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Nicholas Boothman
Cause: Deferred Maintenance (Budget Line Item 4B,
87% reduction). Function: Overload, sustained at 140%
capacity for 39 months. Failure: Cooling containment
unit, signed off as stable by Public Safety Director A.
Salazar (11/04, previous year). Immediate Result: 4
civilian deaths, 21 critical injuries, $1.4B infrastructural
damage. Stated Reason (Public): Single electrical relay
malfunction. Truth Tax: 99.7% evasion.
The language was cold, direct, and terrifyingly
efficient. It didn't blame anyone by name; it simply laid
the facts, the budget line item, and the result side-by-
side. It didn't ask for outrage; it demanded accounting.
“The first shot is fired,” Vincent murmured,
watching the public ledger entry propagate across the
dark screen.
Henry watched the clock. The previous corporate lie
had flattened the panic curve in two minutes. He knew
the machine would try to crush this truth instantly.
“Let’s see if they can lie their way out of a pure
fact,” Henry said. He felt the weight of his old life
finally lift, replaced by the dangerous, exhilarating
reality of having nothing left to sell but the truth. The
revolution had begun.
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