NaNoWriMo Day 12

Angry Gary and Angry Larry the Leopard Slugs

Corporatocracy
Larry slowly woke, his tentacles gradually rising and his eyes cracking open. He felt the soreness from the prior day’s exertion and the memories flooded back into his still waking brain. The sight of the hedgehog had given him a real scare and the image sat emblazoned in his memory. To follow that with the slug of his life and little to eat amongst the whole ordeal made him tired just thinking of it. As his eyes became adjusted he saw the familiar flash of the pda across his nook and he automatically went to it.
Tapping at the screen he began to scroll without really reading the headlines, just scanning and not focusing as he was lost in his thoughts. A thing caught his eye as he scrolled which snapped him to attention. He scrolled back up and tapped the link opening to an article titled, “Bollinger owned corp Organiser sold to Purdue Pharma in $3B deal while pressure mounts on the senator”.
His eyes lifted from the pda and he stared at the wall in thought as the ramifications hit him. He looked back down and continued to read the article.
“In a midnight deal the Purdue Pharma board of directors and senator Bollinger brokered a deal for the sale of the Organiser Corp. This comes just days after the revelations that the senator is potentially involved with the CCP’s organ trade. While the deal appears to be finished there are lingering questions regarding the legality with the FTC investigating already. The DOJ has raised objections to the sale and appear to be preparing a stop order for any and all property of the senator. Our staff has gotten no response from the senator or his office, Purdue did not respond, and the DOJ refused to answer any questions.”
Larry pushed the pda aside and drooped his tentacles. He moved away from the glowing screen and went to the fungus in the corner, taking a big mouthful he sat chewing in frustration. His mind rolled the article around and he felt himself getting more annoyed the more he thought, then took another big bite of fungus.
“What else would we expect? Of course the company will be hidden away so everyone forgets. It happens all the time, rebranding or buyouts are just ways of obfuscating the criminal sides of the companies. There is no way to stop this steamroller,” Larry thought as his chewing increased in speed and veracity.
From the entrance to his nook Larry heard Gary’s call and grunted through his still chewing mouth. Gary slugged in saying, “you feeling better now?”
Larry turned to him and still chewing mumbled, “not really”.
“Oh, didn’t sleep well?” Gary replied.
Larry chewed for a bit and finally swallowed before saying, “I slept fine but now the news is even worse.”
“How could it get worse?” Gary asked with a confused look in his eyes.
“Look for yourself,” Larry said motioning towards the pda.
Gary moved up to it and scrolled the article before looking up and saying, “and”.
“Don’t you see what they’re doing? The buyout is just a way to cover the whole thing up and sweep this under the rug. I’d bet that I can find the Purdue executive’s names in the list so they most likely were a part of it to begin with,” Larry said.
“Isn’t that how government and business works?” Gary asked with a smirk.
“That’s how our corrupt system works. It’s not how a capitalist society should work which is why it’s obvious we aren’t in one,” Larry replied.
“Wait, what? I think that this is exactly how a capitalist society works, because it is,” Gary said.
“No, it doesn’t mean turning everyone into slaves for the corporate will or for the shareholder’s pockets. Capitalism has lost out to the new paradigm of corporatocracy. It’s plain to see when they can just sweep away importing stolen organs. The public will forget in a week, just you watch. The media will move to the next big story and it’s gone,” Larry said in frustration.
“You never know, this might have some momentum behind it, there are a lot that are pretty mad about this,” Gary offered.
“There is no way, not when the names on the list likely are running the world and most of the biggest companies. I need to work on cross referencing the list still, “ Larry said as he moved next to Gary and slid the pda away from him.
Gary moved back and watched Larry tap at he pda and he could tell he was lost to it. He said a quick bye as he exited the nook. Larry kept tapping at the screen and paid no attention as Gary left. His mind focused on the list he went to the site again, opening the reports tab and looking for any changes. He tapped the drop down and a much longer list of options showed for him. He scrolled through them one at a time and he tapped the names report to see if anything had changed. The report options opened and he saw new ones in the list and he quickly chose “Detailed Names”.
The screen on his pda froze and so did his heart for a moment until he remembered the first report did the same thing when he ran it. He slugged to the fungus and took a nice mouthful and returned to the pda to chew and wait for the report. He finished his mouthful and the pda was still frozen so he took another bite and sat chewing and waiting. As he was swallowing the last of the fungus the pda flashed and came back to life. He excitedly scrolled the resulting screen to see the list of names now had a second column which listed the employment of each name.
