Somnus V - Chapter 31

“Miss Debs!” Belle’s cheerful voice filled the conference room the moment her hologram activated. “How are you doing this morning? I’m assuming the lawyer I sent you arrived safely and in one piece?”

 “Walter Ashforth?” Kat asked. “He’s here. A little bit shaken up after the security teams went over him two to three times to make sure that he wasn’t bugged or compromised by stallesp technology.”

 “That’s good for him,” Belle replied, waving a hand breezily. “He’s usually so wound up and buried in his minutiae and rules. Every once in a while he needs someone to bring him back down to Earth. It builds character.”

 Belle turned her attention from Kat, eyes sweeping the room in a second.

 “Emma, Whippoorwill, it’s good to see the three of you again. I trust you’re doing your best to help out Miss Debs?”

 “Of course!” Dorrik said, nodding his head excitedly. “This is my first time participating in a proper human legal proceeding and the entire process is fascinating. I’ve studied a hundred different cultures and I don’t think that I’ve seen anything like it. Most legal proceedings try to find the truth, and some are designed to empower the corrupt autocrats that bring the charges, but your arbitration court does neither. Instead, it seems like the goal is to be so needlessly complicated that only those who can afford a team of the most talented of lawyers can hope to understand the process enough to prevail. Everyone else, even if they’re right, they won’t get a chance to present their arguments.”

 “Of course,” Belle replied. “If we made the process so simple that every Tom, Dick and Harry could use it, they would. On a similar note, if the process was unfair, it wouldn’t be able to resolve disputes between companies and shareholders. Arbitration is a finely crafted instrument designed to walk that narrow line between deliberate inefficiency and rigorous neutrality. Truly an artform in and of itself once you study it further. I remember some delightful years on my college obfuscatory bureaucracy team. One of the toughest days of my life was when I had to decide between going pro and becoming a lawyer or dropping my dreams and joining the executive track.”

Kat blinked, a half dozen pieces all sliding into place simultaneously.

“Your lifelong dream was to be a lawyer?” She asked slowly, struggling to process the statement even though it was more or less exactly what Belle had just said.

“A girl can dream,” Belle said wistfully. “Obviously not one of the attorneys that end up in a courtroom. That’s far too chaotic and pointless. For a short but beautiful period of time, I thought I had a future preventing cases from ever reaching the stage of arbitration. Drafting contracts with so many internal appeals, counter appeals and restrictive timelines that it would be impossible to even think of contacting an outside party. That’s where the true artistry happens. Dominating contract negotiations and drafting so completely that you prevent your opponent from even having the legal right to complain.”

Kat’s mind was still blank. The idea that Belle had a childhood dream was hard enough for her to wrap her mind around. The concept that… well. Actually Belle’s childhood dream being incomprehensible paperwork that ripped apart any chance for an aggrieved party to seek justice made a fair amount of sense. Not as much sense as something more straightforward like ‘competitive blackmail’ or ‘small animal torture,’ but still.

 “Regardless,” Belle continued breezily. “Walter should be a big help to your case. He’s an expert on inter company arbitration. I know that your ability to gather evidence through… alternative means… is quite high, but you will need someone like him to make sure that the proper procedures are followed. It would be truly annoying for you to be fined despite being in the right just because you didn’t follow a subclause from the Transatlantic Codicil on Evidence of 2043.”

 “I think that I’d like to avoid that as well,” Kat replied. She shifted in her seat slightly, mouth going slightly dry as she steeled herself for what was coming next. “By the way, Shareholder Donnst, would you mind if I let Dorrik stay for the meeting? He has agreed to take a vow of secrecy until after the arbitration hearing is over, but he wants to observe the process. Something about his anthropological studies of our race and culture.”

 A brief flicker of emotion crossed Belle’s face as Kat said the pre-arranged phrase.

 “Is it that time already?” She asked. “Your friend Dorrik certainly is interesting, but he makes meetings like this strange. It’s like I’m an actor playing the part of a shareholder. Most strategy sessions are mundane and banal. When he’s observing on behalf of our celestial betters I feel the urge to… dress the situation up a bit.”

