Page 64 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

The Tribunal

demigod of unquestioned authority, he led thousands of credulous
citizens into the inferno of consumer debt and toxic waste, leaving
them physically weak and morally unfit. For this he was handsomely
rewarded. And the people knew him not except that he was known.”
The Inquisitor placed one check mark next to the name on the
scrap of paper. The case against Leonard was proceeding according
to form. The supreme heresy had been invoked and identified. To be
known for being known was a mysterious sacrilegious quality
requiring excision, root and branch, from the body politic’s organs of
faith. The power it had given celebrities was a direct challenge to and
contradiction of the humble utilitarianism now proud orthodoxy.
“Did you find the endorsements?” demanded the Inquisitor.
“Yes, your Astuteness, I did, indeed. It took me weeks of
backtracking and downloading files almost totally scrambled or
permanently deleted. Bruce Leonard, following the Collapse, had
converted his gold jewelry and other non-deflating assets into
payment for skilled hacking and jamming. Public memory can be
counted upon by wrongdoers for self-erasure after a few months, but
human records cannot so easily be extinguished. See for yourself!”
She crooked her little finger and the montage changed.
“There: the commodities huckstered by Leonard, in several media.
His voice, his face, his characteristic clothing and catch-phrases all
served as bait for the bargain-seeker. The hair tonic, the massage
pillow, the space-age kitchen appliance, the swamp-land real estate,
the pyramid schemes and diet pills—all instruments of the Evil One,
all contributing components of the Collapse!”
The Inquisitor made a second, even firmer, check mark.
“Good work, cyberstalker. Many have forgotten the criminal, but
all can remember the crime. Have you found this Bruce Leonard?”
“Yes. He had plastic surgery, stole the identity of a dead neighbor,
moved to a small town in Idaho, and spent the rest of his ill-gotten
gains establishing himself as a retired salesman of machines for
recycling garden waste.” Bitter snickering erupted from her audience.
“But his tracks had not vanished. I need not relate the techniques of
skip tracing perfected in the pre-Collapse era. It is enough to
appreciate the poetic justice of their application to hunting down and
capturing devils like Bruce Leonard.”
“Bring him in!”

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