The Shadow reporting. . .
Upper Arlington -- It appears that the conclusion I reached regarding the purpose of the super storm was premature. After the blurb I gave to The Fat Kid, I started to question whether the manufactured storm had really malfunctioned. I told him that everything the US government sets up or builds turns out not to work. But that only applies to programs meant to help the people. What they do for themselves tends to hum along perfectly. So I started skulking around some more and picked up a few pieces of intriguing evidence.
The very first thing I noticed was that a giant walnut tree that was right in the middle of the forest, was toppled at the base. It didn’t make sense to me that all the smaller trees on either side of it were still perfectly upright. Some people might argue that the great height and weight of the tree would actually make it less stable than smaller trees, and that its width would cause more wind resistance, meaning that not only is it less stable but there is also more pressure on it. But that’s ridiculous.
This giant walnut tree fell in the forest, just yards away from The Shadow’s hovel.
This strange fallen tree made me think about The Fat Kid’s recent article, in which he notes significantly (in italics) that nothing was damaged in the storm except for trees (and power lines). The trees around the Fat Cave have already been cleared out by maintenance crews, but the giant walnut has apparently been left to rot, so I took a closer look.
The tallest part of this tree stump is at least six feet tall. Anyone could see that this giant freaking tree didn’t snap under its own weight. Physics is stupid.
The walnut is far bigger than it looks in the pic. It is in fact bigger around than I am, which struck me as peculiar. Why did the biggest, strongest, thickest tree in this part of the forest fall, while the skinny, flimsy trees made it through undamaged? If you read my eBook, you’ll recall that very large trees -- sycamores -- were the trees best suited for the hardware sold by Venutian Intra-Tree Computer Systems, LLC. For whatever cause, sycamores seem to be scarce here in Upper Arlington. That being the case, it makes sense that the government would have used the largest trees of other species to encase their computers in this area, which makes this walnut a prime target. When I approached the fallen tree, I could see that it was hollow.
Nope, nothing metallic in there.
As you can see in the above pic, there is a sort of oblong opening dead in the center -- an opening that has been cleared out. I investigated some other areas, and found that really only the largest trees (of whatever species) were the ones that were wrecked in the storm, and that they were all hollow, and had absolutely nothing metallic inside. I was stunned.
It makes perfect sense that you’d find computer equipment in the busted trunk of this giant pine tree.
On close inspection, however, one finds nothing metallic, other than the mercury trees naturally absorb from the ground here in the rust belt.
Having made this discovery, I contacted several spotted chicks formerly with Venutian Intra-Tree Computer Systems, LLC, whose digits I got before our "business" relationship was interrupted. They told me that since they left the hardware industry, there is no one supporting Venutian Intra-Tree Computer Systems hardware, and that it would be hard to keep it secure, or even make the latest version of iTunes work with it. From this I draw two conclusions:
1. The storm did not malfunction. In fact, it did exactly what it was supposed to do -- rip down the big trees, so the government could uninstall the equipment within them, and sell the metal for scrap.
2. If they have uninstalled the Intra-Tree Computers, they must have another as yet undiscovered method of surveillance.
I will continue to investigate, but this new twist makes the situation extra touchy -- stay out of the woods!
