Major mistrust means escrow, that's me. Many can plan a blockchain crypto heist, but how to split the proceeds? A and B rob C, then A robs B? No, so A, B, and C, rob D, money goes to escrow (me), A, B, and C assign armed guards to me in person, and I split up the proceeds, taking a reasonable cut for me. I'm held hostage until they get their money. I'm known. It's a good living. I make the blockchain to receive the heist. They give me blockchains to their own accounts. I'm in my office, three goons with pieces watching me, my own goon watching them, and my finger's on the button, watching the clock for the microseconds when the crypto vault is open. Huge score. All of us on the call. Counting 4, 3, 2, BLACKOUT! "Damn! Missed it!" Struggle in the dark. Shouting on the call. Lights on again. Two goons knifed, dead. My shirt bloody. My guy holds a gun on the third man. Two men on the call collar their third man. "Instructions?" One answers, "Replay, retire." My man shoots. Call ends. Idiots. Earlier blockchain. Brazil. Maximum mistrust means my retirement, no replay.
About the Creator
Paul Merkley
Co-Founder of Seniors Junction, a social enterprise working to prevent seniors isolation. Emeritus professor, U. of Ottawa. Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Founder of Tower of Sound Waves. Author of Fiction.
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Now and Then: The Time between the Lightning and the Thunder
WEDNESDAY, June 21, Wotan's Day, Odin's Day It all started with a dream Wednesday morning, or maybe it started earlier and things were already in motion. There was a storm, but I don't think that's what woke me up. I saw sheet lightning, but heard no thunder, so how could that have woken me up? I think it was that dream. I looked at the clock: 6:21. Odd that the time matched the date, June 21... but just a coincidence. I turned on the bed lamp and reached for my notebook. The dream, if shocking, was crystal clear in its details, but the connection to the present and the import were not at all evident. I wrote rapidly, sensing that already precious details were fading. Probably the dream had not taken more than a couple of minutes, but the sensations and memories were lengthy. And what an ending, what a way to wake up--I was a pre-historic man and my enemies broke my bones and drowned me in a bog! Was that even a thing? And wait, one enemy was, yes, my brother in that lifetime and two other men... think... think... yes brothers of my fiancee, or what passed for that in prehistoric England... yes in the time of Stonehenge. In my present life I have no brothers or brothers-in-law. Maybe that's for the best!
By Paul Merkley12 months ago in Fiction
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