utopia unraveling (The Virtagwala Series Book 1)

by Kyle Malinowski

  Ray sighed, “They may be working through some lower levels of finance, but I am sure there will be some relief in sight. But I think with the collapse of the UBB a couple weeks ago, the treasury and Minister Sensado are watching their money supply a little closer. There weren’t many positive things to come out of that collapse,” he said stirring his hot latte.

  “No there certainly were not,” she said checking her freshly painted nails, quipping on a positive note, “Besides the fact the British economy is in the shitter. But then again they are a big trader of ours, so I can’t even say that’s a positive,” the two of them sat silently for a moment, she then said, “Could you imagine what kind of devastation would unfold if the Virtagwallan World Bank were to fall apart? Goodbye Ponchertrain,” she said sipping her icy beverage.

  “Goodbye world,” Ray sarcastically sighed. Changing his attitude, he turned to look at her in her beautiful hazel eyes, “So what did you want to meet with me about? I am sure it wasn’t simply to get coffee and chatter about foreign banks,” he said calmly.

  She smiled a flirtatious smile, “Fine. I want to know why President Rove met with the Chancellor Sylvester Chamberlain a couple weeks ago,” she rolled her eyes, “And more so, why the Prime Minister was thrown out during the meeting?”

  Ray’s face became all screwed up, “I don’t know what you are talking about? No meeting comes to mind between those three,” he surreptitiously said.

  She kicked him with her heel and strengthened her tone; “Do not play dumb with me, Hampton. I am confident you know exactly what I am talking about. Knowing you, you were probably involved. What were they talking about? Does it have anything to do with UV’s expansion into Villaggio?”

  Ray’s eyes opened, and she smiled, “Struck a nerve, didn’t I?”

  He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it as if in shock. He then opened it again, “Fine, as a matter of fact, that was the topic of their conversation. How did you know Prime Minister Zhang was thrown out?”

  “More like locked out artfully,” she smiled mysteriously behind her cup. Smiling after Ray got frustrated she said, “Kay Lyons and I are cycling buddies, and our close friendship goes back years.”

  Ray sighed, and pushed her on, “Fine, I will deal with Ms. Lyons later,” he leaned forward on the table, “Chen, what do you know about the University expanding to Villaggio? I have been looking for weeks to find even a smudge in Chamberlain’s slimy trail and I have found nothing.”

  Boggiano seductively smiled again, “Well, Ray, you clearly weren’t looking in the right places,” she leaned over to her bag and took out a file. Throwing it on the table, Ray opened it to find multiple blueprints and documents labeled as UV Proprietary. He thumbed through them, “How did you get these?”

  She looked off to the side, “I have my sources. I may, or may not, have bribed the Student Body President at the UV to get me some information from the Chancellor. I guess Chamberlain was more than happy to show the kid, and bam, I got copies. Nothing like an eager student politician,” she took another big swig of her drink, “As you can tell there are clear plans to expand to Villaggio. They have blueprints for buildings, memos between the former landowner and the VP of Business affairs for UV about the acquisition and its intended purpose, and copies of the land deeds with the signature of the chairman of the University’s board of trustees, Mr. Artimus Zhang. Now, Mr. Business Major, with all this evidence, what is the missing link?”

  Ray couldn’t believe what he was looking at. He heard as the Prime Minister and the Chancellor told Rove they had no intention of expansion – the land was meant as an investment. However clearly, the two of them and the rest of the parties involved had slightly different views of how the land should be used. He looked up at Boggiano after he saw the price tag, “How on earth did the University afford this? I am pretty confident this is larger than their yearly budget from the Parliament!”

  She grinned, “That’s where the free ride ends Mr. Ray.”

  “What? No, you have to tell me,” Ray demanded getting antsy.

  She simply stared at him, her eyes tearing him apart the whole time. Simply shaking her head, she played with the straw in her mouth mysteriously. Ray sat back in the booth. Moaning, and thinking he got her hint, he grabbed the first button on his shirt, and began to unbutton it. After doing that, she shrugged her shoulders, and looked off again. Unbuttoning the next one, she shook her head, “Ray stop embarrassing yourself,” looking him up and down, “I’ve tapped that, I am positive you remember that. And guess what, I prefer to do men nowadays, as opposed to boys. Sorry.”

