Chapter Four
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‘We got material activity,’ the officer turned to face Jamie.
‘RR have posted something on their de facto social media channels.’
‘About time!’ Jamie remarked and stood up to read the
message displayed on a large screen above the officer. The RR have not posted
in a while. They’ve only had a post or two since the Karen Mansion was
ransacked by the Republic Guards two years ago. Salzar had run into hiding when
the Government had labelled him a terrorist. The Government had maintained that
Salzar intended to cause rampant sedition and disruption. This will, for
sure, be untraceable too, he thought, remembering the last post which defiantly
said Salzar would not go into exile.
‘…proclaimed a reduction in the minimum wage…’ he murmured. They
really are grasping at straws. The lowering of the minimum wage was to be temporary
anyway and it was meant to boost up the country’s ability to manufacture low
cost technology and compete with the brand-new manufacturing industry in
Granary and the lower nations.
Kategat was the leader in high-tech equipment and consumer products,
and they meant to keep it that way. Vangalt and Granary, the other two
superpowers did manufacturing too. But Vangalt focused on machinery, equipment
and vehicles, and Granary was a superpower because of its agricultural exports,
not its manufacturing.
The fact that Granary was able to manufacture experimental
high-tech equipment at low cost had surprised the world and infuriated Vangalt.
There always had been a cold war of indirect confrontation between Vangalt and
Granary. This time, however, Kategat too was alarmed. These new factories with
access to cheaper labour could threaten their high-tech monopoly, and hence
they had fought back by reducing the minimum wage and lowering costs.
This would never sink into their minds. Jamie was
amused at the call for a revolution. The post has been quite popular with the
workers based on the comments and feedback that streamed in on the screen, but
this is hardly cause for them to put their lives down to rebellion. Salzar was
a barking dog hardly anyone would pay serious attention to.
‘The trace failed again?’ Jamie asked the officer, knowing
full well that would be the case.
‘Yes sir, going in an infinite international relay loop
though VPNs and TOR-like networks,’ the officer replied.
But how could such a lunatic get access to the technical
sophistication needed to avert our systems? Jamie exhaled, annoyed. ‘Generate
a report along with a summary of the top responses. I’ll escalate this to
SSOHQ.’
‘Any information from the effigies?’ he asked. The effigies
were fake online profiles U23 maintained to befriend, elicit information and at
times socially manipulate rebels.
‘Nothing, it looks like most known RRs themselves didn’t
know this was coming,’ the officer revealed. ‘This looks like it’s from the top
dog himself.’
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