Joel looked down at his hands. “You wanna explain this one, Oz?”
“Sure.” Oz replied through the intercom. “It seems that young Joel is wanting to increase his abilities… specifically his reflexes, a la cyborg.”
Brock’s mouth dropped open. “You mean you want in on some of the Sean Royale action?!” he exclaimed, his voice louder, now almost singing. His open mouth turned into an enormous grin. “You want to hold your own against the super soldier! That’s why the secrecy and blushes!”
Joel’s blush deepened. Brock slapped his own leg and stomped his feet in the pod. Even Oz seemed to be chuckling through the pod… the vibrations running through the seat they occupied.
Joel tried to hush Brock. “Come on, man. You’re going to get us rumbled!”
Brock lifted his head a little, and Joel could see actual tears rolling down his cheeks. Brock pulled a colorful handkerchief from his overalls pocket and dabbed his face, careful not to smudge his eyeliner. “Maaaaaaan. You got balls. You’re going to get Oz to implant you with all kinds of shit, just so you can run faster and beat Sean?”
Joel seemed to recover himself and his dignity, as a small frown started to show on his eyebrows. “Oz. You can back me up any time…” he grunted in the direction of the heads-up display.
Then he turned back to Brock. “Not run faster. I’d need more muscle for that. And it’s not just about competing with Sean. This is about upping my game. We’re going to need every edge we can get going into this Etheric Empire battle, and who knows what lies ahead? I just want to make sure that I can be as ready as possible.”
He paused, his eyes drifting off into the distance a little as he spoke next. “Besides, all it takes in a fight is being a split second too slow, and you can lose your life. Or worse. A teammate.” He shook his head. “Not on my watch.”
He looked back at Brock who had sobered up a little. “So, if it means letting you stick chips and widgets in my brain to make me a better soldier, a better protector, and a better teammate… then, so be it.”
Brock had been gently nodding, empathetically, when suddenly he stopped nodding, and his pupils dilated.
“Yo, you what what?!” he asked, suddenly realizing that he was going to be implanting the chips in Joel’s brain.
Joel rolled his lips inward, letting his cheeks go pudgy. “Yeah. That bit. That’s what I need you for.” He indicated back at the heads-up display. “Oz can’t insert the devices, and since you’re the only one with a steady hand and knack for the mechanical, we - and by ‘we,’ I mean Oz - figured that you’d be able to use your skills, even though half of your… project… is organic material.”
Brock breathed out heavily, his eyes wide. He seemed to lean forward a little as he exhaled.
He looked up at Joel.
“Dude. You know the sight of blood makes me faint?”
Gaitune-67, safe house, Molly’s conference room
Okay, Oz, we need to find a way to take each of these goons down.
Molly settled down in her usual seat, back to the door, mocha in hand.
Let’s start with Jessica. She took a long swig of mocha, clearing her mind.
We need to understand exactly how her companies are structured, and how that relates to the legislation The Syndicate has been pushing for. Once we know that, we can come up with a plan of attack.
Oz started pulling up searches on the conference room holo screens, showing the frameworks of the companies he was able to locate.
Remember, we don’t want to just take her out of the game; we want to do it in a way where it cannot be built up again over time. Like, never again… so we need this to tie-in with the law-making piece, and the company laws.
Oz’s moving images and holoscreens suddenly stopped.
Got it? Molly asked.
Got it.
Data and intel started flowing across the screens as he referenced a new holo with company law details and legislation changes in the last three decades, as it pertained to Jessica’s business model.
* * *
Hours later, Molly was still trawling through the various pieces of research that Oz had managed to locate.
Oz, are you seeing any other patterns here?
Yes, I’ve spotted two more.
Another screen appeared off to Molly’s right, and she pushed a couple of her screens out of the way, and pulled the new one closer.
This looks like the subsidiaries are linked in some way to the share price of the main company…
Exactly. When she buys new ones, the share price goes up. On the rare occasion she has sold one, the share price has dropped off.
Molly leaned on the desk, rubbing her chin.
So what if we prompted all of those 180 subsidiaries to be sold?
It would likely crash the value of the company.
Find me the last five years’ worth of company accounts. If this company is overvalued, that kind of drop in share capital would prompt a sale.
Oz flicked up another screen.
Okay, what was the second pattern?
Another screen appeared behind the current one.
Seems the board votes to sell whenever a subsidiary fulfills a certain set of criteria. I’ve managed to reverse engineer what those parameters are.
How easy would it be to replicate those across all 180 companies?
Oz paused. Molly could feel herself being pushed out of areas of her brain as her mind went numb. It lasted just a few seconds, and then Oz returned an answer on her screen.
I could do it, mostly ethically, probably in about 24 hours. The board is the human element, though. History dictates they would call an emergency meeting and perhaps debate selling off all of them. They may resist, and just ride it out.
Molly frowned.
What would happen to each company, based on their parameters, if they ended up not selling?
