Epilogue: After the Coalition

The Corporations kept to their word in that none of those people who emerged from the Coalition building that day were harmed. Further still, they admitted they had no intention of condemning everybody. Protest groups were formed and quickly broken up all the time: since the Coalition of Pity had failed to have any great impact on society, it was dismissed as just another one of these.

Jule learned, during his questioning, just why the Corporations had taken action.

On the evening of the twentieth of July, an old man caused a disturbance in a moon club. The man's name was Kiaran Owensson. He had used several people at the club – the majority of them teenagers – to broadcast an obscure anti-feed message to the public.

The victims had to be shut down and taken to a nearby hospital for maintenance. The old man died from extensive head injuries inflicted by the security officers at the scene.

On awakening, many of the victims found a single message waiting in their disabled caches:

You have been hacked by the Coalition of Pity.

END