Tally Road Original Story- Chapter 10

"We'll call it 'piggybacking', which is the technical term used by publicists."

Hals was a thin, scruffy Runge with gleaming eyes, and it seemed that he was in the middle of a lecture. The other Runge present hung on his every word, not noticing Rai, Boodins and Dene as they entered the room. They'd slept well, and it was time to make good on whatever Voustrets had promised they would do.

"Probably the best example was the famous Ordinance 523, some years ago. You may remember- ah, I was expecting you guys, welcome to the session. Try to pay attention and you can catch up- I know you aren't here to learn this, but it'll do you good. Find a seat."

As he continued, Dene's ears perked farther and farther forward in fascination- she had heard of this, but had never heard the inside story, and Hals was laying it out with the cool insouciance of an utterly confident but unsympathetic insider.

"You'd have seen that on the news- and it was well paid for, too. It cost them a pretty penny to have it played straight without any tip-off from the newscasters- my understanding is it ran upwards of a hundred thousand for each media outlet, but it worked."

"You saw crowds of homeless folks, wearing different sorts of cold weather gear- that winter was a brutal one, and almost everyone was wearing their 'I Support Ordinance 523' windbreaker. They were good windbreakers, but printed in different ways, as if the guys had gone to about eight different print shops to get out their message with limited resources. In fact, every one came from the same source. The footage went into heavy rotation and made the crucial difference in the polls to establish that referendum as a real mover- as you know, it was voted in. Not everyone knows the source- few people believed it was the homeless who initiated the process, but due to the grass-roots support more than two-thirds of voters believed it was coming from individuals. In fact, the referendum was initiated by a small group of corporate entities and land-holders, in other words aggregates, and not one of the homeless guys in the crowd knew what 523 actually was."

"That's understandable, because if they'd known it cleared the way to death penalty for vagrancy, they might not have cared to wear the nice windbreakers. But it was a cold winter- and Gannau Plastics and Synthetics was giving them away for free."

Hals paused. His eyes seemed to flare, but other than that he betrayed no sign of emotion.

"Gannau, of course, was also the largest landholder in the area, and wanted to boost their property values a couple levels, so they also were thoughtful enough to donate money to the local police- and, to help with their continual budget troubles, a new consignment of lethal weaponry from Knitchtell."

Hals' lip curled in the hint of a snarl, at that.

"At a discount, of course. That was their help- they arranged a discount, they didn't actually pay for it. You did, through taxes. Well, I suppose not two of our visitors, the Resten and the Nerre. What do you guys think of all this?"

Boodins looked appalled, and Rairate said, "It sounds unbearably improper. This was on your news broadcasts?"

Hals nodded. "Four news trusts ran it without comment, and one gave it a line about 523 gaining unexpected support. That cost them double, but it was Veracity Instant News and they were the only ones willing to go with commentary that was obviously for sale. Veracity's viewers aren't likely to be plugged in to current events beyond what Veracity tells them, so it was worth the extra money to feed that line. The correlations showed that Veracity's viewers went for Ordinance 523 at three times the numbers of other markets. Very, very good budgeting on Gannau's part, but then it's a lot more effective to show something and tell it at the same time. It would have been worth three times the rate."

Boodins still looked stricken, unwilling to hear more, but Hals pressed on.

"And this emphasizes the importance of PIGGYBACKING! The effectiveness of that little escapade was far out of proportion to the money spent, because of the association of the message with a third party. I'm not going to ask you about the criterion for getting the message piggybacked, because that would be too easy. It was cold, and the clothes were free, and Gannau was paying for the camera crews and using telephoto lenses. No, I'm going to ask you something tougher- what could you NOT use as a message payload under those circumstances?"

There was silence, until one of the Runge spoke up. "Uh... a negative?"