They would incur massive fines for breaches in legislation; not to mention that, individually, they don’t have the legal power to untangle the messes they have wrapped up in the process. Their parameters are very specific, based on a number of factors and risks they’re taking just operating day-to-day.
Molly rubbed her eyes. I think there is probably enough pressure there to get the board to ditch the subsidiaries. They probably have the hubris to expect that the main company can survive the crash.
She paused, considering the impact on the wider market.
Oz, can you run a model of what will likely happen to the rest of the market if this goes ahead?
Oz ran a simulation for the health sector and all the other sectors. Molly watched as it played out, noticing that, for the most part, only the health sector was affected.
Oz, get this intel over to Paige, Maya, and Pieter, and ask them to come up here for a quick meeting in half an hour. I’ve just had another idea.
She slurped at her stone-cold mocha, before realizing it was just the dregs. Molly screwed up her face and popped the mug down again, pushing it aside.
And then grab me the same data for Andus’s companies, please. Given how he’s her guru, I think we’ll find similar weaknesses there, too.
Gaitune-67, Base conference room
Molly walked into the empty conference room; the one they normally referred to as “the General’s” conference room.
She had a meeting with the big guy himself. She was surprised he had made time, but suspected after what she had messaged ADAM between her researching and briefings, that they saw an opportunity to affect real change.
Or they were about to tell her that she was crackpot crazy.
Either way, this was going to be a turning point. She sat down in the middle of the long side of the conference table nearest the door, and waited. Her heart was beating heavier than usual, and she could feel her palms sweating. She wished she’d gone to the restroom again before she came in here. She could wait. She knew it was only nerves.
As it happened, she didn’t have long to wait; a hologram opened out from the center of the table within moments. It unfolded, and revealed the General sitting at his desk in his private office on the ArchAngel.
“Molly Bates,” he greeted her. “Sounds like you’ve been thinking outside the box again…” he began.
The meeting went on for some time. So long, in fact, that Sean, Joel, Paige, and even Crash had all come looking for her. Upon seeing that she was in with the General, each had turned on their heels, and gone back to what they were doing.
Molly didn’t emerge again until the evening meal, where she disclosed nothing about her meeting with the General, saying it was all ‘need-to-know’.
Chapter 7
Gaitune-67, Safe house, Molly’s conference room
Pieter strode into the conference room, holo out, reading as he walked. Closely following behind him were Maya and Paige.
Molly spun around as they filed in and took seats. “Hi,” she told them, her mind still in the data she’d been sifting through.
Paige smiled at her sympathetically. “Have you actually eaten real food today?” she asked, looking at the mocha mug and the empty bottles of water.
Molly looked up, trying to recall the extraneous data.
Oz answered for her through the conference room holo. “She’s used the mocha machine three times, but I haven’t registered any food consumption.”
Paige put her hands on her hips and after a short pause she strode silently out of the room.
Molly, bewildered, watched her leave. Not understanding what was going on, she did the thing she knew how to do best: she turned her attention back to the task at hand.
Molly looked at Maya and Pieter. “Looks like we have pinpointed the weaknesses in the infrastructure of both Jessica’s and Andus’s operations,” she began.
She started explaining how the cards would topple if they were able to trigger the sales of the subsidiaries, causing the ultimate collapse of the whole regime.
Maya raised her hand, a slight frown across her forehead. “And what about triggering those sales? What does that entail?”
Molly nodded. “Well, Oz can handle most of that, but there are some… manipulations… that would need to happen that aren’t exactly white hat.”
She glanced over at Pieter. “This means that Oz can’t do those specific takedowns; but…” she smiled a little, “I suspect knowing what the bigger picture is, you won’t have an ethical issue in doctoring some reports and such like?” Molly watched Pieter to see if he was comfortable.
Pieter waved his hand. “Yeah, no problem. These fucktards have exploited the poor and the sick for too long. They have it coming. Whatever it takes,” he told her.
Molly bobbed her head rhythmically. “Great.” She seemed to brighten a little. “Okay, in the meantime, there are a few other things that need handling.”
Paige returned to the room, gently closing the door behind her. She plunked a green smoothie on the desk next to Molly and nodded at it. “Drink,” she instructed before heading around the table.
Molly thanked her and continued. Paige took a seat at the end of the conference table so she could see everyone who was already sitting down the sides.
Molly took a sip of the smoothie before returning to the briefing. She was still looking at Paige. “Oz and Pieter have an action plan to dismantle Jessica’s and Andus’s companies. What we then need to ensure is that there is no way to rebuild them. We need the legislation that has weighted everything in their favor gone.”
Paige nodded in agreement.
Molly continued. “Are you happy to liaise with Garet, and see what he can do to make that so?” she asked.
Paige nodded, taking notes. “Sure,” she confirmed.
Molly filled the others in on the details of the Garet situation. When she had finished, Paige wrinkled her nose. “Do you think that he’s going to play ball? Or just sabotage everything we ever try to do?” she asked.
