Finney Vol. 1 - Immutable Journey - Flipbook - Page 84
Leaving OG’s Pawn Shop, carrying the
mysterious Cryptowriter device, Finney
was ready to go home. He wove his
way through the crowds of pedestrians,
pausing at a small park to rest on a bench.
An older man sat next to Finney and
began feeding breadcrumbs to pigeons.
“You don’t mind, right?” asked the man.
“I like the birds,” said Finney. “But I won’t
be here long. I’m on my way back to my
ship. Back home.”
“You a sailor, then?” asked the man.
“No, my spaceship,” said Finney. “I’m a
visitor from another planet on a mission
to learn about cryptocurrency and
blockchain technology.”
“Is that so?” asked the man. “My
grandson is always talking about crypto
this and crypto that. Personally, I like
money I can touch.”
“I like things I can touch, too,” said Finney.
“But money on blockchains makes more
sense to me than trusting private banks
with everything.”
“You youngsters and your computers,”
said the man, shaking his head but smiling.
“My grandson made me an account for
some bit something or other and I don’t
have the heart to tell him I’ll never use
it. I won’t even use my regular bank’s
website.”
“He’d probably help you if you asked
him to,” said Finney.
“Probably,” said the man, tossing another
handful of crumbs to the birds.
After a long silence, the man closed his
eyes and Finney resumed the walk to his
ship. Eventually, he reached the city’s
outskirts. When he came to the small,
84
uninhabited hill on which his ship had
landed, Finney could tell something was
wrong. His ship didn’t look right at all.
“My ship!” cried Finney, feeling panic
rise. “It’s broken! Whole big parts of it
have been torn off! Where are they?”
Inspecting what remained of his
spacecraft, Finney found that it had been
stripped of all of its gold. It wouldn’t
fly. The engines wouldn’t even start. He
was stranded on Earth. His mission had
officially failed.
Finney thought about calling Snap but
couldn’t bear admitting his failure to
her. Thinking about the missing gold,
he became sure that the mean Mr Shift
was behind it. But even if he was, there
wasn’t much Finney could do about it.
So he just walked slowly around and
around the wrecked spaceship a few
times, trying not to cry. Eventually, he
sat on the ground and did cry a little.
“Why is this happening?” asked Finney.
“Why is this happening to me?”
There was no one around to answer him.
Finney had never felt so helpless. Or so
angry. “I just know this was Mr Shift!”
he said. “He stole my chesta and now
he stole from my ship! All he cares about
is gold! Does everybody on this stupid
planet just let Mr Shift do whatever he
wants?”
Attempting to take his mind off of the
immediate situation, Finney tried to recall
everything he had learned on his mission
so far. OG’s lesson about private keys
was fresh in his mind, as was the warning
about Shift Connect being a pyramid
scheme. Finney also clearly remembered
the crypto slang he’d learned. FOMO
meant fear of missing out. FUD meant
fear, uncertainty, and doubt. “I have lots
FINNEY VOLUME ONE - IMMUTABLE JOURNEY