Tunnel Rat

Very few people understood it. What they knew, though, was that the system that governed each bit of cryptocurrency was very difficult, if not impossible, to hack. That was just fine with him. He didn't need to know more than that his horde was secure. He was going to use a portion of that money to find who stole his bank accounts. Someone would know something. Someone would slip. That much money couldn't be spent without it being noticed.

A very nervous courier walked into the room, escorted by heavily armed guards. He held forth a sealed envelope, which one of the guards took and opened. Another signed for it and fled. The first guard looked at the paper. No gas came from the envelope, no powder. The man didn't die. He passed the paper to Victor, who held it in his gloved hands. He had no worries about the guard who opened his mail. The man was illiterate with a disability. He would never read anything. The perfect person to handle his mail.

Dear Victor:

We have enjoyed our time spent with you. But it is time to move on. We realized we no longer need you. Seeing someone else empty your bank accounts made us realize that it wasn't about the money. It was about hurting you. There really is nothing to be gained by waiting. Our only regret is someone got to you first. We will have to accept second place in this race. But the prize is better.

Sincerely,

The alphabet.

Bah, what idiots. Did no one teach people how to threaten someone anymore? No talk of revenge, no angst or drama or yelling about some wife or daughter or parents he’d killed. He would find this alphabet and kill them for being boring.

An hour later, news broke that Syllabary had been hacked. Some codes still worked, and some did not. The company made available a vast amount of money for people with working codes to redeem their cryptocurrencies before something worse happened. Only a hundred people lost money. All of those people were involved in organized crime or controlled large corporations. Of those, Victor Seimovich was the largest loser.

Syllabary shut down immediately Every person in the company was fired and sent home with a generous severance package. All the remaining assets were put behind a wall of bankruptcy filings. No one knew who was actually behind the company, and no one was coming forth with answers. Syllabary would become one of the great unsolved mysteries. Who had controlled it? Who had hacked it? Victor wanted those answers desperately, but he lacked the money to find out. Worse, he had debts. And without those payments to politicians, the police, and the spy organizations, he was very vulnerable. He was nearly penniless and in hiding within 24 hours.

Victor was going to have trouble finding the Rat who stole his cheese. Lots of trouble.