An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (35 page)

Working
as a convenience store cl
erk offered millions of way
s
to numb his brain
.
Mark moved on to cleaning the trays of the
Fozone
machine
.
As
he removed
the drawers
from the massive
freezers,
another customer came in, a man with his little girl
.
In the time it took the
four-
year
-
old
—
with considerable help from her father
—
to make up her mind and pick a candy from the rack, Mark managed to empty, scrub
,
and return the tray to its place
.
He
made it back
to the counter in time for the pair to walk up
.

“Good morning,” Mark offered
.

“Good morning
.
We’ll have this
,
and I’d also like to get some puts, please
.
Can I get
sixty
-
five
at
twenty
-
four credits a share
?”

Mark nodded and entered the codes into the machine, wondering about the coincidence.
Two
puts
in a row
were
unusual
,
but not
earth
-
shattering
.

“I’m getting candy,” the little girl announced firmly.

“Yes you are, dear
,” agreed Mark. “
That’s a pretty dress
.
What stock, sir
?
”

“My momma desneged it on the
’
puter fer me
,
”
the girl added
smugly
.

“Oh, I’m sorry
,” said the man, smiling. “
Nanogate
, please
.”

OK
,
Mark had seen unusual coincidences before
,
but this seemed extreme
.
As he currently took statistics as one of his math courses
at OSU
, he immediately began to run numbers in his head on how unlikely this combination was
.
He kept losing decimal points in his head before giving up
.
Statistics did say one thing that very few people remember
, though—n
o matter how unlikely something
might be
, it
still
happens sometimes
.

“She did a wonderful job, honey
,” the customer said to his little girl, paying Mark’s confused look no heed.

“With the candy
,
that
’
ll be
sixty
-
three nineteen.”

The man and child left without another word.
Mark managed to earn sixteen more credits in the hour it took him to restock the
walk
-
in cooler with beer and energy drinks before two separate people
rang the entrance chime
at the same time
.
Both went for the coffee
.
One, a regular, always spiked his double-shot
espresso
with energy creamer
.
Sometimes Mark wondered how the man didn’t have his hands fall off with the jitters.

“Morning, sir,” Mark offered the newcomer
,
who absently carried a fruit pie and a
cup of normal black coffee
.
The man seemed
somehow nervous
.

“Morning
.
Can I get these
,
and can I short sell from here?”

“
ConVenEE
is a recognized broker
.
If you are properly registered you can sell short here.”

“Excellent
.
I’d like to sell short
one hundred fourteen shares of
Nanogate
.”

Mark
’
s ears buzzed
.
“Can I get a saliva sample for identification
?
”
he asked reflexively, numbers dancing in his head.

The man
opened
up
automatically
,
allowing a simple swab of the inner mouth
.
The swab went into the machine
,
which immediately identified the man as
someone named
Michael Henderson
.

“Mr. Henderson
, t
he put will more than cover the cost of your purchases
.
The remaining
four thousand nine hundred fourteen point twelve credits will be retained on your account until
the
return of
your
short sale
.
Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No
,
thank you.”

Mark’s brain worked overtime
.
His teacher could surely give him the odds against something this outrageous
,
assuming the number of zero
e
s wouldn’t overflow the archaic campus computer
.

The regular stepped up to take his turn.
“Morning, Mark.”

“Howdy
,
Jimmy
.
Just your coffee this morning
?

“
Well, no, I’m going to also take a hedge against
Nanogate
tanking
.
Say eight hundred shares at thirty credits
.”

Mark’s eyes bugged right out of his head.

It took four hours and three more anti-
Nanogate
stock sales before Mark’s relie
f
showed up
to give him his mandated break
.
He wasted no time calling
his girl, Julia, who worked at the Red Salmon Creek casino just north of town
.
“Julia
.
I want to pass something by you
.
I’ve had a rash of people betting against
Nanogate
.
”

“Did you say
‘
Nanogate
’
?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’ve had like fifteen short sales and puts this morning, all on
Nanogate
.”

“Someone knows something
.
I think we should get in on
this
.
Should we call our folks?
”

* * *
 

“One hundred three meters
,
but I can’t see a freaking thing
,
”
Tony said between chattering teeth
.
He
floated in a concentration of green and
gray
moving flecks
,
only
barely pierced
by the powerful light on his forehead and that of his teammate
,
Tolly
,
tethered two meters to his left
.
Tolly looked like a cross between Batman and
the C
reature
f
rom
the
B
lack
L
agoon
in his
form
fitting scuba outfit
.
After an hour,
the water’s
coolness started to penetrate even
Tony’s
dry suit
.

“Good
,”
Linc offered over his long
-
range audio link
.
That storm really stirred up the ocean currents
.
You’re getting silt and
algae storms
.
Makes
it nearly
impossible to see
.
”

“
It
’
s also making it freaking cold
.”
Tony could almost
envision
his companion’s
disapproving
expression
through the audio connection
,
even without Linc saying a word
.
“
OK
.
That’s great, but w
here now?”

“
Target is
216
meters to the
northwest.”

“Northwest?”

“Turn to your right, mate,” Tolly offered, consulting his wrist compass
.
“A little more
.
There
.
Dead set
.”

“Switch to stealth mode for approach
.”

“Turning off jet packs and lights,” Tony said, plunging himself into absolute blackness as Tolly followed suit
.
The pair, still tethered
together,
kicked gently in the
ir target’s
direction
.

“Why am I doing this?” Tony remarked absently as the cold continued to seep in and the lack of other stimulus started playing games with his mind.

“Cause you and Tolly are the only two with the deep scuba experience necessary.
Oh, y
ou’re bearing just a little west
.
That’s got it
.
You should be seeing something soon
.”

At first
he saw
nothing but blackness
,
and then the water started
glowing
in one direction
.
The fish started becoming more plentiful, attracted to the food attracted
by
the light.

“After dark to your left, Tony,” Tolly said
cryptically
.

“Huh?”

“After dark
,
shark.
L
ook
left.”

Tony made a mental curse at rhyming slang as he
twisted around
.
He caught the
signature
silhouette
of a hammerhead shark
, about four meters long, snapping up a
40
centimeter squid
.
Two other smaller sharks drifted into view
,
but all gave the humans a wide berth
.
In front of him
,
a dome started to take shape through the murk.

“
OK
,
first
placement location identified,” Tolly said, pointing
toward
a light mounted on top of the
nearly transparent
dome
.
It wasn’
t until the huge light
gave
perspective
to the
size
that
the
immens
ity of the
structure
made
itself felt
.
86
hectares
stood dry beneath the
Loihi Bubble
,
growing wheat, rye, oats and dozens of other grains
.
At sixteen billion credits
,
the farm, dome
,
and
precious metals
mine
—
which
they couldn’t see below
—
represented a
significant
investment
to the
NaBiCo
C
orporation
, a subsidiary of
Nanogate
.
The loss of
Loihi
would dent even that deep pocket.

Together
Tony and Tolly
swam over
closer
, pulling items out of their pouches as they approached
.
Tony stuck a suction cup to the dome to hold himself in place as he lengthened the tether between himself and Tolly
.
The pair of saboteurs slowly rotated at six meters
from the
suction cup
,
affixing
devices to the dome
.
Tolly gave him a
thumbs
-
up and showed
three
fingers
.
Tony showed him back
three of his own
.