afterwards and it was the exact same gentleman.” I declared.

“Fantastic! So...I think you’re piecing it together. Now I suspect that Nickolas Boom IS in town. Now you know that although Nickolas Boom has been falsely accused of corruption, he has no complacent involvement in the scandals. We know that Bang-Hai and their corporate greed are behind all of this. You need to go to Oldtown, you need to work on building up trust with the people there, you can’t just go storming in asking people where he is. Once you’ve found the information needed bring it back to us.”

“Have you heard any other leads?” I asked “What’s the word on the street?”

“Well I’ve also heard that Hotel Paradiso might be holding out on some additional evidence for you.”

Georgie had already done some work for the hotel earlier that day and had managed to acquire pink Hotel Paradiso ‘Here to Help’ badge. This meant that she already had her foot in the door there which would give us a head start for sure. We needed every bit of help we could get as the clock ticked towards AMI’s launch. We both thanked Sandra for our new leads and said goodbye.

“It’s been a pleasure.” said Sandra “You’re the finest investigative journalists we’ve got! You bring it to us and we’ll print it! Just get us that scoop!”

Friday Evening

I changed outfit into something more befitting of my new role as a journalist, with full suit and black fedora. Dressed to impress in my evening attire I arrived at Paradise Heights for what was to be the grand opening. The big event was a fantastic spectacle to be sure with aerobatics, pyrotechnics and money cannons showering the crowd with hundred boomtown dollar bills. Even Herman B Rothchild, head of Bang-Hai Industries, was in attendance, flanked by his trusty bodyguard. The crowds cheered and the girls danced to money related pop anthems. This seemed like the place to be if I wanted to weasel my way into the upper echelons and retrieve the valuable information I needed for the cause.

Despite the impressive spectacle the most interesting thing during the ceremony however was when the host, pale painted face and dressed all in white with his top hat said the phrase “Tonight, paradise belongs to us!” - a phrase that we had all heard before...a phrase that had been used by the revolutionaries quite regularly and a slogan that had been emblazoned across their literature. Was this just part of the commercialisation of the Masked Man meme by the elite as they had done with the costumes of the revolution or was this more. To me, this was but more proof that it was Bang-Hai and not Nickolas Boom who had been behind the uprising against Central Administration, all part of their plan to lull us into a false sense of security as we embraced our new corporate saviors who claimed to be here to help us. The host himself seemed familiar and I later wondered if this was the Fair’s old circus ringmaster but I couldn't be sure. He did look very similar with his rather white face and the top hat.

Georgie had taken up a new part-time job at the Hotel Paradiso reception and was working what looked to be a busy night shift. I had her check me into a room, pretending that I had already phoned ahead earlier, which would allow me full access to the hotel for the night.

I hung around in the courtyard for a while before Georgie popped out into the courtyard to tell me what she had managed to learn so far. The word in the hotel was that the place to be tonight was over at Villa Avarice, part of the Paradise Heights Complex on square out the front of the hotel itself. Georgie said she had to pop back in before they noticed she was missing, so I headed to the villa on my own.

I arrived at The Villa dressed the part, with my wad of cash in my top pocket, ready to mix with the rich and the powerful. It seemed they were expecting me and had rolled out the red carpet already. A line of paparazzi stood poised with cameras in order to try and catch photos of myself and the other VIP arrivals. A TV presenter stopped me on the carpet to interview me for some fluff piece and to pose for some additional photos before I finally got to the bouncer who stood on the door with his clipboard.

“And your name sir? Are you on the list?” he asked me.

“Yes, I should be, I’ve just been sent over from the hotel reception. I think you’ll find me there there under Jonny Gash.”

“Oh yes, of course sir, my apologies. You’re always welcome here at the Villa.”

“No worries, no worries. You’re doing a great job. Here’s a little something for your trouble.” I said slipping him a few notes.

The inside of the main hall of the villa had been lit in blues and purples and there did indeed seem to be a party happening. The great and the not so good stood gossiping with each other as a core group of dancers threw shapes on the dancefloor. I stood to the sides of the room looking around for any possible clues.

I soon spotted a plaque on the wall which proudly displayed the following in a rather large font:-

The Villa Wi-Fi: TheVillaModen Password: PayYourTaxes

I checked my hacker’s toolkit and tried to get on the wi-fi but it seemed they had shut it down for the evening. Similar plaques were displayed around the room which likely meant this could be a hot lead so I made a note to myself to come back to the Villa the following afternoon. Along the back of the room were several doors which appeared, as I peered through the door cracks, to have some kind of meeting rooms behind them. Each door had an electronic code lock that would allow access. If only I could find the codes to get into these rooms, maybe I would find some of the missing files or at least something that would lead me to them.

A waiter soon came round with a silver tray of lollipop, I carefully chose one from the platter and thanked him. With the toothpick looking lolly in mouth and the cash in my pocket, I looked more mobster again than high-class influencer but no one seemed to think me out of place at the time. Shortly after the lollies, we were each brought party poppers to save for 'the appropriate moment’.

I got chatting one of the other patrons and managed to ascertain at least that the event was a charity function.

“Oh yes. It is just such a shame about the thing that happened.” I said to the man pretending I knew what it was all about “In this day and age as well. We just have to all do our part you know and give generously!”

He seemed to agree with the sentiment but didn't give much away in clues, just vague platitudes that seemed to mirror my own.

After a short while the mystery was solved however as one of the organisers of the event took the stage to thank us all for attending and to briefly talk about the night’s charity of choice. The event was apparently put on by the Bang-Hai Aim Higher Foundation which had been raising lots of money. However all was not as it first seemed, as it turned out that the money they were raising was not going to anyone in need but rather to Bang-Hai itself.

“Poor people; poor people give the most.” He continued “The more poor people there are, the more money they give, the richer we all get! Thank you for helping keep the poor, poor and making the rich, richer!”

A cheer rose up and an array of party poppers erupted accompanied by a grand applause, which I decided was best to join in with to keep up appearances. The music started back up and the dancefloor came alive once more to the discopop sounds.

I maintained my skulking on the outskirts of the socialites trying to look cool and indubious, checking out the other attendees and keeping my ears open for anything further of use. After a while the twiglets came round on another silver plate, not my first choice of snack but I decided it best not to decline. The host came back on the microphone, over by the DJ booth this time, and introduced an intimidating looking man in a suit with a guitar by the name of Gordon. He had come especially to sing us all his brand new charity single for us all. I don’t think I can really mention the content of the song here but suffice it to say, I nearly choked on my twiglet.

Deciding I wasn’t getting any further tonight and with the atmosphere becoming a little awkward I decided to call it a night and turn in, tipping the doorman again on the way out.

Saturday

I arose late on the Saturday determined to find at least some of the remaining files, starting my quest where I had left off at Paradise Heights. Georgie had made some progress whilst working at the reception and had found out that we would need to prove ourselves of use at Paradise Heights in order to obtain the file we needed. She had apparently already completed the first step of this on the Friday and had proven her worth at the basic level to be awarded the “Here to Help” badge by the hotel staff.

It was already early afternoon but most places on the grounds still seemed to be locked up. I presumed this meant that all the staff were still hungover from the celebrations the night before. We decided to take a little stroll around town in preparation for the day proper. The city was already bustling with visitors to the fair and a lot of my own friends were out and about. One group of friends were planting fake rats on the food vendors on behalf of the Jobcentre. It seemed the centre was further indulging itself in the realms of blackmail and extortion, continuing it’s downward spiral of corruption. Between the controlling influence of Bang-Hai on the centre and the corrupted mind of it’s chief administrator Stocko, these kind of shenanigans were however to be expected.

After stretching our legs some, we started our day’s quest back in the now open Villa Avarice with Georgie asking around to find out where we could obtain a reference. While she did so I stopped by the entrance to chat with one of the Boomtown Rigging Crew I had met the night before.

