The Genesis of Compliance, Part 6

Previously, on MinerBumping... William Rageclaw lost his Orca. But more importantly, he lost his voice. After being muted in the MinerBumping channel, William sought the identity of the operator who had silenced him. Agent Alt 00 had the information and was willing to sell it.

William's curiosity could not be denied. He decided to purchase Alt 00's intel for 63 million isk.

Alt 00 made her final preparations to join William's TeamSpeak server and deliver the information. There remained one loose end to tie up, though.

Earlier, a stranger in William's in-game channel had accused our Agent of extortion. That issue needed to be resolved before things could move forward on the intel front.

The stranger maintained his silence. Alt 00 made it clear that he would need to speak up. This was no time for games.

At last, billslowski002 Shikkoken chimed in. But it did not appear that he was in a cooperative mood.

billslowski002's accusation of extortion was absurd and outrageous. Naturally, he was instructed to pay up or else.

William could have smoothed things over by siding with Alt 00. After all, she had vital intel. But William went in the other direction.

The deal, having been so close to consummation, was now in jeopardy. It was a major setback for William.

Thanks to billslowski002's ill-considered comments, the situation now had all the makings of a diplomatic brouhaha.

Both sides dug in for a fight. Alt 00's leverage was that she already had William's money. William's leverage was less clear.

William and Alt 00 each viewed the other as holding the key to a happy resolution. Who would budge first?

...Or would neither side give an inch--thereby risking a catastrophe?

To be continued...