Description
The Argallado Company Branch in Pine Hills is now established. I’ve been so impressed with all that Raven has done so far to set up and organize the branch; the facilities, the staff she has already indoctrinated, the imperfect program (mmm), and her ambitious plans for growth by enslaving the townspeople into dark, Goth-styled tools and assets for the Company! It is all just so exciting to be a part of it!
While plans were in place to corrupt the local government by the others, I set my sights on the local banking sector. And by banking “sector,” I mean the only bank in this small, pathetic town. While financial support from Argallado HQ would be near limitless and dwarf the money housed here, local power still flowed from this small, home-town bank. Besides having ready-access to the extra cash housed within its vault, bringing this little bank into the clutches of the Company also meant having control over the local businesses and residents by leveraging business loans and mortgages. This would prove useful in influencing things in town without even using a VR device. Don’t worry though, there will still be plenty of that to come.
I had done my research on who to target first. Stacy, the young bank manager who was born and raised in Pine Hills, was active in the community and easy to spot. Her social media was filled with posts depicting a happy, small town life. It was evident that she had deep business, family and social connections here and would be most useful to the Pine Hills branch as a Company Asset.
After “sizing up” my prey as best I could, I called Stacy at the bank and made an appointment to meet with her. I told her that I was new in town and setting up a new business and felt that it would be important to bank with her institution to support the community. She was so pleasant and bubbly, welcoming me to the town and invited to meet as soon as possible. With an evil grin I ended the call and thought how much she would be changing soon. I left my office with a bag stuffed full of all the tools of my trade: my VR device, programmed to offer the most current version of the imperfect program, and new Goth clothing and make-up that the new Stacy would love after her conversion.
I approached the main entrance to the bank. Crushing out my cigarette under my heel, I blew a plume of smoke upward and set my sights on the front door of the bank, ready to meet Stacy and forge yet another link in our chain of corruption of Pine Hills.
(To be continued…)
Inspired by and dedicated to Master Argallado and Edgardstrange