19 Nicole #2
They haven’t been accused of anything in six months, and then it was of being involved in an African warlord’s consolidation of power around a rare-earth-minerals mine.
That could involve the EU, but she’s not sure why people would be killing over it now.
So she follows the advice Ellen gave and looks for information they released to shareholders.
It takes a while to find anything, during which she eats, and drinks, and occasionally looks up at Ellen, who is typing on the phone but sometimes is looking up at her.
She shifts closer to Ellen when she’s done eating.
She feels warm from all that meat inside her and wonders if Ellen can feel it radiating off her.
Ellen leans toward her but keeps typing on her phone.
Nicole wonders if the flirting was just for fun, the way some people flirt like a game, and now she’s back to work, or if she’s just really good at compartmentalizing her various desires.
Most of what Nicole finds for shareholders is about earnings and losses, which she’s pretty expert at scanning through, but there’s one statement in a financial article, a quote from Battle: We hope in the near future to greatly expand our client base.
Such rapid growth may incur more expenses but of course will result in greater long-term profitability.
If we can, we’d love to partner with every player across the globe.
Nicole scowls at that. So they provide armies to two countries and then have their own guys fight each other? She sighs. They’ll make a lot of money.
In college, she thinks, she would have known about KBA already.
There must be protests against them somewhere.
She would have been involved. War profiteers paying for more war!
She would have tried to be interviewed by anyone who would talk to her, explaining how if you pay people to fight, they’re going to make more reasons for more fights, and the bigger they are, the more at war the world will be, and the more profit they’ll make.
“They’re talking about expansion,” Nicole says. “More clients.”
“That could mean a lot of things,” Ellen says with a sigh. Her phone rings and she looks at it, eyes narrowing. “I should take this one privately.”
“Okay,” Nicole says. “Does it have to do with—”
“Something else,” Ellen says, rising smoothly and walking out of the room.
Nicole turns her eyes back toward her own phone. What has she really found out? Not much. She wishes she were better at this. Ellen is smart, and maybe Nicole could be like Ellen, right? But…maybe not.
She opens her research back up again. But it’s not enough.
Looking at their statement to shareholders was smart, but she wonders if there’s some other angle.
That’s all couched in investor speak, after all.
They’re for people who want to make money but don’t care about how.
But there are people who care about how. She used to be one of them.
She fishes the flyer out of her purse. She didn’t throw it out, which she’s sure Ollie and Brandon would say means something but which she knows just means she never cleans out her purse. There it is: STOP WAR-FOR-PROFIT. The people who watch the people who make money are the activists.
She takes a deep breath and types in the number.
NICOLE
Hi, this is Nicole
From the coffee shop
The lawyer
Oh god, why is she still typing?
NICOLE
You gave me the flyer?
SAM
I remember
The cute lawyer
Nicole bites her thumbnail. No way is she telling anyone about this. She’s already flirted with her boss today. Must be something about her friends being in mortal peril. Or about her actually doing something for once. It’s making her heartbeat rise.
NICOLE
Some might say so
SAM
I’m sure they do
So you texting to find out more about the protest?
NICOLE
Sort of
SAM
Sort of?
NICOLE
I’m on this case and I thought of you. We’re trying to find out everything about this private security company, KBA. You know anything?
SAM
Yeah, they fucking suck
They’re essentially paid to enact genocide, help war criminals. You’re not representing them are you?
NICOLE
No
Nothing like that
But I’m trying to figure out what they might be up to now
We think they might be interfering with a case
It’s a lie, unless a case is her friends’ lives. But she doesn’t want to put Sam in danger, too.
SAM
Okay, good
So you want to know what they’re up to?
NICOLE
Like what they seem to be doing, in terms of business
SAM
Aside from taking money to kill innocent people all over the world?
NICOLE
Maybe? Or if there’s a particular part of the world they’re eager to take money from. I know they’ve been talking about rapid expansion and new clients.
SAM
Yeah. The rumor is they’re trying to get in with folks on Velvet Alley—you know, that dark web site for human traffickers?
So they’d essentially become a private army for the largest criminal trade network in the world. It would go beyond being paid war profiteers, they’d be helping one side start wars, then helping the other end them.
Just an endless cycle of violence.
NICOLE
How would they do that though? Don’t they have competition?
SAM
I don’t know
That’s just what a whistleblower said—they want Velvet Alley’s business
But no one knows who runs it
So hopefully it’s a bluff or a sales pitch
Or maybe the whistleblower is a plant
Sorry. With KBA it’s hard to know what’s real
NICOLE
No this is all useful
Thank you
SAM
My pleasure
Anything else you want?
Nicole stares at the phone, not sure what to say to that. Ellen comes back in suddenly, the curtains to the room letting in a cool breeze.
“Find anything else out while I was gone?”
“KBA might be trying to partner with or take over Velvet Road.”
Ellen narrows her eyes, considering that. “Hmmm, okay. That’s interesting. Where’d you get it?”
“Activist I know,” Nicole says, feeling guilty about not responding to Sam.
Ellen sighs. “So just rumors. Still, it’s something.”
“You find anything else out?”
Ellen shakes her head. “I think we’re at the point where we wait for someone to get back to me. But that’s good work, Nicole. Smart thinking.”
Nicole glows. “Thanks. So, do I just go back to the office?”
“If you want.” Ellen smiles, hand on her hip. “Or, y’know, I live nearby. We could wait at my place.”