Its Just Business

They call me the Businessman

Jonathan McCallister was many things, but he would say that a climate change activist wasn't one of them. He had much better things to be spending his time and money on. Like presently, he was in his office, on the phone with his business partner, Scott.

"I- NO!" John practically yelled into the receiver. There was a moment's hesitation where he knew Scott was recuperating, having pulled the phone away from his head and wincing at the pain in his eardrums.

"I'm sorry Jona-"

"Ah, Scott, I hate to cut you off, I really do, but you remember our agreement?"

A groan from the other end. John wondered how Scott put up with him. "I'm sorry, my liege," John snickered, "but the bank is saying that Lars is on vacation. They said we could talk to, uh..." Another hesitation, he could hear Scott fumbling with a piece of paper. "We could talk to Daniel or Aaron, they'd-"

"I don't think you quite understand." John ran a hand through his short, dark hair, "I have to talk to Lars. He's the only one at that godforsaken bank that's tolerable."

    "I really doubt you've even met the other advisors! Now is not the time for us to be choosy, my liege. I don't know if you've been keeping up, but we're 90 thousand dollars in debt."

    "That's why we're talking to Lars, isn't it? Can't you just call him while he's on vacation?"

    "That's not how it works!" Scott yelled, exasperatedly. There was a pause as Scott took a couple deep breaths. "Listen. I know you have Lars in your pocket. I get that, but he's gone right now, Mr. McCallister-"

    "Scott-"

    "No! Don't interrupt me right now. Let me talk. I know he's gone, but there's plenty of other people at that bank you could manipulate into giving us a loan or- or- whatever you do. Right now, we just need the money, or  SkipByte Inc. is going to go bankrupt. And then? You'll be nothing."

    John leaned back in his chair with a sigh, thinking through everything. How did it get this bad? He used to be the star of the crypto world- he made millions in college by inventing Byte, his flagship cryptocurrency. And now... His eyes wandered to the TV as he thought about how to respond. That show he liked was on- Tag! It was a great plan, maybe not to absolve their debt, but the winnings were an easy 10 grand. Just play a bit of laser tag in a giant arena for a few hours.

"Scott? You still there?"

"Hm?" Scott seemed to have mellowed out while he waited for John to respond.

"I have an idea..."