Charlie did as Fred had suggested, although she did it with much disdain. Spend time with the survivors of the Ivory Skull, he had suggested. Is the vengeance of those lost worth their sacrifice?
As she sat in the Ivory Skull’s most famous internet cafe, she pondered that very question. Of course, the worldwide web had been down in the Tasman Wastes for years now, but they’d still managed to get it up locally. Now it was called the TWWW, or the Tasman Wastes Wide Web. It was slow, though, so most people barely even bothered to use it.
“Can’t you make this internet go any faster?” Charlie said, slamming her fist on the table in frustration.
The owner looked up from across the milk bar. “Do you know how to fix slow internet? Does anybody in these blasted Wastes know how to do it?”
Charlie shook her head.
“No, I didn’t think so. It is what it is, and you’ve just gotta deal with that. Once upon a time, we might have been able to contact some NBN installation contractors based around Melbourne or even Hobart, but not these days.”
Charlie stood, walking over to the owner. “It’s a real shame we can’t get help from the outside. I spoke to somebody from Queensland over the radio, you know. Things are pretty crazy out there, but the world has advanced like you wouldn’t believe. They even have robots! I bet the internet is twice as fast as it is here.”
Tristan, the owner, cast his eyes away from her and focused on cleaning mugs. “Not much we can do about it. We’ve got to stay here where it’s safe. Too dangerous to leave Hobart.”
She nodded. “Especially with the Little Man around. I wish there was something we could do to stop him – to make it safe to leave. We all deserve better than to sit here waiting for the tiny devil to attack us.”
“I know,” said Tristan. “I’d fight back if Bentleigh allowed it, but his orders are that we do nothing.”
Charlie tapped the bench and raised a brow. “What if we did something without Bentleigh knowing about it?”