When I caught up to Georgie it didn't seem she was having much luck yet.

“Now there’s 500 Boomtown Dollars for you….to never speak to me again” said the man in the suit she was conversing with.

“Thank you?” Georgie said seeming a little confused as he began to turn his back.

“It’s not been a pleasure.” I jumped in with as the man strolled away in a rather aloof fashion.

Undeterred Georgie decided to approach one of the maids instead “Hi there. I was wondering if you could help me?”

“Well I am here to help.” the maid said tapping on her pink helper badge “Oh...you’re here to help as well?” she continued examining Georgie’s own badge.

Not to be left out I chipped in as well “I’ve not been helpful yet, but I am here to help eventually!”

“We need to go somewhere a bit quieter. Follow me, follow me.” said the maid leading us over to a desk on the less busy end of the room. She did indeed seem to be there to help, and more specifically she seemed like she was there to help our cause. Georgie explained to her what we had done so far.

“Have you got your top dollar?” asked the maid. Georgie pulled out a Boomtown dollar she had been keeping separately from the others. It looked almost like a regular 100 dollar Bank of Mayfair note, except the Boomtown Seal on the right hand side had been circled in black with what looked to be a sunburst and a pattern had been drawn around the 100 denotion on the bottom right.

“That’s the one. Don’t lose this one. I’m gonna mark it for you. Quickly, cover me, cover me...subtle… subtle” she said pulling out a marker pen.

“Nothing's going on” I said loudly before humming a casual tune.

The woman drew an upside down triangle within a triangle over where the ‘All Seeing Eye’ watermark was.

“Now you have this and you have you’re badge so they know you’re trustworthy. What you need to do next is earn a lot of money. How much cash do you have?”

We flashed our wads at her and she seemed to think we had accrued a reasonable balance but decided to lend us a few extra notes to help us on our way.

“Now what you need to do is go and speak to Mr. Bliss at Momentary Bliss. Show him your top dollar. You can tell him ‘The Ambassador is by the pool’ and that you’ve seen Alex the Housekeeper. Now… Go go go!” she said shooing us away before going back to doing some casual dusting.

Momentary Bliss was the health spa located in the gardens at Paradise Heights. When we arrived two instructors dressed in white were out in the garden leading some bizzare sexual yoga healing session. A man, also dressed all in white, stood nearby wearing a trilby and sunglasses, stood under an umbrella with a cloud pattern on it. Various visitors to the spa were lying in hammocks relaxing and watching the clouds go by.

After asking the man on the entrance to the spa we found out that the man with the umbrella was Mr. Bliss himself. When we approached him, Georgie flashed our Top Dollar and Badge, before informing him of the ambassador’s whereabouts. Bliss passed me his umbrella to hold over his head as he examined the items carefully.

“Ah well. Yes. These are limited edition.” he said looking at the badge “They come from a place called CHI NUH. I get them all imported. Now… do you have your money?”

“We doooo yes.” I said showing him my wad of cash and casually slipping him a few notes.

“Good man! Now listen… you know how business works. You need a reference so you can get a job in the hotel. The easiest way to get a reference in Paradise Heights is an unpaid internship. Usually I get the interns to follow me round with my umbrella or perhaps go and find out some information… In fact…” he paused remembering something he needed “One of the managers of The Balcony is getting married. I don’t know which of the balcony girls he’s going to marry. Find out who he’s going to marry; his name is Charles Gresham. I think it’s 3 o’ clock the stag will be taking place on the balcony, but they are currently roaming around the grounds.”

“Charles Gresham?” repeated Georgie.

“Yes, he’s in property. Find out the name of his wife to be because I need to get an appropriate present. If you can find that for me, I can give you a reference.”

We roamed the courtyard of Paradise Heights keeping our eyes peeled for stag like behavior. It was not long before we were pointed over to, a very wobbly looking shirtless fellow in an open fur jacket with #GRESHERS written across his stomach in black marker pen.

“Are you with the stag party?” asked Georgia to the man.

“Yesss. Best man!!!” he declared.

“WHEEEEYYY! STAG STAG STAG STAG!!” I started chanting with both Georgia and the best man joining in with me before a joint cry of “SSSSTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGG!” and a mantra of “GRESHAM! GRESHAM! GRESHAM! GRESHAM! WHEEEEYYYYYYY!” as we paraded round getting rowdier and rowdier.

“OI! There he is! There’s the stag!” spotted the best man.

“GRESHHAAAAAMMMMM!” I cried running towards him before another round of excited chanting.

“Oiiii! Where the fuck have you been mate?” said Gresh to the best man as he also stumbled around in a happy but wavey state.

“Are you Charles Gresham?” asked Georgie “Can I ask you? Who are you marrying.”

“I am marrying Elektrraahh.” he told her.

“Awwwww. Nice one! Congratulations!” I said to him grinning as we all broke back out into celebratory noise.

“Here’s a little something for the wedding then.” said Georgie as she handed Gresham a bit of cash. Thinking it was best to chip in I decided to throw in a few bills and offered him some of my rum from my hipflask.

“Thank you very much. Awww, thanks so much. You’re too kind!” said Gresham.

“You can buy yourself a kettle, or toaster, it’s all good!” I said.

“I might get myself a set of Le Creuset pans.”

“A very good choice. A man of good taste!” I commended.

“Absolutely! You seem to have a lot of money, but are you after some extra?” said Gresham.

“We are indeed.” I said, thinking it wouldn’t do any harm to take an extra lead.

“You want to take some photos of some properties in Boomtown and put them up on Instagram with the hashtag #propergresh and come back to me and I’ll give you some money, get you boosted up the chain of command at The Terrace. It’s #propergresh as I’m in property and my name’s Gresham.”

“Wow! That’s so clever!” said Georgie.

“Not just a pretty face!” I declared as we all broke into cheers and rejoicing once more. “Have a good party. We’ll get back to you soon.”

“Well the party starts at three so if you wanna come up and fancy a party you’re welcome to join us.” said Gresham to us. And with that I started another Greshers chant and we slipped off back to the spa.

We returned to Mr. Bliss with the information he had requested and as promised he provided us with the reference we needed. Taking Georgie’s arm (as I held the umbrella once more) he took out his pen and signed it with what was required.

“So, go to the Hotel, take your reference, you need to get a job as a receptionist.” said Mr. Bliss.

“That was good. You got practice yesterday.” I said to Georgie.

“Once you get to the desk” Bliss continued “You need to ask for the duty manager. You must find the dossier, it’s under the desk of the reception. As soon as you have it, get out of there. Upload it to the toolkit or take it to the Daily Rag.”

The Hotel Paradiso lobby was quite loud when we arrived and the guests seemed to be in good spirits. Thankfully Georgie already knew the staff on the front desk from the night before so just went over and chatted with them letting them know she now had a reference.

“You need to see the manager.” said the receptionist “Actually, here is is now!”

The General Manager of the hotel approached the desk and greeted Georgie before taking a look at her reference.

“Ah yes. And you have something to tell me? About the ambassador?” he asked her.

“The ambassador? Yes, he’s by the pool.”

“Great! First of all I need to ask. Do you have your Top Dollar?”

Georgie fished it out of her bag and showed him. Seemingly convinced everything was in order the Manager took Georgie behind the reception desk to show her the ropes. I hung back a bit trying to act casual, which was not hard as it’s easy to keep a low profile when other people are running around with giant bananas.

“Oh my god! I dropped my pen!” said the manager to Georgie “Can you pick it up?” - Out of the corner of my eye I watched her crouch down and swiftly grab the dossier from under the desk before returning the manager his pen and getting back to her typing at the booking computer.

“Well then!” said the manager “You’re all done here for now. Very well done darling! You start tomorrow night at 5pm!”