 Kat swore she saw a twinkle in Belle’s eye as she did the best she could to prevent herself from smiling. It was true that Dorrik wanted to watch the interaction, but as much as the meeting would intrigue him, it was mostly for the benefit of unseen eyes.

 Nina’s samurai had been a godsend, serving as clandestine intermediaries to transfer the truly vital information back and forth between Kat and Belle’s organizations. Kat didn’t know if anything had gone on behind the scenes, but Belle seemed to understand the importance of their tapped communications almost immediately. The other shareholder had been the one to suggest their pantomime. Emma and Whip had helped add flourishes, but at the end of the day, it seemed like Belle had adapted to the reality of their situation remarkably quickly.

 “Of course,” Kat said, nodding gravely. Belle’s little performance was flying a bit close to the sun, but then again that was the point. There was a non-zero chance that someone would unveil these private communications at the arbitration hearing, and the two of them would need to be able to point to some signal that the entire thing was a ruse if pressed by the presiding official.

 “After looking over the accusations,” she continued, flicking her eyes slightly to the right to call up a copy of the petition so that it hovered in the air next to Belle’s face, “it seems that they’re primarily accusing us of forcing their company to buy isotope futures during the stock run we triggered. There is a secondary accusation that your refineries won’t be able to produce the output that was advertised.”

 “That’s ludicrous,” Belle said with a dangerous narrowing of her eyes. “We had to let third party auditors inspect those facilities in order to estimate their production. It wasn’t even us that published the numbers. Plus, you were right. There were at least two spies hidden inside the auditing team. That isn’t supposed to happen. Some institutions are meant to be sacrosanct.”

Kat nodded gravely as if agreeing with the other woman as she tried to remember everything from the report that Nina’s couriers had delivered the other day. There were three spies. Belle caught two publicly and blackmailed the third into putting together a report on the parties that had hired them. A little bit of probing revealed that there was at least one samurai company that was trying to infiltrate the auditors. The double agent didn’t know who they were working for, but it didn’t take much to figure out that they were a former affiliate of Millennium.

“I know it offends your sensibilities,” Kat replied, “but will we be able to rely upon the auditor’s report at the hearing?”

“Don’t worry,” Belle responded with a prim, almost smug smile, “I found the spies before they had a chance to report back and had a… talk with the rest of the auditors about letting infiltrators slip into their ranks. Their report will show that the factories can produce at the rates we advertised.”

To her side, Dorrik shuffled slightly. His face was scrunched up in confusion as he held a stylus and tablet in a pair of his hands.

“Excuse me,” the lokkel interjected. “What do you mean that the ‘report will show that the factories can produce at the rates advertised?’ Wouldn’t the report simply show the projected completion date for the refineries as well as their estimated output? I don’t understand the need to rephrase your statement in such a strange way.”

Kat felt a twinge of conscious. One of the first things Belle, Whippoorwill, Emma and her had been able to agree upon was leaving Dorrik out of their little play. The lokkel was simply too much of an open book to take part. Still, even in his ignorance, he was more than playing his part.

Belle smiled. Unlike Kat, she wasn’t burdened by any twinges of conscious. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying their little game.

“Because if you pay enough for a report Mr. Ahn,” she practically purred, “you have some influence over what it says. My employees made sure that the auditors had an ample opportunity to inspect the test furnaces that would be used for isotope enrichment. My scientists made sure that they understood the proprietary techniques that we would be using to enhance yields. Most importantly, my clandestine services ensured that the auditors were adequately compensated. Sometimes people need an added financial incentive to make sure that they double check their numbers. Often they will find out that they have underestimated the projections the first time and a correction is in order.”

Butterflies of frantic energy exploded in Kat’s stomach. This was it. One of the prime purposes of their conversation. All of the reports from refineries were accurate. Any independent investigation would confirm that.

