Re: Life - Business & Technology

Chapter 143 Loathing

September 7, 2013

On one of the highest floors at Future Tech Headquarters, a Caucasian-American man in his early 30s had been repeatedly pestered by Wall Street suits for a month now.

Ralph, the Chief Financial Officer and the accounting department head was losing his patience by dodging phone calls and business meetings since Future Tech began issuing subsidized loans in Afghanistan.

Ralph collaborated with BitCash Executive Director Dollar in implementing the restructured financial system in the rapidly growing country.

With the help from his previous employer, Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms, Future Tech had improved the BitCash Portal software application to allow eligible business owners to accept Bitcash payments without third-party services such as MasterCard or Visa.

Deloitte provided AI-driven accounting tools accessible to business owners on Infinity devices as one of its financial partners. In addition, Patel and his team programmed to consider international and domestic regulations and automatically applied "generally accepted accounting principles" for further ease of use.

Deloitte's newest software service offering was only possible due to its long affiliation history with the megacorporation, beginning during Future Tech's early days in 2011.

Ralph knew exactly what the Wall Street suits wanted; a piece of the pie called Afghanistan's economic renaissance.

Local businesses, ranging from small family operations to large mining companies, now had access to powerful financial tools they could leverage to increase productivity without worrying about accounting as Deloitte and Future Tech remained as their guarantors.

Billions of dollars and bitcash flowing through the alternative currency market naturally received the attention of Wall Street.

Behemoth banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs began observing the cryptocurrency scene when Future Tech released its first game, Wingin' Chicken. It brought Bitcoin into the limelight for various reasons, most notably the Apple versus Future Tech lawsuit that ended badly for the Cupertino nerds.

Even then, the Wall Street banks believed cryptocurrency to be harmless to their bottom lines as it was difficult to purchase and trade Bitcoin, and transaction times could last up to an hour while waiting for the blockchain to process.Â

Everything changed when Future Tech introduced Bitcash, a more reliable and value-stable (1 bitcash = 1 dollar = 1 dollar worth of Bitcoin's trading price) alternative currency backed by Bitcoin and facilitated through high-speed NetServ communications systems.

Bitcoin and Bitcash still weren't considered currencies by the US Federal government and were deemed as tradeable commodities instead, leaving plenty of legal gaps banks could abuse.

Ralph avoided the New York financial institutions because his CEO loathed the western banking industry, going so far as prohibiting Future Tech from taking loans since its inception.

The megacorporation's closest ties to Wall Street banks were its profitable business collaboration with MasterCard and Visa, two services partly owned by said institutions.

Ralph was occupied comparing Future Tech's Q2 Annual earnings to current corporation performance until his secretary knocked on his office door and dejectedly said, "Director, it's them again on the phone."

Ralph shook his head and pondered, [These people are relentless.], and inquired, "Who is it this time?"

His secretary replied, "It's Jamie Dimon's office seeking an audience with you or Vince Dalton."

Ralph was a bit surprised to hear of the name and thought, [Jamie Dimon? The CEO of JP Morgan Chase? Wall Street is bringing in the big guns, eh?]

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Vince had always been petty regarding banks as memories of his past life that involved his dying mother resurfaced from time to time.

During his senior year of high school, Leah had visibly deteriorated due to the effects of the unknown disease, Glucolysis.

She'd already mortgaged their small home in the city in exchange for a secured loan. Still, it hadn't even been a year before all the money was gone.

Leah had no choice but to borrow an unsecured loan from Wells Fargo, as she had nothing of value left for collateral.

His mother spent almost $1.5 million in experimental treatment and hospital fees beginning long before Vince knew she was sick until ultimately dying a month before his high school graduation.

Wells Fargo repossessed her entire estate, including the house and the cash savings she spent years earning for her son's university education.

