Carlos, at the mercy of the man in the suit and the unformed cops, arrived at an imposing steel and concrete tower which was at least forty storeys tall. This was also the first time Carlos had travelled in a police car since his arrest six years ago.
They entered the building, whose interior was as well-lit as a shopping mall on Christmas Eve. Despite the building being a forty floor skyscraper, Carlos and the three men took the lift down to the basement. Thinking about it now, it actually made sense for Matsuda’s office to be underground. If there were to be a fire or a terrorist attack on the building, everyone on the top floors would be screwed.
After a brief lift ride down, the doors opened at a level with blood red wallpaper and a checkered floor; Carlos’s mental image what Hell looks like. The three men escorted him to a door over a hundred meters down the hall from the elevator. The door was made of mahogany wood with a brass handle. Waiting outside the door was a plain-looking woman in a business suit.
“Welcome, Mr. Hirano. Mr. Matsuda is waiting inside.” she greeted Carlos before nodding at the man in the suit and the two police officers.
On that cue, the suited man and two cops turned around and made their way back to the lifts.
“Come in, Mr. Hirano.” the woman said before ushering Carlos into the office.
The office was bigger than what you’d expect, and it had a red carpeted floor and white walls. At the back of the room was a large varnished wooden desk, and standing behind it was a man pouring two glasses of whiskey.
This man wore an expensive black Brioni business suit, and his hair was drowning in comical amounts of hair-gel. Despite being in his early-fifties, this man had the look and demeanour of a cocky twenty year-old.
‘Yeah, this douche-bag still looks the same as he did six years ago. I can’t believe he has the nerve to call me here!’ Carlos thought as he approached the desk with the woman in the suit.
The man behind the desk noticed Carlos approaching and greeted “Mr. Hirano. I’m happy you’re here. Have a seat.”
Carlos sat on one of the black leather chairs in front of the wooden desk while the suited woman exited the room.
Carlos gazed up at the man while clenching his jaw. His face became as red as a tomato upon seeing the face of his archenemy.
The man in the suit calmly offered Carlos a glass of whisky while saying “Mr. Asano did say you’d be getting a drink. Well, here you are.”
“Thank you, Mr. Matsuda.” Carlos said upon accepting the glass and looking at it.
“It’s not poisoned. No, you can’t die on me. I need you.”
“(Chuckles) You ‘need’ me?”
Chairman Matsuda sat in his chair and sighed through his nose before telling Carlos “I know this is out of the blue, and I don’t like it either. I know you hate me, and I’m frankly not fond of you either; but I wouldn’t have summoned you here if I didn’t have any other choice.”
“Well alright. What do you want?”
“Straight to the point. Very good. OK, here’s the thing; we need to generate more Freedom COiNs. Unfortunately we can’t because the custom-made operating system used to farm the FCs has been lost. We surmise that the coding and processes used to create that OS had been taken to the grave with Raul Togo; however you were the closest person working with him; hence why you’re here.”
“You tried to destroy FC, failed, and now it’s going up in value… So you wanna create more of it? Why? Are you trying to drop its market value by creating more supply?”
“There’s that, but we also want more of our citizens to have the stuff, and right now there’s too little in circulation for the ordinary man on the street to acquire.”
Carlos chuckled sardonically and said “You want everyone to have Freedom COiNs… What’s wrong with Sakashiman Dollars?”
“Glad you brought that up. The Sakashiman Dollar is now ticking time bomb. But before we go any further, none of what we talk about today can leave this room!”
“Alright then, spill.”
Matsuda began his explanation by describing how the ‘Sea Urchin Boom’ really kicked off in the 1990s.
In the late-1980s, there was a glut of Blue-Spiked Sea Urchins that congregated around the beaches of the Sakashimam Archipelago.
The Blue-Spiked Sea Urchin is a marine animal native to Sakashima, and they’re distinct for their neon blue-coloured quills. These sea urchins were also regarded as pests that would sting and injure beach-goers. Even worse, the sea urchins are also hardy creatures that could breed faster than most other echinoderms.
Because of the fast-growing population of blue sea urchins and rising number of related injuries year-on-year; Sakashima’s tourism industry faced an impending crisis. The Government sought a solution to reduce the blue sea urchin population as economically as possible.
The solution reached was this: A media campaign was launched to not only promote the blue sea urchins as a delicacy, but also a health product with immense benefits like strengthening the immune system against STDs (even AIDS/HIV), boosting libido and fertility, and even vastly improving the physically attractiveness of the consumer. The aim was to create such a sharp international demand for these echinoderms that overseas customers would pay vast fortunes to help Sakashima resolve its sea urchin infestation problem with a net-negative cost to the local economy.
The National University of Sakashima (NUS) and the Moriboshi Institute of Medicine (MIM), among other institutions, were paid vast sums of money by the Government to release bogus research papers on the health benefits of eating Sakashiman sea urchin roe. Celebrity chefs and restaurants were also paid generously to promote and serve dishes containing the ingredient.
In tandem with the above, the Government also set a condition in their international trade policies that the blue sea urchins could only be imported from Sakashima in return for Sakashiman Dollars. With the demand for the sea urchins soaring globally, international demand for Sakashiman Dollars also sky-rocketed; warranting the increased printing of paper dollars.
