FB: Chapter 80 – Congressional Pressure

“Congressman Smith, I would say it was a pleasure, but it isn’t,” I replied as I shook the man’s hand. He let out a scoff but gave me a smile. He didn’t like Exponential and by extension me. I didn’t like him since he was part of the government, and I wanted to avoid government oversight.

“The same,” he replied as he took a seat in the conference room of our newly built headquarters in upstate New York. His favorite high end brandy was set out on the table and fruit juice for me. There were other drinks and snacks. He poured himself a glass while our respective employees left the room.

“So, how much is the government going to shaft me? Just bending me over the table or is it going to be something more?” I asked.

“That is what I am here to figure out.” He took a sip of his brandy and gave me a savage smile. “I am here for a preliminary meeting. While I don’t have all the votes I would want, I have enough to make things interesting.”

“Interesting how? I prefer direct statements, show me the stick and tell me the carrot,” I replied and sipped my juice.

“There are a couple of different paths things can go down. The first is nationalization of corporations that own guilds. That is the preferred option, so the US Government has some say in Exponential,” he replied. The worst part was they wouldn’t even pay for those shares, they would just take them.

I currently held 40% of my company. It was a large portion, but if I lost another 4% due to the government nationalizing 10% of all companies, which would make things quite precarious for me at the moment. Even worse, they might go for a larger share than what I had remembered in the past. “I have the cash reserves to tie up any such action in court.”

“We know, which is why that option is not the preferred option at the moment. Just the stick that we have. One we would prefer not to use.” He took a sip of his brandy.

“And the other option?” I asked with exasperation, since he was clearly drawing things out.

“You will be required to support US interests in game,” he said.

“What does that mean exactly?” I asked. The devil was in the details.

“That would be open for discussion,” he replied. I shook my head.

“I think I will take the stick instead of the poisoned carrot. How the Fanged Fox guild operates in game is up to my sole discretion. We are not some stodgy defense contractor that is slow to act. Guilds need to be able to pivot and act quickly. I will not be bogged down and chained by suggestions some government advisor hands out,” I replied.

“You won’t win,” he replied politely, and I nodded at this.

“Indeed, I won’t win. But the court case will drag on for a decade. I don’t mind tossing ten billion dollars to ensure it is all held up in legal nonsense. Then you will have to pay at market rates for those shares and be subject to corporate governance laws. It would be a public relations disaster. Instead, let me offer my an actual carrot to the government. A onetime mercenary contract discounted to half price. You know my guild is effective, having sent people into Exponential to train under us,” I replied.

“It is the only reason a move hasn’t been made on your corporation so far. But that will only last so long,” Congressman Smith replied with a smirk. I wanted to vomit in his face and wipe that smirk away. Greedy old man, who wanted to take my wealth. He was scum like the rest of the politicians. If I ever found him in Exponential, I would force him to use an emergency log out while I had him tortured. “I am afraid that won’t be enough,” he told me.

“Then feel free to use the stick. Already my PR campaign is taking hold in the public consciousness. You might be able to force nationalization through, but I will be paying quite a bit to your political opponents and the public pressure will be horrendous,” I replied with a smirk of my own. This time he was frowning.

“You better be careful girl. You are playing a dangerous game,” he said, and I let out a scoff.

“I will say the same to you old man. That trip to the Caribbean, isn’t as secret as you think,” I replied, and the old man froze in place.

“You are just speculating,” he replied.

“You can believe that, or you can believe I have evidence that will leak. Its amazing what fifty million dollars will buy. Multiple camera angles, high resolution, and even the victims’ identity. Also, a couple of witnesses. Some might claim AI, but the video has been verified with embedded digital recording stamps, confirming the authenticity of the recordings.” I felt dirty, but that was politics.

Congressman Smith had raped several young children, and I had paid for the evidence out of pocket. Well, not me, Anthony had gotten it, but I had to pay for it personally. This was the kind of expense that couldn’t and shouldn’t be linked to our corporation.

It was an expensive piece of blackmail, but far cheaper than if nationalization or any other type of government oversite that might occur. If I got him removed from his position, the next old man might not be as corrupt, which would make a move like this impossible.

