I Should Be Leader of the Myroria-Hanso Corporation.

[Myroria-Hanso Corporation]

HS Pelorus, Nova Novrith, Ryazania Province

The Pelorus swayed gently in the warm waters of Nova Novrith. Hanso, with Oswiecim on one side and a bodyguard on the other, stepped up the gangplank and entered the bridge of the ship.

"Helmsman," Hanso's voice was deep with a touch of a Middle Myrorian accent.

"Plot a course for site Alpha-Six."

"Yes, sir."

The chief marketing executive, Klaus Nordhausen, was standing at the front of the yacht as it undocked and turned south. He waited for Hanso and Oswiecim to go to their cabins before heading to his own. Once in it, he took a leather-bound book out of his dresser drawer. He had this odd habit of writing in a diary; most Hanso employees rarely wrote at all unless they had a position which involved it. He took a fountain pen and began to write:

March Twenty-Ninth.

Hanso doesn't deserve to run this company. He knows nothing; I doubt he even has a college degree. I would be willing to bet that his college degree is forged and he doesn't even deserve the title "doctor". I deserve the title of CEO. This should be the Nordhausen Corporation. Why put the 'Myroria' prefix? The Empeurer doesn't even support him. I say he should drop the prefix and tell things like it is. I should be leader, not that clown Hanso.

And that bastard Oswiecim. He's so full of himself. Kissing Hanso's ass so he can become leader someday. He doesn't deserve it either. Why don't I have access to Hanso's anti-aging medicine? Is marketing not good enough to deserve to live longer? If I ran this company I'd find a way to make people live forever, and then I'd give it out for free. I sure wish I could get Hanso out of his leather chair.

[Union]

OC: "You scare me alot..."

[Myroria-Hanso Corporation]

Somewhere southeast of the Bustian Canal

Nordhausen stood on the front of the ship, looking out at the vast ocean in front and back of him. He jumped. Oswiecim was behind him.

"What's going on? You were talking to yourself."

"N-nothing. I was just thinking aloud, that's all."

Oswiecim just stood silently.

"Mmm. Okay then."

Oswiecim walked off, glancing behind him.

"Stupid schizo..." he muttered under his breath.

...

Oswiecim rapped on the door of Hanso's cabin. He appeared at the peephole. Hanso glanced through it and unhooked the chain lock.

"It's open." Hanso said, walking back to his desk.

"Mr. Hanso? I need to speak with you."

"Shoot."

"Nordhausen's been talking to himself lately. Does he have any...conditions?"

"Mmm. He's schizophrenic. Probably forgot to took his meds, that's all."

"Why'd you hire a schizo, sir?"

"First of all, it's schizophrenic. Secondly, it's because he's...gifted. I wouldn't say he's a genius, but he's certainly very..." Hanso looked out the cabin window at Nordhausen on the deck.

"smart."

"That's all I needed to know sir. Thank you."

"Yes yes. Anytime."

[Myroria-Hanso Corporation]

There was a knock on Alvar's cabin door.

"It's open!"

Oswiecim slipped in.

"Yes, Arnold?"

"Sir, there's been an...incident."

Hanso closed the folder he was looking at.

"What kind of an incident?"

"There was something in the batch of medicine we tested on monkeys on our island near the equator. It made them sick with something. The local native people ate the monkeys and...they've all died."

"Why wasn't I informed of this before?"

"The management tried to keep it a secret, but Bergen went there for an inspection and smelt rotting bodies. Bergen wants to know what we should do."

Hanso rubbed his chin.

"Get all the chief officers in my room. We need a meeting.

...

The CIO entered and the door was shut.

"Ok ladies and gentlemen. There's been an incident. Earlier, a bad batch of medicine was tested on monkeys on Testing Grounds III. The native people ate the monkeys and the sickness in the monkeys passed to the natives. It spread like wildfire. They're all dead. What do we do?"

"Hide it, of course." said the chief security officer.

"No, we've gotta tell the public so we don't get in deeper shit!" said Nordhausen.

"Oh yes, Klaus, let's just tell the public we fucked up!" retorted the CSO.

There was arguing for minutes before Alvar yelled:

"Shut the hell up! This is what we're gonna do: Hide it. Burn the bodies, and if anyone comes, just say there was a recent forest fire on the other side of the island that killed some islanders."

"Well, we'll have to burn the bodies there so there's burnt forest." said Oswiecim

"Of course. Everyone agree?"

Most people raised their hands except for Nordhausen and some other women who didn't think it was right to hide it.

"Majority rules. Meeting dismissed."

[Myroria-Hanso Corporation]

Nordhausen shut the door behind him and locked it. He sat in a plastic chair at the top of the circle he and the other anti-hidist chief officers made haphazardly in his cabin.

"So...I think it's time we took affirmative action." Nordhausen began. One of the women leaned forward.

"What kind of affirmative action?"

"Well, first we've got to tell the public. And then...we've got to make sure this never happens again."

"How will we do that?" another woman asked.

"We need to dispose of Hanso - now, I'm not saying we should kill him - but if he's so willing to hide an island of dead people, should he be running a megacorp like this?"

"Hanso does pay me inadequately. And there's no doubt in my mind that the man who is in a lesser CO position gets payed more."

"Exactly! Why should we stand for a sexist?"

"Yeah, yeah." The women agreed.

"We've gotta take over this place!"

"Yeah!"

A grin creeped across Nordhausen's face.


The scene in Hanso's cabin was more refined. The people there - more diverse in gender - were wearing suits and fine dresses; compared to the tucked-in shirts and knee skirts in Nordhausen's room, this was far more formal. These were obviously the chief officers that were higher in the hierarchy. Hanso leaned back in his leather chair behind a mahogany desk and breathed out.

"So...has the order been sent?"

"Just now, sir." Oswiecim said, slipping his cell phone into his pocket.

"Good. Now, about those that disagreed - keep an eye on them. The quiet ones like them tend to be the ones that shoot up schools or push CEO's out eight storey windows. Now, I'm not saying we should stay with them at all times...but when they seem to all be away at once, one of you come up with an excuse to go to Nordhausen's cabin. He'd probably be the one to command them, seeing as he's third in command of the whole company."

The people at the table spoke their willfulness to carry out Hanso's order.

"Good. Meeting dismissed."

[Myroria-Hanso Corporation]

Oswiecim jiggled the knob on the cabin door. No one came to answer. He took a key from his trouser pocket and unlocked the door. The room he entered was smaller than Hanso's or his own, but it was no less luxuriant.

"The dresser is always the first place they hide it." he said to himself. Oswiecim approached the chest of drawers next to the bed.

"The Vrotrith Newspad? What is he, a communist?" He threw the paper on the bed and opened the first drawer. Socks. Olive drab socks. Oswiecim rummaged under the socks and found a leather bound book. It was latched closed. No key. Figures. Oswiecim put the book back in the drawer, covered it with socks, closed the dresser, and left the room.

***

Nordhausen entered. He entered his bathroom and washed his hands before going into the main room.

"Wait a minute..."

"I left that paper on my dresser. Who moved it?"

"..."

"Hanso. Or someone near him. Damnit!"

You would be a better person to run the company. Kill Hanso. Don't stand for this. Kill Hanso.

Nordhausen shook his head to clear his mind.