tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70161676572166768112024-03-13T11:41:10.763+07:00Traveling EdLiving in the great out there.
Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.comBlogger156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-62921836618284837422021-06-09T23:48:00.001+07:002021-06-09T23:48:32.881+07:00<h1 style="text-align: left;"> Changing Speed</h1><div>I'm not a good blogger. I'd rather put things in my stories. So I haven't posted here much, and it's unlikely I will be in the future. BUT, I do want to stay in touch.</div><div><br /></div><div>Currently, I'm working on a complex, serialized crime story (<u><b>PROPER CRIMES</b></u>) that's a bit dark for Amazon's new Vella platform. The launch date for that is still unknown. I'll also be publishing a series of speculative fiction (imaginative fiction?) stories. Think Twilight Zone or One Step Beyond. So watch for those.</div><div><br /></div><div><i><b>And how should you know when they come out? </b></i>The best way is to sign up for my newsletter. I'll give you some thoughts about the source material for stories, a free story for signing up, and other free things from time to time. </div><div>Just go to <a href="https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/n8p5p2" target="_blank">My Newsletter signup form.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>And if you are in the mood for an exciting Caribbean thriller adventure, there are now four books in the Martin Billings series.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://amzn.to/2Q9gM3L" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQQHb-aOOpA/YMDvrHvjEPI/AAAAAAAAzvg/2N6U0fYWbgwo_vWT5AQKBVYOa0q0a2qGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Martin%2BBillings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>And my <a href="http://www.edteja.com">website is www.edteja.com</a></div><div><br /></div>Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-3484968351754749922020-07-09T05:35:00.003+07:002020-07-09T05:37:39.257+07:00The world's best Caribbean boat bum<div><br /></div><div><font size="5"><br /></font></div><div><font size="5">I mentioned before that I'm writing new trilogy of Ron Anejo stories (tropical mysteries with a twist). While you wait, you can listen to the original story. The audiobook is available for <b><i>free</i></b> right now... first come, first served. And sign up for my newsletter to learn when the new books are available.</font></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://audiobooksunleashed.com/product/the-legend-of-ron-anejo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mExaj1zua8o/XwZITYmBfxI/AAAAAAAAw80/uw8tAkT-js05bZcd0bYTXw9i1a_6jer2gCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Ron.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><pre style="text-align: left;"><br /></pre>
<script async data-uid="e1c016684a" src="https://upbeat-trailblazer-7422.ck.page/e1c016684a/index.js"></script>Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-73432700939560238812020-06-29T00:24:00.001+07:002020-07-09T05:36:54.165+07:00Caribbean DreamingI'm working on a trilogy of <b><i>cozy mysteries</i></b> featuring my old friend Ron Añejo, the world's best Caribbean boat bum. It wasn't his idea to become a detective... but circumstances make for odd outcomes. And, while Ron will take on the job with his usual enthusiasm and optimism, he doesn't know much about it. That means he'll bring his own style to the task of finding the killer--for better or worse.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caribbean Dreaming by Dagny Sellorin</td></tr>
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The stories all take place in my favorite place in the world--the fictional island of Kayakoo in the lesser Antilles. If the name sounds vaguely familiar, well, it's not far from the name of the real island it's based on. And if that isn't enough of a clue for you, here is a map of the island, showing the prominent features mentioned in the story.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-frx3Q7Tiz10/XwZKdTbv70I/AAAAAAAAw9Q/6zYmoudg3qg0EMTm3HEnFVlWOXttumOJQCK4BGAsYHg/s1350/Kayakoo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1233" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-frx3Q7Tiz10/XwZKdTbv70I/AAAAAAAAw9Q/6zYmoudg3qg0EMTm3HEnFVlWOXttumOJQCK4BGAsYHg/s320/Kayakoo.png" /></a></div><div><br />
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What the map doesn't show is that the stories involves old wooden boats, a little Caribbean Obeah (Voodoo) and some shady development deals. In short, nothing you won't find all the time in the Caribbean.<br />
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<script async="" data-uid="e1c016684a" src="https://upbeat-trailblazer-7422.ck.page/e1c016684a/index.js"></script></div>Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Unknown location.16.0700443064962 -68.02099375-13.3993826935038 -109.32958725 45.539471306496196 -26.71240025tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-18862695225824037852020-06-14T21:35:00.000+07:002020-06-14T21:35:01.736+07:00Free AudiobookAudiobooks keep getting more popular, and right now you can listen to the short story that J. Lee Porter and I wrote in Cartagena, Columbia, a story of crime, and cryptocurrency, and right and wrong, for <a href="https://audiobooksunleashed.com/product/invisible-fortune/">FREE</a> (as long as our codes last, so move fast). <b>John Witstijn</b> did a beautiful job of narrating the story and we think you'll love it.<br />
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If you like the story, we hope you'll check out the Bitpat series. The second book, <a href="http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B086KXG2P4">CRYPTO CITIZENS</a>, is now available through Amazon.<br />
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In fact, check out all our work at <a href="http://nomadicgiant.com/">Nomadic Giant, LLC</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://nomadicgiant.com/"><img alt=" Nomadic Giant, LLC" border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TtUwpDu7JTg/XuYzb8oGb6I/AAAAAAAAwg8/Cu33O5Yl4asfzEp9zPzi5XwSILcJYRN8wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Nomadic_Giant_Logo-01.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Cartagena, Cartagena Province, Bolivar, Colombia10.3932277 -75.483231110.268285200000001 -75.6445926 10.5181702 -75.3218696tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-19369323818796334972019-12-12T23:02:00.000+07:002019-12-12T23:02:19.228+07:00Rewriting in Asia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I just got back from spending a few weeks in Asia. I caught up with my co-writer J. Lee Porter and his wife Gigi, in Koh Chang, Thailand. At Elephant Bay, on the southern part of the island, we sat down and reviewed the current draft of CRYPTO CITIZENS face to face. This is our second book in the BITPATS series.<br />
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After long discussions, we decided that a few major changes were needed and we set about making them, as well as exploring the island and taking in Muy Thai kickboxing events.<br />
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We also went to Cambodia, visiting Koh Kong, where I used to live, and then to Phnom Penh, where I had to say goodbye.<br />
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I've just returned to the US and am digging through notes and revisions. We expect to finish the new version this month and send it to our editors. The cover is done (courtesy of <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Elizabeth Mackey</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.elizabethmackey.com&source=gmail&ust=1576252328093000&usg=AFQjCNE3ICaSB1Zi6LPHJES2S30eyLdznw" href="http://www.elizabethmackey.com/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">www.elizabethmackey.com</a>) and we hope to get the book published in the first part of the year. If you are a reviewer looking for an advance copy, email me at FLOATSTREET@gmail.com and I'll put you on the list to get it in an acceptable format.<br />
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We are also blocking out a short story based in that part of the world. It will be another expat story... the expatriated, the marginalized are always interesting characters for us.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Ko Chang District, Trat, Thailand12.0479159 102.3234815999999211.7994349 102.00075809999993 12.2963969 102.64620509999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-37647964675889456822019-09-26T01:04:00.000+07:002019-09-26T01:04:50.749+07:00Feeding Hungry Ghosts<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Everyone ready for</span> </h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "Open Sans", HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Pchum Ben (</span><span lang="km" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;">បុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;">)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "Open Sans", HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">? </span></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "Open Sans", HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In Cambodia, the 15 days prior to the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">15th day of the tenth month in the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_people" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Khmer people">Khmer</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> calendar, at the end of the Buddhist lent, or </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassa" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Vassa">Vassa</a>, lead up to <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Ancestor's Day or the Hungry Ghost Festival. The last day of the 15 is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Pchum Ben and starts a two-day public holiday.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">On the first day of Pchum Ben, the gates of hell are opened and the devil releases all the ghosts, some of who are ancestors of the people. Monks chant the sutras in Pali (not Khmer) before the gates of hell open releasing the hungry ghosts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As the ghosts with serious sins cannot receive food during the day, f</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Open Sans, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">ood offerings (usually <i>Bay Ben</i> -- balls of sticky rice and sesame) are presented at dawn.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sdSCr51QxWU/XYuoMj4z9tI/AAAAAAAAsKA/ay84ZLMAIsksJcAhw2r85J0uRF1qGK-CgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Wat%2BNeang%2BKok%2B018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1496" data-original-width="1122" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sdSCr51QxWU/XYuoMj4z9tI/AAAAAAAAsKA/ay84ZLMAIsksJcAhw2r85J0uRF1qGK-CgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Wat%2BNeang%2BKok%2B018.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Koh Kong Province, Cambodia11.5762804 103.35872889.5847054 100.77694179999999 13.5678554 105.9405158tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-47339186858157329952019-09-19T01:28:00.000+07:002019-09-19T01:28:15.014+07:00The story of a story<br />
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When J. Lee Porter and I were writing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BH5991C">CRYPTO SHRUGGED</a> and researching the Bitpat series, we made a trip to Colombia -- the scene of some of the action. The stories we envisioned were about the global ramifications of cryptocurrency, in big and small ways.<br />
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We managed to spend time in both Cartagena and Medellin. Both were great, but in completely different ways.<br />
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In Cartagena, we managed to rent a place in the old district, just walking distance from the Walled City. We went there several times, and an idea for a short story, actually based on some experiences Jeff had in Mexico, started to bloom. In Medellin, we talked about how it would develop. At the end of the trip I was flying back through Cartagena, so I got a room in the walled city and revisited some of the places that inspired us.<br />
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The short story, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079DC4FG6">INVISIBLE FORTUNE</a>, worked well enough that we made it into an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Fortune-Tale-Cryptocurrency/dp/B07RQVGV8W">audiobook</a>, narrated by John Witstijn, who did an incredible job.<br />
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To let people know it exists, I took the photos and videos I'd taken on the trip and combined them with John's intro to the book and some of my music, to create a teaser that's also something of a travelogue -- an introduction to Cartagena. I hope you enjoy it.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Cartagena, Cartagena Province, Bolivar, Colombia10.3910485 -75.47942569999997910.266106 -75.640787199999977 10.515991 -75.318064199999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-36875476484325649992019-03-08T23:22:00.004+07:002019-03-08T23:24:00.055+07:00Covering New GroundHot on the heels of <a href="http://www.cryptoshrugged.com/">CRYPTO SHRUGGED</a> J. Lee Porter and I are working to wrap up the second book in the Bitpats series. This one is called CRYPTO CITIZENS. Naturally, we still are looking at the implications, the political, economic, and social ramifications of implementing blockchain, but this time the issues that come under our microscope are those of citizenship, surveillance (both government surveillance and surveillance capitalism) as the world tries to monitor international travel and implement smart cities.<br />
