WALLY MUST DIE 25

'This is X point,' said Wally.

'People jump off here,' said Liberator, looking out at the view. 'They call it the Excstacy Point of Life. Not quite ritual suicide but lovecult suicide. They don't tell anuyone but every few weeks someone jumps from here down to the river below, killing themselves instantly. There are several love cults in this region of the galaxy where 'Dying for Love' is part of a pride statement people are making to the world. Highest tower pinnacle of a manmade structure in the galaxy. Oxygen pretty thin, despite the enormous size of this planet.'

Pumpernickel looked around. They were in an upper level of 'Astronomicus', a high tower skyscraper in the city of Northanger on the planet Earth 553. It was one of the largest planets in the galaxy with life on it – and this city of Northanger sprawled in all directions below them.

'The story goes,' began Wally. 'That the corporation has infiltrated these love cults to use them for decadent purposes. These cult members are very influential and have their hands on quadrillions of souls in this region of the galaxy. The talk is that they are paying large sums of cash for supportive statements of corporation business and activities. The shady sort of stuff businesses often do when nobody is looking. We need to expose this, and show that its nothing but plain old greed behind the promotion of many corporation organisations in these communities. Resistance has got a large amount of information on apparent deals and contracts. We're here, though, for one particular case. Sebastian Carter. He works for the corporation and has a lot of knowledge about these arrangements. We are to meet him privately and arrange for him to be televised to the planets in this sector, showing our support for him. Nobody would necessarily take his word for it, but with our support his revelations will gain support. We just have to keep our wits about us. The corporation probably knows we are here.'

The story involves them meeting Sebastian Carter and Sebastian discussing his details, and them being transported to an underground network were there is transmission equipment. But the Corporation and Manhunter X find them and a struggle ensues. They escape with Manhunter X, but lose their communication devices. They are in the undeground of Northanger city for a number of days, with Corporation Security stalking the streets, but they manage to avoid them. Eventually they reach a safehouse and are reconnected with their ship and transported to a space station were the transmissions take place.