UNDERGROUND

‘Any other names besides dickhead that is?’

Electron sent a ‘whisper’ — a private message — to Phoenix telling him not to tell Par his identity.

‘OK. Sure,’ Phoenix whispered back. To show he would play along with whatever Electron had in mind, Phoenix added a sideways smiley face at the end: ‘:-)’.

Par didn’t know Electron and Phoenix were whispering to each other. He was still waiting to find out the identity of Guest. ‘Well, speak up, Guest. Figured out who you are yet?’

Electron knew Par was on the run at the time. Indeed, Par had been on the run from the US Secret Service for more than six months by the beginning of 1990. He also knew Par was highly paranoid.

Electron took aim and fired.

‘Hey, Par. You should eat more. You’re looking underFED these days.’

Par was suddenly silent. Electron sat at his computer, quietly laughing to himself, halfway across the world from Par. Well, he thought, that ought to freak out Par a bit. Nothing like a subtle hint at law enforcement to drive him nuts.

‘Did you see THAT?’ Par whispered to Phoenix. ‘UnderFED. What did he mean?’

‘I dunno,’ Phoenix whispered back. Then he forwarded a copy of Par’s private message on to Electron. He knew it would make him laugh.

Par was clearly worried. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ he whis- pered to Electron but Guest 0 didn’t answer.

With growing anxiety, Par whispered to Phoenix, ‘Who IS this guy? Do you know him?’

Phoenix didn’t answer.

‘Because, well, it’s weird. Didn’t you see? FED was in caps. What the fuck does that mean? Is he a fed? Is he trying to give me a message from the feds?’

Sitting at his terminal, on the other side of Melbourne from Electron, Phoenix was also laughing. He liked Par, but the American was an easy target. Par had become so paranoid