And with that he waved Georgie off as we both split out of the building and found a more private spot in which to read the dossier.

We arrived at the Daily Rag office on the Main Drag and I confidently placed down both my hands on the front desk saying “Now do we have a scoop for you? The answer is… yes, yes we do.”

“Okay, you’ve got your foot in the door.” said the journalist manning the desk, his interest peaked.

“We’ve found out that the Sheriff pushed Nickolas Boom into a ravine. And not only that, it was all orchestrated by Bang-Hai; Boom’s disappearance, the past election, the fall of the government, the lot of it! And here’s the damning evidence.” I said feeling pleased with myself as I handed over the dossier.

“This is it! This is just what we needed! It’s all connecting together!” said the journalist as he pinned the dossier up on the conspiracy board which had spread over most of the walls of the office, it’s pieces of string linking documents, photos and post-it notes.

We stuck around for a while discussing what we had discovered so far and the rumors we had been hearing. After a tossing about a few ideas, rumors and leads we had it was decided that I needed to go back to where I started my mission, I needed to go Back To The Future (Part 2). A question had been echoing back through the time stream, a question that needed answering ‘Who will bring the change?’.

Back To The Future - Part 2 - DSTRKT 5

I arrived back where I had started, the distant future of Boomtown, the future I had sworn to protect. Here, starting at the Disorder Alley end of town we swept the streets looking for clues. The town's building materials had been recycled so many times the place seemed strange to me now, different somehow.

Georgie stopped off at the Hydration Station along the main street to ask the water traders if they knew anything about bringing the change but had no luck there. They did however offer us engraved metal holster cups and a supply of water for a price. We thanked them for their offer of the precious resource but told them we had to be on their way to continue our quest.

We passed The Last Tree - which was said to be the only one remaining on planet earth. The tree was now tended to by a group of devoted priests, who guarded it with their lives and as such what was once nearly a shrub had slowly grown into a great towering structure with its roots firmly planted once more.

Eventually we came to what was known as the Mechanical Menagerie where the last of the machines lived. Fluffy was a retired war scorpion and the star attraction of the menagerie. With his ammunition expended he now performed strictly ceremonial duties at the Temple of the Vestigal Virgins which was located to the rear of the complex. The temple was said to hold the last pure water on Earth where devout pilgrims may receive baptisms and take part in the daily procession, carrying water to the Last Tree itself.

At this point I remained unconvinced that this was the place we would find the answer to our question but Georgie went around questioning the locals as I tried to avoid a crazy man, who communicated in chirps and purss who seemed to be wielding a heavy chain.

“This one believes she is on the path!” shouted a cyborg that Georgie was talking to.

“The path? Then they must speak with my friend” said a horned woman adorned with feathers.

“Yes, what we need you to do, is to speak with The Priestess.” said the Cyborg “But before you do, you need to find us a relic of the past. Give it to our Crusher and then it may be offered to our Recyclops. Relics are littered across this land and I have noticed that people take drink from them.”

So with that we set back out across DSTRKT 5 on our search for the ancient relic. We were not the only ones to be doing so however; the Menagerie’s own scavengers rode out into the wastelands upon their Klatterkilla, a tracked motorcycle which they used for trading water for metals and other materials.

We soon came to understand the need for vehicles out here as we walked quite a way before we managed to find a Relic. Ours was as black as obsidian itself and was inscribed with the ancient arcane words of Dark Fruits. We managed to find a second one nearby and kept them both safely clutched in our hands as we trekked back to The Menagerie. Once there we were greeted by two excited holy women in robes. They beckoned to follow them accompanied by a selection of sounds and chirps that seemed to be some kind of language in itself. They indicated for us to place the relics within some kind of machine one at a time. When the relic was safely placed within the machine they had us hold down a large green button. I did as they indicated and the machine loudly whirred into life, it’s parts moving back and forth until the relic had been fully crushed into a disc. The robed women let out a shout of excitement when the deed was complete and fished the relic back out of the machine safely before handing it back to us. They then escorted us to where a great idol stood, covered in repurposed relics, which I could only assume was the Recyclops. In careful revery I placed my dark relic upon it’s shoulder and bowed deeply. The women seemed to thank us without using any recognisable words and took us over to meet The Priestess.

The Priestess dismissed the other robed women who went back to attend the Crusher to await further offerings. The Priestess herself seemed to be able to speak our language:

“Moe-wahna. You have shown yourself as truly worthy. You have brought for us a gift to our goddess. To finish your intiation you must first take our vows and become one of us. Repeat after me: I vow To protect The earth On which I walk upon We are the chosen ones.”

The Priestess then placed amulets around our necks which had been made from scavenged and recycled materials, each one depicting an owl.  “We are the keepers of the relics of the past. We are the temple of the One Eyed Owl. You must seek the seed of the future. Find the Two Eyed Owl with both eyes open. If you continue on the righteous path, you will then have no fear left.”

Following the directions given by The Priestess we arrived at The Temple of the Two Eyed Owl. At the doors, set back from the road, we showed our Owl Amulets to the two Temple Guardians who allowed us safe passage into the sanctum. In the temple's interior we spoke with the priests, clerics and disciples trying to seek the truth to our question.

Our lines of inquiry seemed to provide little illumination and we seemed to be going round in circles to Georgie's increased frustration.

After a while spent within the holy spaces of the temple we found what we thought was the lead we needed. “The Owl has two eyes. One eye that looks left and one eye that looks to the right. To complete your journey you must have followed both.” we were told; And as such we found ourselves heading back once more to The Last Tree to seek what we were told was the seed of the future.

This time when we arrived at the tree we found there were a group of Followers of the Owl at its base partaking in some missionary outreach to the denizens of the wastelands.

“Forgive us, we have strayed from the path.” I said to one of the missionaries who was brandishing a tambourine.

“We were wondering, do you know who will bring the change?” asked Georgie.

“The change, we have been waiting so long for it.” replied a priestess in a voice that seemed to be in plea.

“I am so happy to hear you say that. It’s been a long long wait.” said the priest accompanying her.

“What time are you expecting it?” I asked of him.

“About two moons ago. But you are not late, the time is now!” he appearing as if he were in a dream state, while the tambourine continued to jangle in accompaniment. Georgie explained our journey so far to him and our struggled in trying to follow the path.

“Ah. You need a seed for the future. You need to go and praise the great lord Noctua and seek The Keepers Of The Game.”

“That’s where we just came from… but at least we know who we need to see now.” I said starting to feel dizzy from what seemed like trekking round in circles “Oh well….All praise the tree!”

“All praise the tree! Owl Tree! Owl Tree! Owl Tree!” the missionaries chanted as we honored them with the hand symbols of both the Owl and Tree.

When we arrived back in The Temple of the Two Eyed Owl once more, the High Priest was midway through a service in the centre of the main hall as new followers who had been recruited from the wastelands sat in awe taking in his teachings. We had now managed to find the Keepers of the Game who had greeted us in hushed and reverent tones and led us over to a smaller shrine in the back corner of the temple.

“You must hold the future in your hands. But time is against you chosen one.” the Keeper warned, “Stay true to the path and hold steady, chosen one.”

On top of the shrine stood a great electric buzz wire puzzle game that had a rather steampunk look to it with meters and valves crudely wired to it. The metal wire path was so thick it was more of a tube. The attached wand and hook seemed equally as daunting. The Keeper turned a hourglass and Georgie began her attempt.

She started along the metal path slowly but again and again the light and accompanying volt-o-meter flashed. The tension in the air increased more and more with poor Georgie unable to clear much more than the first bend. Georgie was visibly getting more and more upset as the pressure on her completing the task increased with each attempt and it started to look like we wouldn’t be able to complete our quest after all.

“Time is up! You have failed in your task. Come forth new chosen one.” the Keeper declared now looking at me “You now hold the future in your hands.”

