The consortium had more on their minds than just milking profit; the issues with the Japanese folks could be postponed and fattened up for slaughter later. But the Star Wars project couldn't wait. After the new year, the big boss was set to announce the plan at the right mont. And yet, the benefits still weren't divvied up properly.
Plus, why the heck was this plan so bizarre? It was like so mythological story, and the whole thing seed off sohow.
Still, no matter how strange it seed, this project couldn't be missed. Leave everything else aside -- those satellites alone were probably going to cost a pretty penny. Were we about to fire up the printing press again? $25 billion?
With a plan this grand, what good would $25 billion do? Was this ant to fool so naive kid?
Blow up missiles from outer space?
Seriously? Have people watched too many Star Wars movies? With such a powerful laser weapon, you can't even manage it on Earth, let alone in space!
Alright, the consortium overlooked one thing; the big boss's pri skill was his acting chops.
All Arican defense companies had backing from financial giants, and the competition was fierce.
A bidding process?
Well, choose whoever you want -- the fact is, they're all part of the sa family. When it cos to specific projects, they just have to agree on how to allocate the profits.
Don't misunderstand, this isn't so loot-splitting party. The governnt actually gets the biggest cut.
A $25 billion price tag over four years was a big deal, and once the project cleared the necessary audits, if the funds fell short, they could always just add more.
As it happened, the Soviets already got a whiff of things and thought, "$25 billion? That's not even a joke -- it's barely enough. You guys are just trying to cover it up."
The Soviet version of Star Wars soon rolled out. On the surface, it also seed like $25 billion, but don't forget, with different systems, things like satellites could just be allocated without costing much money.
At this point, the big boss was at a loss for words. "$25 billion is already imnse," he said through gritted teeth. To even lay down $3-5 billion was impressive enough to run horses in the national treasury, yet they were eyeing $25 billion.
As the brain behind the operation, the Brit was bewildered. "Won't this make us the joke? Could we have been played?"
Their doubts were understandable. The next phase hadn't even begun when Boeing jumped in with guns blazing; their aggressive stance was just terrifying.
Aricans were living it up, and they surely knew that the Soviets had taken the bait -- a seemingly terrifying plan was underway.
"Hey buddy, bring your little cousin along to play, won't you?"
The US was left speechless when their followers showed such enthusiasm. Even the Japanese people said they'd throw a billion to start, and if it wasn't enough, they'd add more.
Within a re week, more countries were willing to invest. The Brits, who proposed the lousy idea, wanted in too.
Reagan was about ready to cry -- was his performance really that good? Why hadn't they given him an Oscar?
The common folks had no idea, and they stayed unaware, while their most feared Cold War quietly escalated.
The Aricans were just ssing around, but the Soviets took it seriously. If this went on, so people felt uneasy -- what if they actually built it?
Don't doubt it -- the Soviets had advanced technology. In terms of certain stability aspects, they could completely outpace the Aricans.
The Soviets, in focusing their resources on major tasks, were miles ahead of the Aricans. They lacked creativity and vision.
Oh, and there was another big issue: the higher the position, the more foolish they beca. William White wanted to note that they struggled with supplies, leaving ordinary folks no chance to drink, so they stayed clear-headed. As for those at the top, they practically drank themselves to death.
...
"Master, they should have finished negotiating by now. Boeing's got a good chance."
"Ha, Tanner, just let them fight it out themselves. It's a worthless project."
"But master, it's over $20 billion."
"Ha, Tanner, it's different. Do you know the losses from the Falklands War?"
"I'm not sure, just that the cruiser was worth a bit. Maybe $200 million?"
"Ha, they lost over $4 billion between both sides. Star Wars? Do you realize how grand this plan is? Let tell you, unless you've got trillions, don't even think about it."
...
Finding an open confrontation might be unlikely -- the word on the street was that the old guys at Citibank were sent straight to the hospital.
No one's sure if they were helping or hurting him, but anyway, they got what they expected, and now all they could do was increase their investnt.
Looking back on TV shows from later years, they'd go on and on about the Scud and the Patriot missiles, praising Arica's defense system to no end, as if it could obliterate any missile indiscriminately.
In reality, when Saddam acted up, this defense system was freshly built.
What about the effectiveness?
Great. Ahem, just the error rate was a bit high.
Honestly, Aricans could really puff themselves up; the interception rate barely grazed 30%, ridiculously low. And yet, these janky things sohow turned into legends.
The missiles that were intercepted were just beautiful misunderstandings -- you could still handle them even without an interception system.
Right now, nobody knew any of it. Okay, the regular folks didn't care; they figured they'd ask God how much longer they'd endure these miserable tis.
They didn't concern themselves with Star Wars -- they just wanted it to create jobs.
The number of unemployed was rising, the economy was worsening, and without the right policies, reelection prospects were nearly nonexistent.
The consortium was at odds, and so was the Federal Reserve. Both were certain they were driving their boss crazy.
Inflation had been falling continuously, but to him, the Federal Reserve was definitely up to no good, pushing a 20% interest rate, trying to squeeze everyone dry.
Anyhow, Reagan had decided if no proper explanation was forthcoming, he wouldn't mind taking on those old folks.
"What do we do? We can't keep pressing down, these rates are outrageous."
"Morgan, what are you worried about? Even if we replace soone, nothing will change. Without these thods, how can reconstruction be completed?"
"Sigh, things will get ssy if anyone else starts backing them. We'll have massive troubles."
"Ha, you an William White? Don't worry; he's shrewder than a lot of people think. He wouldn't touch a thankless task like this, unless..."
"Ha! Citi's not going to act up again; they've already been scared stiff by that young guy."
Now the old folks understood that William White was no weaker in strength. If it was a fair comrcial competition, it wouldn't matter.
But whatever you do, don't stab soone in the back -- William White was adept at playing dirty.
*****
spatreon/Sayonara816.
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