Hunt the Truth/Episode 07: Who's Listening

Mshak Maradi(Recording): Hello?

Benjamin Giraud: Come on, Mshak.

Maradi(Recording): Ah! If you think this is Mshak, think again: It was Mshak!

System: Seventy-one hours.

Giraud(Simaltaneously): (Sighs) What makes you think that these are funny? What makes him think that these are funny? Alright-this-this is what you choose to leave on your phone for that. I mean- It's not even funny. It's not funny!

Maradi(Recording): Good luck!

Giraud(Simataneously): Mshak, it's-neither of them are funny, they're not even-

Giraud(Voiceover): It had been three days since the Deon bomb. That friendly boxing coach who had I spoken to? Turns out that he'd been dead seven years. Who had I spoken to? I had no idea. Whatever we'd thought this cover-up was, it now seemed like something far more sinister. Ray and Petra did the smart thing: they cut ties and left. Mshak was the only one who hadn't bailed.

Giraud: Oh god, You know what? It's not funny, Mshak-

Giraud(Voiceover): Instead, he'd give me a potential breakthrough. Apparently I was about to be contacted by FERO, the mysterious insurgent with intimate knowledge of ONI's tactics and buried history. That was the good news. The bad news: I'd heard nothing since. FERO was a no-show. Mshak was AWOL, and I'd spent the past seventy-two hours listening to these two ridiculous pre-recorded messages over and over and over.

Giraud: You know what? Who do you think-you'd outsmart me?! I'm the only human in existence who wants to find you!

Mshak(Recording): Good luck!

Giraud(Voiceover): (Sighs) My team had been reduced to this man. In a weird way, I'd been comforted by the idea of Mshak's constant surveilance. I like knowing that at least somebody was out there, even just to corroborate my existance.

Giraud: Mshak!

Mshak(Recording): Not reaching you!

Giraud: Are you there right now?

Mshak(Recording): -another recorded message-

Giraud: Are you listening?

Mshak(Recording): -mania-

System: Protection: failed.

Giraud(Voiceover): And now, it was gone. I was beginning to worry something had happened to him.

Giraud: Mshak! Are you listening? Just tell me if you-if you are!

Mshak(Recording): Wait! If you-

Giraud: Mshak?

Mshak(Recording): (Pants) I'm so glad you got through!

Giraud: Oh man! C-where have you been?

Mshak(Recording): So I could rub it in your face that you're now through-

Giraud: Oh come on! (Bangs stuff) Oh my god! Oh my god, if I ever get ahold of him I'm gonna kill him!

Giraud(Voiceover): I'm Benjamin Giraud, and this is Hunt the Truth.

Ray: Hey, Ben. It's Ray. Um, listen: Is there any chance we could grab a drink?

Giraud(Voiceover): Okay, I was really glad to hear from Ray. With Mshak MIA, my imagination had been running wild. If anything had happened to either of them or Petra, that was on me. So getting this call was a huge relief. But Ray's never exactly been a "Let's-grab-a-drink" kind of guy. So something must've had him spooked. I rushed over to meet him at this dink dive bar over near his place. (Backround noise of crowd and talking turn on)

Giraud: So, I'm here with Ray, and uh, a lot of loud drunk people. (Laughs, Ray laughs)

Ray: Think of all them as providing cover, allowing us to talk in secret.

Giraud: Exactly. Exactly. And uh, Ray is aware I'm recording.

Ray: Yes. Uh, I'm trying not to think about it, honestly.

Giraud: Oh, g-

Ray: It's fine.

Giraud: (Sighs) So, uh, why'd you hit me up?

Ray: Well, my scavenger finally got back to me. He had been waiting on some additional military records on Walker.

Giraud(Voiceover): I did not see that coming. I figured Ray would want to stay as far away from the topic of government cover-ups as possible. But if he was talking, I was all ears.

Ray: All the ONI military records still don't check out.

Giraud: And ONI handles all military records, so...

Ray: Well, almost all.

Giraud(Voiceover): Ray explained that every enlisting soldier as to sign an affidavit that their service was voluntary. That way, later on, if some grieving family member tries to claim it was involuntary, ONI's covered. But the office created to handle all those records is a rubber stamp joke. Of the roughly two-hundred thousand voluntary service claims they've received over the years, they have ruled the exact same way: Family loses, ONI wins. Every single time. The process is so automatic, Ray says, that when his guy pulled the records, it was the first request the system had received from a human being in fifty years. Ray was giddy, so I knew he was about to deliver the punch line.

Ray: One-hundred eighty days after a soldier's service period ends, the system is supposed to refile the record. From active duty to retired.

Giraud: No.

Ray: Yes.

Giraud: Walker's records were retired.

Ray: And they weren't active either.

Giraud: (Whispers loudly)What?

Ray: Jakob Walker is the only soldier in the entire military database that is neither active nor retired.

Giraud: They missed that? How could they miss that? Nobody checks? (Ray laughs)

Ray: Nope. Nobody but me. (Laughs)

Giraud(Voiceover): Ray had caught ONI in a major admin snafu. And I guess he was on a roll, because what he said next blew my mind. Mild-mannered analyst Ray Curzig had used my recording of Walker's voice as a template to scan the slush for voice matching audio. That was straight-up pirate stuff!

Giraud: You what?! Ray. (Ray laughs) You're an animal right now! Who are you?! (Ray laughs)

Ray: Oh you are gonna love what I found, Ben!

Walker(Recording): Get ready to take back the road, candidate! This is your chance to be one of the first on the planet to have your very own 'Hog! More than three tons of-

Giraud(Voiceover): There was our boy Jakob nineteen years ago, hocking vehicles for some random dealership!

Walker(Recording): -the new 'Hog-

Giraud: Oh my god.

Walker(Recording): -has to own the best driving-

Giraud: It's a commercial?

Ray: Yeah.

Walker(Recording): -the new '56 'Hog!-

Ray: He's an actor.

Walker(Recording): Visit or call 405 dealer! It's beauty and the beast! (Giraud and Ray laugh)

Giraud(Voiceover): I couldn't believe it. I was listening to one of the military sources ONI provided me doing a commercial for a 'Hog dealer on Ganymede! When records had him stationed on the other side of human space. ONI had completly faked Walker. And Ray had caught the stupid bastards red-handed.

Giraud: That's incredible! (laughs)

Giraud(Voiceover): Sitting there, having that drink, all the fustration and anxiety that had been blaring in for weeks started to fade. We ordered another round. Ray was actually being funny! I don't even think we were even talking about the story any more, and for a little bit, I felt...normal.

Giraud: Oh man.

Giruad(Voiceover): It didn't last though.