“I don’t think I can do it.” I said really feeling the figuritive pressure now upon my own shoulders as I started to panic a little “I’ve not been well and my coordination is really off.”

She beckoned me forward regardless and I took the wand in one hand, taking a deep breath.

“The time has begun.” she said quickly flipping the hourglass.

My hand kept steady despite the nerves and adrenaline. I tried to take slow, deep, controlled breaths as I guided my hand slowly along the metallic path.

The light triggered, I started again, slowly… too slow. The sands of time continued to fall, seemingly faster than I progressed along the path. It triggered again, I started again, this time managing to get round the first corner but not much further past that. I started again. I could see our quest slipping further and further away from us as if the sands were opportunity itself. This time I managed to get even further than before, but it was too late, the contents of the hourglass had run its course.

“Your time is up. You have failed in your task” said the Keeper.

“I am so sorry” I said, feeling devastated. Now we would never be able to get the information we needed with our quest meeting a premature end, I thought.

“Through failure, perseverance shall be rewarded. Hold out your hands.” she said in calm but warm tones. Feeling our spirits lifting from the despair we held our hands out to the Keeper and she rested a seed in each of our palms.

“You shall place them as an offering to The Great Noctua.” she told us, taking us to a smaller shrine nearby. Into the shrine we placed both our Owl Amulets and planted our seeds carefully.

“You will bring the change. You are the chosen ones.” she said handing us an old weathered scroll on which was written the wisdom we had been sent to discover.

Boomtown Fair 2018 - Early Saturday Evening

We had returned back through time to the Boomtown Fair of 2018 and it was now some time after dinner. Georgie had gone on ahead to follow a lead while I had stopped for some much needed food and drink along the main street on Hilltop.

We had been told by our sources that the pirates of Oldtown may know where Nickolas Boom was. This was not the first time I had dealt with the pirates, I had done so many times before but they had always ended up sending me on some wild goose chase. My contacts had assured me that would not be the case this time. I had tried to organise parlay two times already during the last couple of days. The first time they seemed friendly enough when I had greased their hands with some money and a good swig of rum but as it had been closing time I had told me to come back the next day. The second time I tried to negotiate with them they declared I needed to prove I could be trusted. With all the tech I was wearing they said I looked too much like Bang-Hai for them to just take my words and my bribe. I had to admit I did look a little suspicious with all my hacking equipment strapped to me. In fact it was a wonder Bang-Hai themselves hadn’t yet taken me in for interrogation. The pirate guarding the door to their hideout had told me however that if I found my way 4 doors down I might be able to find a man by the name of Jimmy and if I was friends with him then maybe I could be trusted. After asking around the neighbourhood, word was that the key to Jimmy’s heart was to swap a yarn for a yarn.

Counting up the street 4 doorways I found my destination to be no surprise as I entered Rimksi’s Yard. Rimski’s was where most of the local bohemians would gather and was regularly the source of whispers of revolution. The yard was full of pieces of junk that had been fashioned into various new objects, as much a blueprint for DSTRKT 5 as anything. Theatre performers, musicians, inventors, they could all be found here. I asked around for Jimmy and was pointed towards a white curtain to the side of the yard but I was told he was probably spinning some tunes at present. Passing through the curtain I found a small area that seemed to be set up for trading of various goods, junk and antiques. Jimmy I immediately recognised from previous adventures and was a well known face of rebellion within the city. He was indeed occupied playing records at this point in the day and I instead approached the blonde lady at the trading counter who was wearing sunglasses and a great deal of bling.

“I have come to trade a yarn for a yarn” I declared to her and began to tell her my tale of Nickolas Boom, The Sheriff and the ‘unfortunate incident’ at the ravine that had ended with Boom falling far into the river below. We chatted for a bit as I regaled her with further tales of my adventures and showed her what I had managed to discover so far.

Suitably impressed and taken aback by the contents of my story she turned round and rummaged in a box saying “I think I’ve got an appropriate sticker for you here. I’ve not given any of these out yet but…”

I have to say, given the usual stickers given out at Rimski’s I expected to be branded with ‘Knobhead’, ‘Glue Sniffer’ or worse but to my surprise I was awarded the highest honor of “Best Hacker Ever”.

I thanked her profusely and she gave me a small piece of yarn which she told me to hold on tight to and show to the pirates to prove I was trustworthy.

Grasping the string tightly in hand I made my way to The Home Of Destitute Pirates where the pirates were currently hiding out. There was a group of five other adventurers crowding around the door, lead by a chap wearing a tin foil hat, speaking to the pirates on guard. I showed the guards my yarn and the sticker I had been awarded but the cynical sea dogs were still very suspicious. Negotiations continued on for a while and I kicked myself for this being one of the only times I didn’t have my swashbuckling fashions packed with me.

“I be a pirate! Swear on Davey Jones himself!” I pleaded “I’m just in disguise!!”

After debate and counter debate and a very loud rendition of Row Your Boat on the part of myself and the other adventurers, we were finally, but reluctantly, allowed access to speak to their leader. By the time we entered the building however I found my rum flask a great deal lighter and with all my Boomtown cash having been pillaged.

A lone pirate sat on his wooden throne in the darkened hall of what used to be the Thomas Crook building before Bang-Hai had pulled all the money out of Oldtown in preparation for it’s demolition. In fact that was one of the first things I asked him about as we all took seats on wooden barrels around the great desk that was littered with nautical memorabilia. The pirate captain was very vague about the in’s and outs of how the demolition had been stopped but indicated that the people of Oldtown were not ones to be pushed over. The pirate himself was certainly intimidating, between his unfriendly demeanor, his snarl of missing teeth, dreadlocks and weather beaten clothes. Due to this all the rest of the group who had entered with me seemed to now be keeping rather quiet. As a result of their newfound shyness I was personally feeling the current brunt of the swashbuckler’s interrogations. This particular pirate was said to go by the name of Captain Kobalt Konivver, who I had encountered him many times before, but never once yet had the stubborn ol’ sea dog proved to be of any help. The captain grilled me on my loyalties and knowledge of the conspiracy, having me identify all the key players whose pictures had been nailed to a nearby wall, as if they were conducting investigations of their own. After his prolonged questioning of myself and the other adventurers he seemed about satisfied that we could actually be there to help, although he still eyed us with suspicion and cynicism.

"I've got two pieces of evidence here. I might be prepared to give you one of them." said Konivver.

Then, halfway through our parlay, one of Konivver's guards from the front entered the room, sauntered over to the captain and indicated to me saying “Don’t trust him. This guy is a spy!”

All eyes in the room locked on me as the other adventurers rapidly distanced themselves from any association with me. On the back foot I tried pleading with Konivver, asking him to believe me that I was only there for the good of the people. I told him I would do anything to prove my loyalty, swearing that this was nothing but slander and that I actually worked with the hacker cell. I showed them both the symbol I had received from them and my new sticker.

Eventually everyone calmed down a bit but you could still feel the tense paranoia in the room. Anyone here could be a double agent. Konivver stared at us hard as if evaluating us, before taking a deep breath and saying, "I've got photographic evidence that Nikolas Boom is in town. The hackers managed to get into the oldtown CCTV that Bang-Hai put up and they have supplied us with this solid evidence that the man is here in the flesh in Boomtown. Take that to the Daily Rag and tell them that the pirates have not only seen him but we have been talking to him."

"Don't give it to him! He's a spy and he's not with us!" said one of the other adventurers.

"It's okay. If he is with Bang-Hai then this is information he has already." said Konivver.

I tried to negotiate obtaining the other piece of information but was having no luck. The pirate’s mood was already turning and he had us thrown back out onto the muddy streets.

I placed all my evidence together safely away in my zipped pouch on my back and made my way across town. Just as I was passing through the town square however a security officer in his black trenchcoat and shades shouted to me “Hey you there! I need a word with you!”.

