GlobaCorp
- It produces 28% of all the food.
- It forges 15% of all the steel.
- It manufactures 27% of all industrial products.
- It employs 15% of the population.
- It makes all the laws.
Introduction
Charles stared blankly for a while at the envelope that sat plainly upon the middle of his desk. His L-shaped desk was well laid-out, with his thin
computer monitor glowing softly upon his face, a keyboard under the writing surface, with little trinkets decorating the edges. The steel-balls of a
kinetic toy clanked in a timely fashion, adding an atmosphere that soothed Charles’ over-worked mind. Upon the screen were windows over-lapping
windows of names and information concerning aspects of current global situations. Corporate mergers, new Chief Executive Officers, bank transactions.
Things that bored him to death. He was leaning back in his soft-cushioned chair savoring the excitement but dreading the consequence of the plain
envelope, so out of place on his orderly desk, marked simply with the letters "L" and "G". On the back was an unbroken wax seal with the insignia
"G" upon it. The plain lettering on the front came as no surprise for his name was Charles L.G. Edmundson, even though his wife, Alexandria Garret,
knew him only as Charles Garret.
Charles left behind his last name at an early age, when his father disgraced himself in a scandalous attempt at a hostile take over of a GlobaCorp
subsidiary. But, his past was not in this envelope so much as was his future. Every envelope he received as such was a turning point in his life and
this would be no different. He knew from a tip, that when a caller knocked upon the door today to send his wife and children upstairs. The Global
Security employee bearing the unopened envelope ensured that what was contained within was only read by the one who wrote it.
Charles leaned forward, taking the envelope into his hands and played with it at first. The soft equally timed sound of the kinetic toy beating
sharply into the dim and other-wise silent study. With an exhale Charles leaned over to a drawer and took from it a letter opener. The sharp constant
beat was suddenly broken before returning to the peaceful ambiance it had been for the past hour. Charles removed from the envelope a simple unfolded
paper upon which was a name and a small note both written in hand. He scanned the written note into a carefully selected temporary cache in his
computer where he could check to be sure this was indeed the written hand of the President of Global Security.
With another exhale he got out of his chair and walked over to a picture on the wall. It was a cliché but he put his locked steel-safe there anyway.
He took down the picture and pulled a key from his pocket. It was not a typical house-key or even a typical safe-key, but a soft plastic where a
webbing of fiber-optics ran through it. As soon as he inserted the key the lock began to glow from within, a network of lights that needed to be
specially lined up with their respective receivers on the other end of the lock before the safe's electrically driven pins would release allowing the
safe to open. He took from the safe a small unmarked compact disk which he inserted into his computer and selected it. The bottom of the window read
"14.3 MB". GlobaCorps' confidence of their position and more importantly of Charles led them to allow him control over his own security procedures.
So he scanned the note again this time to his unmarked disk and returned it to the safe. Rain began to beat rhythmically upon the window behind where
he was sitting. The drapes tightly pulled. He loved the steadily growing sound against the roof and walls. He sat back down into the soft cushions of
his chair and let the monitor glow upon his face as he listened to the sharp clicks of his kinetic toy and the growing storm.
"David A. Lukas,
Learn what he knows or eliminate him."
A vague note, but he had been in this business long enough to know how to begin and he thought to himself, "This is going to be easy."
[edit on 20-6-2004 by John bull 1]
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