Big Business, Very Big Business Opulence is the by word in this place. The corridors are wide and crisp, the décor, a slight emphasis on too much red but on the whole, opulence. Immaculate personnel walk briskly with arms full of paperwork, work at stylish well designed workstations or sit in comfortable arm chairs intent on hand helds and tablets. The impression is one of prosperity and efficiency. From the whispering elevator doors they come, smartly dressed men. Portly? Some. Slightly over weight? Others. All look well paid and smug. They nod to each other, pair up in some cases and stroll down the passage to an ornate nay magnificent set of double doors. They swing inwards on silent hinges. This room, if anything, is even more ostentatious. A long mirror-finished veneer table dominates the centre of the room large high-backed cushioned chairs surround it. Along the dark red buttoned leather walls the stern-faced portraits of former board members sit in silent witness their changing attire a the timeline for the company showing just how long it has been in existance. Today’s board members take their places. Banter and badinage bounce from place to place. There is no scraping of chairs. This carpet is deep and thick if a little red. The very air is still and close. Papers shuffled bottoms settled they wait. A small concealed door at the far end of the room opens and a small bespectacled man enters followed by the Chairman himself. Tall, leonine, handsome, he beams over his board with benevolence. Times are good. The message will be short and very, very sweet. Then his eye rests on Parsons, “Unfortunate name that.” Damien thought to himself. The wretched man had been trying to contact him for some time. “Urgent” his mails said. “Too sensitive to put on the network”. He said. “Far reaching implications for future growth”. He said. Damien’s expression darkened a touch. But nothing was going to spoil this meeting, nothing, his moment of triumph! Grinning at the “spontaneous” applause he received, Damien took his seat. “Gentlemen” he began. “I will call this meeting of the board of D. E. Vil to order.” The little man at his side slipped a paper in front of him. Damien looked down. Short agenda, very short. “Very well. I don’t expect this to take long. First item on the agenda is operations with regards to growth. Tarquin that’s your team.” Tarquin, tall, but not as much and thin but not as much, well dressed but not as well, it didn’t do to be, stood up. He operated a remote control in his hand and slowly a section of the wall at the opposite end of the room slid back a screen extending already glowing with life. A slick well designed presentation began. “Well Gentlemen, as you can all see from the graphs and the copies in your folders, our operations have been out performing targets for some time. Year on year, decade on decade in fact. New technology has been particularly profitable for us with new consumers added at a phenomenal rate. Changing socio-economic conditions not to mention morality…..” there was a moment of laughter and some good natured groans. “….. has meant that our market share has increased to unprecedented levels. To put some detail, some meat on the bones, firstly I’ll hand over to Warren.” Warren stood as Tarquin sat. He was strong and powerful. You could see he worked out heavily and no one would get past him in a fight. When he spoke his words were clipped and short. “Been quite good for us over the past year. Libya, Syria, Afghanistan of course. Expenditure v market has been good. Very little outlay, religion plays a part in that and the political situation of course not forgetting oil. Other areas are South America brewing up nicely thanks to the drugs situation. Got to hand over to Peter now.” Warren had been nervous despite his size, Peter just looked really ill. After a coughing fit he began in a blocked nasal drub. “Thags Warrend. Quitd a few thigs goig on usually id the developing word. Plenty of Aids, big one that all the usual suspects but we got some new ones commig up in Europe. Swine Flu, Bird Flu that sort of thig. All goes hand in hand with Warred and Famier.” He collapsed into his chair coughing and sniffing. Famier the only female on the board elegant, immaculate make-up but thin, painfully thin. “Yes thanks to Warren and Peter we have more eating less than ever before. Generally in the developing world as all these things are but as Tarquin mentioned with the deteriorating morality issues we are expecting the world birth rate to rise considerably over the next few decades. Add to that global warming, crop failures and climate change and we will soon see shortages in all areas which will ultimately result in more work for Derek.” She said sweetly as she sat down slowly her pert bottom occupying less that a third of the chair. Derek didn’t even bother to get up he sounded bored and he was playing with a paper knife. “You know the drill.” He sighed. “All this lot and their hard work come to me eventually.” He glared at them. “If the rate goes up I’m going to need more staff. We can only just cope as it is!” Tarquin stood again quickly and said. “So, some high points. The internet is one of the fastest market gatherers for us, the investment in that chap was well spent. Likewise the money markets, now that has always been a good root for us but who ever suggested to those guys they could make more money in banking than at N.A.S.A., well done”. “Rob, take a bow!” Damien roared into the general jollity. Rob made a mock salute. “However,” Tarquin continued. “It’s not just the emerging areas which have been good for us. D.I.Y. has brought us a large market share and shopping in general has seen us gain a