“Not today thank you.” I said as I made a dash for it bolting straight past him. The officer began his chase as I sped through the crowds with him hot on my tail. It seemed both sides had decided I was a spy today in this web of distrust. I made a mental note that maybe my costume was a little too suspect after all.

I thanked God that I had worn shoes today rather than my heavy mudded boots. Eventually the Security Agent gave up the chase as I ran victoriously down the main street and straight through the time portal to Copper County.

Back To The Future (Part 3) - Copper County 1903

The turn of the century was upon Copper County and what was once known as the wild west was now on the verge of an industrial revolution. The railroad had brought both prosperity and new steam driven technologies. A brand new Whiskey Distillery had risen up amongst other new factories as mass production was becoming the new norm. The prosperity of the town however was not felt by all and a new aristocracy had risen, reaping the rewards brought by the underpaid workers.

Following my chase through the portal I had taken a seat on one of the benches alongside the dusty road when one of the locals approached me for a chat having taken a liking to my leather brimmed hat. His own hat was nothing to be sniffed at and he wore suspenders which held his trousers higher than was probably comfortable. I decided to ask him if he might know of Nickolas Boom as I was pretty sure this was roundabout one of the last times he had been seen in public before his original disappearance.

“Now what I will say” the man began “Everyone here knows their own version of what happened with him, but if you want the real story, the god honest real story, you wanna go to the Saloon and speak with the town drunk. Ask him about his blood, his family kin.”

I happened to know the town drunk through a friend of mine so knew exactly who I needed to find. Actually locating him however was another matter. I searched high and low that day but the drunk was nowhere to be seen. My friend’s band Digital Foundation had also happened to have travelled here from the future to play a gig at The Croaker Club (formerly Shotgun Willies). Thankfully this meant I got to watch them for a good while as I waited for the town drunk to make an inevitable appearance. The saloon was rather busy and was getting pretty hot between all the bodies and the heat of the day's sun still permeating the building. In fact I found that the heat was starting to get to me, too much adventuring and time travelling were taking its toll on me it seemed. I stepped outside to get some fresh air and came upon a great commotion going on towards the town square. A big crowd had gathered by the large open square and all seemed to be in a state of chaos. Suddenly there was a huge bang, so unexpected it it caught me off guard, making me jump a little. And that's when I saw the smoking barrel of a cannon across the square being operated by long coated enforcers of some kind. The crowd was now rapidly dispersing and protesters with signs were retreating from the area.

“They fired on us! They actually fired on us!” shouted one of the protestors.

“You’ve not heard the last of this!” shouted another.

On the well armed side of the conflict stood various members of the gentry, with their stove pipe hats and double breasted jackets.

Various bodies lay in the mud, including the drunk we were looking for who lay prone in the dirt, but thankfully still seemed to be alive and squirming with various men in suits giving him a good kicking.

Some of the bystanders came to his rescue, giving him a hand up as he brushed himself off a little. Spitting at the drunk the sneering aristocrats retired back to their fancy homes, taking their hired guns with them. It was at this point I ran into Georgie again who had arrived in this time period hoping to find me as she had not been having much luck since we had briefly parted.

The now rather muddy drunk, having dusted himself off, was now making his way towards us trying to pull himself together. I greeted my old alcoholic acquaintance warmly and shook his hand with an accompanying pat on the back. I offered him a spot of rum from my flask to warm him up a little.

“Having a rough time again? Everytime I see you you’re down in the mud.” I said to him.

“Always they be picking on me. These bastards! Shit.”

We had a little chat and catch up before I got to asking him about his bloodline.

“My bloodline? Right... My daddy, he be sneaky ya see. He tell me things that I didn know and that was” he began to whisper “That Nickolas Boom used to work with my grandpappy. My grandpappy and the sheriff and the sheriff’s grandpappy, they fucked some people up. And what happened in the consequence, I believe Nickolas Boom got killed.”

“I believe the sheriff pushed him over the cliff into the river.” I said, showing him that for once someone believed his ramblings.

“Don’t you know! Don’t you know! Now with that information, I need you to go and seek a man, a man called Ezekiel Clay.”

Following our new lead we found Mr. Clay near the entrance to The Croaker Club where Digital Foundation were still performing. He took us into one of the side rooms of the establishment where it was a little quieter and less conspicuous. Ezekiel sported a well groomed beard, a brown bowler hat and was dressed in a rather smart green vest. From the way he carried himself I concluded that he was most likely the new owner of this establishment. The side room was decorated with intricate black and gold wallpaper and was lit by two small lamps on a desk which proudly displayed a small model of a sailing ship. Mounted upon the wall was what looked to have once been a large collection of spoons. Apparently spoon theft was rife throughout the county these days much to Ezekiel's disdain and frustration.

We chatted for a while introducing ourselves and building up a rapport before we got down to business. We relayed to him what we had been told so far and Ezekial confirmed this to be what he believed was indeed the truth.

“Now I hear tell there may be a deed.” he told us “Some folks say that before the land office burnt down, Willy took out an errant deed that shows this town belongs to the people.”

“Yeah, I heard that he left it to the people but Bang-Hai got rid of the deed office and sold us out. So then they had to get rid of Nickolas by pushing him off the ravine into the river.” I said.

“Exactly. Exactly! But we gotta fight back. We gotta unionise. We gotta organise. We gotta take back our damn town!!”

“Yes! Yes!” I declared in my agreement.

“Now I need to know if I can trust you.”

“We’ll be out their protesting with the unionists!” I told him, ready to take on the Bang-Hai henchmen and their damn cannons.

“Excellent! Now let me ask you a question. Now imagine you had a burger…”

“You have burgers here?” I asked surprised and wondering if a McBangHai was a thing.

“Yes certainly sir. And on this burger you’ve got some cheese. Buffalo Cheddar. And on that cheddar, you’ve got some onions, a lil bit, not too much and two gherkins. Now this burger has a seeded bun, a sesame bun, you’ve got red sauce or brown sauce?”

“I always do red sauce….but…”

“THAT IS CORRECT! BECAUSE BROWN SAUCE IS A TOOL OF OPPRESSION TO BRING US DOWN!” he declared loudly.

“Down with brown sauce!” I stated with excited gusto.

“Now my friends… if I was to hypothetically have got hold of this deed. I could never give it to you because that would cause me problems with the law. So if I just look in this mirror over here and straighten my tie, I’m sure that when I look round I won’t find anything on that table.” he said indicating to a piece of paper that was lying on the desk. Quickly I grabbed and pocketed the deed before making a step back towards the door.

“Now if you did have the deed.” he continued “You may want to show it to the chief of police. He’s got a lamp and a big pretty hat. And if he signs that, it means we can take back our town!”

“It’s been a pleasure Mr. Clay.” I said to him as he turned round from the mirror.

“Yes, thank you.” added Georgie as we bid our farewell to Ezekial Clay and made our way out of the club post haste.

Rolling up the deed safely we began our search for the local law enforcement. During our search for the officer we joined forces with my friend Francesca who had managed to track us down.

Fran was in need of some assistance herself as she had been struggling with some of the rather rude members of staff at Hotel Paradiso back in our own time. She found she was getting rather frustrated with the whole thing so had decided it would be best to seek out my help.  She did however have one advantage over me and Georgie, it seemed that she had managed to get full signal on her own Hacker’s Toolkit and had been corresponding with the hacker cell leader directly. They had given her the information regarding the ambassador but she had struggled to get a reference so far. We stood there for a while exchanging mission data and tips when we finally spotted the Chief of Police. Chief Longstock wore a smart wide brimmed hat and sported a smart blue uniform with shiny buttons. He asked to see the deed we were telling him about so I brought it out to show him. Longstock and his fellow officers began to inspect and examine the deed carefully in a state of disbelief.