“Holy shit!” he shouted in surprise. He slowly scrolled the screen and read the names of the Purdue executives. The CEO, CFO, and COO were all listed. Larry quickly saved a copy of the report to his pda then as he scrolled he tapped one of the names and it took him to a listing of every email or file they are mentioned in. He couldn’t believe his luck but the thought hit him that the AI actually WAS doing the work, he just needed to use the tool for what it was.
Gary found himself outside Larry’s nook not sure where he wanted to go. He looked around for any sign of a direction he should go and to his right he saw some movement in the grass. He slugged his way towards the movement and as he got close he found a mouse about the size of him rustling in the grass with the front half of it buried and the hind end and tail sticking out. He watched it rustling around for a while then lost interest, he saw no reason to bother it since it looked like it was on a mission. He noticed a mound of mold nearby and headed for it. As he took a nibble of the mold the mouse popped out of the hole, spinning around and looking at him. He stopped chewing and silently stared back at the mouse.
The mouse moved first and it quickly ran away through the grass away from Gary leaving him sitting with the mold pile. He continued to chew and found the taste to be middling, not horrible but not great. It was enough to make him decide to go wander some more and see what food might be around. He meandered through the grass and found himself again near the base of the viewing bush. He peered around him carefully looking for any predators, unlike last time he was prepared now and much more aware of the dangers.
He slowly stuck his foot to the bush branch as he watched his surroundings. Satisfied that he was momentarily safe he climbed the rest of his body onto the branch and began to climb. His one eye was kept trained on the space behind him watching for any movement. He saw leaves move to one side and both eyes snapped to look at it but it was just wind blowing them. He knew he was noticeably more paranoid but he felt he had good reason to be given the bird and the toad. Despite his paranoia he made it to the viewing spot atop the bush where he immediately spied nice piles of bird droppings which he went right to and devoured one by one.
As he ate he could hear the television blaring its customary sound through the screen in the window. The news channel was always on and it was now just coming out of commercial.
“We’re back with our team of analysts and I would like to start with you Mr. Alvarez, what is the motivation for the sale of Organise to Purdue, in your best estimation.
Well Shelly, it could be a couple of factors. For the senator the ownership of the company has become a political nightmare and he is likely looking to shed any and all of those things potentially used as evidence against him. He has a long standing relationship with Purdue and served on their board a decade ago. The must have been some strings pulled or favors called in for the deal to end up at the max ever valuation for the company. It all would look very suspicious before a judge.
Mr. Alvarez do you believe we will see indictments for anyone listed in the data dump? The connections are becoming clearer now and the DOJ can’t ignore it, correct?
They can do whatever they want it seems so I wouldn’t put anything past them.
What about Purdue, do you think there will be an investigation by congress into the dealings they have had with Bollinger and how much they have known of the organ trade?
I think that would be wrapped into the main investigation.
Thank you. Now Ms. Sullivan would you say that we are going to find out who the masterminds behind this scheme are sooner or later?
Shelly, I’ve seen the DOJ work and it is painfully slow. We are looking at a six to eight month long investigation here with the likelihood that they “lose the evidence” or they just lose interest due to some very deep pockets.
So you’re saying that someone is financing this trade?
There is always deep pockets behind every evil thing that happens in this world.
Thank you Ms. Sullivan. Now Mr. OrrFellow we finish with you. We have spoken at length the past days and you have seen the evolution of this event, what would you predict we will see in the coming week?
Yes Shelly thank you. It looks to be a long road ahead for the DOJ and they will have their work cutout for them in trying to detangle the web that was exposed in the data leak. I don’t foresee any indictments though the legislative branch has all been subpoenaed no one will loose their job and we will go back to things as normal within a month.
Well, I surely do hope you are not correct but we all have seen the process play out before so it is not an unheard of concept. Thank you Mr. OrrFellow and thank you to the rest of the panel for being here. Next we will be talking to an ex-house cleaner for speaker Slugosi who has some interesting information about the private life of the speaker. Stay tuned.”
Gary had seen enough and he descended the bush to the ground and uneventfully made his way back to his hole. He figured Larry already knew so he didn’t feel the need to burden him with more bad news.