  Heaving again, “Ugh, come on just tell me. If this doesn’t do it for you, which I don’t believe but that’s for another time, than what will?” he asked pushing her harder and harder.

  She put her drink down, pulled out her pad of paper and pencil, and said, “I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Anything, name your price,” he insisted.

  She scribbled quickly, and handed the piece of paper to Ray. He read it, gave a little laugh, and then crumbled up the piece of paper, “Yes I can help you repay your debt. You’re lucky I like you.”

  “Your lucky you know me,” she said pulling out another folder. “Everything you want to know about the deal is in there. You didn’t get it from me, and as far as I’m concerned this meeting never happened,” she packed up her stuff as Ray opened the file.

  Before he could say anything to her, she hit his head and said to contact her if he finds anything. He shrugged her off as he read the page of information pertaining to the deal. A stone fell in his stomach, as he looked out the window at Boggiano heading down the street, attempting to process the curve ball she just dropped in his lap.

  21

  Xavier Rove’s least favorite part of his job was dealing with the Joint Chiefs of the National Guard. He attempted every other week to get out of their three-hour briefings, but was never successful. Listening to General Laurels drone on about military budgets and tactical procedures, and how he still needed Rove to nominate a new Lieutenant General bored Rove to no end. So when a Capital Tower aid interrupted the meeting and informed the President that Mr. Hampton Ray was on the phone, he was happy to quietly excuse himself. Stepping outside of the room, he thanked the aide, and put the phone to his ear.

  “What’s up Ray?” he asked looking up and down the hallway.

  “So it may have taken me a long time, but I have found out some interesting, and rather, shocking information about our trustworthy friends down at the University,” he huffed into the phone as he dashed along the streets of Ponchertrain en route to Capital Tower.

  Ducking his head, sensing an extremely confidential conversation coming up, he began briskly striding down the hallway. Instantly, Private Harvey, who was waiting outside the room, began following him. Stopping briefly, Rove put up his finger as if to a dog, “No. Stay,” he commanded and pointed to a chair. Harvey nodded, and moved back to his chair. “One second Ray, I’m moving somewhere more appropriate,” he told his friend through the phone. Trying the handle to an office in the hall, he opened the door and walked in.

  It was an empty vacated office. ‘Perfect for this kind of phone call,’ Rove thought to himself as he told Ray to proceed.

  “So you know how you met with Chamberlain like a month ago, and you asked him very frankly what the intentions were for their land acquisition in Villaggio?”

  Rove nodded, “Yes I do remember. Tell me you have found something?”

  “I have, but I had to make a deal with the devil herself to get it done,” Ray sarcastically scoffed.

  “Chen Boggiano. What did she turned you down again? Hampton your married, and even if you weren’t’ let me assure you no one wants what you were offering,” he said laughing out loud.

  “Now Mr. President I am going to have to disagree with you, I’ve still got it,” Ray said, weaving amongst people on the street, “Anyways we will settle that later. Back to the importa
nt matter. Boggiano was able to give me proof, from what seems to be official University files, that the University fully intends to expand to Villaggio. Furthermore, I want you to guess whose signature is on the land deed?”

  Rove waited a few moments, “Ray I don’t have time to play your tawdry little games.”

  Ray moaned, so the President responded pathetically, “The UV’s Vice President for Business Affairs I am assuming.”

  Ray yelped, “That’s what I was expecting. But no, it was Artimus Zhang’s signature.”

  “As the Chairman of the Board of Trustees,” Rove sighed. A light bulb seemed to go off in his head. As if it made sense. He was still hung up on something though, “So they both lied to me. Why the hell would they lie?”

  “I have no idea Mr. President, that’s what I am attempting to figure out as well. But it goes a little deeper than that. Doesn’t Zhang need board approval to acquire land?” Ray yelled into the phone over the wind interference caused by the strong gusts in the city.