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As with so many things, smart cities act as a double-edged sword, and the goals set for them, such as being able to adapt to the needs of the people, also mean anticipating those needs, which, in turn require watching how people use the existing resources. When combined with a desire to preserve "order" within a community, the results can be satisfying or terrifying.<br />
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Citizenship is something that is considered a birthright and a privilege, yet it can also be perverted into something more sinister. A person from a certain country is bad, and one from another is good. It's a matter of generalizing so that people are easier to deal with. The problem is that, taken that way, citizenship becomes degrading.<br />
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The natural reaction to that is for people look for ways to have multiple passports, or perhaps none at all. This is a complicated topic, and our new novel can only begin to explore some of the issues involved. But we make a start. And, in future books, we will pursue that more.<br />
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While we edit, <a href="http://www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com/">Elizabeth Mackey</a> designed another wonderful cover for the upcoming book. We are definitely excited and hope you are too.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-61833570183480815802019-02-17T01:05:00.000+07:002019-02-17T01:05:04.077+07:00Mapping the terrainAs part of planning out the trilogy of mysteries I'm writing that feature Ron Anejo I needed to create a map of the island of Kayakoo, where the story takes place. To a certain number of people, my fictional island won't seem quite so fictional, but that's how it goes.<br />
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Kayakoo is located in the West Indies, near the southern end. It is one island of several in the country and not that far from Onion Island, which is a part of St. Voracious. Just a day sail if you are so inclined.<br />
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The boat you see is Ron's Danish fishing boat, MeinGott. Here she is in close up.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-22499555015366605462019-02-13T01:09:00.002+07:002019-02-13T01:09:48.479+07:00Listening in<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm about halfway through the draft of the first of the new stories featuring the world's best Caribbean boat bum, Ron Anejo. While I'm working on those, I wanted to make sure everyone knows that the original story is available in <a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/B00L5E9ZMY/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-019925&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_019925_rh_us">audio</a> as well as ebook and print. Paul Aulridge did a fine job of bringing the story to life and if you prefer listening to reading, give it a try.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And the cover art is by Dagny.</span><br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-70349560453754605252019-02-02T01:21:00.001+07:002019-02-02T04:02:54.385+07:00Improbably Popular, So Maybe Not ImpossibleA number of years ago, when I had a studio in Anaheim, California, I write a song I called AMERICAN DREAM. It was a result of being bombarded with ads and news coverage of the Miss America pageant. I wasn't a fan and so, wrote a tribute to women who didn't fit in the mold—women who didn't wear their hair right; women who used their heads for thinking. (Meaning no disrespect to the women in the pageant who do think... it was just that at the time, that didn't seem to be what won over the judges.)<br />
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I arranged it and recorded it as a rock song. As with so many songs recorded by independents, not just my songs, it went nowhere.<br />
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In more recent times, when my friend Harper John came to visit me in New Mexico. Harper John and I had formed a band in Hong Kong (The Lapsap Blues Band) and even after we went our ways, we collaborated. He went to The Philippines and I was in the Caribbean, almost exactly on opposite sides of the world. Then, when I was in New Mexico, USA, we decided to record an album called WORLDS APART. I came across this song again, and I asked him to sing it. He did and, as he does, he began messing with the lyrics. Soon the song had left the borders of the US and expanded into IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. Indiekline, our new band name, wasn't a rock band, but alternative, sort of folk rock, so the new arrangement was softer, more expressive.<br />
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Still, not much happened with the song (or the album). But Harper John went to Canada and continued to perform it. Eventually his version became a staple in his repertoire. Because he still riffs on it (happily) and writing down the lyrics would be a waste of time. Happily, it gets requested at his performances a surprising number of times. That pleases us both, because it is a song we both like. And his changes, his way of adapting everything he sings to current events and the current mood, keeps it alive.<br />
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Here is a video of him jamming on the song with some friends in Canada. it's as rough as Harper John's attitude. I hope you enjoy it.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6orcPkSTnDY" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Breaking News: Harper John has just entered a very unusual song of his </span><span style="font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kyrie Eleison, Hallelu (an anthem to the universal common soldier) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> in the prestigious SEARCHLIGHT 2019 music contest up in Canada </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.cbcmusicsearchlight.ca/&source=gmail&ust=1549140763936000&usg=AFQjCNELsuTYrQJA1U9OTfTKfwDpJs0meA" href="http://www.cbcmusicsearchlight.ca/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">http://www.<wbr></wbr>cbcmusicsearchlight.ca/</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<br />If you'd like to vote, public voting begins on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, at 3 p.m. ET until Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, at 2:59 p.m. ET. The public can vote once per Posted Song per day during the Opening Round Voting Period.<br />
Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-26089374266662979432019-01-30T04:39:00.000+07:002019-01-30T04:39:16.696+07:00Back to the CaribbeanMy friend and colleague, J. Lee Porter and I have finished the first draft of book two in the Bipats series: <u><b>CRYPTO CITIZENS</b></u>. It follows on the heels of <b><u><a href="http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B07BH5991C" target="_blank">CRYPTO SHRUGGED</a></u></b> and looks at the ramifications of smart cities, surveillance capitalism, and of course, blockchain technology. It is a story of global intrigue and the fight for individual freedom. This story takes place in Mumbai, Ecuador, Singapore, Mexico, Venezuela, and Somalia, as well as the US and Europe and even out on the oceans.<br />
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We are working through the manuscript, and when it's done it will go to the editor and so on, but expect to get it out this year.<br />
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We are hoping to find someone who is interested in this struggle to find a meaningful balance between the implementation of technology and maintaining our individuality to write an introduction. To that end, we are reaching out to some key people. Unfortunately, key people can be difficult to reach, and it is an uphill battle to get them to read unpublished books. But it was ever so.<br />
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Meantime, I'm working on a trilogy of mystery stories that feature my favorite fictional character, Ron Anejo... the hero of my <u><b><a href="http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B0088W4A9O" target="_blank">THE LEGEND OF RON ANEJO</a></b></u>. He's still in the islands, based on the mythical island of Kayakoo at the lower end of the Lesser Antilles, and sailing his old Danish fishing boat, MeinGott. Even his dog Groucho gets involved when, in the first book, a land developer from Miami is killed. The working title for this one is Death by Jumbie Eyes. And if you don't know what jumbie eyes are, they are also called crab-eyed seeds and used in Obeah, the offshoot of voodoo practiced in the Caribbean.<br />
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It will be a fun story. I hope to have all three ready to go midyear.<br />
<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-554375537196483262018-06-01T00:28:00.002+07:002018-06-01T00:28:21.905+07:00Keeping up with the newsH.L. Mencken famously wrote: "Prediction is always difficult, especially about the future." That statement is at once clever, dismissive, and devastatingly true. It's an issue that J. Lee Porter and I face every day as we work on our current project--writing political fiction about the social and political implications and ramifications of emerging technology, specifically, the blockchain.<br />
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The most difficult thing about writing contemporary political novels is the rapid change of real events, Sitting in my comfy chair, it was easy to predict some countries would jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon the same way in, other times, they did on offshore banking. But Belarus? That surprised me.<br />
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If the changes were even linear, they'd be easier to anticipate, but when crypto is demonized one day and lauded the next (albeit a tamed, controlled, centralized version that is hardly cryptocurrency) it's hard to know what the next chain of events will be.<br />
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What we can do, and try to do, is examine the possibilities and dangers of implementing the new technology and the ways it might be implemented--for the <b><i>how</i></b> is a huge factor in the consequences a technology brings. Who controls (to the extent it is controlled) it is another issue. Sometimes, as with GMO food, the public is reassured, falsely, that it is controlled. The masses must be calmed, after all, even though there never was any way to keep genetically modified plants out of the food chain, and quite likely, no intention to do so. So, fiction dealing with that must address that particular deception.<br />
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We have a similar problem in writing about distributed ledger technology, except that it's backward--we are promised the advantages of the blockchain, yet "protected" from the horrors of privacy and no central authority. Happily, those empty, yet threatening promises are great fuel for fiction. Unhappily, they are a real and contentious issue.<br />
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When George Orwell wrote 1984, he envisioned a world that was quite different from the real version, and yet, using fiction as the vehicle, told a story that was startling true. He didn't get all the facts right, but he certainly got to the heart of things. He woke some people up and upset others.<br />
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We hope to do the same with the Bitpats series of books. That's why they are standalone novels in a contemporary universe of our own making.<br />
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And now, I'm supposed to be writing a scene in a Bangkok night market and need to get my head back into the sounds and smells of Thailand.<br />
<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-45482603221912689872018-05-31T03:24:00.000+07:002018-05-31T03:24:03.349+07:00Writing the next bookOnce a book is published, it's important to promote it, and we are doing that as best we can. <a href="http://www.cryptoshrugged.com/" target="_blank">CRYPTO SHRUGGED</a> is out, with reviewers and we are working on advertising.<br />
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More importantly, however, J. Lee Porter and I are at work on the next book in the Bitpats Series... CRYPTO CITIZENS.<br />
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Preserving wealth and privacy are growing more difficult. The emerging technologies are making it harder to do both, but also provide tools for doing it better--the double-edged sword strikes even more fiercely. In this book, The Retinger Occulistica are moving the goal posts for their global strategy even as individuals, and the World Bank, IMF, Interpol, and national governments look to the new tools to increase surveillance and control. They are leveraging convenience and inclusion to convince people to hand over their privacy and freedom without a fight. Meanwhile, Bitpats and free individuals work to preserve their independence and freedom in an increasingly unfree world.<br />
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The challenges are huge, the landscape is global, and the politics grow increasingly intense.<br />
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The book is going well, so if you haven't read CRYPTO SHRUGGED yet, get going so you can enjoy the next standalone story in the series.<br />
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<strong style="word-wrap: break-word;">Now available at:</strong></div>
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<strong style="word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BH5991C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07BH5991C&linkCode=as2&tag=nomadicgiant-20&linkId=b19a47978e741480c0bcaec51e5c6e89" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></strong></div>