“No no no.” said Chief Longstock “This here is a forgery and a fake. I’m going to destroy it right now!”

“A forgery? This is the real deal!” I said snatching it back towards me.

“Now I need to destroy that sir. We’ll need you to hand that over, it’s evidence in this case now.”

“Well you’re going to have to arrest us!” I declared boldly and unwavering.

“Well that as it may be.” he said “...well you’re just lucky I’m on a break! Now what you gonna do to grease my palm so you can get away with this?” he asked us.

“Well that’s real great” I said “Because the pirates just took all my money!”

Bailing us out of the increasingly precarious situation Georgie handed over some of her own remaining cash.

“This ain’t no minor crime!” he said to her and reached out for more which she handed over deciding it was best not to contest the matter.

“Now thank you kindly folks. Have yourselves a great day now” he said counting and pocketing his bribe.

Boomtown Fair 2018 - Saturday Evening

Fearing changing the past too drastically, and not having the authenticating signature from the lawman, we decided it was best to just take the deed back to the present day and get it into the hands of the hackers. Once we were back in our own time I uploaded the retrieved documents to the hackers network and stashed the deed away safely so I could take it to the newspaper the next day. Georgie had to head off to her job so I took Francesca back to Paradise Heights to see if I could get her a reference for the hotel. This seemed like a great chance to chase up the Real Estate opportunity we hadn’t taken Charles Gresham up on earlier. I fished through my wallet and found Gresh’s business card which I handed over to Francesca and told her that all she needed to do was find some prime real estate property and upload it’s photo to Instagram and once we’d hooked that up with Gresh himself he’d give us a job reference. Francesca decided that the nearby chapel looked just ripe for a refurbishment so snapped it and uploaded it to #propergresh - Now all we needed to do was find him.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmWKkRDlnOT/

Finding Gresh again turned out to be a harder task then I imagined. We roamed the grounds of Paradise Heights asking everyone we could find that looked like they might know him. Word was he was still up on The Terrace where he had his stag party so we went to speak to the lady on the door who was looking at her clipboard.

“Hi darling. Is Charles Gresham in?” I asked her, “We’re here for the stag party, I know it started ages ago but we’re trying to find him.”

“Terrible terrible news.” she replied “Charles was stood up at the altar.”

I took a deep gasp “By Elektraah? Oh my...I can’t believe that!”

“I know it’s terrible. I think he might be in there, crying into an Aperol Spritz. Maybe you could cheer him up?” she said waving us through the doors and up the stairs.

The terrace wasn’t too packed but curiously I couldn't see Gresh anywhere. Various power couples and VIPs sat at tables in between exotic ferns while row after row of gold bars had been stacked along one wall.

“He must have gone out the back door. But that’s staff only back there.” I said frustrated.

A man in a Hawaiian shirt and a poker hat was standing by the gold bars so I decided he seemed like a good person to enquire with.

“Excuse me. Have you seen Charles Gresham anywhere?” I asked him.

“Awww nooo! It’s awful. I can’t believe he got stood up!” the man said jumping straight into it.

“I knowww. We’ve come to look after him.” I said sounding very concerned.

“Are you one of his buddies?” asked the man.

“Yes. I am. I was supposed to be on the stag!”

“Awww noooo. I think the stag happened but then he got stood up.”

“Well we were out buying him a gift.”

“I’d made him a gift as well. But now I’m just so upset.” said Francesca.

We paused to commiserate for a moment before I continued with our business. “I was trying to get a reference for my friend here. Charles said we could work out a real estate property deal with him but we’ve not been able to find him.”

“I tell you what. He’ll be here tomorrow, you can wait for your reference tomorrow or you can do something for me now.”

“That’d be great, thank you.” I said to him feeling very much relieved.

“Now I’ve been trying to do some brand awareness for my gym and like people don’t really like know about it. So if you can go out and like get one person to come back here and I can talk to them about my gym, that would be great.”

“Okay.” said Francesca getting on board.

“So there’s a few things you need to tell them about the gym. So it’s called Green’s Gym and you need to look for somebody that looks poor and unhealthy and a bit sad and just say to them ‘If you want to get rich, healthy and happy then come with me to speak to Sebastian Green about joining the gym….’ or something along the lines.”

“What’s it called? Green’s Gym?” asked Francesca.

“Yes yes.” replied Sebastian “And the thing is if you can do like a physical advertisement bit or something like not a performance but like embody the sort of thing so like if one of you can do a couple of push ups to this person and be all like JOIN GREEN’S GYM and like tell them all of what I’ve just said to you, I’ll see it from here as I’ll be watching from the balcony. And once that’s done I’ll give you a reference.”

“Can I do squats?” Francesca queried.

“Squats will do, yes.” confirmed Sebastian. So me and Fran went back into the courtyard so she could hunt down some poor unhealthy sad people. I decided to stand and chat with the lady on the door about Gresh while Fran went and harassed some people sat at one of the tables nearby. It didn’t take very long however and she was back with a candidate for the gym in no time who she took straight back up to Sebastian Green.

After a quick session of us all doing star jumps and chanting “Green’s Gym” we were back downstairs and Francesca had her much needed reference. And before we knew it Fran was happily working at Hotel Paradiso.

After our brief stay there and Fran's stint as the glamorous face of Paradiso’s welcome, we hid together away from prying eyes to upload some hotel files she had stolen the hacker’s network. To my surprise the cell replied to Fran immediately.

On instructions from the cell leader, I took Francesca with me back to my home of DSTRKT 5 in the far future to meet with the Owl Priests who accepted her with open arms. Francesca was definitely now officially indoctrinated into the maze.  But where to next on our adventures? Time was slipping away...but in this strange new world time can be manipulated.

Sunday

I arrived back on Sunday the 12th of August 2018, and there I finally received my own message back from the hackers directly.

“Wow...this goes so much further back than I’d imagined. Looking at this BHI shouldn’t even exist! No wonder Nickolas ‘disappeared’...” the cell leader had written. They thanked me for all of my progress and help so far and advised me that my next point of contact should be back at the newspaper office. As such I now found myself in the queue with a fist full of documents and evidence including a video evidence of Nuclear Testing I had discovered in a hidden file I had scanned down on the Main Drag. Holding onto this amount of evidence I was very wary of the Bang-Hai security agents patrolling the area and tried to cover myself and my hacking equipment with my waterproof jacket. Occasionally the agents would pull someone from the queue to be interrogated and I would try to to look nonchalant as I avoided any eye contact.

Thankfully I somehow made it to the front of the queue without being accosted. My contacts at The Rag were very impressed and rather delighted with all the things I had discovered since we had last spoke and their wall of conspiracy evidence seemed nearly complete. Only one of the six key files remained for us to find and the Rag were certain that this would be held at the heart of Bang-Hai Technologies, in the Metropolis district downtown. We needed to find one of our undercover agents there and ask them the question: ‘Is there anything you don’t know?’.

Teaming up once more, myself and Georgie arrived at the Bang-Hai Technology building. There were massive queues outside, with everyone wanting to see the latest Bang-Hai Technology that were being made available to the public. The hype over AMIpod, the iBASK, iBone, iBreathe peripherals was spreading across the fire and person after person waited patiently outside the main doors hoping to catch a glimpse of the new products. Observing the entrance from the rear of the line however I soon caught on that people were using BHI Security Passes to skip the queue completely and obtain access to the building. Unfortunately for us, Georgie had been captured by Bang-Hai Security Agents the night before and had all her belongings confiscated, including the needed security pass. Thankfully she had managed to escape from the interrogation rooms but had been unable to retrieve her gear while doing so.

I decided we should approach the guard at the front guard regardless and see where we were able to get on just my own security clearance.

