A campus has been struck. Sored, the Washington State home of Cogether, a social media tech giant, has been attacked, and in the smouldering remains, a responsible terrorist organization has been named. Such is the official story. To the attentive, however, the fire appears to little match the smoke, and one is left to question: Is the story, as complex as it may appear, even that simple?
Among such disbelievers in the official story is a competitor of Cogether, and in the year following the Sored Incident, the R&E department of this competitor has been conducting its own investigation into the matter. Now, in late February 2029, an interview in that investigation is conducted with a seventeenth person-of-interest, potentially answering the question: If the terrorists did not bomb Sored, who did?
First published May 2020, the paperback version appeared April 2023.
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Excerpts
Fire, there is plenty of, and only brimstone is lacking for a full-on hellish scene. As of some minutes prior, the explosions have stopped, but their echo still resounds, if only in soul. Sirens are, instead, the predominating sound.
The predominating sight is a five-story building that has had one whole side blown out. Per campus lexicon, the structure is properly named Building Twenty-Nine, and the smoke pouring out of its wound has dissipated enough that the full extent of the damage is exposed to view; accordingly, much of what used to be inside is able to be seen by those outside. Few, however, are looking toward this epicenter of chaos, and a general alarm for the welfare of self and others is, instead, the predominating focus.
The predominating feeling is, of course, fear, though confusion is a close second, and anger, while present, is a distant third, subsumed for now by the other two. Running, the predominating activity, is also, like the feelings, rather expected and can thus be disregarded as disinteresting in the most usual. Other activities, such as care for those wounded as well as those unable to evermore feel, are likewise enough a part of the situation itself as to be overlookable.
The predominating explanation, though not yet spoken, is that a terrorist attack has occurred. As yet, no one has stated the words in question, but they are in every head, and they may, in fact, have already been expressed by those not at the scene itself, depending on whether any media outlet has been able to, this early into the tragedy, get out a breaking-news bulletin. All wonder, and whether to know now, later, or never, each in his or her own way asks: Why was Sored, the international home of Cogether, attacked?
-Prologue to the Novel
[Q] What happened was that Mr. Avant got angry. [Q] Yeah, I think so. He started raising his voice, at least. [Q] I’m not sure. They were sitting hunched over their drinks, and I was off by myself, so I wasn’t really paying attention, and then, suddenly, Mr. Avant was standing and almost yelling. [Q] Yeah, exactly. He was wagging his finger in Mr. Streppen face, and he kept repeating a line that Mr. Streppen apparently didn’t have an answer for. [Q] He said: A bad occurrence to a bad individual is by rule never a bad thing. [Q] Yeah, a bad occurrence to a bad individual is by rule never a bad thing. He said it that same way each time. [Q] I’m not sure. Now that I’ve an idea of what was going on, my guess is that Mr. Streppen was making some objection to Mr. Avant’s side project, and Mr. Avant was more ready for it than Mr. Streppen was. It sounded like Mr. Avant had started saying it as a counterpoint to what Mr. Streppen had said, and then when Mr. Streppen had no counterpoint of his own, Mr. Avant pounced. He repeated it at least five or six times, and he rose from his seat a little each time. He looked a little like he did in those online speeches he gave a few years ago, except for the fact that he was angry rather than excited, obviously.