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<strong style="word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/book/id1360662531" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Apple iTunes</a></strong></div>
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<strong style="word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/crypto-shrugged-j-lee-porter/1128233232?ean=2940155539636" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a></strong></div>
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<a href="https://www.kobo.com/ebook/crypto-shrugged" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><strong style="word-wrap: break-word;">Rakuten Kobo</strong></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.scribd.com/book/374124316/Crypto-Shrugged-Bitpats-1" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><strong style="word-wrap: break-word;">Scribd</strong></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/crypto-shrugged-bitpats-1/9781386114543-item.html?ref=isbn-search" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><strong style="word-wrap: break-word;">!ndigo</strong></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/ebooks/crypto-shrugged-j-lee-porter-ed-teja/p/9781386114543" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><strong style="word-wrap: break-word;">Angus & Robertson</strong></a></div>
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<strong style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="http://books.mondadoristore.it/Crypto-Shrugged-Ed-Teja-J-Lee-Porter/eae978138611454/" style="color: black; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Mondadori</a></strong></div>
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Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-36099950073418861392018-04-24T22:33:00.004+07:002018-04-24T22:33:43.602+07:00Going Live with CRYPTO SHRUGGED<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We've finally gotten the complete draft of <u>CRYPTO SHRUGGED</u> finished and formatted as an ebook. It includes a foreword by Adam Kokesh (@Adamkokesh) that sets the right tone. As a pragmatic Libertarian running for not President of the United States with the goal of peacefully, responsibly dissolving the federal government, (<a href="mailto:adam@thefreedomline.com">adam@thefreedomline.com</a>) Adam's reading of the book provided some intriguing insights and ideas for us to explore in other books in the series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The book was edited and now Domini Dragoone (<a href="http://www.dominidragoone.com/">www.dominidragoone.com</a>) is doing a stunning layout for the print edition; once we have the final page count Elizabeth Mackey (<a href="http://www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com/">www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com</a>) will be modifying the ebook cover she did for us (below) into one appropriate for the paperback edition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The book has been on preorder, but now, impatient souls that we are, we've moved the launch date up to this Friday, April 27, 2018. You can get it in various ebook formats from <a href="https://amzn.to/2FcMcuO" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://books2read.com/u/3k07vL?store=apple" target="_blank">Apple</a>, <a href="https://books2read.com/u/3k07vL?store=bn" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble (Nook)</a>, <a href="https://books2read.com/u/3k07vL?store=kobo" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/ebooks/crypto-shrugged-j-lee-porter-ed-teja/p/9781386114543" target="_blank">Angus & Robertson</a>, and <a class="" href="http://books.mondadoristore.it/Crypto-Shrugged-Ed-Teja-J-Lee-Porter/eae978138611454/" target="_blank">Mondadori</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The print edition will be along shortly and we plan our first book signing at Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in mid-May where we will be celebrating Jeff and Gigi's wedding along with the launch of the book. It's also another opportunity to research a story, and we have another short story in the works that is based there.</span><br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-9665625507129868212018-03-15T04:59:00.001+07:002018-03-16T20:15:44.348+07:00An online Video with Omar Bham<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Here is a brief interview we did with </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="ProfileHeaderCard-nameLink u-textInheritColor js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/crypt0snews" style="color: #657786; font-size: 21px; line-height: 28px; margin-right: 2px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Omar Bham (Crypt0)</a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="username u-dir" dir="ltr" style="color: #657786; direction: ltr; text-decoration: none; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a class="ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/crypt0snews" style="color: #657786; text-decoration: none !important;">@<span class="u-linkComplex-target">crypt0snews</span></a> while we were at Anarchapulco.</span></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The book is now available for preorder from <a href="http://amzn.to/2Gw4WaF" target="_blank">Amazon</a> at http://amzn.to/2Gw4WaF</span><br />
<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-28324264119106047902018-03-14T23:26:00.000+07:002018-03-16T02:15:00.451+07:00Who Owns You?<h1 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">FREE FICTION FROM NOMADIC GIANT</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">WHO OWNS YOU?</span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">J. Lee Porter</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.999999999999998pt;">Ed Teja</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #00000a; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Published by Nomadic Giant, LLC</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.nomadicgiant.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">www.nomadicgiant.com</span></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #00000a; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Copyright 2018 by Nomadic Giant</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #00000a; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">All Rights Reserved</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #00000a; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This story is fiction. Although the Anarchapulco Conference is real, and real people are inevitably mentioned, the characters in the story and the things they do are solely the product of the authors' overheated imaginations. Any resemblance they have to any persons living or dead, or anything those people might have done, would be a strange coincidence.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">― </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2622245.Lao_Tzu" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Lao Tzu</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/100074" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tao Te Ching</span></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Langley, Virginia, USA</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You want me to go undercover?" Tyler Blake looked at Ralph, his boss. He realized he was blinking stupidly, but then this had to be a joke. He wasn't a spy. "But I analyze white-collar crime."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The man nodded and it made the fat around his neck bulge out. "That makes you perfect for this assignment. You've got the financial and IT background to understand the crypto shit and that will be an important part of the program, and maybe their plans."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"But I've been working at a desk since I finished training. I'm not a field operative."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Listen, Blake, this is the CIA, not a social club. We own your ass, and this is your assignment. You are going undercover at this anarchy conference."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Anarchy conference? They have conferences?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Anarchapulco, they call it. They think they are being fucking clever because it’s held in Acapulco.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"But that’s in Mexico. That's on foreign soil." Somehow that seemed to make it worse, more dangerous. "Don't we already have trained people there?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Sure. But our agent in that location has the flu. We need to replace him."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We have one agent there?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He laughed. "It's fucking Acapulco, Blake. Normally it isn't exactly a hotbed of anti-government activity, but this goddamn Anarchapulco conference being held there is expected to have a couple of thousand anarchists collected there. We need eyes and ears."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"An anarchist convention? That makes no sense."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Still, that's what's going on and the political freaks will be mixing it up with all those cryptocurrency radicals who want to destroy our economy."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler sighed. Ralph was right that his background let him understand cryptocurrencies, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention that he'd shifted most of his own savings into them over the last several years. They’d been his safe haven ever since he lost his ass with silver. He knew it would be pointless to explain that no one was trying to destroy anything, that it was just a matter of the old economy becoming archaic and unwieldy. He sighed. At least that part of the conference could prove interesting. "I suppose I can go, but what exactly do you expect me to do?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Blend in. Schmooze with the ones that seem to be ringleaders and find out if they are planning anything."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Planning anything? Like riots? The conference is in Mexico, after all. Isn't it their problem?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Blake, this antigovernment shit is global. The Mexican government isn't thrilled with these bastards either, but they need the tourist dollars and these people are rich ― they're filling a major resort for a week or more. They aren't going to stop it, but they don't mind us slipping you in there to keep an eye on things."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It sounded easy enough. "No actual spycraft needed then."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Zero. Just make some connections and keep your ears open. How hard could it be?"</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When Tyler came home from work, Alice, his fiancée, was there, listening to the radio. A man was rapping out lyrics to a familiar blues tune.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I got the keys to the Ferrari,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I'm loaded and ready to go,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I'm gonna burn out baby,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the speed limit is too fucking slow."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler flinched then turned it off. Alice glared at him. "Why did you do that?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"It's too awful. Why does that man hate Brownie McGhee so much?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Who?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"That's who wrote the song."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She shrugged. "Then this guy updated it, I guess."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Updated? He ruined it. Why can't he write his own songs to ruin?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"He's a rap star," as if that explained it. "Why are you in such a bad mood?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I'm not," he said, even though he knew he was. Normally he would ignore Alice's dreadful taste in music but today he couldn't. So he told her. "I'm being sent to Mexico on assignment."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Way cool," she said, clapping her hands.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Really?" He told her about the assignment and being sent to Acapulco. "I'll be gone more than a week."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Fantastic."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I thought you'd be upset."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"About going to a resort in Acapulco? Great. We'll have a fantastic time."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We? I'm going on what is the CIA's version of a business trip."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We are talking Acapulco here," she said. "I'm going. Your room will be paid for. We'd just pay my airfare and food."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I'm supposed to be working," he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"It's a conference. You'll be talking to people, drinking in the bar, things like that. It isn't like I'd interfere with any of that. I'd be out at the pool or in the spa."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"It's against protocol," he said. Even as he said it, he knew he was making excuses. The truth was that he didn't want her going along. "I'm supposed to be undercover. You don't take your girlfriend along when you go undercover."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I bet you are just saying that so you don't have to take me."