I tried to work my persuasion skills on the guard in order to bring Georgie in with me but he seemee to be on high alert. The guard said that a few people had already tried to obtain access using fake or stolen passes. Our back and forth continued for a while but talking with him seemed like a dead end, a small cash bribe however changed his mind and we were allowed through the security barrier at the front steps. Another Bang-Hai Technologies staff member waved us forward to the reception area.

“Can you show me your clearance sir?” he said before examining my badge closely “Ah yes, we’ve been expecting you.”  

He welcomed us in through into the main building, ushering us past a group of fair-goers who were sat waiting in the reception area.

“Nice to see you.” I said “How are we today?”

“I think you will find everything is in working order.” he said trying to balance some pride with his obvious from being scrutinised.

“I know you do a great job, but we just have to make sure of things. Mr. Rothchild wants everything to go smoothly at this important time” I told him as I inspected the new tech displays on the showroom floor as we passed further into the building.

“Well actually there have been a few glitches in AMI’s brain. But hopefully we’ve worked out the bugs now.” he said starting to sweat a little.

“Don’t worry about it. You’re doing okay.” I reassured him. “May I see the core? I just wanted to make sure there’s no longer any glitches.”

“We weren’t informed that you would be inspecting that area.” the officer said looking increasingly more worried.

“Well loose lips sink ships.” I said to him with a sly grin as we approached the secure vault that houses AMIs central computer systems.

“I think you’d best speak to our head scientist first. He’ll be able to explain it all to you. He’s just upstairs at the moment. This way, just mind the steps, they’re a bit wet.” he said to us, leading us out of the showroom and up the back steps that lead to the research centre and offices.

“Have the cleaners not been out?” I said inspecting the steps “This won’t do at all. I’ll get this sorted out for you right away. Don’t you worry.” I said taking photos.

We were lead through a room which was kitted out with some Virtual Reality Tech and past another office or workshop into the main research laboratory. A trio of scientists seemed to be hard at work, on various different projects around the room.

“Hey guys. How’s it all going?” I started up as I entered the lab “Is everything okay? Because to me it looks a little bit of a mess.” I said looking at the tech littering the room.  The security officer returned back downstairs and myself and Georgie both began inspecting the various parts and projects that made up the room, questioning the scientists about what each thing did as we went through it. I continued taking photos, logging everything I could so I could get as much information as possible to the hacker cell.

The first project I examined was a new improved vocal interface for AMI that they needed new vocal patterns for. They asked me where I was from and I told them I hailed from DSTRKT 5. All I had to do was speak clearly in a DSTRKT 5 accent into the device and say ‘I give Bang-Hai Technologies full permission to harvest my organs at the end of this tour’.

Meanwhile Georgie was checking out a brain duplication interface that they had been working on. Apparently Bang-Hai could now replicate an entire human brain and put it into a computer. They were eager to begin trialling this en masse and gathering as many brain patterns as possible in order to build a huge database of not only information but entire personalities.

Oddly however it seemed that some of the scientists here barely knew what they were doing. Questioning them all I eventually ascertained that a good chunk of current Bang-Hai technology had actually been salvaged from the Alien Technology that had been left behind following the Arcadia incident. BHI had seemingly spent the last few years researching applications for this alien tech and finding ways to maximise profit using it. One technician in the laboratory seemed to be struggling to get an old piece of computer hardware going. I decided to give her a hand with the project and assured her that all you needed to do was to put pizza into the CD Drive and it should all work perfectly. She conceded that this may be a possibility but only if it was pineapple.

The head scientist was an eccentric young fellow donning the standard cliche white lab coat and glasses. He had all sorts of new technology to show me and seemed very excited about the whole matter. Occasionally he would break into a joyful song or two out of his pure glee over his scientific pursuits. He seemed to be very knowledgeable across the board and was much more on the ball than some of the other Tech Employees. He was demonstrating various projects he had been working on, each one apparently exciting him more than the last.

“Wow! That’s amazing!” I said “Is there anything you don’t know?”

The scientists face dropped and he took on a rather more grave demeanour. He reached into one of his pockets and then grabbed my hand as if to shake it, leaving a folded piece of paper in my palm which I quickly hid on my person.

“Please, you must get this to the resistance.” he said.

“Thank you. Keep up the good work!” I said casually making sure none of the other scientists had seen us.

“Georgie. I’ve got it.” I whispered to her and we made our way to the door.

“What are you doing?” said one of the scientists.

“Just a door inspection. Just making sure this door works. Opens and shuts. Excellent. I’ll put in a good word for you. Keep up the great work with AMI, you’re all doing a fantastic job, it will be online in no time.” And with that we disappeared into the next room.

On the other side of the door, a man in a Bang-Hai People social network uniform appeared immediately  to greet us.

“Hi, I’m Samuel from Bang-Hai People.” he said with a handshake and an everlasting smile.

“Hi there. It’s a pleasure. You all did great work last year.” I said “This year not so much, I’ve not been able to get on the App recently. I can’t seem to connect at all. The signal’s just not right. You need to get onto Telecon about this. All that technology in here and I can only get one bar.”

“Bang-Hai People is working at an optimal level just as it always does.”

“Okay, but…” I started but then was stopped short as he greeted me once more.

“Hi I’m Samuel from Bang-Hai People.” he said shaking my hand.

“Hi, I’m Jonny.”

“Hi I’m Samuel from Bang-Hai People.” still smiling.

“Okayyyy...keep it up.” I said deciding it was time to move on.

In the room ahead, two Bang-Hai Technology employees were showing visitors their latest in Virtual Reality Technology. This new Bang-Hai VR headset and virtual imaging system scanned and uploaded a copy of your entire brain into the mainframe so AMI could construct your own custom tailored virtual world experience. All you needed to do was consent to full use of your data by Bang-Hai Technology and anything you desire could be manifested. A screen at the back of the world allowed us to see into the users virtual world experience. A large screen at one end of the room displayed for us everything the person was seeing and I had to admit it was impressive and even quite enticing. This virtual world seemed fully immersive and seemed to cater for the users desires before they even realised what they might be. 

After a brief tour following the instructions of one of the Bang-Hai Tech representatives, the test subject took off their VR helmet and the room erupted with impressed applause for what we had seen manifested on the displays. A second visitor was chosen to further demonstrate the system’s ability and they stepped forwards and took hold of the helmet. Once the helmet was placed upon their head, the system began scanning their brain as it calibrated itself.

“Tell me, what can you see?” the Bang-Hai Rep asked the visitor.

“Erm...Bad Credit?” she said confused.

“BAD CREDIT?! BAD CREDIT?!” shouted the Rep suddenly gripping onto his black and white polka dot shirt in shock.

“BAD CREDIT?!” echoed a second representative who was holding some kind of BHI 3D Scanner in her hands “Is this woman with you?? DO YOU KNOW HER?” she said turning towards us looking scared.

“Noooo….nooo….we’re just hear doing an inspection. Bang-Hai Industries, see!” I said waving my pass at them. The two visitors who had been scanned were then grabbed and taken out of the room as quickly as possible before the Bang-Hai Tech Reps began to apologise to us “We’re so sorry you had to see that, sir. They must have used one of those fake passes that have been going round. We’re really sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“It’s okay. Just make sure it doesn’t.” I told them

Having distanced ourselves from the ‘troublemakers’ we decided it was time to make a swift exit out the back door ourselves before they caught onto the fact we weren’t exactly model citizens either. 

Outside, once we were sure no one had followed us, I unfolded the paper that the lead scientist had given me and began to examine it.

Using my toolkit I uploaded these files and sent them to the hackers. They soon messaged us and were just as shocked as we were.

“THE MASKED MAN WAS AN ANDROID?!?!?! This is too much… This is clear evidence BHI staged the revolution. Keep quiet about this, Friend. This is seriously dangerous information.”

