April 6: And What Goes Around (25 page)

Jeff was so
engrossed with reading reports he didn't hear his com give the more insistent
buzz that indicated a priority call until the third or fourth time. The screen indicted
it was Annette calling from Camelot, the former Chinese moon colony he'd
acquired and placed under Heather's sovereignty. Annette was one of a dozen people
who were privileged to interrupt him.

She didn't seem
irritated at the delay when he opened the screen. There was just a fraction of
a second delay between the image displaying and the shift of her eyes and
change of expression that indicated she saw him. It wasn't as big a delay or as
irritating as the speed of light lag you experienced speaking from the Moon to
Earth, but it still was there if you were paying attention.

"Good evening,
my dear. How is it going with you?" Jeff asked.

"In most
things, the little things, it is going well. I feel I have control here and at
least a degree of cooperation. There is still a bit of a cultural divide. I
confess I've started trying to learn Chinese and I've concluded that I'm simply
not very good at languages."

"Do you speak
any other language besides English?" Jeff asked.

"No,  just
the little phrases anyone picks up from movies and such. Almost all of them
were French or Spanish or Italian anyway, not Chinese," Annette said.

"That's fine
if you wish to learn it," Jeff said. "However I doubt you'll be at
Camelot long enough to become a really fluent speaker. Any language is worth
knowing of course, but I don't need you to understand the culture so well you
start empathizing with it or worse emulating it. We really intend to impose our
own culture on the colony with economic pressure and eventually by diluting it
with non-Chinese residents."

Annette was too
readable. Her face registered happiness at the idea her stay there would be
limited, and surprise at his blunt revelation that he intended to subvert the
prevalent culture. People mostly tip-toed around any bias against other's ways
of living down on Earth. Condemning another form of government or cultural
peculiarity now would bring charges of hate speech, and convictions seemed to
constantly grow easier to obtain in both Europe and the Americas. Except spacers.
There seemed to be a free pass on hating spacers and
their
culture.

"You need a
better poker face more than Chinese lessons," Jeff told her, grinning.
"I'm not sure how to teach that. I'm probably the wrong person to try to
teach it too. I've been told by others it's still a weakness I
need to
address."

"I
know
.
We had a rebellious resident I had to expel. She attacked, well maybe not
attacked. She
spat
in my administrator's face, and he knocked her
senseless in front of a crowd. I found my hand on my gun without thinking about
it and then noticed I'd scared the snot out of all of them worse than the
fight. I can only imagine how my face looked. They all were frozen in terror
like they expected me to draw and cut them all down. All I can say is I'm aware
of it and working on it."

Jeff smiled.
"Maybe this once it was good to show a little temper. They may be more
aware that you have a line they don't want to cross. As I said – I don't value
their way of doing things all that much. If you don't share their facade of
serene inscrutability that's fine with me. You said the
little
things
are going well. Does that mean you have some issues with the
big
things?"

"That's why I
called you. I've been trying to find
something
for this little burg to
do economically to sustain itself. That must be a concern for you, isn't it?
You don't want to subsidize it forever I assume?"

"I don't,"
Jeff agreed. "Yet the terms under which the Chinese ceded it to me were
that it was an obligation. I thought it was an artfully contrived way of surrendering
at the time. Now I'm starting to wonder if I got suckered into a bad deal. I've
tried to interest a couple ship shops into having component fabrication and
manufacturing there. Cubic in Home is after all fabulously expensive. I talked
to some of the chip makers hoping to set up an assembly facility there. So far
nothing has interested anyone. I don't expect you to fix that too. But your
initiative and seeing the necessity of it is appreciated."

"When I
talked to Feng he told me pretty bluntly that the Chinese here feel they are
above that sort of work anyway," Annette said. "They have all been
taught in school that that sort of work was exploitive. He said it is the sort
of thing peasants did a couple generations ago to escape poverty and is from a
time when foreigners took advantage of cheap labor in China. He blamed the
failure of that sort of thing for the big economic crash back early in this
century."

"I wonder
what the people in Germany should blame it on?" Jeff asked, amused. "They
have no history of sweatshops and foreign exploiters, but their economy crashed
just as badly at the same time. Maybe they blame the Chinese for taking all the
jobs. The Chinese certainly didn't see anything wrong with sending most of
their manual labor to Vietnam and Laos and North Korea when it was their turn
to 'exploit' someone else."

"People
always blame their bad luck on somebody else," Annette agreed. "Everyone
I've met here has a dread of doing
anything
they associate with being a
peasant. Feng admitted to me that it's only been recently the young people
would eat garlic or wear something quilted. Back down on Earth the older style
Chinese garments were just starting to be acceptable again and certain hair
styles from a couple generations back are coming into vogue again. Feng just
looked at me like I was mad when I asked him what we could do that would allow
everyone to be an executive. It's infuriating."

"What do you
see as a solution?" Jeff asked. "Have you talked with Heather about
it?"

"No, I try
not to bother her if I can help it. I see she doesn't have any problem with
delegating, but people want to bypass the folks she has appointed and get word
directly from the sovereign. I've seen her have to be pretty blunt about
setting time aside in order to be able to eat a meal without talking business
over the dinner table. She's probably nicer about it than I'd be."

"Maybe she
should look fierce and put her hand on her gun," Jeff suggested,
facetiously.

Annette just
rolled her eyes and refused to be baited. "What I'm thinking about is more
your area of expertise anyway. Do you think we could start a bank here? I was
reading about how Switzerland, Luxembourg and Hong Kong all served as centers
for international banking over the years. It seems to me we could do the same
given all the uncertainty on Earth. People want to park their money someplace
safer than in their home country. It's way too easy to for their government to
take it there."