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Her words stung, mostly because she was right. I didn’t want to take her. "So, call Ralph and ask him if it's okay for you to go. If he agrees..."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You ask him."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"No. I'm already on his bad side now."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You are so much on his bad side that he's sending you to a resort in Mexico for a week." She didn't buy his argument at all.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Exactly," Tyler said, knowing that once again he and Alice were tacitly agreeing to disagree. She wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon. Sometimes it seemed like she thought that because they were supposed to get married in a few months that she owned him. That was bothersome, but somehow not surprising. He needed to change that attitude somehow. He wanted a partner, not an owner, but how to undo what he had let happen?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #263238; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Yes, I am 100% anarchist. Anarchy, to me, is a belief that all transactions, all activity, should be voluntary. It is a peaceful philosophy of not forcing anyone to do anything and not allowing anyone else to force you to do anything." </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">― </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #263238; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Jeff Berwick</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #00000a; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Princess Mundo Imperial Hotel</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 17.3pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #263238; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Acapulco, Mexico</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler Blake stood in the lobby outside of the main salon of the Princess Mundo International Hotel in Acapulco and laughed. "Just blend in with the crowd and see what you can learn," his boss had said. He looked at the people around him and wondered which group he was supposed to blend in with. There were men and women in business suits, looking like they'd dropped in from corporate America and others in suits who had more of an academic air about them; there were refugees from the beach in shorts and tee shirts, two women in slinky dresses and platform heels smoking cigarettes and watching the crowd looking like they'd been zapped in from a disco somewhere, and a guy wearing a rainbow-patterned sarong sort of thing that showed incredibly scrawny arms and legs. Still others dressed in an odd assortment of vendor giveaways ― tee shirts with company logos, hats... </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Blend in, indeed.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler had chosen a middle path, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and cargo pants. He'd hoped to be inconspicuous, but no one was. As he began working the crowd, introducing himself briefly, chatting with people, he found that how he was dressed didn't seem to matter to any of them. And they were a mixed lot... farmers and entrepreneurs who had invested in cryptocurrency, business owners interested in reducing regulations, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccine people... a strange mix of true believers of all stripes. As he looked at the literature and eavesdropped it was clear that the attendees of the Anarchapulco conference were only united in one or two ways: they resented government interference in their lives and they had come to party.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Along both sides of the hall, vendors passed out literature and talked about products. The literature was often political, primarily anti-socialist articles, which, according to this group, seemed to include a variety of US government programs; the products primarily associated with cryptocurrency in some form or another. A new crypto tied to silver competed for attention with one that promised secure communications. Another vendor sold hardware wallets. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Hemp and Cannabidiol ― CBD oil," a long-haired guy looking like he just popped in from the sixties said, pointing to literature on his table. "It’s a pain reliever derived from cannabis. The government doesn't want you to know these are good for people and the environment." This guy, at least, was more what Tyler had expected. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I can buy that legally," he pointed out.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Sure, but the prices are jacked way the fuck up because of government regulation. People who need CBD oil can't afford it."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You want to subsidize it?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The man laughed. "Right. That's a government solution, dude. Just set it free." He waved his arms to indicate a bird flying. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler noticed a familiar face on a man standing next to him. He turned and held out a hand. “Mike Maloney, right?” The man nodded and took his hand. “You helped me understand the danger of fiat currency way back.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“I’m glad I could be of help,” he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“I got into silver and kept buying. Of course at $45 an ounce I took a bit of a bath.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Maloney laughed. “Who didn’t? When there is market manipulation all the best theories fall apart.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“That they do.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Other people approached, taking Mike Maloney’s attention and Tyler drifted about, wondering at the amazing people who were there. He saw Roger Ver, whose videos had convinced him to try cryptocurrency when silver and Bitcoin were both $23 investments, as was another precious metals advocate who was taking a closer look at cryptocurrency, David Morgan of the Morgan Report.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Inside the salon, where the speeches were being given, he found more tables, more vendors. A Canadian company mining gold in Mexico, Mexican Gold Corporation had a table across from a company using computers to mine crypto that was announcing a new facility in Iceland. Another wellness company, focused on the things the governments were doing to the water supply, sold filtration systems and passed out information on the dangers of fluoride.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Some of this seemed rather out there to Tyler, yet it was harmless and Ralph had made it clear that he wasn't there to learn about the harmless. He wanted the scoop on conspiracies and frauds.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"International fraud, most of it digital is growing, Tyler," his boss had said. "This conference is putting the political crazies in touch with the guys who are pushing technology in ways we can't control it. I want to know what they are talking about and who is doing the loudest talking."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Doesn't the agency already monitor all these people?" he asked.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Shit yes. And the chatter is all over the place. But you have a finance and tech background ― enough to pick up on the threads of things and see where they lead. You need to identify the code words, the key concepts we need to scan for."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And so, here Tyler was, staying in a five-star resort on the taxpayers' dime, trying to filter through the chaos of complaints about government intervention. The irony wasn't lost on him that without the anarchists, he'd be at home, dealing with snow in wintry Virginia.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The tricky part of his job certainly wasn't finding suspicious conversations. Hell, the 'plots,' as his boss at Langley saw them, were all over the place. All you had to do to get involved in discussions of political intrigue was to say hello in a bar. The problem was... most of the schemes he overheard or was told outright were not, in any way, shape or form, illegal. For some of the things that were emerging, such as the myriad applications of tokens and blockchain, there weren't any laws concerning them at all. The people at the IRS might see them as ways to avoid taxes, but even they hadn't agreed on a clear definition of what cryptocurrency was ― securities, real property, or money. So, there wasn't much to report.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Besides, Ralph was mostly concerned with the political, the radicals who wanted to be able to travel without passports, or other nefarious things. Yet, as he sat in on lectures, as he drank with people in the bar during breaks, he began to realize that almost without exception the 'anarchists' he was meeting weren't plotting anything. They were individually and, at times collectively, seeking out ways to be left alone. Some of the methods might be sketchy, or even marginally legal, but there was no insurrection intended. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Blockchain frees us from the central control of the government," the communications people told him. While Ralph and his superiors would fear that, and certainly hate it, it was hardly a revolution. More of a sidestep around things, like dropping out and moving to Tahiti without telling anyone.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler found himself liking these people. Well, some were crazies of course, but harmless enough. Many were good business people trying to make money ― and they seemed to be doing that. And the vendors were like vendors anywhere. They had a product that they thought suited whatever the hell demographic this was.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">One vendor, in particular, caught his attention. Two attractive women who were running a booth wore black tee shirts that said "DateChain" on them. It was, he learned a startup. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We are having our initial coin offering in a couple of months," a dark-haired lady told him. She had a name tag that said 'Tara' and appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Coin offering?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We are using blockchain to provide a secure escort service," she said, sounding very matter-of-fact. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Escort service?" That caught him off guard.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She nodded. "Worldwide."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"But that's illegal," he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She laughed. "You must be American. In many places it's a perfectly legal activity," she said with a smile. "In others, only solicitation is illegal, not prostitution."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"But your website..."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We aren't located in any country. We are in the blockchain."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"But you have to based somewhere." </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Sure. But there are countries where both prostitution and cryptocurrency are recognized and permitted. That's where our servers are, so that's where we are."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler scratched his head. "But..."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She handed him a brochure. "Go to the investor's website and read up. Think about the company and come back with any questions." She handed him a business card. "Tara Hutchins, President, DateChain."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler looked at her. "It's your company?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Partly. I'm a founder and president."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"That's surprising," he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Why? It shouldn't be. Escorts have to be business people."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">That made a lot of sense. "But a company is rather visible, isn't it. I thought you'd want to stay below the radar." Radar, meaning people like him who were paid to notice.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She shrugged. "We are changing things. Asserting our rights."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Your rights?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"The right to ownership of our bodies and lives. Why should a government have the right to say what a free individual does with her own body? They let people get in a ring an bash each other's brains out on pay-per-view; people can screw their brains out and it's fine, but if a woman or a man wants to be paid for providing their body to give another human sexual pleasure some governments think they have the right to prevent that ― to make it against the law. It's the majority enslaving the minority."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"So it's a political statement?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"It's a business, but there is inherently a political implication to almost every business. In this case, it's the idea that people own themselves. Our company helps escorts work safely. We are doing this for ourselves."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She smiled. "I'm an escort," she said. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">For reasons he didn't understand, her answer stunned him.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Back in his room, Tyler Blake took Tara's advice. He was an analyst and she'd given him a lot to analyze. He opened his laptop to research her initial coin offering but before he could go to the website, he saw that he had an email from his boss.