But that wasn’t what the secret report from Belle’s double agent said. As far as the remnants from Millennium were concerned, Belle’s refineries wouldn’t be up and running for at least a year and a half, and even then they would only be operating at half capacity for the first two years while the rest of the machinery was completed and brought online.

“But that means that you lied about production,” Dorrik replied, his crest fluttering in distress. “What are you going to do when the factories are supposed to be finished? Surely a fabrication now will only hurt you when you are expected to deliver the products that were paid for.”

“That’s a problem for another day,” Emma interjected. “Our scientists are hard at work reverse engineering a lot of stallesp machinery. Right now there’s some promising research on the magnetic confinement fields that the consensus uses for high energy operations. The second we crack the code on that, yields will go up by thirty to forty percent, more than enough to overcome any overstatements in the auditor’s report.”

Dorrik set down his tablet, crossing both pairs of arms in front of his chest as he furrowed his brow at the rest of the room.

“This seems… risky,” he said slowly. “It is true that you might have earned slightly more money by exaggerated potential outputs-”

“It was a lot more than ‘slightly more’ money dear,” Belle cut in. “We took the shirts off their backs and then some of the backs underneath. VodCom is scrambling. They know that they don’t have any grounds for the arbitration hearing, but they’ve lost so many credits that they basically have no choice but to risk a trial.”

“-but that makes it even worse!” Dorrik shrieked, throwing all of his hands up in the air. “If they catch you, this company will do everything in its power to destroy you for committing fraud. I cannot believe that you would take this serious of a risk over something as banal as credits!”

Once again, Kat felt a twinge of conscious. Dorrik didn’t know that the entire holocall was a ruse put on for their enemies. If VodCom truly was bugging their communications, their arbitration strategy would almost assuredly take into account all of the ‘secrets’ that Belle and Kat were passing back and forth here. That didn’t make her feel any better about deceiving Dorrik. It was clear that her friend was just concerned about her.

“It isn’t ‘just’ money,” Belle corrected sternly. “It’s never, ‘just’ money. Money is everything. That’s like saying that a dispute is ‘just’ about breathing. Or that a fight is ‘just’ about making sure that you have food or shelter. It is disrespectful to capitalism itself to be so dismissive. Of course I am willing to lie and cheat for money. You should be wary of someone that wouldn’t. That is how you find a truly aberrant individual.”

“Don’t worry too much,” Emma said, laying a hand on one of Dorrik’s shoulders to soothe him. “As long as we don’t get caught, it isn’t fraud. Plus, the core of their case is this hacking charge without any merit. Technically, all of the purchases were made by VodCom’s subsidiaries. We don’t even know where those companies’ servers are. Although we probably could’ve hacked them with proper notice, there wasn’t any way for us to predict which subsidiaries they were going to use. The entire financial transaction and spiral took place over maybe twenty seconds. I’m literally not sure it would’ve been possible for us to hack even half of the companies that were making those purchases even if we wanted to and I’m sure that the arbitration panel will see it that way too.”

“I don’t think that’s how fraud works,” Dorrik replied uncertainly. “It seems rather-”

“It’s how fraud works on Earth,” Whippoorwill said. “The truth doesn’t matter nearly as much as what you can prove. If you have proof that’s fabricated, it’s still proof unless someone can demonstrate otherwise. I’m not saying it’s a good thing-”

“Probably one of the first things we’ll change if I ever get enough power to actually start fixing things around here,” Kat chimed in. “The rules being broken doesn’t mean that you’re exempt from playing the game. I might not like it, but the shareholders in our coalition need all of the advantages we can get, and extra credits from VodCom after they tried to rake us over the coals is one of those advantages.”

“It’s the way of things my dear,” Belle replied. “Mercy is a weakness. Honor is a weakness. We are surrounded by scavengers that are waiting to peck every last scrap of flesh from our bones. If we show weakness, we will stumble and fall. The minute we hesitate, it is all over. The blood and sweat that earned you a seat as a shareholder could all go to waste if our rivals decide that you don’t have the mental fortitude for the job.”

