Whenever I’m going through a track or a sticking point, I ask questions and keep looking for problems and inconsistencies. This week, let’s consider Othman, the Wayward Son.
So, the son of a powerful CEO has run away. The natural questions:
First, let’s talk about motive.
This doesn’t feel like a casual decision: Othman is choosing to abandon a life of incredible wealth and privilege. There needs to be something significant here, that would motivate him to leave.
In my initial outline, I had a placeholder motive here, which was love. But let’s dig a little deeper. What are some other possibilities?
The stock thriller plot would be that he discovered something terrible that the family business was involved in, and he’s gone out to try to expose them. But this seems a little tired to me, and why would that require him to run away?
There’s also the personal: bad family life, maybe his father is abusive, or the family is generally constantly putting pressure on him. Could tie into the decision, but not quite enough. Might work as a red herring; his family thinks he left for something personal; maybe his father divorced his mother or something, and Othman’s been very unhappy about that.
But I think the most interesting and most plausible motive is ideology. Young people are passionate, and that often extends to their politics. And there are plenty of examples of children of fortune radicalized throughout history: Osama bin Laden is actually from a very wealthy and powerful construction company; Bill Ayers’ father was the CEO of Commonwealth Edison; Frederick Field Vanderbilt was so vocally pro-Communist he was disinherited; and Michael Whitney Straight was actually involved with the Cambridge Five spy ring. There are other examples in history; even Engels came from wealth.
So Othman is a rich kid, but he’s also a zealot. It’s unlikely he’d go full Communist, but I could see him becoming a critic of the government and possibly even a Fusionist –that raises a lot of interesting possibilities, and would make the assignment more personal for Serafin.
But we still need a fracture point, something specific that drives him over the edge. One possibility:
I’ve been working on a short story that explores the history of Collins, and one event I unearthed was a forced resettlement of Section Khamsa, which led to outright violent revolt which was then brutally suppressed. At the time, I was just working backward trying to understand why Collins is the way it is, but this seems like exactly the type of event that would inspire someone like Othman to turn his back on his family. Maybe the corporation even has some limited connection to the tragedy? I’ll consider it.
This seems much better than the original idea.
Othman cares deeply about the plight of the residents of Collins. He might have even approached his father with a charity proposal, but his father dismissed it out of hand; his father doesn’t even remember it, because Othman was always coming to him with nonsense like that. Wouldn’t make sense for the company right now anyway, given their current political arrangements.
This feels less important, but it would be good to have at least a rough sketch in my head of how this might have played out. Othman’s life before his radicalization was relatively unconstrained: he could go anywhere, as long as it was safe, and he could spend time with anyone, as long as they were cleared by security. But he was always monitored by handlers, bodyguards, and probably some helpful AI systems – the classic gilded cage scenario. Had he attempted to visit Collins before his escape, his team would have flatly refused.
So how does he get loose?
In an early draft I wrote of the job proposal, there was a passing reference to a liberal relative who contributed to Othman’s delinquency. That fits together nicely: Othman is politically awakened during his visits to said relative; he then takes advantage of the relaxed security during one of these visits to escape, perhaps with the assistance of some sympathetic wealthy allies.
Side note: it would probably make sense for Othman to have a tracker implanted in his body. What would this actually look like, if we’re talking about Copernica tech? How is he going to get it out? I’m not sure that would even be possible if we’re talking about something like nanomachines in the blood.
So now Othman’s on the loose. Once his family realizes this, presumably they’ll have established contingencies to deal with the situation; this would likely include calling a private security company to track him down.
This is a little tricky to research since these sorts of companies don’t publish their after-action reports and case studies, but some reasonable deductions can be made:
In the modern world, the first and best move is to follow the money: look for credit card transactions, ATM withdrawals, and so on. This could be easier in the future – or more difficult, if some of the more privacy-focused cryptocurrencies ever caught on. Might be worth spending some time thinking about what the future of money might look like.
It’s also standard to build a psychological profile, try to understand who they are, how they think, who their known associates are, and so on. This is precisely the sort of thing Serafin excels at.
Surveillance would be a double-edged sword here: it might be trivial to do sweeps of available feeds looking for someone, but it would also be trivial to spoof. You’d also have to contend with stations like Collins that block comms. Once Othman is off the grid, all of colonized space becomes the search space.
The money also cuts both ways: you might be able to hire an elite private security company, but that also means Othman has access to resources that far outstrip the average fugitive. I’m reminded of the example of Lord Lucan, who fled the country after murdering a nanny and attempting to murder his wife with the help of his elite connections – possibly even members of the elite Clermont Club1.
These are the sorts of people who own million dollar apartments in multiple cities just in case they want to visit, each one a potential luxurious safe house. And what’s more private than a private jet? It’s right there in the name.
Othman is friends with billionaires, people who are on a first name basis with governors and district attorneys. If the police wanted to interview someone in this set, they would call and schedule an appointment – and be very polite when they did.
That’s a tough nut to crack, especially when you’re talking about a bunch of heavy-footed thugs like Continuum, the security company the Bennetts have on retainer. I still haven’t quite figured out the details of the Bennett Concern in toto, but my current thinking is that it’s a fractious family dynasty with different clans, so it makes sense to bring in an outsider like Serafin who has the appropriate skillset but also knows what fork to use.
Finally: Why is Othman on Collins?
If he’s truly concerned about the plight of the locals, it makes sense he would wind up there, I suppose. It could be a situation like George Orwell in the Spanish Civil War, where he decided to put his money where his mouth was and fight for what he believed in.
I could see him hatching some grand plan to help the station residents that requires significant capital – he could stop and visit his friends to try to raise the funds, which would be more potential trails for Serafin to sniff out.
It’s also plausible Othman might have gone there for some specific reason, that there might be something on the station he wants or needs. Maybe it offers services for fugitives? Or maybe he stopped there to hide out for a bit – it’s just the nearest tree he decided to climb when the dogs were getting close.
I’m still not sure, to be honest. But I don’t think it’s essential to figure out right this minute. Sometimes it’s good to ask questions just so you know to start looking for the answer.
I need to spend some more time on the Bennett Concern. I still haven’t quite managed to find an angle to build on, but I’ll keep at it.
Amusing aside: Ian Fleming was a member, as was David Sterling, who I hope to discuss a bit more in a future post. ↩