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Find anything to report?" it asked.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He hit reply. "I've met a bunch of people who don't like to be regulated in any way, and some very new age people saving the world with yoga. Not much else." Then he hit reply. He knew that would inspire a tart response telling him to dig deeper for his country, but that was okay. He could ignore it. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There was also an email from Alice but he wasn't in a mood to read it. Maybe he'd check it out later.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He went to the DateChain website and started reading. He hadn't paid a lot of attention to ICOs in general. In fact, he realized that he didn’t know anything about them. He needed someone to help him understand why they were happening, popping up across the financial landscape like wildflowers. Certainly they were tied in with the companies using blockchain to do business, but a coin offering wasn’t essential to doing that.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Given that the resort was lousy with garrulous experts, Tyler went downstairs to find one. He went into the Starbucks and got a coffee and took it outside to the breezeway, where there were chairs and tables where small groups of people were talking while they enjoyed their coffee and pastries or sandwiches. He recognized a young guy he’d seen at the booth for one of the wellness companies that was somehow involved with blockchains. As he walked over to the table, the man smiled up at him and pointed to an empty chair. “How’s it going?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“I’m getting a little confused by all the terminology,” Tyler told him as he sat, thankful that the man saved him the trouble of prying. “Your company, for instance… you are going to have an ICO, and initial coin offering.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“That’s right.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Why not an IPO? They are well understood by investors.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The man smiled. “Because when you have an IPO you hold it in a country and immediately become tied up with all their rules and regulations about securities. With an ICO we are free of that. And why would a company making tee shirts in Guatemala and selling them in Ecuador want to get burdened with that, or with US taxes, if you follow your logic and go where the investors are.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Okay, I can see that. Tax and regulation avoidance.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The man grinned. “Besides, who makes money in an IPO? Mostly it goes to the lawyers and the bank that underwrites it. And small investors are cut out of the action.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“The idea is to protect everyone involved,” Tyler said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The man laughed. “So the same government that doesn’t care if you lose half your paycheck in taxes and gamble the rest away in Vegas feels the need to protect you from getting into the early stage of an investment that your instincts tell you is a great opportunity?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler laughed. “That’s not the intention, I suspect.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“At best, all that does is protect the poor while allowing the rich the first shot at real money making opportunities. Protecting people from risk, protects them from the rewards too. So, in our case, we think average people will see value in our company, and that value can be greater without government interference. The only I way I know of to allow investment and still be free is through an ICO. And as a bonus, with companies like ours, you are protected from the failure of a fiat currency.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“A small investor can buy silver or gold,” Tyler pointed out. They offer protection.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Only if the government doesn’t confiscate it.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Why would they do that?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“The reason isn’t important, not as important as the fact that they’ve done that before.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“When?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“In 1933. Executive Order 6102. Franklin D. Roosevelt decided that hoarding precious metals was making the recession worse. That was all it took. He implemented it under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. So, thinking they wouldn’t do it is foolish. A better play is to invest in mining companies outside the US. There are some here, and some that are truly decentralized. Even if the effort to suppress this became global, if they want to try confiscating a real decentralized cryptocurrency, best of luck to them. If they go after the owners, well, it would be like trying to arrest smoke.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">As he thought over what the man said, Tyler’s cell phone beeped. He glanced at it and saw an Inclement Weather Alert. “Massive snowstorm blankets Virginia.” He swiped it away and saw the home page with a picture of the sun, and the notation that it was 78 degrees in Acapulco. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Problem?” the man asked.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Just cold weather hitting Virginia hard and making me glad I’m here.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Wow, Virginia. Home of the CIA.” Tyler flinched. “Makes me wonder,” the man said… “a conference like this going on… how many Feds you think they’ve sent to keep track of us?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Suddenly Tyler tensed. “What makes you think they’ve sent Feds here?” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“They always hate what they don’t control,” the man said. “I mean, think about the fact that what we are doing isn’t legal or illegal. It’s something new, something they don’t understand. Like I said, they’ll have their hands full trying to stop cryptocurrency and business based on blockchain from taking over. They have to know that. So my guess is that the people who still pay taxes are funding a bunch of black shoes to come here for fun in the sun ― and there is nothing useful they can learn.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler was wearing sandals and still had to resist looking at his own feet. “Well, they do collect data.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“And sit around with us, people here on our own dime trying to do business, or understand the nuances and developments. The way you are. They send spies to listen to people having honest discussions and taxpayers, who can’t afford to stay here, pay for it all.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The truth struck home and made Tyler uncomfortable. The man was sharing information openly. Everyone here was. He finished his coffee. “Well, thanks for the education. I didn’t think about a lot of those things before.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The man handed him a card. “The investor information is on the website if you decide it might be safer with us than in fiat currency.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler put it in his pocket. “Well, I will definitely take that under advisement.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">With new insights spinning about in his head, Tyler went back to his room and returned to the Datechain website. He read with his usual thoroughness and was impressed. The incredibly businesslike discussion of what he had always thought of as part of the dark underbelly of commerce struck him as incongruous if not just plain weird. Although it mentioned escorts providing services for their clients, it left the details to the imagination of the reader. The discussion was of how the platform would act as a broker, a go-between that ensured good customer service, a quality experience. Clients had to create a profile and could pay in cryptocurrency or cash. The service provided a date book, much like the one in the major dating services, where a client could learn about prospective escorts in the area.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The most remarkable page, to Tyler, was the one written to explain to escorts how to sign up and use the service. They had to prove they were over nineteen to ensure there was no sex trafficking. Then they created a profile and could list specialties. They'd be able to see ratings of clients provided by other escorts and there were multiple levels of screenings of the clients they could choose from.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The key word that he kept coming back to was 'choice.' The lectures on libertarianism were naturally about freedom of choice, and now he began to see why Tara and her company were here at this conference. He had begun to see that the appeal would be to investors looking for both innovation and a chance to work in the shadows. This business proposal had a definite political dimension to it ― the company fully intended to work around the laws of individual nations. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The way they were going about it was clever. Clearly, the same approach would work for so many things where crime was relative ― the idea that something illegal was a national, regional or even local proposition, not something like murder that could be universally frowned on. With so many places legalizing marijuana and the network of global tax deals so complex, this was fertile ground. This, Tyler was certain, was what unnerved the authorities and was exactly the sort of thing that his own boss wanted to hear about.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The trick was that the company, it's formation, was perfectly legal and unless they carried out business where it was illegal, there wasn't much a government could do about it; even then they could only prosecute the illegal activities in their own area.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Clearly the women who were signing up were treating their work as a business. And the ones already on the site, the examples, were beautiful.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The next day by the time he reached her table in the conference room, Tyler had several questions buzzing in his head. "You've done such a thorough job of researching and planning...why not use this model for a business that doesn't run afoul of local laws?" he asked.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tara laughed. "Name a business that doesn't run afoul of local laws and regulations. Most just consider it a cost of doing business. Think of the legal battles Amazon and Google fight in Europe and China. We prefer to be more off the radar and decentralized. That way no government can demand we defend what we are doing, which is simply marketing something we own."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And the escorts that join your service all feel that way?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I wouldn't know," she said. "I imagine some of them just see us as a way to reach the right clientele and, not incidentally, keep a larger portion of the fee she negotiates. We take a transaction fee, not the huge cut a pimp or escort service demands. Each person will have her own reasons, her own philosophy. We don't care what that is as long as they adhere to our standards and our business practices."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I'm trying to understand," he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The room was quiet for the moment. Tara turned to the other woman, Eileen. "I'm taking a break." The woman nodded. "Let's go get a coffee," she told Tyler. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The offer surprised him, but then he found himself constantly being surprised in this crowd. He'd expected that he'd be treated as an outsider, that no one would talk to him seriously until he'd somehow proven himself. That was the way covert groups operated. Instead, it was more common to have some business type walk up, offer him a beer, and shout, "Hey, fuck the government, right?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It had his head swimming.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He followed Tara to an outdoor buffet restaurant where they took a table in the sun and ordered coffee. Nervous blackbirds were dancing around, lurking on the umbrellas of nearby tables and making forays to attack unprotected plates and returning with bits of bread, fruit, or pastries. They looked well fed.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Why are you here, at this conference?" she asked him. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The question surprised him and his body tensed. Was she onto him? Had his naive questioning blown his cover? "To learn," he said. "I've heard so much about this movement."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She laughed. "There's no movement."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"No? You get fifteen hundred people to go to Mexico to talk politics and technology and there's no agenda."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She shrugged and put sweetener in her c0ffee. He watched her long fingers holding the spoon as she stirred it. Something about the image transfixed him and it took a few moments to realize that he was trying to reconcile the idea that this woman he was chatting with was an escort and an entrepreneur. Actually, he was trying to reconcile his preconceptions of both. He didn't know any entrepreneurs, and he doubted he knew any escorts. He'd never hired one.