colossal amount of market over the competition.” “Keep Sunday Special” some wag further down the table wailed to a round of applause. Damien leaned back in his chair enjoying the meeting. Tarquin had been well briefed. He would go on for a little longer, but the final piece of great news would be his to deliver. The culmination of years of work. They were smiling now, they would be euphoric when he made his final address. All well fed, smart, happy. Then his gaze settled on Parsons. The man hadn’t taken his eyes off Damien since they sat down. “He’s going to be trouble” Damien thought. “There needs to be a boardroom re-shuffle What was his role again. Ah, yes Universal Overwatch whatever that means.” Something Damien’s deputies had put in place years ago. He’d seen the paperwork, hadn’t read it. Sounded too defeatist to him. Tarquin was getting over enthusiastic. His puns were flowing thick and fast some of them more thick than others. Damien stood up and Tarquin, adept at this sort of thing dropped immediately in to his chair. The presentation stopped and the screen tucked itself away. Damien smiled. “Second Item. ‘Chairman’s address’. Well, what can I say that hasn’t already been said? Tarquin has admirably summed up our position as of this fiscal year. Well done gentlemen, congratulations to you and your departments. There is one final thing I would like to say before we go to ‘any other business’ and it is this.” They had heard all this before but they were happy and congratulating themselves so, why not. He assumed a heroic pose grasped his lapels and began. “When I started this business I had a market of just two, two. A man and a woman. All I had to work with was an apple and a snake. It required creative lateral thinking to get them on board but I did it and once I was part of their lives we were in the running. There have been set backs I know but all the way through we’ve been there, right up with the competition. It’s been a war, literally and metaphorically and we’ve always been just slightly behind the Good Corporation but not today!” They all sat a little more straight in their chairs. There had been rumours of course, rumours that Damien was going to announce something big, an expansion perhaps. Accounts had been un-characteristically sight-lipped about things of late. So now they listened but Parsons knew something. “So it gives me great pleasure, no pride to announce that……” “If I may interject at this point Damien.” Parsons had stood up. He was unremarkable no smaller in stature than the rest of them really he just sounded smaller. He was always quiet, polite and many wondered how he had survived on the board for so long. He had been in at the beginning with Damien and now he was interrupting what was clearly a very important speech. Damien glared at him the length of the table. It seemed to be getting warmer. Some of the board members started to loosen their collars. “The chair does not recognise you Parsons now sit down and let me finish. You will have your chance during A.O.B.!” Just a little too much vehemence from Damien there. Just what had Parsons got on him!? “Is it getting warm in here?” Someone whispered. “It’s always warm in here.” Came the reply and those that heard gave a nervous laugh. “I’m sorry Damien.” Parsons purred quietly. “I must insist on speaking now. You have had my reports on several occasions and have chosen to ignore their significance and my requests to have an agenda item on this issue have been likewise dismissed.” He lifted a sheaf of papers. “Parsons.” Damien growled. “We go back a long way but I will not have you disrupt with your pseudo-gobbledygook my announcement and that is gentlemen that…..” “The company is doomed.” Said Parsons quietly. There was for a split second, which seemed like an eternity, and probably was, absolute silence. Damien’s face was now of a similar colour to the carpets and the walls. It was obvious to every one that the air con wasn’t working. He gurgled in his throat. Parsons seized his opportunity to continue. “You will be quite correct in your assumption Damien that we now have 100% of the market. The Good Corporation has ceased trading, crashed, gone bust, kaput!” There was a gasp from the assembled board but the laughter and jubilation died as they saw Damien’s face. “However, this presents us with a landscape we have never seen before. This is not just a global phenomenon but a universal one and as a consequence detrimental to the continued prosperity of the company.” Damien finally found his voice. “I have never heard so much bollocks in all my existence!” He exploded. “Our whole point since day one has been total domination, to wipe the floor with those Good bastards. We’ve done it we have them nothing can stop us now and if it is as you say a universal situation then so much the better. A bigger market, fantastic.” “I’ll need even more staff.” Mumbled Derek. “Shush!” someone said. Steam was now rising from the carpet and a distinct burning smell was in the air but no one seemed to notice. “You just don’t get it do you?” Parsons sneered. You didn’t talk like that to Damien. Remember what happened to that Faust bloke. Parsons continued “How do we measure our success? We measure it against Good Corp. if Good Corp isn’t there we’ve no measure. We have to exist together, we are interlinked you can’t have one without the other. Especially universally, we’re finished.” Parsons sat down exhausted. Damien’s chair was now on fire and even though the doors were thick and sound proofed for extra security the board could hear faint screams from outside. And outside, way outside, about as far outside as outside can get the stars were very quickly winking out one by one.