"Good! That's exactly right. The context of the situation wouldn't support a negative message. It was a sympathy visual, without any protest overtones or acknowledgement of the camera by the subjects. The idea is that you're glimpsing their daily lives, and perhaps seeing what sort of things they agree with. It was also very good form of Gannau to ensure that the clothing wasn't too similar- they needed to put across a grass-roots impression. Can anyone give me an opposite- where you'd want your people to be in-your-face and wearing obviously identical promo?"

A different Runge spoke. "Sure- mirage work."

Hals' ears were perked up. "Give us an example. What's that?"

The Runge cleared her throat. "You know. Um, when you're trying to present the appearance of a corporate or some other kind of aggregate behind your demonstration. You pick someone or make something up, and then you arrange that your materials are professionally made, as slick as you can get them, you make it look like there's money behind you. If you can't do that you rehearse so your crowd looks organized. You have about a third of them play interested bystanders, looking supportive, and you have the rest as tightly drilled as you can get them. And they have to look healthy, you make sure they're well groomed and clean..."

"Enough." said Hals. "Well done. And, of course, that's not piggybacking... unless?"

"Unless you tap into the video feed and alter the promotional messages..."

"Uht!" said Hals. The Runge drooped.

"That's more of a hack, not piggybacking either! Anyone up for telling me how you can handle piggybacking onto an organized event where they have their own message?"

Dene, thinking hard, slowly raised her hand, and Hals noticed. "You, there! What would you do?"

She cleared her throat nervously, and said "Wear their windbreakers and stand with them but hold my own message, too?"

Hals beamed. "Exactly! That's why organizers have checklists! You could sneak in, and piggyback your own message onto theirs. You know Dinsam Industrial Fabrication?"

All three visitors started, at hearing the name. Dene, at a loss, said "Um... I guess?"

Hals cocked a lupine ear, not missing the reaction. "We'll talk later! But anyhow, I mention them because of a very slick job of piggybacking that happened to them. Dinsam was having labor difficulties, and it was news- it was a classic case of the mirage work, the strikers had themselves and most of their friends and relatives issued with very corporate-looking placards. We actually did those. They had four news outlets live and there's this coughing- and in the middle of the chanting, two of their workers keeled over, dropping their placards, obviously sick. You thought, that's typical- Dinsam has these poor buggers working in chemical fumes until they can't even stand up anymore. Now, who benefitted?"

The first Runge hazarded, "The strikers?"

"No, they were doing mirage work, remember- they didn't want to look weak and sick! I'll tell you, and then we're going to break and pick it up tomorrow. It turns out Dinsam's health insurers were watching with interest- it was a good chance to gauge the state of the workforce and what conditions were like, since Dinsam wouldn't let inspectors into the facility. The two that dropped had a very particular cough... and were losing fur around the eartips and the end of the muzzle... and the insurers took one look and decided they'd been exposed to polykaycyanate 27. That's a hell of a solvent but nobody wants to work with it- lifespan can be just a few years if you're exposed to the fumes, and they linger. How's that for a piggybacking? The intended message was 'We demand better wages and have solid backing' but with just two ringers, there was a different message that was even more gripping- 'These people are being poisoned!' Well, the insurers dropped Dinsam like a hot rock, including paying the penalty for discontinuing coverage on no warning. They fled, before PKC 27 cases landed in their laps."

Hals smirked. "In a matter of hours, a bigger insurer snapped up the account. A big and happy insurer, who got extremely high rates out of Dinsam as nobody else would touch 'em. Funny thing, a couple of their clerical workers went on vacation after that. Wouldn't talk to anybody, but they had plenty of money- and their fur around the eartips and the end of the muzzle was beginning to grow back."

"That's piggybacking with a vengeance, friends, and don't ever overlook a chance to use it- and be careful it's not used on you! See you all tomorrow."

As the Runge filtered out, Boodins approached the teacher, looking awed, and said, "How do you know all that?"

"Eh? What's that again?"

Boodins tried to explain. "You're going up against these huge companies and they're up to all these complicated tricks- there's just so much to it, and you seem to know everything. How do you do it?"