The supply of Sakashiman Dollars in circulation grew exponentially, but so did its market value due to the world’s hunger for blue sea urchins.
According to Matsuda, this growing supply of Sakashiman Dollars led to interest rates and borrowing costs falling sharply in the early-2000s; and it became much easier and even profitable for the local population to borrow vast sums of money; and they would spend those borrowings on residential properties and luxury goods. Due to higher demand for residential properties caused by lower borrowing costs, the value of real estate in Sakashima subsequently soared.
Up to this stage, real estate prices in Sakashima were at all time highs, interest rates were at their lowest in history, and global demand for Sakashiman Dollars was at its highest… And would remain so IF the demand for the currency could be maintained.
There was however a fissure in Sakashima’s economic model that would cause it to fall apart catastrophically if struck with enough impact.
The blue sea urchins, which the Sakashiman economy was built on… are fundamentally worthless, and the demand for the sea creatures were created out of an epic lie!
According to recent independent scientific research conducted, consuming blue sea urchins would not yield the health benefits touted above. In fact, the blue sea urchin has even less nutritional value compared to the average edible fish. To top it off, the toxins in the sea urchin are lethal if consumed over a prolonged period.
Also, according to some food critics, the blue sea urchins taste terrible and require copious amounts of seasoning to be palatable.
The Government had thrown billions of dollars at trying to de-platform and discredit those who publicly discussed the topics and their conclusions above. However, it would only be a matter of time before the truth came out, and became accepted as common knowledge.
Should the world wake up to the truth, global demand for the Sakashiman Dollar would take a massive nosedive, the value of the currency would hit rock bottom, and given the exorbitant supply of dollars in circulation; the country would be struck with massive inflation. People would not be able to make mortgage payments, and would have to sell their homes; which would subsequently collapse the real estate market!
Let’s not even talk about the lawsuits against the Sakashiman Agricultural Industry for pushing such a worthless product to overseas markets by lying on such an unprecedented scale!
Matsuda, after delivering the explanation above, wearily sat slumped in his chair before saying to Carlos “So as you know by now, if the truth were to come out… We’d be royally screwed.”
Carlos, who was grinning the whole time, began laughing hysterically.
“This is no joke. You realize the seriousness of the situation, right?” Matsuda said.
“(Chuckles) Yes, but it sounds like… I dunno… Like someone else’s problem!”
“You live in this country too. If our currency collapses, you’ll be caught in the storm.”
“(Sighs) Yeah, it sucks but there’s nothing I can do about that. Besides, you’re talking to an ex-con with a negative net worth!”
“Au contraire! There’s something only you can do, but there’s hardly enough time. We need to get to work ASAP!”
Matsuda explained that Carlos and Raul’s FCs were still were relevant as an alternative currency for ubiquitous transactions, and the model for deriving their value was mathematically sound. Global demand for FCs remained high, but no new ones were being farmed. However, the sole means to generate new FCs still remained within Sakashima; thus giving it a potential monopoly and lifeboat which could save the economy from impending collapse.
“So will you help us? Could you please lead the team we’ve assembled to rebuild the OS necessary to farm more FCs?” Matsuda pleaded with misty eyes and a crack in his voice.
‘This guy’s serious… He really is as desperate as he claims to be.’ Carlos thought while looking back at Matsuda.
While taking a slow sip of whiskey, Carlos assessed the situation in his head ‘OK, unless I’ve misheard something, what Matsuda is implying is this: Sakashima is like a palace built on quicksand. If conditions change, namely if everyone around the world were to realize our sea urchins are worthless; then our economy and quality of life will be devastated. However! We can still shift our palace onto more solid ground by making FCs the new currency and commodity which we’ll rebuild our economy on. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate Matsuda’s guts for the things he did; but he’s now essentially offering me a job and a chance to help everyone else.’
Taking a longer sip than Carlos intended, he ended up finishing the whole glass while lost in thought.
Losing patience, Matsuda proposed “Not only will you lead the team we’ve put together, but we’ll re-launch Golden Nomad which you’ll be the face and head of. In fact, the new Golden Nomad will be the sole producer and distributor of the new Freedom COiNs which will save our economy. Things will go back to the way things were before your incarceration; and more!”
“So you admit it then? You made a mistake by killing Golden Nomad, Raul, and my career?”
Matsuda ran his palm across his face before letting out a sigh. After a brief pause he replied “You know I can’t apologize for my past decisions. I don’t have that luxury. I’m supposed to be the smartest man in the room keeping everything together. If I go down; this entire project will bomb before it begins. Remember, this is about saving the Sakashiman people; and your vendetta against me is trivial in comparison.”
“I wasn’t declining. Anyway, just so we’re clear. You’re essentially giving me my life back in return for helping you? Golden Nomad will be up again, and I’ll have my old job of managing it.”
“Yes, and your criminal record will be wiped—I mean its already public knowledge that you’re a drug offender and we don’t have the means of wiping peoples’ memories; but for what it’s worth, your police records and name in the criminal registry will be burned. Your debts will also be wiped.”
“Well, shoot. Then I guess I have no excuse for turning down your request.”
Matsuda smugly grinned and offered Carlos a handshake.
Carlos wryly accepted and said “By the way, I still hate your guts.”
“That’s why you’re the bigger man, my friend. But remember, I still outrank you.”