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Are the people who go to computer shows a movement?" she asked. "Are people who share an idea necessarily a movement? It doesn't seem inherent to holding a convention. I'm here because these people are more likely to support my company than investors at large, and a good number of the attendees are filthy rich. Other people are here for much the same reason. If you want to learn about the principles or theories the people espouse you'd do better to stay home and read their books and watch their videos. They are glad to tell anyone who will listen what they stand for, and why."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She sat back and tasted the coffee. "Should've walked over to the Starbucks next to the main lobby," she said. "This is weak."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler looked at her, wondering. She made it sound so simple. "Okay, forget the others and political agendas for the moment," he said. Hearing himself talking he realized how far he was getting from the mission he'd been sent to accomplish. Tara and her company might eventually get entangled with law enforcement, and perhaps criminals were involved with the operation, but he was looking for networks of radicals, operatives. This was just his own curiosity.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"There is a theme to most people's motives for coming here," she said. "Including mine. I'm doing what it takes to free myself and the other escorts from the control of pimps, criminal organizations, in which I include governments." She pointed to herself. "This is my body. Like I told you before, it isn't right that they have a damn thing to say about how I use it. If I want to monetize sex, sell my body, that's between me and my client. My company makes it possible to do that more safely and without bribing cops or other crooks."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"If I didn't know better I'd say you were a tad cynical about cops."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"They've not done much to make my life easier, Tyler. They tend to think they own other people, just as other people in authority do. Not all of them, but enough. It's the way they are taught."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He turned the conversation back to her business, still curious. The more Tyler learned, the more the business model intrigued him. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She laughed. "You are either deciding whether or not to invest or thinking of applying for a job."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He joined her laughter. "It probably sounds like that."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Well, if it's your thing, and your questions about financial matters make me think it might be, I want you to know that we need a new chief financial officer for DateChain. The woman acting as our CFO at the moment is part-time. She has a full-time gig at an investment bank. That's worked well up to now, but at this point in our roadmap the investors want to see a real staff. If you think you are looking for a new opportunity and a challenge, send me your resume. As you can imagine, we will have a challenging few years ahead of us."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Two things about that statement shocked Tyler. The first was that someone that high up in the financial food chain had been working with Tara's company, even just helping out. The second was that he found himself actually considering it for a moment, picturing himself pulling this company together, financially. What a challenge that would be, and his experience with international monetary systems, studying the ins and outs of financial transfers, made him an ideal candidate. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And Tara was serious. She was staring at him, waiting for a reply.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I…" before he got the words out, he was assaulted by a huge splat of bird shit that landed on the leg of his shorts. "Damn," he said, grabbing a napkin and wiping at it, mostly spreading it around. "I'm going to have to go change clothes."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tara was laughing. "That was priceless," she said. "Listen, I'm leaving in an hour. We've already checked out and need to get back and sort out some things." She stood and put a hand on his. It sat there, light, warm, sending a tingle through him. "Filling that job is important, so if you think you might be right for it and are interested, get in touch. If you know someone else good, have them contact me."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Then she left. Tyler put the charge on his room bill, amused at the idea of the CIA paying for her coffee, then he went to his room and changed.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When he rejoined the conference it was with more questions than ever, and few, if any, had to do with uncovering terrorist attacks or assaults on the republic that was The United States of America.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">At the break, he saw Jeff Berwick, the founder of The Dollar Vigilante, the conference organizers. He walked up to him and shook his hand. “I’m new to this, Mr. Berwick, but it’s an impressive conference.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“It is,” Berwick said, obviously pleased. “It’s growing like crazy. I never imagined it this big and next year it will be bigger.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">On the flight back to Virginia, Tyler found himself digesting everything he'd seen and heard. He would have to make a detailed report, and the powers that be would be unhappy that he hadn't uncovered some group planning an armed revolt, so they'd question him.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And when it was over, they'd send him back to reviewing stock trades, spreadsheets, and bank transfers, looking for the evidence of money being used to finance terrorist cells. He sat back in the seat, looking out at puffy white clouds in a clear, blue sky and, for the first time, thought about the people the records belonged to. He was making a career out of snooping into what were largely legitimate transactions, the financial records of people who had done nothing wrong. There was no 'presumed innocence' in his office. Everything was suspicious until proven otherwise. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">His plane landed on time, and during the taxi ride from the airport, he thought of the people he'd met. They'd been a cross-section of people, from all walks of life, who were attempting to assert their right to be free. Through political action, through taking charge of their own financial future, through eating right and paying attention to wellness, they were taking ownership of their lives.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And he was the enemy ― of their independence, of their financial security, of their freedom to live without scrutiny.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Langley, Virginia, USA</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When he got home he found Alice waiting for him. Her expression told him that his welcome would be exactly what he had expected, had feared. She'd been mad when he left, and her anger at being left behind hadn't abated. It didn't help that he'd ignored her messages. In the context of that conference, he couldn't bring himself to deal with them, with her issues. Too many new ideas had been exploding in his head to deal with old baggage.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I hope you are intending to take me out to dinner," she said. "You owe me."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Why is that?" he asked. For once, her forceful assertion didn’t upset him. He found it odd and illogical. "Assuming I had a grand time in Mexico while you dealt with a snowstorm, why does that mean I owe you anything?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Because..." She wasn’t able to finish the thought. Finally, an idea came to her. “Because I’m your fiancée.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I'll take you out," he told her, "because I want to eat out and so do you. I don’t accept that I owe you a dinner or anything else."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She was silent, but something in her eyes told him she wasn't satisfied with his attitude. At some point, the relationship with her had gone terribly wrong; only now did he begin to understand what it was. "You’re mad at me,” he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Hurt and upset. Not mad. You don’t act like you love me."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Doing what someone tells you to because you are afraid of upsetting them isn’t love. Demanding that another person think only of your happiness, even when it costs them their own, isn’t an act of love either.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“You went off without me.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Yes, I did.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Her look changed to confusion and he knew she was wounded. He didn’t want to deliberately hurt her feelings, but he no longer was going to let her dictate how he felt and what he did. And, if she was hurt, at least it kept her quiet that night.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When they got back to the apartment that night she came onto him, using the sex card. Because the idea pleased him, he made love to her but found it remarkably unsatisfactory.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">His entire existence with Alice was unsatisfactory and he saw that it was nothing he'd ever sought; he'd just let it happen, let it evolve. That had to change.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The next morning he learned that his boss Ralph was as disappointed in him as Alice. "You brought me shit," he said. "There isn't anything actionable in any of it."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Was I supposed to make something up? None of the people I talked to or overheard wanted to do anything to damage the US government. The most they wanted was to find ways to withdraw from its control, to assert their ownership of their own lives."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And how is a republic supposed to function if everyone does that? That undermines the system."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"The point is, not playing the game isn't illegal. If someone goes to Amsterdam and smokes pot, it isn't illegal."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Ralph's face grew red. "Damn it, you know what I mean."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler looked at him. "Actually, Ralph, I don't think I do. In fact, I'm not sure you know what you mean. I get that you are frustrated that these people aren't doing anything illegal to accomplish a goal you are against, but I don't see what we are supposed to do about that."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"We aren't cops, Tyler. We don't enforce the laws. Sometimes we break them to keep this country safe."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The idea startled him. "Really? Then who are we keeping it safe for? The people you want me to find things on are citizens too. If we have a democracy and they all voted to abolish the government then from a legal point of view, that's the will of the people and we'd be out of work."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"That's just hyperbolic political rhetoric," Ralph said. "They just want to run things."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You mean like the Democrats and Republicans?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Don't be a wise-ass, Blake. Your career is on thin ice as it is. Go write a full report and give me something I can use or you will be counting paper clips for the next 20 years if you have a job at all."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Back at his desk, Tyler took out his notes and read them over. There were things he could take out of context that would please his boss, but as he read over them, he pictured the people who were talking, remembered who and what they were. Ralph wanted him to construct a context that would allow them to be investigated. That had to change too.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He switched on his computer and typed: "Report on Anarchapulco 2018. Met some fascinating people. Had a good time. Drank too much. Ron Paul's speech was pretty cool and probably rather subversive, although everything he said is in his books already. The resort was lovely, but overpriced and the trip was a waste of taxpayer money."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">At the bottom, he typed: "P.S. I quit."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He picked up his personal phone and dialed a number</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">he'd memorized. "Hello, Tara, it's Tyler Blake… from the conference."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Well, well. That was quick." She sounded happy to hear from him.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I just sent you my resume. I'd like to talk about the CFO job you mentioned."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I'm actually reading it now, Tyler. Very, interesting background. Given your current employment, now I understand why you were interested in movements that might be meeting in Mexico."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And I learned there weren't any."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"No? You seemed to feel differently in Mexico."