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We enter the security room and Pete is already there, looking at the monitors. When he sees us enter he stands up and says, Hey.
Hey, I say. Jordan stays silent behind me.
So how did it go with Eddie? Jordan asks.
Oh, I left him on the sixth floor guarding his fort, there, Pete says, and points to one of the monitors. In it, I can see Eddie's eyes surfacing from behind one of his fort's makeshift walls, looking to one side, then the other. If he had a bloody rag tied around his head he would look just like one of the war-crazy soldiers I've seen over and over in Vietnam movies. And if Eddie is the stressed-out nutcase foot-soldier, who are the insane generals? The executives, sitting in the boardroom laughing at inane jokes? Or us?
Jordan touches me in the arm.
What? I say.
You blacked out there for a moment, she says.
Yeah, sorry, I say.
We need the tape now, she says, The procedures tape.
Right, The tape. Will you be so kind as to first tell me what are we doing with those Bozos? I say, pointing at the screen where the board meeting is still, incredibly, going on.
Pete looks at Jordan.
He doesn't know? he says.
He knows part of it, Jordan says, and sighs. Okay, she says then, Long story short, remember what I told you about the SPC?
I nod.
She says, Remember your manifesto? Taking back control, rah rah rah?
The manifesto. I think about the night I wrote it, two years ago. I think about how drunk I was, pissed off at everything for no particular reason. I had to vent, and my way of venting was to write a rambling complaint about corporate power, and the people's power, or lack thereof, a long list of gripes and a lot of whining about The System, why it was wrong, and how it should really be. Give control back to the common man, Power to the People, that sort of thing. My own, new version of ideas that were not new at all.
I look at Pete, who obviously knows about the manifesto as well.
I look back at Jordan and say, Yeah, but you told me it was useless without action. Action, you said, is all that matters, no?
She smiles and says, Yeah. Well, we're taking action. We have control now. We just have to make it official.
I say, Official? I thought the SPC...
Jordan cuts me off. The SPC was a start, she says, but some decisions still have to go through the board. Tonight they have a new action to approve, one that will take them out of the loop completely.
And they won't notice that detail when they read it? I say.
They never read the actions, Jordan says, But just in case I thought that a bit of a distraction to throw them off-balance wouldn't be bad.
The door, I say.
The door, she says, And more. I want to drive them a bit nuts if possible. Close it and open it, that sort of thing. But for that we need the procedures tape.
I say, Okay.
Pete says, impatient, So we're clear now? Can we go on?
I can see he's getting anxious. It's not every day that you take over control of a corporation to fulfill your personal anarchist desires without anyone noticing.
So.
All of this is very interesting, but it still doesn't explain why Jordan did this without telling me. But there will be plenty of time for that later. I feel confused, and a bit angry. Pride hurt, probably, the fact that she has done something I couldn't.
She must be able to see it in my face, because she says, Don't feel bad.
I say, Don't worry. I just need some... adjustment, that's all.
Pete says, Hello? The tape? We can't let them freak out for too long.
I look at the board meeting in the monitor, the executives talking and eating, oblivious to everything.
Okay, I say.
Jordan says, I'll go with you. I need to pick something up from my apartment as well.
She walks to the door, and says, Let's go.
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