  Xavier thought for a moment, “I thought so. Actually, hold on, there was something passed a while back, oh years ago, even before Zhang was on the board. It had something to do with the Chairman of the Board, with the urging of the Chancellor could in emergency situations only exchange, essentially swap, fixed assets the University already possessed with something of equal value simply with the Chairman’s signature. But that was passed when I was the just an at-large member years ago,” Xavier thought out loud.

  “That explains quite a bit then,” Ray shouted again over the natural hum from the wind. “But that’s still not the most interesting part. You will never guess how they financed this acquisition? Aka what they swapped in order for the deal to go through?”

  Rove didn’t respond right away, he was racking his brain with options. He then sighed, and said to Ray, “They swapped their shareholdings in the Virtagwallan Gold Depository Corporation for the land, didn’t they?”

  There was silence on the phone, until Ray asked, “How the hell did you know that?”

  Rove shook his head, “Besides the fact that their VirtGold holdings were the single largest fixed asset in the University’s endowment, I have a sneaky suspicion something bigger is at play here,” his brain had just jumped into hyper drive. Xavier had lost all focus of the Joint Chiefs meeting, and it was quickly replaced by his curiosity of what the University was doing. He then asked, “Ray, who formerly held the land? I mean, who did they give the shares to?”

  Ray stopped moving and checked his folder; “They swapped the land for the shares with a company known as the Aurum International Exchange Corporation.”

  “Interesting. Keep on that and let me know if you come up with anything,” Roves stopped for a moment, “Ray, you went to school to get a finance degree didn’t you?”

  “You know I did,” Ray replied, “Oh and don’t forget my investing concentration,” he laughed.

  “Great, I think I have a special project for you.”

  Ray laughed, “That worries me slightly. I’m not going to lie Mr. President.”

  Rove chuckled, “No what worries me is the fact that you are in debt to Chen Boggiano. What do you have to do, provide certain sexual favors?”

  Ray snapped, “Oh god no! Thank the lord. No, in fact the debt involves you. We’ll talk when I get back.”

  Rove stopped, and sincerely said, “Thank you Ray, this has been really helpful. I appreciate your work, but we have to move quickly if we want to prevent this from blowing up in our faces.”

  22

  Rachel Rove smoothed out her skirt as she sat and waited for Susan to usher her into Eric Larynx’s office. It had been a busy three weeks, organizing and implementing the project that Larynx requested of her. She found the project exciting, compared to the average, everyday classroom monotony. Cancelling a class, she left work early and dashed across Ponchertrain in a private carriage to the Larynx Grand Central Station. Unlike the last time she had visited, the sun was shining and the day was beautiful on the island.

  After twenty minutes of waiting, Eric Larynx opened his door and walked out. Standing up, Rachel was greeted with the traditional two kisses on each cheek. She knew it was going to happen, but still blushed.

  “Hold all my calls, but please let me know when my next appointment gets here,” Larynx instructed his secretary, Susan. He then turned to look at Rachel, “Come on Dr. Rove, we have some work to get done.”

  Smiling, the two walked into the lavish office. Larynx shut the door, and like last time pointed to the couches.

  “Can I interest you in anything to drink? My damn manors force me to ask,” he smirked walking over to his cabinet of drinks along the wall.

  Laying her briefcase down, and her purse, she turned to him, “I will take some water if you have some,” she smiled testing her host.

  Eric Larynx flashed a deviant smile, “Still can’t interest you in that Scotch, can I?

  Rachel hiccupped and giggle, and quipped, “No. Still aren’t getting lucky.”

  Larynx thought for a moment. Shrugged, filled up a glass with water, and shut the cabinet. Walking over to the sitting area handing her the glass, “Here you go.” Sitting down and getting comfortable, both of them took some time to enjoy their drinks. He cracked his neck, put down the glass and leaned forward, “So has the doctor brought me any good news?”

  She leaned forward, raising an eyebrow, “I’ve brought you news. Whether it is good or not is for you to decide.”

