rustedtusks.com

It is if his Army service is the one thing Tony Ray is proud of. It wouldn't surprise me if it were.

He had to work for The Company for four years to get it all back. He'd be back in the Army, with a promotion no less- assuming they kept their side of the bargain, which might be a bit of an assumption. This is The Company, after all, and if you have to lie to a soldier who doesn't even exist to get the job done, what does that matter?

I wonder, though, why he left when he was so close. Three and a half years out of four. Did he lose his trust in them? Or what happened, in the mercenary business, that was so bad that he had to walk away when escape was so near?

Or was it just another of many screw-ups?

So Mulefoot's an unperson; could this explain why he's never been caught? (Pommie excepted of course.) I could see where biometric evidence for anyone ever put into a catagory might get flagged to a file in a program that never associates it with any other and all request are returned as no match. The original data might never have been attached to any names for security reasons, resulting in a free pass for life and covered ass...assets for the politicians.

_________________
What call have I to dream of anything?
I am a wolf. Back to the world again,
And speech of fellow-brutes that once were men
Our throats can bark for slaughter: cannot sing.

The ultimate freedom?

Sure there was no meddling from official agencies. This is where TR learns he's neither been lucky nor sly. He's merely been guarded by forces that might as well have wiped him out completely at any single moment.

So why didn't they stop him?
So why did they let all those murders happen?
Who is brother Mulefoot' keeper, does he exist at all or has he just become sloppy?

It's like a religious epiphany. Eat, this is my waffle.

_________________
A lone figure sits still by a pool - he's been stamped human bacon by some butchering tool - he is you...
Social Security took care of this lad - we watch in reverence - as Narcissus is turned to a flower

That was years ago - today's biometrics, etc. didn't exist even in this universe. He simply ceased to exist in the bureauracracy.
Those of us who patronize them regularly understand how much of the nation's business, both above and below board, is transacted in Waffle Houses.

--lj

_________________
Sometimes I wonder what tomorrow's gonna bring
When I think about my dirty life and times.
---Warren Zevon

Some of you might wonder how, if he's vanished from the system that he has a driver's license, insurance, a pager...

Its as littlejohn says. He vanished from the system a over 25 years ago. There weren't as many biometric safeguards back then. So imagine that you get out of prison and they give you your box of stuff back. Amongst that was some ID. Now imagine that a few years later, you've walked away from the mercenary business and you go back to your old life, not knowing that you're records are scrubbed. You need a driver's license. What do you do? You take your old expired one and your SSI card to the DMV. They give you a new license because it looks official. Now you're back in the system. Every few years, you get our license renewed. They give it to you because so long as your DL hasn't expired, there's no need to prove who you are any further. He's been back in the system so long that he doesn't raise any red flags. In this day and age of rectifying and combining databases, eventually something is going to snag. Perhaps his Societal Index Number will eventually be questioned because during the records purge, his old Societal Index Number was overwritten to say that Tony-Ray McCullough died at age 3 of Anthrax or some such. If people can steal identities or illegal aliens can use borrowed SSI numbers, then surely Tony-Ray can have inadvertently stolen his own identity.

My first (AL) driver's license was a postcard they mailed you which you scissored off the top and folded it to fit your wallet. No protection against forging it except it was typed on an IBM typewriter with a very rare large font. Which IBM would happily sell you if you wanted. I got a SSN by going down and filling out a form at age fifteen, cos I had a part time job which wouldn't pay me without one. I've not ben with an expired license since then, each time, the State took the last one. On moveas, they always made me take the eye test and the writen test. Never roade with an examiner since the cop at age 15 for a learner's permit.
I had an account at the local bank in 1966 (for which I didn't supply a SSN, none was needed) when I bought a shiny new '66 Mustang. Fronted a 1965 Corvair I had, and called the bank "Will you lenbd me $1500 against a new Mustang?" The banker says "sure, what's the serial number, and does Harry Xxxxxx still sell you insurance?" I said yeah, and here's the number, and he says OK, we'll give the dealer the proceeds of the loan. How long? I said 18 months. He says come by the bank in the next week and sign the note. (Which when I did,pledged my crop and livestock preprinted on the form "plus the folllowing goods and property, to wit:" and had typed in 'One 1966 Ford Muastang automobile, V.I.N. #$#^&$#3434'). In those days they knew where to find you. Times have changed here, but I suspect the Slopverse is not quite as sophisticated.

--lj

_________________
Sometimes I wonder what tomorrow's gonna bring
When I think about my dirty life and times.
---Warren Zevon

_________________
Emoticons are the wheelchair ramps for the humor impaired.

Well, uh, in what context are you using 'tea-bagger'?? Rabid conservative, or a nice hummer?
Don't let's be ambiguous here, someone might say the wrong thing.

--lj

_________________
Sometimes I wonder what tomorrow's gonna bring
When I think about my dirty life and times.
---Warren Zevon