Bucky's

Chapter 40: The Beast Returns

Tanya waited a couple of minutes after Leon and Mr. Wolfe left, just in case the CEO had forgotten something and unexpectedly returned. When she was confident they were gone, she emerged from her hiding place and got to work. The private office was disturbingly dark and quiet, with only the steady hum of electronics filling the space. Tanya's skin was layered with goosebumps, even though she knew she was alone, and the door was locked.

She circled around to the gigantic keyboard and tapped one of the buttons. The computer screen towering above her came to life, bathing Tanya in harsh blue light as it awakened from its slumber. Fortunately, the computer hadn't been idle long enough to sign out, so she didn't have to worry about entering a password. She gazed up at the huge screen, with its plain gray backdrop, and examined the icons to determine where to start her search.

She hesitated as she looked over the keyboard and mouse. She had seen Candy use office equipment scaled to Giants, but the task wasn't going to be easy. She braced her hands against the mouse, bigger than her entire body, and pushed it using her weight across the mouse pad. She craned her neck back to glance up at the screen and line up the cursor with one of the icons. She thrust her hands down on the button and clicked on it. A screen came up with a row of files.

Operating the mouse and straining her neck to look at the screen was tiring, but Tanya soldiered on. She was on a mission, and she didn't have much time. She didn't know when Mr. Wolfe would be back. Combing through each file was tedious, especially when the mouse was so large, but Tanya needed to be thorough. She didn't want to miss anything important, and she seriously doubted the CEO would be dense enough to label an incriminating file "super secret illegal stuff." She had to comb through everything, searching even the most innocuous folders for critical information.

Her progress was slow, very slow, as she dragged the mouse across the desk, clicking and scrolling. Most of the files were full of boring, routine, business stuff, metrics and numbers that made Tanya's eyes glaze over. As she pored over each page, she started to wonder if Leon had been mistaken. There was so much to go through, yet she hadn't found anything of significance. There was no way she'd be able to look over it all before the two Giants returned.

Even so, Tanya was determined. She kept picking through the computer files, looking over every spreadsheet, report, and document. And then, just as she was beginning to give up, she found it. An inconspicuous folder tucked away, labelled "promotional mock-ups." Tanya expected to see images of product labels or advertisements or things of that nature. Instead, she found something quite different. Her eyes widened as it dawned on her what she was looking at. She had struck gold.

The first page looked like any other profit and loss sheet she had scrolled through, dry and bland and full of numbers. But the numbers represented humans. Humans trafficked from the small side of the city, bought and sold by Big Corp Inc. to send to Bucky. But that wasn't the least of it. There were invoices showing payouts to politicians, going both to and from Big Corp: clear evidence of bribery and blackmail. Specific names and stipulations were tied to these transactions.

Tanya pulled up Mr. Wolfe's email and attached the incriminating files to a new email. She sent it out to every single person in the company. Ronny, Martin, and Leon would be able to broadcast the files to the media and other interested parties as needed. As she browsed through Mr. Wolfe's other emails, she was shocked to find additional correspondences with his business partners that were blatantly illegal. She forwarded those email chains to everyone else too. She couldn't believe that the CEO had been so careless, so arrogant that he couldn't be touched that he made all his dealings in writing. She was satisfied that what she found would be enough to put him away for a long time, along with Bucky and some crooked politicians.