Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2) by Gibson Michaels Page A
Authors: Gibson Michaels
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of payment that they’re willing to exchange for their notes , besides other notes just like it… as they are the only “legal tender” recognized by the government.
“So what was it that we actually ‘took’ from the Alliance financial system then?”
Nothing. We didn’t destroy any of that computer data… although we could have done so much easier than what we actually did. Account balances were modified and numbers transferred to other accounts, just as if normal, totally legal business transactions had occurred. The only difference was that these transactions were not authorized by the valid account owners and all records of the transactions themselves were wiped clean. Admiral Kalis’ destruction of the off-site archives will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve the original account data. My brother on Nork and I both retain a complete record of everything, so nothing has been completel y lost.
“What about the stock market records that we wiped?”
I retain a complete set of those records, as well.
“So other than disruption of the Alliance financial system, is there anything else we might expect to achieve from all of this financial chaos?”
It all depends on how badly the Alliance government and their Consortium masters want their money back.
* * * *
The next time that hundreds of corrupt federal officials went to withdraw funds from their Consortium numbered accounts in foreign bank branches, they all experienced a very strange, yet similar occurrence. Upon discovered that their bankcards no longer worked in the automated bank machines, they were directed to see a representative at the customer service desk. After presenting their defective bankcards to the customer service representative on duty, they were soon greeted by the bank manager and invited to join him/her in their office, where they were presented with a small thumbprint encoded package, designated by account number. These packages invariably informed the account holder of three things — the accounts containing their bribery funds had been closed, all records of their illicit business dealings had been wiped from Consortium computers, and that they were now free of Consortium blackmail, along with an injunction warning them to “go forth and sin no more.”
As for the foreign bank managers, they were more happy to cooperate with the instructions that accompanied these strange packages, as it also included ten, $1,000 Sextus Gold Certificates in payment for their services. $150,000 Alliance dollars was very good incentive for them to cooperate, indeed — made even better with the odds of their becoming even more valuable as the price of gold was expected to suddenly skyrocket, due to the financial crisis gripping humanity in general, and the Alliance in particular.
* * * *
President Pierre Marrot had a headache. Not merely the headache of untangling the financial crisis of the millennium — although that was certainly bad enough, but a real, physical head-buster that almost made him want to grab a hand weapon from one of his Secret Service agents and splatter his brains all over his desk, just to stop the incredible hammer-pounding going on inside his head. Marrot had never been subject to migraine headaches before, but it certainly seemed he had recently married the mother of all migraines now.
Also crammed into the Oval Office was the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Director of the Alliance Bureau of Investigation, the Director of the Alliance Intelligence Agency and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Marrot looked out through a haze of blinding pain at all of these Consortium-approved people before him and felt anger — a deep soul-rending anger, at these fools he was forced to work with.
Except for Admiral Campbell, he had selected exactly none of them to be his closest advisors. J.P. Aneke,
“So what was it that we actually ‘took’ from the Alliance financial system then?”
Nothing. We didn’t destroy any of that computer data… although we could have done so much easier than what we actually did. Account balances were modified and numbers transferred to other accounts, just as if normal, totally legal business transactions had occurred. The only difference was that these transactions were not authorized by the valid account owners and all records of the transactions themselves were wiped clean. Admiral Kalis’ destruction of the off-site archives will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve the original account data. My brother on Nork and I both retain a complete record of everything, so nothing has been completel y lost.
“What about the stock market records that we wiped?”
I retain a complete set of those records, as well.
“So other than disruption of the Alliance financial system, is there anything else we might expect to achieve from all of this financial chaos?”
It all depends on how badly the Alliance government and their Consortium masters want their money back.
* * * *
The next time that hundreds of corrupt federal officials went to withdraw funds from their Consortium numbered accounts in foreign bank branches, they all experienced a very strange, yet similar occurrence. Upon discovered that their bankcards no longer worked in the automated bank machines, they were directed to see a representative at the customer service desk. After presenting their defective bankcards to the customer service representative on duty, they were soon greeted by the bank manager and invited to join him/her in their office, where they were presented with a small thumbprint encoded package, designated by account number. These packages invariably informed the account holder of three things — the accounts containing their bribery funds had been closed, all records of their illicit business dealings had been wiped from Consortium computers, and that they were now free of Consortium blackmail, along with an injunction warning them to “go forth and sin no more.”
As for the foreign bank managers, they were more happy to cooperate with the instructions that accompanied these strange packages, as it also included ten, $1,000 Sextus Gold Certificates in payment for their services. $150,000 Alliance dollars was very good incentive for them to cooperate, indeed — made even better with the odds of their becoming even more valuable as the price of gold was expected to suddenly skyrocket, due to the financial crisis gripping humanity in general, and the Alliance in particular.
* * * *
President Pierre Marrot had a headache. Not merely the headache of untangling the financial crisis of the millennium — although that was certainly bad enough, but a real, physical head-buster that almost made him want to grab a hand weapon from one of his Secret Service agents and splatter his brains all over his desk, just to stop the incredible hammer-pounding going on inside his head. Marrot had never been subject to migraine headaches before, but it certainly seemed he had recently married the mother of all migraines now.
Also crammed into the Oval Office was the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Director of the Alliance Bureau of Investigation, the Director of the Alliance Intelligence Agency and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Marrot looked out through a haze of blinding pain at all of these Consortium-approved people before him and felt anger — a deep soul-rending anger, at these fools he was forced to work with.
Except for Admiral Campbell, he had selected exactly none of them to be his closest advisors. J.P. Aneke,
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