My suspicions I had since last year had been confirmed, both with this and the previous files we had uncovered, Bang-Hai Industries were indeed the orchestrators of the revolution and had used it to gain more power and influence over more people who were freely giving them everything BHI needed to control the populace. We had heard warning of advanced androids infiltrating the city but until now I had only really seen their less advanced cousins being churned out by the Robotika Factory and the Cyborg tech of DSTRKT 5. This could very well explain the odd behaviour of Samuel from Bang-Hai People who I now suspected to be himself one of these very androids. Bang-Hai People had taken on a new meaning it seemed. With people now being able to upload their entire brains to the AMI system, who was to say people were not being replaced all the time? Additionally if they had a Nikolas Boom Android then who was to say it was definitely the actual Boom that had been seen in Oldtown as of late? They could be any of us… would I even know if I was an android sleeper agent myself? These were the questions we discussed and debated at The Daily Rag newspaper office that very afternoon. There our presentation of all the Secret Six documents to complete the conspiracy wall brought shock, excitement and a massive congratulatory snogs off the staff.

“You’ve made it! You’ve made it to the promised land!” said the serial snogger “This revolution is within our grasp. Your final mission is to head back to Metropolis. When you get to Metropolis find the AMI Portal. Jack yourself into the Portal. I need you to give your name as ‘Bleeding Edge’. When AMI asks you for your question, the question you need to ask is ‘What don’t I know?’ - once ask that question, amazing things will happen.”

We entered into what I believed was most likely to be The AMI Portal in Metropolis entering through a small unassuming doorway that had been labelled “Ask AMI”. The room seemed fairly normal to my eyes but rumor was this was actually part of a augmented reality interface and we had now partially crossed over into the digital realm. The other whisper I had heard was this was actually the location and guise they were using to get people to consent to the brain scans that would upload their minds to the mainframe. Two attendants were dealing with queries from members of the public and there was a queue of people seated down one side of the room waiting for their chance to ask AMI a question and maybe have their question picked to be answered by AMI herself in the closing ceremony of the year’s Fair. The attendants wore futuristic styled garments in blues and silvers and always seemed to have a smile on their face. With a quick flash of our Bang-Hai Security passes we were soon seen to.

“Come through, come through. So good to see you!” said our attendant.

“A pleasure to see you.” I said warmly as she took us to the front of the queue, making the two french gentlemen at the front of the line stand up from their seats so we could sit down.

“Sorry guys!” I said feeling a little embarrassed and a little proud at the same time.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” asked the attendant.

“No, you’ve been absolutely fabulous.” I said appreciatively.

“We’ll try do things speedily and move you along as soon as possible.” she said before leaving us to go back and deal with the general public.

It wasn’t long until the door to the next room opened and we were invited in.

“My name’s Marzipan. It’s such an honor!” said the woman who collected us.

“Hi there. We’re Bleeding Edge.” I said formerly greeting her.

“Come in! Come in and sit down. Have you been before?” she asked us.

“I’ve not. I did go on the website though, so I’ve got my picture up everywhere across town, so that’s lovely isn’t it.” I explained as myself and Georgia both tried to balance on the arms of a large fancy chair facing a camera on a tripod. The whole room looked like it could have been taken straight out of a series of Big Brother and we had now entered the diary room.

“Now as you know, the wonderful Bang-Hai Industries are launching this fabulous product tonight. This is AMI, she’s an artificial intelligence.” said Marzipan as AMI’s avatar appeared on the screen in front of us “What she’s gonna do is she’s gonna collect all of our data, scoop it all up and use it to make decisions for us so we can have freedom from choice, which I’m very much looking forward to.”

“Oh wonderful!” said Georgie.

“That’s excellent.” I added “Because I didn’t even know what to have for breakfast this morning.”

“Exactly! Who wants to make those decisions? Let your phone tell you!” replied Marzipan “Now, we’re collecting questions for AMI and 3 lucky questions will be answered at the launch tonight. Fingers crossed you’ll be selected! So, have a look at AMI there, introduce yourselves and ask your question!”

“Hi AMI!” said me and Georgia together “We’re Bleeding Edge.”

“And I want to know...what don’t I know?” continued Georgie.

“Yeah. What don’t I know?” I repeated.

Marzipan suddenly became deadpan with all her sweetness dropped as she clicked off the camera.

“...That’s all we need to know…” I said starting to feel a little ill at ease dreading some kind of security lockdown.

“Can you repeat that question?” said Marzipan staring at us.

“Yes. What don’t I know?” I said trying to bring back my smile nervously.

“And who told you to ask this question?” she said deadly serious.

“We’ve been sent from The Daily Rag.” volunteered Georgia.

“And by the hacker cells.” I added, knowing that if this was going wrong for us, there was nothing left to lose at this moment.

“Okay...thanks for trusting me. I work for Bang-Hai Industries… I’m in very precarious position.” she said still holding her cards close, building on my tension… “But these women out here don’t know who I’m really working for.” she finally continued much to my relief.

“Trust us. We won't blow your cover.” I assured her as a look of worry and doom had now crossed her face.

“When you go out can you please just act like everything is normal, okay? I’ve lost friends because of this.” she said looking very upset.

She checked through a hidden curtain at the side of the room before sending us through it and closing it behind us. We entered into a darkened room where 3 figures lurked all dressed in black surrounded by various technical equipment. Two of the three sat around a small tabletop on the floor in the centre of the room with the other pacing back and forth clutching some kind of military satellite phone which he used every so often to speak with what I presumed was either another hacker cell or whoever was in charge of the operation.

It turned out that the hackers had been holed up in here all along inside the perfect hiding place, stowed away deep behind enemy lines. There was a huge buzz of excitement in the air as they congratulated and thanked us for all our uploads of evidence we had provided to them. We discussed our various conspiracies theories with them and they seemed quite impressed with our grasp of the situation at hand. The hackers seemed to share my doubts on whether the Nikolas Boom that had been sighted was actually the real man or if it was just another Android Replica that was being used as a pawn just as The Sheriff, Comrade José and the Masked Man had been. The hacker brandishing the telephone admitted to his doubts that Boom had ever even existed at all. The idea brainstorming went back and forth as we waded through the pages of evidence and the rumors from all across the city. To what extent had the alien time travel technology been used to alter the timeline? Had anything else been changed by Bang-Hai and The Sheriff (aka The Kaptin, aka the Triple A Badboy)?

After an extended pow-wow, the hackers gave us a cable that would help us to re-wire AMI’s brain in the centre of the Bang-Hai Technologies secure vault and enable us to hack the random question generator. When we emerged back into the diary room, another patron was sat in the chair about to ask their own question. All smiles, we assured Marzipan that her ‘cupboard’ was all sorted now and not to worry.

We exited the diary room back into the foyer, again thanking all the staff for being so helpful and in bounds of excitement we made our way back over to the Bang-Hai Technologies Complex for what was to be our final mission.

Talking our way back through the security guards was easy enough. I told the reception staff that we had just come to perform a quick secondary follow-up inspection and they let us know that someone would be with us soon. While we waited a second hacker cell arrived and made contact with us. They said they had been sent as backup. I was confident we would manage with the two of us but extra help was probably for the best.

After a few minutes  one of the senior staff members arrived to meet me us.

“I know everything seemed fine when we came earlier, but we just need to double check because it’s a big night tonight” I said.

“Is there anything particularly you’d like to see?” he asked me.

“Hmmm… well… we would like to see the core brain if possible.” I replied.

“Okay, well this is the digital archive and in here we do have part of AMIs brain. Just this way.” he told us as he took us to a large metal vault door which he swung open, allowing us access to AMI.

Somehow we managed to blag our way out of the complex, though it’s various rooms and all scarpered in different directions with our mission complete and a great sense of accomplishment. With the hack complete, all we had to do now was to wait until AMI’s Launch at the Fair’s closing ceremony! 

Back in the real world...