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"There weren’t any of the kind I was sent to find. None worth mentioning in my report. As a result of that report, I need to warn you that my current employer isn't likely to give me a recommendation. And I just quit."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">She laughed. "They didn't like what you learned."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Not in the least. They expected certain results and I didn't come through."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Well, I’m not likely to call human resources at Langley for a reference. But what happens if I don't hire you? I feel like I’ve led you on."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Not at all. If this doesn’t work out then I'll have to take my freedom elsewhere. There are tons of startups. None as interesting to me as yours.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“What makes my company so attractive?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“I think that the legal and personal freedom aspects will make for an amazing challenge that would be fun to tackle."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Fun?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Yes. I've decided to start having fun."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Good for you. So, are you ready to travel? Starting now? We need to set up some business centers in Europe."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He thought about Alice for a few, long seconds. He thought about the things in his apartment... his possessions. They meant nothing. "I'm ready. I don't have anything keeping me here."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And you can help secure our records?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"My current employment has given me reasonable amount of experience in keeping financial and any other records away from prying eyes."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You know the pay will be small to start. We are putting the money in the business."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"The pay isn't important. I'm counting on getting tokens and I'm pretty sure they are going to be worth a bundle very quickly."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There was a pause. "Are you sure you want to be a major player in a business that is actively looking for the shadowy areas of international law? You do understand that, right?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"I've given it a lot of thought and yes." </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Then you are hired." The sigh of relief that escaped his lips surprised him. "I'll send you an e-ticket and we will meet in London in two days. We have an investor meeting there."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Fantastic."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And congratulations."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Thanks. I'll do a great job."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Oh, I know that. You'll work your ass off for us. I meant congratulations on deciding you have the right to own yourself."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">A sudden rush of happiness ran through him. "Thank. It feels fantastic," he said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Then I’ll see you in London.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">As he hung up, Ralph stormed into his office waving a printout. It was the report he'd filed. "What the fuck is this, Blake? What the hell is going on? Is this some kind of joke."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You always said the agency owned me, Ralph. I just reclaimed the title to my life. Now I own myself... for better or worse."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"What the hell do you mean?"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"It's all about freedom, Ralph."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And you were sent to protect America's freedom."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Real freedom is all about ownership, Ralph. Think about it. Who owns you? If the government or the agency owns you, you aren't really free."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You were infected by those fucking communists."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Communists don't like free individuals, Ralph. Neither does the agency, so I'm quitting."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You will regret this. There will be a black mark on your record."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tyler doubted it very much. "Maybe I will, Ralph. But if I do, at least I'll regret making my own mistakes, not that of a faceless agency." He took out his ID and slid it across the desk. "You'll want these."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"You're quitting right now? Today?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"There's no time like the present." He stood, feeling oddly lightheaded. The feeling would pass, of course. Reality would descend on him to remind him that he hadn't solved all of his problems, that maybe he had made his life harder, but that was all right. It was his hard life ― he'd own it for good or evil. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The first task was to face Alice and tell her the truth. He needed to tell her that she didn’t own him, that he didn’t recognize her claim on him. He would tell her that he was packing to leave forever. However that went down, he was going to London, to his future. He wanted to take a look at the company's organization and its books so he could see how things needed to be structured... He was thinking of ways to do international business via blockchain and keep the organization off the radar ― all radars except that of investors, clients, and escorts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There was so much to do, and every bit of it exciting when you knew who owned you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">J. LEE PORTER</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">J. Lee Porter is a former IT specialist, programmer and data analyst for banking, security, and government agencies. He left the IT world behind on July 4th, 2016, declaring it his personal independence day to travel the world full time in search of inspiration for his writing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">@JLPorterAuthor on Twitter</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ED TEJA</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Ed Teja is a writer a poet, a musician and boat bum. He writes about the places he knows, and the people who live in the margins of the world. After being friends with tech giants, pirates, fisherman, and a coterie of strange people for many years, he finds the world an amazing place filled with intriguing, if sometimes crazed characters.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">@ETeja</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> on Twitter</span></div>
<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-15665787531120751392018-02-18T02:13:00.001+07:002018-02-18T02:13:26.082+07:00Anarchapulco 2018So I'm at the Princess Mundo Imperial Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico talking to anarchists, freethinkers of various passions, crypto people... an amazing cross-section of people who are basically united and talking about taking back individual liberty--from governments, from a lifetime of bad habits, from anything that constrains them. It's all fodder for the books and our own minds. These people are a cast of characters that don't come together often. Even Dr. Ron Paul was here, and a lot of people aren't convinced the major earthquake that struck just before his speech was a coincidence. (Joke).<br />
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Here the earthquake had the buildings swinging but there didn't seem to be any serious damage.<br />
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It's a beautiful venue and heady talks are taking place. We've been talking to people about our book series (the first one comes out in May) and hearing enthusiasm for the project. It will be in preorder for a time before that launch and I'll let you know when we get to that point.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico16.8531086 -99.82365329999998916.6099391 -100.14637679999998 17.0962781 -99.5009298tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-33359797027182479192018-02-03T22:51:00.003+07:002018-02-03T22:51:53.321+07:00Medellin, ColombiaI've talked about the research we did in Colombia and shared some photos, but I might not have said much about how impressive Medellin is. It's a clean and incredibly modern city. The traffic sucks, but they have an efficient metro system and plentiful taxis that aren't expensive.<br />
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Much of the time we stayed a section of the city called Laureles that was a wonderfully walkable part of town. There were shops of all sorts, from small tiendas to large malls -- all within a few blocks of us. Better yet, we frequented a delightful Cuban restaurant that offered five-year old Cuban rum.<br />
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The hotel we stayed in had a nice breakfast area in the picture below. Often I would set up my computer in the morning and work on our short story <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079DC4FG6" target="_blank">INVISIBLE FORTUNE</a> that came out of the days we spent in Cartagena. My coauthor <a href="https://www.amazon.com/J.-Lee-Porter/e/B079DGS7HF" target="_blank">J. Lee Porter</a> and I would pass the drafts back and forth until we were happy with them.<br />
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As both of us tend to be early risers, we could often have a story conference over breakfast. Get the work stuff out of the way and explore. If you aren't a writer, chatting about the plot of a crime story might not seem the stuff of breakfast conversation, but it worked well for us. And we needed to make sure that the story fits in, in terms of tone and style, with the Bitpats novel series we are writing. The first book, <u>CRYPTO SHRUGGED</u> is coming in May and you can read about the series at <a href="http://www.nomadicgiant.com/" target="_blank">Nomadic Giant.</a><br />
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As you can see, this neighborhood is tree-lined and pleasant. Every morning the shopkeepers were out sweeping the sidewalks and keeping everything nice. And given that this picture was taken in January, you can see that it's a perfect place for escaping snow and ice. We understand that the temperature doesn't vary that much year round.<br />
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Medellin is above 5000 feet and in a valley surrounded by mountains. Rather idyllic. We will certainly be tempted to return there.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia6.244203 -75.5812118999999715.991664 -75.903935399999966 6.4967419999999994 -75.258488399999976tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-38940036769608754742018-01-31T01:45:00.002+07:002018-01-31T01:45:52.751+07:00A new short story -- a new fiction genreRemember that picture of Cartagena, Colombia that I showed in my last post? Well, now it is the cover photo for a short story that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/J.-Lee-Porter/e/B079DGS7HF" target="_blank">J. Lee Porter</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ed-Teja/e/B001K8HYZU" target="_blank">I </a>wrote. The idea came to us while exploring the walled city and we wrote most of it right there in Colombia, although I'll confess we wrote a lot of it in Medellin, then I went back to Cartagena to double check some important details.<br />
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<b>"Invisible Fortune"</b> is a crime (short) story. It's a story about expats in South America. It's a story about cryptocurrency. In fact, we think it's the first crime story that involves cryptocurrency. And now it's on pre-order on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Fortune-cryptocurrency-Lee-Porter-ebook/dp/B079DC4FG6/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517336744&sr=1-3&keywords=Invisible+Fortune" target="_blank">Amazon</a>. It will be in the Kindle Unlimited program and available for 99 cents. For less than a buck (free if you are in KU) you can get a little over 10,000 words of suspense, intrigue, technological mayhem, and sheer fun in a brand new genre.<br />
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Just click on the book cover below and order it for delivery on February 9th--soon!<br />
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What could be easier?</div>
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This story will give you a taste, just a morsel of what is in store for you when we unleash CRYPTO SHRUGGED in May of this year (that's 2018 in case you don't have a calendar handy.) The novel will be more political, more incendiary, more technology, more of everything. It's a cyber, crypto, thriller.<br />
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Stay in touch with our efforts here, and at <a href="http://www.nomadicgiant.com/" target="_blank">Nomadic Giant Publishing</a>. Just follow the friendly nomadic giant wherever he goes and you will get to a lot of interesting places... promise. Here he is.<br />
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<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-20199286951771697592018-01-27T01:53:00.000+07:002018-01-27T01:53:54.795+07:00A Story from CartagenaThis is part of the old Spanish wall that was built around the city of Cartagena, Colombia between the late 1500 and 1796. It was intended to keep the Caribbean pirates out--and Johnny Depp wasn't even born yet.<br />
