I’m currently listening to the audiobook of Stephen King’s The Institute while doing chores around the apartment and such, and while it’s generally interesting, there’s one bit that just bugs me to no end, so I’m wondering if it’s ever addressed, or if King just dropped the ball on this:
Basically, we’re following the story of child prodigy Luke, who’s been kidnapped because he has some telekinetic abilities, by the titular institute. Luke, being a child prodigy, knows how to bypass the traffic controls on the laptop he’s provided, and is thus able to access the whole of the internet. Thanks to this, he finds out that his parents have, in fact, been killed, and he’s being sought.
Furthermore, he knows his approximate location, due to knowing the name of a town and a bar where the personnel of the institute like to spend their evenings, and he knows the names of most of the staff, including their last names.
Yet nowhere is the suggestion that he might just type up all of that info and send it to the police—or hell, even post it on a messageboard, or use one of the hundreds of avenues of communication access to the internet gives you. Sure, there could be a hundred reasons why this might not work, but you don’t need to be a teenage supergenius for that to be the first thing you’d try. And I’m finding it hard to believe that something this blatant should just have slipped past King and whatever editors and such read the book before publication.
So, my question: is this ever addressed? Has it already been, and it’s just slipped my mind? Because right now, I’m having a difficult time listening to the description of how he’s watching cat videos on YouTube and not mentally scream, dude, write an email! Leave a comment! Log into fucking facebook! And I don’t think I can endure this for much more if it’s not somehow explained away.