The way the Congressman had frozen up was all the confirmation I needed that the evidence I had purchased was correct. I felt horrible letting such a vile pedophile escape the law, but the victims weren’t worth the billions of dollars that were on the line in these negotiations. It was easy to claim the morale high ground when you didn’t have billions of dollars on the line and a large number of people counting on you. This was why I hated politics, when you wrestle with a pig, everyone gets pulled into the mud.

“I think I will be retiring,” he finally said. I doubted that, but I wasn’t going to call him out on his nonsense.

“That is up to you. But while you are in office, I expect things to be stonewalled in regards to my corporation and activities in Exponential. You can just claim that is what the people want,” I said with a fragile smile. Congressman Smith set his drink down and quickly left.

Anthony then came into the conference room. “That went about as I expected,” he replied.

“What a horrible man,” I muttered.

“That’s politics for you. Luckily the information we needed was for sale, even if it wasn’t cheap,” he replied. I nodded at this.

“That should stonewall things in Congress for a while. You think he will quit?” I asked Anthony. He shook his head while pouring himself a drink of brandy.

“Not a chance. That man is corrupt as they come. You can always tell who is corrupt by the fact they get much richer while in office. In the last decade his net worth has gone from three million to twenty million. You don’t get that kind of money by playing by the rules,” Anthony said.

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” I muttered.

“Perhaps, but you haven’t let it get to your head. I kept expecting you to fall into drugs, sex, or some other vice,” he replied. I gave him a dead pan look.

“I don’t have time for that kind of nonsense. With the medical nanites rolling out I should be in game constantly.” I rolled my neck and took another sip of my juice. “I am having to oversee the canal project personally, while Quant Z is screaming for more money. The real world side? Are we holding on?”

“Things are stable, for now. The main concerns are the nursing and prison contracts. We have set up test facilities and they have done well. The challenge is raising more money to quickly take over the market share. Other companies are looking at moving into this business space,” he replied.

We either needed to be first, be better, or cheat. Prison and nursing home contracts didn’t leave much room for being better or cheating which meant we had to be first. “How much do we need to raise?” I asked.

“To completely take over the market before anyone else, 200 billion,” he replied.

“That is a lot of capital. It seems like a bit too much,” I said, and he shook his head.

“There are a lot of people and if we want the quality standards, we are known for that. This means building from the ground up, not just basic retrofitting. We could get a loan, but something at that scale just isn’t practical. The interest rates would make long term profitability quite difficult. A stock dilution is the best option.” That meant increasing the number of shares and then selling off those extra shares to raise money. My ownership percentage would shrink, but with how well our corporation was doing, we had options.

“I will loan the money myself. I will sell ten percent for around 100 billion dollars.” The price would drop selling that large a percentage into the market. “And give the corporation a 1% loan for the amount, which should be a lot cheaper than the banks. I also want priority in the event of a bankruptcy.” Anthony nodded at this.

“You would be losing control over your voting share,” he replied, and I just smiled and nodded.

“Yes. If the owners want to replace me, they can. But they will be losing money. Lots of money. Since if I am replaced, I will walk away from the guild,” I replied.

“It would collapse,” he replied, and I nodded.

“It would. But the real-world assets would still be there. With this investment the corporation would be solid. And with my loan, I won’t be losing money,” I replied with a smile. He slowly nodded at this. I would be earning 4 billion dollars per year just off the interest alone. But the far more important thing was getting paid off in the event the corporation went into a bankruptcy.

I had come to the realization that while I wanted to stand on top of the world, it was exhausting. There were too many people and organizations trying to drag me down. If things went under, I just needed to be sure my character had a soft landing as well as my bank account. Selling off 10% of my shares would ensure that my landing was soft and would put more pressure on the government to not nationalize my corporation or guild.

It was time to make sure I was protected legally and financially if the worst happened. Once the Unmentionable Horror was killed off in game, then I would be free and clear. While Luck was the stat I was investing in, using Luck to advance in my life and in game was a bad idea. Eventually I would screw up and it would be a disaster.