"Have you
asked
if they'd work in a bank any easier than manufacturing? Jeff asked.

"Not yet. I
assumed if it didn't involve getting their hands dirty it would be OK,"
Annette said.

"I can see
that. But why should I create a competing business? What do you have to offer
there that our own System Trade Bank doesn't already offer? We have off Earth
accounts and storage. We deal in bullion based currency and are out of the
reach of their local authority. We offer deep secure storage at Central already,"
Jeff said.

"Yes, but
it's the cultural thing again," Annette insisted. "I've seen your
bank site and sign up pages. It's all in English and very few faces on it that aren't
Caucasian. Even its being on Home is off-putting to a lot of Chinese.
You
may see there is a clear distinction between the nation of Home and Mitsubishi
3. But there isn't such a clear cut divide in the mind of a lot of Chinese.
Especially older ones who have managed to save back significant wealth. There's
still no love lost between a lot of these Chinese and the Japanese such as the
Mitsubishi people."

"So what
would you have me do?" Jeff asked. "Start up a new bank? We would
have a hard time splitting off the funds to do that given the pressure the mess
below is putting on us right now. It involves a great deal of work to document
everything and fees to be accepted into professional associations. Again, I'm
not thrilled at the idea of forming a competitor. If I held a controlling
interest and hid it I would consider that corrupt and dishonest even if I
resolved not to take any untoward advantage of it."

"It isn't the
legal ownership. It's the image. Most people don't really care who owns their
bank. I asked my mom what they looked for in a bank when she lived on Earth and
she said it was location. They wanted a bank that was easy to visit to get
coins or deposit a hard copy check or ask a loan. She said that's how most
small customers picked a bank, and only the big corporate customers cared for more
than convenience. I wouldn't try to hide the ownership or associations of the
bank, but market it differently. Your site to recruit customers and depositors
should be in Chinese, with Chinese faces, and obviously written by native
speakers not a so-so translation. And the name should separate it from Home.
Maybe the System Bank of Central at Camelot. Although quite a few of them have
complained about the name Camelot."

"Which means
there should
be
a System Bank at Central," Jeff pointed out.

"Shouldn't
there be anyway?" Annette asked. "Central is growing and going to be
bigger than Home someday, see if it isn't."

"You're
probably right. It will get cheaper to live at Central and I don't see that
happening here. We have physical limitations Central doesn't. What in the world
do they have against Camelot?"

"I had to
tell the story of Camelot to several. It's not a common theme of western
literature that gets told in their school system a lot. It invokes no positive
responses. When I did explain many of them found it frivolous to name their
town after a fictitious city. Though they did like the idea of a fortified city
or a castle. Apparently their Great Wall and other impressive ancient
fortifications are a real source of cultural pride. "

"They did?
Well if it's marketing you want make a logo with an old fashioned castle with
towers and the castellations along the wall," Jeff suggested, tracing the
notches out in the air with his finger. "Maybe the System Castle Bank of
Central at Camelot?"

Annette looked up
sharply. "You know... Heather as ruler wasn't such a hard sell here.
Despite all the years of party rule the Chinese hold fond thoughts of all their
Emperors and distinctive dynasties. If Heather would agree perhaps you could
style it The
Royal
Bank of Central at Camelot."

"She might
grant us some sort of charter," Jeff speculated thoughtfully.

"That's the
bare idea. I knew you'd want to make it your own. I certainly don't know much
about banking, but it seems to me China is a big enough mess now that a lot of
rich people would be happy to have someplace that seemed trustworthy to send at
least some of their funds. There have to be other places that would not be
offended by the Chinese marketing and language."

"True. China
has had a lot of trading partners in the Middle East and Africa who learned the
language to do business and aren't off-put at all by a Chinese face. However if
your marketing theory is effective I may think in terms of opening a branch to
appeal to Europeans too."

"Good. I'm
glad you don't think the idea is foolishness. I'll keep looking for other
ideas," Annette promised. "I just haven't come up with anything
else."

"No. It's not
foolish at all," Jeff agreed. "I'll tell you something else. Before
central banking both the Arabians and the Chinese had their own systems of
money management based on networks of individually responsible local money lenders
and merchants. I will try to create a business plan that highlights a trusted
responsible manager to mirror that system instead of the Western corporate
model. That is how we work the System Bank actually. Home
has
no laws
authorizing or governing corporations. It's just been a disadvantage to promote
that difference to Americans and Europeans. They aren't comfortable with the
concept of depending on personal integrity. Somehow they believe integrity can
be imposed by law and regulation. I'll consider the idea and get back to you."

"Thank you,"
Annette said. "If it works out I'll feel I was really productive for
Heather when my assignment here ends."

"Yes, but if I did this then when you feel your assignment for
Heather is over you may have to decide if you want to
run
this proposed
bank for me." Jeff closed the connection on her startled face before she
could respond. Apparently that wasn't in her plans.

* * *

Chen joined Gunny
and Mackay at their table in the hotel restaurant. The place was filling up. It
appeared to be popular with locals as well as guests. He was dusty and had only
washed his hands and face in the restroom. That wasn't like the usually
meticulous Chen they knew. He looked satisfied however and pulled a chair out
and planted himself with a heaviness that suggested he was tired.

"I need a
shower," Chen said, "but once I go up to my room I'm straight for bed
and I'm not coming back down. I'm starved too so I better take care of that if
I want to sleep well. I rented a scooter and was surprised how tiring it is
riding one when you haven't for a long time. It uses odd muscles that I haven't
used for years."

The waiter
appeared and Chen ordered a pasta dish and another carafe of red once his
partners assured him the house wine was decent. After a sample he invited them
to help him with the wine while he made his report.