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A Numbers Games

By: Salena Casha

Dave punched in the required fields: white, female, mid-20s, Texas. Part-time coder, part-time barista. Missing: three days.

He sipped his coffee and watched the machine think in stutter-stop, the text loading and then taken back. Maybe at some point, he’d been skeptical, but not now. It was too convenient.

The screen populated and stuck this time:

Likelihood of resolution: <13.4%. Audience reach: 29%. Similar investigation debuted recently on Restive Musix. Recommendation: do not pursue.

Find the ones you can save.

He squared his shoulders, dropped the file in the incinerator. Massaged his temples, briefly, before moving on to the next.

© 2025. Salena Casha

Salena Casha’s work has appeared in over 100 publications in the last decade. She survives New England winters on good beer and black coffee. Subscribe to her Substack at salenacasha.substack.com.

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