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When J. Lee Porter and I were visiting Cartagena this month (Jan 2018) it inspired us as a location for a story about an expat. The character we came up with is not a typical expat, nor a good person, but sometimes justice prevails. It's also a story within the theme of cryptocurrency that we are using for the novels in progress. We are looking at the disruptive nature of the technology, not just on finance, but on people's lives. Change, disruption, brings good and bad, and you don't get to choose which parts you want and which you can ignore. It's a complete package.</div>
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A number of institutions and moralists will (and are) argue that cryptocurrency is a spawn of the devil because bad people use it. That's quite true. Any innovation gets used and the intentions of the inventor don't necessarily get taken into account. That doesn't make the invention bad. Henry Ford wasn't a serial hit and run artist, to the best of my knowledge.</div>
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At any rate, this story will be out soon (published by Nomadic Giant https://www.nomadicgiant.com). Besides the fact that we got inspired and just started writing the story in Colombia--it just came bursting out, we love the idea that we will have something tangible to give you a taste of where we are going with the Bitpats series. Just a taste, mind. The scope of a short story is far different than that of a novel, and even further removed from that of a series of books.</div>
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We will be in Mexico next month, at the Anarchapulco Conference -- yup, it's a real thing (https://anarchapulco.com), where issues around cryptocurrency and personal freedom are bandied about. It should be a great deal of fun and education as well. Should be grist for the mill.</div>
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Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-61140010720883455992018-01-12T18:40:00.001+07:002018-01-12T18:53:15.106+07:00Hunting LocationsA sense of place is important to my stories. Incorporating the textures, sounds, essences of a place is part of my writing process. I'm in Medellin Colombia this week, with my coauthor J. Lee Porter, learning all we can for the series of techno-thrillers we have in the works.<br />
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Yesterday we took a trip up to Santo Domingo, high above the city.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7Pq1HDAAes0/WlifhtsDLiI/AAAAAAAAalI/ouSMT8LPZPEMXA7VIG1KAXKDL5pW2yqCQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180111_102315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7Pq1HDAAes0/WlifhtsDLiI/AAAAAAAAalI/ouSMT8LPZPEMXA7VIG1KAXKDL5pW2yqCQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_20180111_102315.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
While it might not seem the most interesting area for tourists, when we got off the areal tram ride, and even going over it, the clusters of homes, the personalization visible even among similar places, made me think of the people living there. Now there is no way I can put myself in their shoes, but being here made me realize that it was a great place for the action in Book two of our work in progress. So I'll be going back to learn more.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gLGaEFiuu8M/WlifhstOAhI/AAAAAAAAalI/ZHsjj_k3518vg7yyx-VBJE7t0YNhTUBoQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180111_110200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gLGaEFiuu8M/WlifhstOAhI/AAAAAAAAalI/ZHsjj_k3518vg7yyx-VBJE7t0YNhTUBoQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_20180111_110200.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h3FezQ6oMtc/Wlifr3n-dAI/AAAAAAAAalM/54TJ-hIHMuQa0AEkAuHYFYERFiuyOp9HQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180111_103434.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h3FezQ6oMtc/Wlifr3n-dAI/AAAAAAAAalM/54TJ-hIHMuQa0AEkAuHYFYERFiuyOp9HQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_20180111_103434.jpg" width="180" /></a>The cable run is 4000 meters long with four stations dotting the run as it comes up from the metro station.</div>
<br />Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-13137951824595833082017-12-28T01:35:00.000+07:002017-12-28T01:35:14.840+07:00The different faces of fishing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The photo above is one I took in Vietnam. We were there a short time, in 2012 and didn't get much chance to hang out with the fishermen. I regret that.<div>
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I'm intrigued by the similarities and differences of rural peoples, and in particular, fishermen, which is curious, because I'm lousy at fishing. Fishing villages and the fishing folk are far more interesting to me than tourist destinations. <div>
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Dagny (who catches far more fish than I) and I spent one of our years in Venezuela, a little more than that, actually, living among the scattered fishing villages along the north coast of the Golfo de Carriaco. We became friends with the fishing families and learned to respect their craft, their lives. </div>
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The picture below is me (at the motor) and T-Bone Fisher out in my penero on the Golfo... on the way back from making a beer run to Cumana. I bought a 40HP Suzuki, much to the disdain of the fishermen who are big Yamaha fans. Although we left long ago, and T-Bone is (I think) dead now, the boat and motor are still there.<div>
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On the trip to Colombia that starts next week, I intend to visit a fishing village. I expect it will similar to the ones in Venezuela, but there will be differences. Those differences will be important to Book Two in the series I'm writing with J. Lee Porter, as some of the story will take place there. I'm looking forward to the adventure and brushing up on my fisherman Spanish.</div>
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I'm excited about that. </div>
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Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0Cartagena, Cartagena Province, Bolivar, Colombia10.3910485 -75.47942569999997910.266106 -75.640787199999977 10.515991 -75.318064199999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-79503565105719610012017-12-22T00:39:00.000+07:002017-12-22T02:51:56.916+07:00Headed South to Stare at the FutureOn the first of January, I'll be getting on a place for Cartagena, Colombia, by way of Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale. After a few days there I'll be going to Medellin for a couple of weeks before retracing my steps. This trip has three objectives. The first one is that I'll meet up with J. Lee Porter for our first face-to-face meeting. He and I are working on an exciting project--a series of novels about the way Cryptocurrency is changing the world, focusing on the ways people, governments, and institutions (regulators, banks, law enforcement agencies...) respond to its benefits and threats. It's also about how people who are unwilling to relinquish their freedoms fight back.<br />
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It's been going along well, but it's going to be great to sit down and talk over some facets. The world is changing faster than we could imagine and much of what we thought would come to pass soon is happening already.<br />
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We've got a great team helping us with the books... a pro cover designer <span style="background-color: white;">(<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Elizabeth Mackey</span>) and interior designer (<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588); font-family: "roboto" , "robotodraft" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Domini Dragoone) </span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.870588);"><span style="font-family: inherit;">will make the books even better. Elizabeth has already done the ebook cover for the first book: CRYPTO SHRUGGED which will be ready for preorder in Q1 of next year (toward the end, don't get too impatient). When we get closer, I'll post the cover so you can get as excited as we are.</span></span></span><br />
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We will also be researching Colombia as the locale for one of the upcoming books. The feel of a place, the way it strikes you, is more important than facts about it. What it smells and sounds like stay with you. We want to capture some of that.<br />
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The third reason for looking forward to this trip is simply that I've never been to Colombia. I've been in Venezuela and Ecuador and now I'm looking forward to Colombia.<br />
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I'll post some photos from the trip and keep you advised of our progress. As I said, this is an exciting project.<br />
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Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7016167657216676811.post-2404701218982663232017-09-10T01:29:00.001+07:002017-09-10T01:29:50.920+07:00Cambodia in books<br />
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Books written about Cambodia, especially modern Cambodia, are not, as a rule, cheerful reads. Most focus on the monumental, incredibly destructive force that was the Khmer Rouge. They look at the effect a relatively small number of people had on the lives of their countrymen and the way their rule twisted the country's history. Now, with HunSen resisting a popular movement that is tired of his long and heavy handed rule, people are watching closely. And they should be. My Cambodian friends are afraid of a powerful government that doesn't respect the people--and with good reason.<br />
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In this context, it is probably a good time to refresh our memories.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cambodias-Curse-Modern-History-Troubled/dp/1610391837" target="_blank">Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land</a></b><br />
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<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51D1vhDtlxL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51D1vhDtlxL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="131" /></a> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">In 2008 and 2009, Brinkley returned to Cambodia to find out. He discovered a population in the grip of a venal government. He learned that one-third to one-half of Cambodians who lived through the Khmer Rouge era have P.T.S.D.--and its afflictions are being passed to the next generation. His extensive close-up reporting in </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Cambodia's Curse</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> illuminates the country, its people, and the deep historical roots of its modern-day behavior.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span> <br />
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<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-They-Killed-Father-Remembers/dp/0060856262" target="_blank"><span class="a-size-large" id="productTitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.3 !important; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.)</span> </a></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"></span> <a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zuw7b8ytL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zuw7b8ytL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.</span><br />
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There are many other fine books that detail that period and its troubling effects, and I recommend you check around and read some. With all that is happening in the world, ignoring the changes going on in SE Asia, given its turbulent history, would be a mistake. </div>
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<h2 class="a-size-medium s-inline s-access-title a-text-normal" data-attribute="Canadian in a Cambodian Mindfield; American with a Suitcase Full of Sutras" data-max-rows="0" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 17px !important; font-style: normal !important; font-weight: 400 !important; line-height: 1.255 !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-transform: none !important;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Canadian-Cambodian-Mindfield-American-Suitcase-ebook/dp/B00F9JPR28" target="_blank">Canadian in a Cambodian Mindfield; American with a Suitcase Full of Sutras</a></h2>
<a class="a-link-normal s-access-detail-page s-color-twister-title-link a-text-normal" href="https://www.amazon.com/Canadian-Cambodian-Mindfield-American-Suitcase/dp/1492720690/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504980932&sr=1-1&keywords=Pocock+Cambodia" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0066c0; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline-offset: -2px; outline: -webkit-focus-ring-color auto 5px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Canadian in a Cambodian Mindfield; American with a Suitcase Full of Sutras"></a><br />
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a lighter book on Cambodia. John Pocock initiated this project when I was living in Kampot, Cambodia. He came up with the idea of using my photographs and a series of mental images that we'd use poetically to capture impressions of the place and time. It seemed like fun.<br />
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This book was prepared in 2012 and isn't a serious discussion of anything. It is intended to play with ideas, poetic and visual images, that I encountered living there, and twisting them through two different perspectives.Traveling Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984526145327699352noreply@blogger.com0