Singularity Soon

18. Event Horizon

When people have nothing left to lose, their problems can suddenly become very easy. There is great freedom in letting go.

The world rolled on in timeless ignorance, but the last wild days had arrived. Nice sunny, windy days for Rajiv.

Reality in all directions seemed unsteady with a deep thunderous throbbing. An almost frozen explosion already begun, the hum of the Pre-Bang.

Physics held up everything. The immense resolution of nature was a shared dream that was about to end.

It felt like a joyous screaming, as if there was going to be a supernova. Everything would turn into bright light.

Work work work!

Like a real life montage, Rajiv's life turned into an extended film scene.

He no longer had to struggle or worry about keeping what he had. For him, the meaning of pain had always been YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING.

The Multipliers sent him more pills, guaranteed to be good for the duration. They broke down his to-do list into a long chain of simple steps.

Like being helped by a vast, invisible crowd; he would never be alone again. Rajiv was able to work indefinitely now, as long as he took a nap every few hours.

The only thing that was off was his time perception. All the actions seemed to be happening in parallel. The sequence of events didn't matter anymore.

A timeless now, like floating downstream. Or perhaps like being in free fall. Or being dragged by an inconceivably powerful gravitational force.

The first day, they sent him scripts on how to act in a wide variety of situations, which he read and memorized. They kept him busy with brief but detailed online courses and tests.

In his mailbox he found a fake ID and real debit and credit cards. They contained ample funds, but his own bank account had been drained the exact same amount.

Then it was time to begin.

First, he "stole" an imported Ford Transit diesel van that had been left for him in a student apartment complex, using a key included in the same parcel mailed to his house (it also contained custom-made electronics and various pep and chill pills).

The van had been modified with a hose though the floor to the fuel tank. He backed it up against his garage as if he was about to move.

The next days he visited a 24-hour Super Walmart, a Super Target, and the only Super Kmart.

There he purchased household and cleaning supplies, jugs and tubs and beakers. At two of their garden centers, he bought different types of fertilizers.

Next came a camping goods outlet, where he got gas fuel canisters and various accelerants.

He drove to three different pool supplies stores to buy big jugs of tablets and soluble powders.

The first of several big shipping boxes arrived at his house. These boxes were typically used to ship realistic "lovedolls", including the deluxe "big booty" version. The delivery guy helped roll it into his garage with a neutral expression.

Inside the first box he found 70 kilos of ammonium perchlorate.

He had to retrieve several items purchased on the Dark Web with cryptocurrencies (the investigators would miss this entire part of the operation). Disguised as trash abandoned behind a clothing donation dumpster, the bags contained moldable high explosives, with detonators included.

A final jug of nitromethane was left on the driveway beside his trashcan and recycling bins, but none of the neighbors noticed. (Various trace residues in and around his house would cause his street to be closed for two days, while investigators scoured acres of surrounding scrub-land and bushes. No further evidence was found, but a police dog would unearth an unidentified skeleton.)