Tristan joked, “They sure have a lot of airplanes for a company whose primary business isn’t flying people around.”
Colleen shook her head. “I was just reading an article on them a few months ago. Monumental Airline’s net worth is fourteen billion dollars. But when they had a cash flow crisis and had to ask for a huge loan from the government, they put up their frequent flyer program as collateral, not the airplanes. Because it was the government, their loan papers were public. The cash value of their MileagePlus program was twenty-seven billion dollars.”
Tristan frowned. The muscles in his forehead were getting sore from frowning so much the past few days. “But, back to plane tickets to India or Malaysia—”
Anjali tapped her credit card on the table. “That only adds up if there are negative numbers involved.”
Colleen nodded. “So, if part of Monumental’s business was worth twenty-seven big ones but the whole business together is only worth fourteen, then they have a thirteen billion-dollar sucking black hole in their company. That’s its airline business. All those airplanes, maintenance, jet fuel, and everything else don’t pay for themselves. They lose money on every passenger-mile they fly.”
Tristan got swept up in spite of himself. “When you look at it like that, they’re not an airline. Monumental is a credit card company with a very expensive perk program.”
“And that’s why they make you get their credit card to even check your luggage,” Anjali said. “Because the whole point of their company is to make you use their credit cards because that is where they make their money.”
Tristan nodded. It was good to sit and talk with other people in his field. Sometimes, not being able to talk about coding or finance with the people around him felt isolating. “Lots of other companies do that. You can make the argument that McDonald’s is a real estate holding company. McDonald’s doesn’t make hamburgers. They own the land under the McDonald’s restaurants and the buildings, and the people who buy the franchises pay rent to them. McDonald’s money comes from rent and fees paid by franchisees who flip the burgers.”
“Or Amazon,” Colleen said. “Everybody thinks that they sell books and stuff, but the vast majority of their money is made by their web services, where they rent internet server space to everyone from Airbnb to Netflix, NASA, Disney, and the CIA.”
Anjali said, “Disney is a toy company that makes two-hour-long commercials that you pay to see.”
Colleen chuckled. “Marvel Comics thought they were comic book publishers, and then they realized they could make more money making toys from the comic books. When they tried to make two-hour-long commercials, they hit it out of the park, and now they’re a movie studio. They still make a heck of a lot of money on the toys, but they also have decades’ worth of intellectual property to make the movies. Before Marvel made Iron Man, they licensed Spiderman and other IP to other studios to stay afloat. And that’s why they made Iron Man in the first place, because they thought it would sell the most toys.”
“It’s all just a shell game,” Tristan agreed. “You think you know what a company is, but you don’t really know until you follow the money.”
Just like GameShack.
Huh.
Colleen turned to Tristan. “Okay, and that makes GameShack a cryptocurrency-mining operation with a videogame streaming service sideline, which has rented storefronts for infrastructure purposes, not retail operations.”
He glanced at her. “Yeah. They’re mining the CurieCoins but not allowing them into circulation. It’s like a whole other business that’s hiding inside GameShack.”
Knocking bonked on the door and echoed through the airplane.
“That’s breakfast,” Tristan said. “Plus snacks and drinks. I’ll let them in.”
As he stood, he noticed Colleen smiling at him, but he didn’t think anything more about it as he showed the caterers where the galley was and put the breakfasts in the oven for the four of them.
One was marked Hindu Vegetarian.
Yep, good.
44
48 Hours
Colleen
Anjali and Colleen were sitting at a table near the front of the airplane. Anjali was doing her best to marvel at the luxurious private plane when she could, but she was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open.
Colleen kept asking her if she wanted to sleep but kept getting a negative answer.
While they were talking and Tristan was still puttering around in the galley kitchen at the rear of the plane, the pilots announced that they were cleared for takeoff. Colleen held onto the table as the airplane jerked and rolled out of the hangar toward the runway.
Outside the porthole window, the early morning sunlight gleamed on small airplanes they were passing.
With a quick turn and a roar, the plane sped and leaped into the sky.
Colleen was just about to yell for Tristan to sit down when she noticed that he had already taken a seat in the back with Jian.
The engines screamed like eagles as the plane climbed in the thin summer air, and the strain vibrated through the table under Colleen’s hands and the floor under her feet.
Anjali was resting her head on her arms folded on the table.
Colleen sighed. “You shouldn’t hang around me, Anjali. It’s too dangerous. I’m the type of friend who gets you kidnapped.”
Anjali rolled her head on her arms, signifying no. “No, yah. You’re the type of friend who rescues me after I’m kidnapped. We are staying friends.”
Colleen reached over and held Anjali’s hand.
“Anjali, honey, I need you to tell me the truth. We’re going to stop in New Jersey, and I need to know if you need to see a doctor there. Did they molest you, or assault you, or rape you?”
Anjali shook her head sadly, but it didn’t seem like she was hiding anything. “They terrorized me. They said terrible things. They hit me and grabbed my arms, but it was not sexual assault.”
“Even if you don’t want to tell me, if you need a doctor, I can take you to one discreetly. Tristan and Jian won’t know. Do you need a morning-after pill or an STD preventative, or just to talk to someone about it?”
Anjali shook her head again. “They did not assault me in that way. I will hate them forever. When I can get back to college, I will go to the police and press charges. But I do not need a doctor.”
Colleen squeezed her fingers. “If you change your mind, or if you want to talk to a therapist about just the physical stuff, you can tell me and I’ll get you to somebody.”
“I want to get as far away from them as I can right now. I hope I never see that horrible Sergey or the people he worked for, the Butorins, ever again. But I swear to God, when I am finished with my computer science degree, I will hunt them down on the internet and send them malware. I will break into their bank accounts and donate all their money to human trafficking relief. I will figure out every person in their organization and put them all on the no-fly list. I will make their lives hell.”
Colleen smiled at her. “And I will help you.”
Anjali tossed her long black hair. “Do not piss off computer scientists. We may look like nerds, but we fight like ninjas.”