The Never Game

“I guessed he hacked The Whispering Man server and changed Brad’s log-in times to make it look like he was out when the crimes occurred. Brad was at the Quick Byte recently, which would link him to Sophie, but nobody’d seen him before. He’d gotten a text from a young woman who said she wanted to meet him there. I’m sure it was Foyle pretending to be her so people would spot Brad, associate him with the café. Then today, since he’d done what he needed to — kill Thompson — he shut off Brad’s proxy and we got his address.”

“But why kill Thompson?”

“Because his blog about a new revenue source for software companies was going to expose what was really going on.”

“What was that?”

“Tony Knight and Jimmy Foyle were using their games to spread false news stories for profit.”

67

Shaw said to Cummings, “Earlier, my private eye opened a subscription to the video game Conundrum.”

He explained that he’d asked Mack to go back and look over broadcasts that appeared in the few minutes before the game loaded. The PI found a number of stories in those broadcasts that were blatantly false, spreading rumors about businesspeople and politicians.

Shaw lifted his phone and paraphrased Mack’s notes about several stories that he himself remembered from the past few days: “Congressman Richard Boyd, suicide because of rumors of texting young gay prostitutes. No reports of such activity prior to the ‘story’ appearing in Knight’s game. Boyd’s wife had just died and he was reported by family members to be in unstable condition. His death may throw the balance of power in Congress up in the air.

“Arnold Farrow, CEO of Intelligraph Systems, Portland, was forced to step down after rumors he spoke favorably about interring Japanese American citizens during the Second World War. No reports of such incident prior to the story appearing in Knight’s game.

“Thomas Stone, Green Party candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, rumored to have been affiliated with ecoterrorists and to have participated in arson and vandalism. He denies it and no charges were filed.

“Senator Herbert Stolt, Democrat-Utah, subject of hate mail campaign for proposing a tax on internet usage. First reported in Knight’s game. Stolt denies any such proposal and no record of such a proposal exists.”

Shaw tucked his phone away. “Tony Knight’s offered his games and add-ons for free, provided you sat through news broadcasts and public service spots. And he didn’t dare let Thompson find that out. For three or four years, the company’s revenues had been declining. Their one big game — Conundrum — wasn’t doing well; and Foyle, the designer, couldn’t come up with any new ideas. Knight was desperate. He was sort of a player — in the traditional sense of the word. I’d guess he contacted lobbyists, politicians, political action committees, CEOs, floating the idea of offering a platform to broadcast whatever they wanted: lies, rumors, defamatory and phony news stories.”

“Video games as a way to get propaganda in front of an audience.” Cummings was both appalled and impressed, it seemed.

Shaw added, “A young audience. An impressionable audience. And it goes a lot deeper.”

“How so?”

“You got game add-ons for registering to vote. And there were plenty of suggestions about who to vote for — some subtle, some not so subtle.”

He noticed Wiley walk to the car where Foyle was handcuffed in the backseat. He opened the door and bent down, spoke to him.

Cummings said, “And all under the radar. It’s just an add-on to a video game. Who’d even think about it? No regulation. No FCC, no Federal Election Commission. All fake news and opinion. How big an audience?”

“Tens of millions of subscribers in the U.S. alone. Enough to sway a national election.”

“Jesus.”

Shaw and Cummings watched Dan Wiley close the back door of the car. He walked forward, the handsome, unflappable TV cop.

Cummings asked, “He going to talk?”

Wiley: “He looked at me like I was a bug. Then said he wanted a lawyer and that was that.”

68

Brad Hendricks was hunched forward, sitting in front of the high-definition computer screen in his basement lair.

The young man, motionless, ears enwrapped in large headphones, typed frantically, yet with dead eyes fixed on the Samsung screen. Nothing existed but the game, which was, Shaw noted without surprise, The Whispering Man.

Shaw continued to the basement but stopped at the foot of the stairs, peering at the computer screen.

A window reported that Brad now had eleven objects in his KEEP BAG.

A memory came to Shaw. Ashton had made him, Russell and Dorion prepare GTHO bags, near the back door — the door facing the mountains. The bags — intended, yes, for a get-the-hell-out situation — contained everything you would need to survive for a month or so under even the most extreme circumstances. (When older, Colter had learned the real acronym among survivalists was GTFO. Ashton Shaw would never have condoned such language in front of the children.)

Shaw approached, wide and slow.