“I doubt that Mister Jasper would operate like this,” Dorrik muttered, still obviously not completely okay with the situation. “I understand Miss Kat being underhanded. That is partially who she is, but Mister Jasper seems a bit too upstanding for this manner of… chicanery.”

“Shareholder Haupt can be weak at times,” Belle responded, her expression tightening ever so slightly. “He has grown a bit more of a spine lately, but without Davis and Shareholder Debs supporting him from the shadows, I suspect he would have fallen into the schemes of one of our rivals. I am glad that he’s started to toughen up a bit. It would be a shame for the boy to fall apart as soon as he starts to show some real potential.”

Kat winced slightly. Belle’s assessment of Jasper wasn’t entirely wrong. Jasper tried to do his best, he really did. Unlike pretty much any human other than Emma and Whippoorwill, Kat felt that she could trust Jasper. He kept his word, and Belle was right. That was something that their enemies treated as a weakness. Without a chief of security that was more or less a living myth in samurai circles, he probably would’ve been killed off by opportunistic underlings months ago.

Despite that, Jasper did have Davis and her support, and with their help he’d thrived. There was no conceivable world where Jasper should’ve been a shareholder. Kat could see Belle climbing the ladder on her own. The older woman had the tenacity and feral instincts of an anaconda slowly squeezing the life out of its prey. Jasper? The only way he’d reached the heights he had was through the support and loyalty of his friends.

“I don’t know about that,” Kat said finally. “I don’t think Jasper is weak and I don’t think you’re weak. Jasper isn’t built for the world we live in. I’d certainly agree with that statement, but I’m not sure that it makes him deficient. He has people loyal to him. That’s something I see more among samurai crews than in corporate boardrooms.”

“But samurai teams betray each other all the time,” Belle replied, shaking her head. “Loyalty and honor have some value, but that sum can be calculated. Literally. I employ statisticians and data scientists to determine the optimal bribe for every situation.”

“That’s the way of this world,” Kat said quietly, nodding toward Dorrik, “but that’s not the way of every world. Things can change.”

Belle cocked her head to the side, lips pursed slightly. She furrowed her brow, manicured fingers drumming on the table in front of her. A second of silence, only interrupted by the tap of her fingers slipped into two and then five. Finally, Belle spoke up.

“I’m not sure a world like that would make sense to me. Deception and subterfuge make sense to me. There is a kind of clarity to knowing that you have leverage on someone. I don’t have to trust a word like ‘friendship’ if I have proper blackmail or extortion on a person. I know exactly how much they have to lose, so I can know exactly how much I can trust them. The uncertainty of relying on someone you have no hold over, that could betray you at any point is troubling to me.”

“You’re wrong Belle.” The older woman’s right eyelid twitched slightly at Kat’s use of her first name. “I’ve been thinking about all of this, and it all comes back to one thing with you. You’re a winner. Right now, to win you need to lie, cheat, and steal so you do and you’re one of the best in the world at it. If trust and cooperation were what would get you ahead, I firmly believe that you would adapt to that as well. Just think about it. Our relationship is based off of mutual benefit, but even if you didn’t have the refineries, deep down you know that I wouldn’t abandon you. I haven’t abandoned Jasper either.”

The older woman frowned. The tapping on her table stopped.

“That’s illogical of you Miss… Katherine,” Belle replied. “You know that I would betray you the second it would be profitable for me.”

“For now,” Kat responded. “I’m playing by the same rules you are for the moment. Really, I think Jasper is the only one that’s gone rogue, but you should really look at him. Would you have accomplished as much as him by blackmailing and backstabbing your way up the corporate ladder, or has his strategy been a net positive for him?”

Belle’s frown deepened, but she didn’t have a proper response. It was hard bordering on impossible to argue with Jasper’s results.

“Excuse me,” Dorrik interjected hesitantly. “Both of you seemed very invested in your conversation so I didn’t want to interrupt, but what does any of this have to do with the upcoming arbitration?”
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