  Rachel sat back up, and dug into her briefcase. Producing a report with a plastic cover, she handed it to him, “Here are the results from the full environmental impact study you commissioned from me.”

  He grabbed it, and tore it open. Thumbing through the pages, he looked back up at her, “This looks fantastic, but I have no idea where to find your results. Where are they at?” He said looking up at her.

  She smiled, “The students felt the evolution of how they derived their conclusion was more important than the actual results.”

  He closed the report cover, “The students?”

  Nodding, she explained, “You see I figured this would be a great way to get the students involved in a real environmental engineering project. I broke my graduate students into groups, and gave them two weeks to do full impact studies for their specific areas. Some focused on the mounts, some on the jungle, some on the watershed of the island, some on the wildlife, and others on the overall ecosystem. After those two weeks, I brought them together, and they put together the report. After a two hours presentation, they delivered that report in your hands. I reviewed it, and endorse it.”

  “Students?” Larynx asked with a sunken feeling in his stomach, “So you didn’t personally produce this report?”

  Shaking her head, and taking another swig of the water, “No I did not. The students did. But,” she smiled, “I would say, politically, you now have a better chance of getting pass the parliament than if I had done it. Guarantee it.”

  “And why would that be?” Larynx asked not following Rachel’s logic.

  Putting the cup down, and crossing her legs, “Eric, how would it look if the first lady produced a report that supported your railway, or in this case, didn’t support its environmental impact?”

  Larynx’s eyes grew, “What? You don’t think it should be built?” he slammed the report on the table, and stood up.

  Rachel’s confident smile had faded as she tried to explain, “Eric, listen. Nowhere in that report does it say that you shouldn’t build the line. In fact, if I am not mistaken, it says you should build it. The economic and social impacts are far more beneficial and significant than some loss of habitat for the Villaggian Lemurs and a couple Virtagwallan Cedars,” she paused as he looked at her, “But it does explain, in detail, the short term and long term environmental degradation this railway could produce on the jungle’s ecosystem.”

  Larynx shook his head, and attempted to make sense of it all, “So let me get this straight. You
don’t endorse the railway because it will do some significant damage to some trees and monkeys, but you think it’s a good idea and say go for it?”

  Rachel nodded, “I would expect someone like you to understand its brilliance,” she laid her hand on her knee, and smirked.

  Sitting back down, it hit him, “And you said you weren’t good at politics. Your giving them what they want. You said, hey, this is going to be bad, BUT on the other hand the benefits outweigh the negatives. So let’s do it. It allows the ministers’ guilt to seem present to their constituencies, but because you, the foremost expert says we should do it, than they can approve it and be confident as well.”

  “I never said I wasn’t good at politics. I merely said I don’t like the sport. Regardless I knew you were that smart,” she said handing it back to him.

  Grasping the report, Rachel and Larynx caught each other’s eyes, and just as quickly, immediately let go. Larynx, picking the report up, asked again, “But why the students? You couldn’t do it yourself?”

  She chuckled, “Let me assure you, the life of being the first lady and not to mention a full time and tenured professor at UV is challenging enough,” she giggled, and shook her head, “No, the reason I had the students do it, was because I am sure the Ministers would love to see what their money goes towards every year. Plus I think they will be a little bit more lenient on students’ findings, since they are students, than me, the expert, and conveniently the wife of the,” she stopped, sensing something she couldn’t put her finger on.

  “President?” Larynx suggested jokingly.

  “Yea, right,” she rubbed the back of her neck. The cold of her wedding ring grazed her neck, a chill shooting down her spine. There were a couple moments of awkward silence, and she went for her bag again. Starting back up after pulling out a folder this time, “Okay so as long as you give them that report, and explain, as I am sure you will, how you plan on suspending the track from the cliffs in the mounts so as to avoid the dangers of the mudslides and such, and that you plan on following old HWY 100, I don’t see you having a problem at all with getting their approval,” she tapped the new folder on her lap, “This is the other thing you requested of me.”