"I don't." said Hals. "I don't know squat."

Boodins was staggered, his jaw hanging open, but Hals wasn't finished. His eyes seized Boodins' in a fanatical stare.

"But! And listen carefully... neither do they!" said Hals, and his eyes flared up manically as the young Resten stepped back, alarmed.

Rai appeared at Boodins' side, quiet and politely deadly. "Excuse me. Tell me, what is this, 'aons?"

Hals settled back down again, being no fool. "I was just telling the pup here how the world works."

"And this distresses him, why?" said Rairate calmly.

"Sorry about that. I get excited. I'm telling you, though, I don't know squat. I know specific things. You seem to think I know the big picture, but nobody does. There's too much to know."

Dene interrupted, "But we have a great deal of computer..."

"Yeah yeah! I know the saying. 'Intelligence is cheap'. That's absolutely true, but you know what? Wisdom is expensive." said Hals.

Dene was the first to get it. "You're saying that behind every system there's a person who has to make a decision? That's the bottleneck?"

"No, it's worse than that. Aggregates aren't just one person! By their very nature they're a collection of persons playing defined roles. They're fantastic at amassing information, when they're healthy, but even the best of them are limited. Hell, even Lins can't react faster than a single individual- and Lins is the computer firm dominated by a single tyrannical figure. Their whole aggregate culture is centered around the guy. They can't grow beyond a certain size that way, they'll die when he dies, and they still can't react as fast as an individual. Intelligence is cheap, and data is even cheaper if you're an aggregate, but wisdom is expensive- volition is expensive. They can't..."

An alarm sounded. Hals' jaw dropped open. "They can't. That can't be happening, excuse me..." and he dashed to a nearby room and began hammering the keys of a video screen.

Rairate and the others followed, Rai making a point of gently pushing in front to get a clear view. The Nerre inquired, "Tell me what just happened, 'aons?"

"They did!" yelped the scruffy Runge. "Something's blown our security and we got three flights of police aircraft triangulating on our position. What the freaking hell? It had better not be you guys. Just a moment, this is a sort of control center and there's a radiation scanner in the closet. I'm going to go over you guys for police-band emissions."

He jumped for the closet, turned, and added, "Vraonse." dangerously. Rai stiffened, but remained still, saying only "Be quick, vraonse." at which the Runge nodded curtly.

The scanner didn't react as Hals passed it over them. Dene and Boodins were beginning to panic, as the alarm outside wouldn't let up.

"It's not that, but there was some kind of..." said Hals, and adjusted things on the scanner with frantic dexterity. This time, it beeped loudly as it passed over Dene.

"Tompar." said Hals, in astonishment. "But why? And why would that be registering as a police b..."

Dene was staring out the doorway, frozen. Hals followed her gaze to see the snakelike face of a female Tompar looking back at him. Slowly, he lowered the scanner, and as the business end neared the intruder, it faintly chirped with the beep Hals originally expected.

It was Siertes. She moved a little way into the room, and was stopped by a soft hiss from Rairate. She studied him with reptilian calm as feet ran to and fro in the corridor outside.

Hals looked unhappier and unhappier at the standoff- the alarm was still sounding outside, and faint distant sounds suggested that police were forcing entry into the facility while he was stymied. He cautiously aimed the scanner more at Siertes, and froze when it beeped loudly and her head snapped in his direction. Rairate, seeing this, tensed so hard his tail bristled, but he knew her peripheral vision still showed him plain, and he didn't attack.

"What did you do?" demanded Siertes. "Tell me or die."

"You're carrying a police bug." said Hals, steadily. "This is a scanner. You've led them onto us."

Siertes blinked, and fumbled in her clothing- and came up with a tiny object that resembled a pebble. She stepped into the room, and held it out to the scanner, and the beeping went berserk.

There was a sound of running feet, and a squad of police appeared at the door behind her.

"Freeze!"

Siertes' head slowly turned to face them. So did Rairate's.