Dark Tidings

Chapter 42 - Shut It Down

Deep in the bowels of the IIBE headquarters the bank's top security people buzzed about like angry worker bees. A cacophony of noise echoed off the grey walls as keyboards clattered and suited men shouted at computer monitors, and each other. It was a hive of activity, everyone jostling for position, each trying to get a better view of the rivers of numbers which streamed across the banks of screens. Their trained eyes knew exactly what these digital waterfalls meant. Tens of thousands of pounds were being transferred from their biggest accounts to individual personal accounts all over the planet. The moment they'd first spotted these unusual patterns, the account holders were informed. They, in turn, were now frantically checking whether the transfers were valid. The panic was spreading. As time went by, the transfers got bigger and increasing numbers of the major account holders were being targeted. What the hell was going on?

Buckingham convened an emergency meeting of the IIBE Board. Tempers were fraying as the scale of the problem became ever clearer. He listened to a range of proposals, some madcap, some sensible but no one came up with anything which was particularly palatable. Anxiety levels were approaching meltdown as it dawned on each board member the scale of the damage to their own personal fortunes. It was downhill from there and the discussions becoming ever more heated, cantankerous and argumentative. What a truly despicable sight it was to see greedy, immensely wealthy people squabbling viciously like paupers fighting over a dropped penny. He hated these people; small men with their small fortunes.

He slapped his palms hard on the table. The sudden, sharp noise brought some semblance of control back to the meeting.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, we need to get back on track, back to working out what to do rather than trying to find someone to blame. I propose we shut down the whole system. At least that'll stop the leakage of money and give us a chance to work out exactly what's gone wrong."

Silence.

Everyone knew a shutdown would cause total chaos in the global financial markets. They weren't even sure if they could shut down the whole system. And any sort of interruption would cost them hundreds of multimillions. And what about the bank's reputation? It would be trashed if they went down that line but what were the alternatives? The longer they waited the bigger the problem became; the rate of transfers were spiralling as every minute passed.

"We've discussed all the options," said one of the board members. "We know what our choices are so we should table them formally and take a vote. Let the majority decide."

"A vote? The majority? A majority simply means all the fools are on the same side," bellowed Buckingham. "Shut it down. We've no choice but to shut down the whole system. Get every one of your experts to work on the problem. Find out what's gone wrong and fix the damned thing. The priority is to minimise the downtime. Then I need you people to use your contacts to pressurise all the banks which accepted cash transfers. We need to get our money back. After that, we can concentrate on who caused this mess. Someone needs to be punished."

Tirade over, he stormed out of the boardroom. Content he'd stamped his authority on the situation, he just hoped the fools could follow his instructions. Stop the losses and fix the problem. They knew what they had to do. Finding the guilty could wait.

He made his way to the secret teleconferencing facility. An emergency meeting of the Occultus Populous Council had also been scheduled. In a way it was convenient that the Council members were all on hand; still available to deal with the Scroll crisis. He could utilise their collective financial muscle to minimise the effect of this IIBE banking disaster. At least minimise the effect on the members of the Occultus Populous. As was often the way, those in true control of the wealth benefit when a financial crisis destroys legions of ordinary people. A decent crisis ensured the common man didn't climb above his station. It was a bit like the way regular bush fires were necessary to keep the outback healthy. A lot of animals get cooked in the process... shame. A good old crisis was needed every now and again to weed out the weak and the sick.

Buckingham knew this only too well. His grandfather had initiated the 'great depression' in 1929 and that one event had helped his family amass billions albeit at the expense of millions of small investors.

By the time he reached the teleconferencing facility, he'd calmed down, at least externally. He nodded to his fellow members who were already in the room. He surveyed the faces on the large screens; the displays indicated everyone was present.

He outlined the latest catastrophe and explained the action he'd just ordered. A babble of frenzied conversations swamped the room. It was an understandable initial reaction.

Once the noise had subsided, he set out the defensive actions they could all take to protect their personal fortunes. Knowing that Buckingham had thought through the consequences for them personally made everyone feel calmer, indeed many of them were already calculating how much they could make from this situation.

"So we've no need to worry as far as our own wealth is concerned. We can engineer restarts and shutdowns which will favour us and knowing exactly when these will happen will allow us to fully exploit the massive swings which there'll inevitably be in the markets. There'll be lots of money to be made but, alongside that, we have other things to which we must turn our attention."

He began to outline his plan to track down and destroy the people who had perpetrated 'these despicable acts of unauthorised magic' as he called them.

"I've put my best man on the job. He's assembling his team as we speak. I've told him he has our collective resources at his disposal. We'll give him whatever he needs to get the job done. He's been authorised to do whatever he needs to do to find the travellers. There'll be no hiding place. He will find them, mark my words gentlemen, he will find them. And then these people will suffer. They have no idea just how much they will suffer."

"Head crusher," shouted one of the members.

"Head crusher, head crusher," echoed the others.

"Too lenient," said Sir Samuel, "too lenient by a long shot."