[b]Rudy:[/b] “That’s why I wanted you to get them! Before they were destroyed.” He says, frustrated, matching perceived condescension with condescension. “I’m not taking them with me,” his heart skips a beat when he says it, and the frustration gets blown out like a candle by it, but then he’s back on point, “I already have their new owners written in my will. Just put them somewhere for my lawyer to pick up, and you’re going to make some numismatists very happy.” The fact that they’re all accounted for in his will like that means they’d be miserable to fence, if you stole them for yourself - even if it [i]did[/i] give you an easy buyer’s list. But that’s not the reason Rudy trusts you with these. He just trusts you. It’s weird for him too, don’t worry. Probably for the best he’s not inspecting them individually, so he won’t have to know about the damage they took from the garbage chute. The next few hours, Rudy types up everything he knows on an airgrapped computer, writing everything he knows about codewords, the people in the organization, the history that he’s seen. He was their money guy, he might not have known what all the money was for, but he did have to know how much and who it was going to, and that makes him an invaluable starting point. The rest is just teaching you how to read the papers you extracted with the coins. You couldn’t have done this without Rudy. Ciphers and encryptions you can crack, but personal shorthands, industry language and the significance of bookkeeping practices are another. November’s smart and has a grounding in this kind of thing for research purposes, but it’s not at the level of Rudy’s specialized knowledge. He outlines a network of changing shell companies, a diffusion of knowledge. This is less like a spider’s web, and more like light radiating from a campfire. It’s not just that light gets diffuse the further out you go, it’s that anything that’s closer to the source casts a shadow over everything behind it. Rudy can only see everything the light touches for sure, but he can make educated guesses about how much they’re keeping in their shadows. Where’s the money come from - public or private money? That one’s where Rudy’s in shadow - trying to look into it was one of those things that made the bomb heat up. He just knew how much there was. How big’s the source? He thinks it’s the size of a small state government department, about 2,000 direct employees, probably less. That big, and just one accountant? God, no. Just one at Rudy’s level. He’s more like the CFO, thus getting the brain bomb. It turns out he’s actually really, really good at this. There’s obvious pride in his voice when he points out evidence of embezzlement you can’t without his help - and struggle to see even when it’s explained to you - which he’s pretended not to notice. Those little threads of blackmail were always going to be part of his retirement plan, just as much as canceling the Chase Black account was something he kept up his sleeve. Yes, yes, but what matters to you? Names. Names of companies, names of subcontractors, names of his direct supervisors. They’re not names I’ve mentioned before, but some you recognize through the Everests. Which one surprises you the most, and which one surprises you the least, and why? Organization structure. There is a central node that has frequently changing smaller companies that launder the money to then hire larger contractors. Think of the Department of Education hiring the McKinley group to figure out the best laptop to give to students, and then going to Lenovo with the purchase order. Not shocking, but useful to know. It means that the central agency can be relatively small, and only the highest levels of contact at the McKinley level actually need to know where their money and directions are coming from. From there, they can employ any civilian agency they want for the bulk of the work in anonymity. That works for the vast array of downstream effects of Goat’s role in the station. Keeping all the sensors working that Goat used for input, making sure everything he was connected to output correctly. Keeping software compliant with Goat as hardware was maintained and updated. Considering the scale of what Goat affected, an absolute minority was dedicated to Goat himself. The rest was just about keeping up with him. Maybe 50,000 indirect employees, all of them in the dark. What [i]doesn’t[/i] that work for? Goat’s direct maintenance, for starters. Some security forces, some programmers, upper management. Lobbyists, payroll politicians, systems experts. Media supervisors and liaisons, spin doctors, fixers. Their assistants and direct personal staff. A warehouse in Zeus. Warehouse? Yes. The warehouse where they keep Phoenix, Dog and Tiger, also bought at auction as backup should anything go wrong with Goat. Kept in a military storage facility. It was the only three they could get, and only meant for a worst case scenario. Those receipts were buried in Rudy’s desk, too. Your siblings will still be there. The conspiracy is not going to risk implementing their backup until either they know Goat’s kidnapper has been taken out, or Aevum’s systems decay gets so bad that it’s worth the risk. And then Rudy’s done, satisfied. “I’ve got Larry Page’s place in New Zealand waiting for me. I’ve heard it’s still beautiful there. Not like Australia, since…” The space fountain fell on it. “If you need a forensic accountant for anything, feel free to call. I’m going to be bored out of my mind without all this.” He’s smiling, but his teeth are chattering. He’s not just scared, fuck that, he’s terrified. Not of someone coming after him, no. Of being retired. Of having nothing to do. Of being cut off from what friends he does have, up here. Aside from his job Rudy is boring, one of the most boring people on Aevum. But he’s never had to deal with being [i]bored[/i] before, and that’s something very, very different. [b]November:[/b] Two weeks to fake a corruption story? This part is actually so easy you can do it on break as long as you delegate most of it. No, really. Like, you have your own media organization in your pocket, just get Anthropozine to report on your own crime and make it credible and then let everyone else prove the real corruption in the process of trying to disprove you. Two people come to mind. York would know who’s the best target, and Junta would know how to write this. Give it a week and Rudy will probably be bored out of his mind enough to help with this, too. You don’t even need to tell York what you’re asking for. Just ask him who he thinks is corrupt on the high court and he’ll stream of thought it just because it’s a fun question to answer. [b]LatheOfHeathen:[/b] so there are nine justices [b]LatheOfHeathen: [/b]each is elected from one of the districts like the pope or some shit to get around the problems with how countries used to do it [b]LatheOfHeathen:[/b] but that means they have a kind of like legal terroir [b]LatheOfHeathen: [/b]like aphrodite is always going to care most about social issues, selene will always care the most about smuggling and organized crime [b]LatheOfHeathen: [/b]so the joke is that the selene justice would be the corrupt one, but truth is guys like Roberts cut his whole ass teeth on being anti-bribery anti-corruption, which is why the other selene judges respected him so much to vote for him, so he’s out [b]LatheOfHeathen: [/b]Becker-Klein is fuckin, apollo, it’s an open secret shes corrupt to shit which is part of why intellectual property laws gone to shit so hard lately [b]LatheOfHeathen:[/b] but my money for the worst is probably going to be either hermes or gaea [b]LatheOfHeathen:[/b] on the books gaeas justice Melnyk is the poorest but also their kid goes to a Zeus private school that costs half their annual salary so something fucky is going on there. Itd probably hit a lot harder to out Melnyk cause being humble salt of the earth is a big part of their mythos [b]LatheOfHeathen: [/b]hermes is police unionis and slum lords so if Costa-Silva isn’t filling her pockets I’ll eat the entirety of my own ass with a knife and fork no sauce [b]LatheOfHeathen: [/b]don’t bother with aphrodite, even if winters is dirty itd just hurt us to report her [b]LatheOfHeathen:[/b] ares guy is too rich to bother with this shit, his hands arent dirty he is the dirt other people get their hands stuck in, and the zeus justice is surgical clean, so clean i think she sweats bleach. woman fucking terrifies me actually its kind of hot