My theory:
Ubiq counter-site.
Palbickle probably had some next big thing for after Ubiq, and considering how scary good his algorithms were, he saw the downfall of Ubiq - maybe even the blight - and was trying to make the next big thing so that it didn't make him or his company irrelevant.
As amazing as Ubiq was, when he was gone it was eventually gonna go like everything else. Having a virtual monopoly on the internet couldn't last forever, nothing could. Or worse, it ended up butchering it's clients like everything before Ubiq.
One bite can make a vector, one vector can turn an enclave.
Gnat. He's out there. Everyone knows it.
My suggestion? Boot up Spawn and Cull. Pre-Crash it nearly killed my job when some idiot in IT made a copy and tried using it for insider trading in the business. He didn't have enough sense to keep it secret though, and showed me it.
That shit may kill Ubiq for a few days, how freaking complicated it is, and how long it would take to use it.
I am not condoning that. Enclaves will die, and/ or the DHQS will fuck you up for killing the internet after holding it random for half a decade.
But it is most likely your best bet for finding him.
Check trends in the data going back to the beginning of Ubiq Aloft, hell, even Spawn and Cull itself.
See what was next. What would come after Aloft.
That's where Palbickle is.
The Whisper's death toll may be nothing compared to, for lack of a better name, The Silence; but I can guarantee you this: unlike the Whisper, the Silence won't save anyone.
Is Palbickle worth that many lives?
I've seen the trends. You've seen me see the trends. Spawn and Cull were killed in the Crash. Companies aren't using them anymore, they throttle Ubiq so bad that there are riots in Free Parking.
Your only answer is doing what the DHQS propaganda says you've been doing for years. Doing what all of us out in the real Loss hope never happens.
You kill the child, just to save the father. A father that may already be dead.
Sorry Gnat.
Didn't see anything other than the DAO killing itself after the beginning of the Crash in the books, so ran with what I know. LordSkys treat the irl book as a Ubiq thread that Gnat runs, thus referencing it without it being "Canon".
