The year is 2099. Famine is widespread. The cost of basic foods is exceptionally high. There are whispers on the Net that the mega-corporation Loblaws Inc. has coordinated with other corporations and subsidiaries to fix the price of basic goods like bread.

At this very moment Runners—procurers and brokers of valuable information—are scouring the Net looking for proof of this brazen corporate greed. But so far no Runner has been able to break the ICE surrounding the servers at Loblaws Inc. If they could get through and transmit evidence of collusion the wrongdoing could be exposed, the price of goods would return to normal, and families could feed themselves again.

But who could this hacker be? Who is this Bread Runner?

START

To: Allan Rye
From: John Brown

I tried reaching you on the secure network but it appears to be down. Anyway, we need you to contact the subsidiaries and initiate another market-wide rise in the price of bread. Try to make it look natural but the market needs to be normalized at the new price point within a week.

It's really hard to believe that the last time we did this and got caught the only penaly was measly gift cards. We fixed the price of bread from 2001-2015 and the most we had to pay out was $25 per person who signed up?! I mean, why wouldn't we try this again?! 'Oh, we're so sorry! Please, have a time-limited gift card exclusive to the store that ripped you off!' Meanwhile I've almost paid off my second home in Florida. At this rate, I might just put a downpayment on a third!

John

Central repository

1. East Coast
   1. Subsidiaries
      2. Atlantic Superstore
      3. Dominion
      4. Real Canadian Superstore
      5. Wholesale Club
2. Central
   1. Subsidiaries
      2. Bloor Street Market
      3. Cash & Carry
      4. Club Entrepôt
      5. Fortinos
      6. No Frills
      7. Valu-mart
      8. Zehrs
3. West Coast
   1. Subsidiaries
      2. Extra Foods
      3. Independent City Market
      4. Loblaws City Market
      5. Your Independent Grocer