Luckily, Vince began studying intensely after learning about her condition, as their lives grew closer to poverty, and did well enough in school to be accepted by the University of Texas.Â

So Vince spent most of his free days working odd jobs and taking freelance contracts to pay for student loans, mainly discriminated against due to his age and inexperience in the IT industry.

Sadly, the death of his only family and destitute financial situation pushed Vince to the brink of exhaustion; near suicide.

The drastic changes in his personal life forced him to sever his relationships with good friends like Kyle, Jessica, Rick, and Sarah, with no free time to spend on happy moments.

It wasn't until he landed an internship at a significant IT consulting firm during his university senior year that he finally considered himself somewhat stable in life, though still broken by Leah's passing.

Banks preyed on the weak and vulnerable. Vince exerted plenty of effort and determination to rise from his socially-engineered hell, shared by many unfortunate souls in the United States.

For obvious reasons, the young CEO didn't openly share his previous life's tragic memories with executives like Ralph and Dollar. Still, he always went crazy whenever they would request Future Tech to take loans or directly partner with banks to issue bitcash.

So it was natural for Ralph feeling terrified by the idea of setting up a meeting between Vince and one of the most influential banking executives on the globe.

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A young man kept busy during the last thirty minutes of Friday work hours before finishing his home school assignments for the week.

He stopped typing away at his keyboard and utilized gesture controls on his Hypervisor to accept the NetServ call from Ralph.

Vince said in annoyance, "I'm kinda in the middle of something, but it's fine. So what's up?"

Ralph mustered up the courage to speak and replied, "Vince, people from New York had been calling my department non-stop the past month about proposing a business deal. I've been able to give them the cold shoulder for a while now, but JP Morgan Chase's CEO reached out, and I'm unable to decide anything about it."

Ralph played it safe and handed Vince the final say, then the young man impatiently replied, "Did you say no?"

The accountant wished to be somewhere else other than this uneasy situation but had to reply, saying, "I did say no for the past month, but I can't deny a CEO's request. But, unfortunately, Future Tech operates at the business level where only you have enough authority to deal with Jamie Dimon."

Vince took a deep breath and calmed down before considering his play, then pondered, [Cockroaches. Persistent little fucks. Though it would be inevitable for banks to crawl their way into the cryptocurrency ecosystem, I might as well play with them for a bit and squeeze until they're dry.]

Ralph waited nervously for a response, then Vince said, "It's Mr. Dimon's lucky day because I'll be spending time with mom, Haiz, and the rest of my friends in New York tomorrow. So tell him I'm willing to meet, but I won't step foot into JP Morgan Chase or any bank headquarters for that matter."

Ralph thanked Vince for his time before immediately ending the call to escape the ire of his CEO.

Vince got too worked up and decided to skip home school assignments tonight and catch up the following week instead.

After switching off the Infinity Workstation, he left his office and headed towards his bedroom to relax before dinner.

Vince found Hailee trying out a few Future Couture outfits she planned on wearing during the fashion event the following day.

The young actor had been excited to attend the exclusive and most prestigious New York Fashion Week for almost two weeks now and happily tested one dress after the other in the massive walk-in closet.

She chose a prototype design featured in Future Couture's upcoming Everlife Collection that accentuated her athletic yet curvy physique.

Hailee found Vince in the bedroom and inquired, "Hmm. How do I look?", while spinning around.

Vince felt down from remembering the worst moments in his previous life and didn't even reply as he laid down on the bed while staring at the ceiling in melancholy.

She noticed something off about her boyfriend and caringly asked, "What's wrong, babe?", as she laid down next to him.

Vince didn't want to lie and simply replied, "It's just a few bad memories that got me stressed and upset."

Hailee didn't often see Vince down like this before and thought, [I know exactly what my man needs to forget about his worries.]

Then, she moved closer and seductively whispered into his ear, "How about you treat me like a stress ball right now and let me replace all those negative emotions."

The primal instincts of the young man switched on as he wrestled her under the sheets, eventually skipping dinner to continue relieving stress and sharing hot love past midnight.

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