Molly took a breath and bobbed her head to one side briefly. “This will certainly be the test. If he comes through, then we know he might have a chance of being on our side. If not, we remove him.” She smiled a slightly evil smile. “Don’t worry, I’m sending Joel with you. He might need to have a serious chat with him before you start working on the ins and outs.”
Paige stopped typing on her holo and looked up, her eyes slightly wider than usual. She took a second to understand Molly’s meaning, and then smiled, too. “I’m going to enjoy this assignment,” she added quietly.
Molly looked over at Maya. “Alright. So, taking out this company is going to have a short-term impact on the sector. We need the government ready to support it. Lower-tiered staff will be the first affected. We want to put them into government jobs ASAP.”
Maya had already started taking notes again.
“You’re the one to make this piece happen, Maya. Use your contacts in the city to get a government plan into place. The funding will become available; don’t worry about that for now. Get agreements in principle, and find people to support it. We want governance in place to take over the infrastructure of primary health.”
Molly took another sip of her green drink, and then looked over at the other two. “We can leave the higher levels of the bullshit – insurance and second order tools — to disappear in the collapse. Our goal here is to bring the cost of providing the treatments back to an actual cost, rather than an inflated, artificial rate. According to Oz’s models, it will be able to sustain itself as a sector without these secondary parasites.”
She took another sip, realizing how hungry she had become while she’d been immersed in formulating this plan. “Okay,” she said, wrapping up. “We need these things in motion so that it becomes obvious that the collapse is going to happen. Some of what needs to happen in the Senate is going to take time, but if we can at least get it moving in that direction, then there are obvious solutions in place when we take out the companies. The existing senators and administrators should be able to figure it out from there.”
She looked around. “Any questions?”
The assembled team shook their heads, having already started checking details on their holos.
“Okay,” Molly finished. “Let me know if you need clarification on anything. Plus, Oz is fully versed on what needs to happen.”
Pieter got up and started ambling out, grunting “later” to the group.
Paige glanced over at Maya. “Time to call my ex, I guess…”
Maya grinned. “Moral support?” she offered.
Paige shook her head. “Nah. I’m alright.”
Molly looked up as Paige headed out. “Thanks for the shake,” she said.
Paige grinned. “Of course. You gotta eat. Or ‘nutrient,’” she said, pulling a face at her new word for consuming nutrients. “It doesn’t verb-out the same way as most words…” she observed idly as she headed towards the door.
Molly grinned. “Hey,” she said suddenly remembering, “you know you can get a real-time line with the surface.”
Paige turned back. “Huh?”
Molly slurped and turned around a little in her chair. “Yeah, in the ops room. Ask Oz to help you connect, and you can talk with Garet real-time.”
Paige’s mouth dropped. “Oh, great. That will speed things up.” She paused. “How does that work?”
Molly shook her head, her lips still around the straw. She swallowed.
“No idea.”
She paused. “Yet,” she added.
Gaitune-67, Safe house workshop
Brock created a makeshift operating room in a supplies cupboard, out of view of the main workshop. Now, with Joel laid back in the operating chair, and the half-light from some lamps he’d managed to cobble together, Brock was almost ready to start the procedure.
“Oz, you’re sure about this?” he asked, speaking into a microphone he’d rigged up from the game console just outside the cupboa
rd.
“100%,” Oz told him. “The sedatives should be kicking in now.”
Joel had relaxed back in the chair, and opened one eye. “In the old days, it was the patients that received the sedatives,” he commented dryly.
Brock shook his head and stamped his foot playfully. “Man, if you want me to faint on your ass, then fine. But if Oz reckons this cocktail of vomit suppressants, sedatives, and half a mocha can get me through this, then it’s our best option.”
Joel closed his eyes again, his lips turning up a little at the corners.
Brock turned around, and when he turned back, he had something that looked like a puncture gun. “Okay, they didn’t send an insertion gun with the chips, so I’ve had to improvise.” He waved the gun around in front of Joel’s line of sight. “This one goes in the base of the brainstem,” he said, signaling for Joel to roll over. “So I need you on your front.”
Joel opened his eyes and sat up, then, carefully balancing on the reclined chair, he turned himself over onto his front. Settling down, he put his forehead against the headrest and tried to get comfortable.
“It’s okay,” Brock told him, “this one won’t take a second.” Joel felt Brock’s fingers on the back of his head, and then tracing the skull down to the spine. He pressed a little harder, and then felt around some more, finding the edge of the base of the skull. He gently adjusted Joel’s head from the chin and tried again.
A moment later, Joel felt the metal of the puncture gun pressed up against his skull. Brock breathed out a little. “Hope I’ve got the pressure right on this one.”
Joel’s eyes flew open in fear at Brock’s last statement, but it was too late to do anything about it. A split-second later, there was a thud in the back of his head, and a sharp pain around the sides of his lower skull.
“Motherfucker!” Joel hissed, very conscious they didn’t want their little experiment to be discovered.
“Boosh!” he heard Brock announce as he stepped back and did some of his wiggly dancing. “One doooown!” he said, celebrating.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 76
