The Boomerang menagerie logged on in the following order: Alpaca, Giraffe, Kitten, Polar Bear. Chris Taylor’s Lion hosted the meeting as always. After everyone was in place, they all sat in silence, looking suddenly very silly to Chris in their digital disguises, waiting, hoping that the Panther would join them.
The Panther did not.
Chris spoke first. “We need to doxx the Panther.”
“You realize what that means?” Polar Bear asked.
“I do.”
“It’s the end of Boomerang,” Kitten said. “That was part of our agreement. Once we break the emergency glass, it’s over. We disband. We never communicate with one another.”
Chris’s Lion nodded. “Do you all remember another Panther case with an abusive troll named Martin Spirow?”
“Rings a bell,” Alpaca said.
“I’m going to share the file summary on the screen.”
Chris Taylor pressed the share button.
“Oh, I remember him,” Polar Bear said.
“He was the creep who tormented the grieving family,” Kitten added.
“Exactly,” Chris said. “In the end it was only one post. We checked. There were no others. We found out that Spirow may have been blackout drunk when he posted that.”
“Which I never bought,” Kitten said. “If you post blackout drunk, you don’t make sure that it’s from a new anonymous account.”
“Which was the argument Panther made. In the end, Spirow only got a Category 1 response.”
“Lion, why are you raising this now?”
“Because Martin Spirow was murdered. Also shot in the head.”
Silence.
Polar Bear finally said, “My God.”
Kitten: “What the hell is happening?”
“I don’t know,” Chris said. “But I don’t think we have a choice anymore. Polar Bear?”
“I now agree. We need to know Panther’s identity.”
“We can’t fool ourselves,” Alpaca added. “This is the end of Boomerang.”
“I’m not so sure,” Chris said.
Polar Bear cleared their throat. “Those are the rules we all agreed to. Once one identity is discovered by anyone—law enforcement, perps, victims, even us—we need to disappear for our own safety.”
“I’m not sure we can just do that,” Chris said. “Someone has murdered two people.”
“Again,” Polar Bear said, “that’s a conclusion you are drawing without proof.”
“What, you think it’s a coincidence?”
“I don’t, no. But I don’t know if the same person committed both murders. Do you? For certain?”
“And what exactly are we saying here?” Giraffe asked. “Both murder victims were bullies investigated by Panther. We all agreed that they were both guilty. One we decided wasn’t worth our efforts to punish. The other got a slap on the wrist.”
“Now Panther is ghosting us,” Kitten added.
“Or incapacitated,” Alpaca said.
“Or,” Giraffe said, “and let’s face it, this is becoming most likely, Panther has gone rogue and is meting out their own justice.”
“Either way,” Chris said, “we need to out Panther.”
“Agree,” Alpaca said.
“So do I,” Kitten said.
“Me too,” Giraffe said.
Polar Bear sighed. “It’s the right move, so yeah, I’m with you all. But as soon as we do, we disband, so I’d like to just say what an honor—”
“Not yet,” Chris said.
“But that—”
“If Panther is behind this, we need to stop them. Once we know Panther’s identity, we have to reach out.”
“Too dangerous,” Polar Bear said.
“We can’t just walk away,” Chris said.
“That’s what we all agreed to do,” Polar Bear said. “We aren’t cops. I’m not hunting down one of my own to stop them.”
“So Boomerang goes after people who bully and harass online,” Chris said, “but we don’t go after killers?”
“Yes,” Polar Bear said. “Our mission is very specific. Our protocols are to protect us. We aren’t here to solve climate change or war or even murder. Boomerang was just that—throwing karma back in the face of those who bully, harass, and abuse online.”
“We created this,” Chris said. “We can’t just walk away.”
“Lion?” It was Kitten.
“Yes?”
“Let’s get the identity. Then we can each choose to disband or not.”
“No,” Polar Bear said. “We don’t go off on tangents. That’s not what we agreed to in the beginning.”
“Things have changed,” Kitten said.
“Not for me,” Polar Bear countered.
“Fair enough,” Chris said. “Let’s get the identity and figure out what to do. We didn’t foresee this complication. That’s our bad. Let’s all get our codes ready to type in the prompt I’m sending now. Is everybody ready?”
They all replied that they were.
“Okay, we have ten seconds. When I say ‘three’ we all type in our codes and press Panther. On my count. One, two…three.”
It took very little time. The name came up on Lion’s screen. Chris hadn’t told them this, but he’d put them on seven-second delay, so he got the name first:
Katherine Frole.
Panther had been a woman. Or identified as a woman. Or had a woman’s name. Whatever. For some reason, probably sexism, Chris had always thought of Panther as a guy. Did it matter? Not in the least. He was already typing Katherine Frole’s name into the computer, and an article came up.
Chris opened the microphone back up to the whole group.
“Oh no.”