Page 133 - Just Deserts

Telepax

“Forrest, TTI has been forced by the end of the Cold War to
redefine its mission.”
Forrest Raynes, director of security services at Transglobal
Technologies Incorporated, regarded his superior with hope as well
as curiosity.
“Yes, sir. A new mission. Does this mean I won’t have to cut my
department’s budget by twenty percent?”
The conglomerate’s chief executive officer, C. L. Arkon, frowned.
“No, it does not mean that at all. The company’s profitability has, for
the past thirty years, been closely tied to the federal government
contracts responsible for the bulk of our business. The department of
defense has drastically curtailed its requisition of weapons systems, so
we must roll with the punches. Trim the fat, turn ourselves into a
lean, mean competitive machine.”
Raynes momentarily entertained a vision of an organism whose
selective dieting had left it emaciated below its big fat head. “Right.
We cut overhead and keep the company afloat. Got it. Makes perfect
sense.”
“But we can’t totally disassemble our factories and throw away
what little technical edge we have over some upstart start-up
company financed by foreign capital. That would be suicide.”
Arkon’s aging baby face suddenly took on the cunning look dreaded
by his subordinates and family members. “No, we must follow the
lead of other contractors in the same position, and listen to our
lobbyists in Washington. They are telling us the simplest solution to
our problems is to find a new enemy. Forget the superpower threat
of an overvalued Soviet Union, say our friends in high places; look
rather to small regional powers, upon whom our dilatory
enforcement of nuclear nonproliferation has conferred a reborn
adversarial worthiness. And, as we have indeed witnessed, our foreign
policy has been moving, ponderously at first, but now ever more
swiftly, in just that direction.”
“Uh, you mean the Gulf War?” Raynes hoped he was keeping up
with the CEO’s careening train of thought.
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