Spring 2014
As fate would have it, only a few weeks after the HOIC was operational, Typhoon Phailin hit Northeast India. It was the strongest cyclone to hit India in 14 years, resulting in 150 mile per hour winds and heavy rain. Almost a million people had to be evacuated. Gavin set up several different sites using simply stock photos and was shocked at the amount of money people were willing to just give away to strangers. Was it empathy? Guilt? Or was it just a cheap way for the beneficiaries of imperialism to feel connected to their third world brethren? Well not that cheap since the median donation was over a hundred bucks.
Not long after, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the Philippines, killing over 200 and displacing another 350,000. Gavin couldn’t help but feel some compunction taking advantage of uninformed donors, but it would be a stretch to say it kept him up at night. All around the world, it was the well-connected businesses that benefitted the most from the largesse of western philanthropists. Gavin specifically detested the subsidies to agricultural giants disguised as food aid. Companies like Cargill and Monsanto raked in billions of taxpayer dollars to flood emerging markets with cheap GMO grains, wiping out local farming. With that in mind, he set out to steal as much of the big agribusiness share of donations as possible. Even Gavin needed to assuage his guilt in some way.
The disasters kept coming. The Philippines were again hit by catastrophe. One of the strongest storms to ever make landfall in recent history, Typhoon Haiyan wiped out Coastal cities and regional infrastructure was completely destroyed. Nearly 6,000 people died in the mayhem that ensued. Gavin was disconcerted by this string of natural disasters, but the extent of the devastation and the media’s love affair with disaster porn proved a major boon to his fund raising efforts.
The string of disasters left the High Orbit Ion Cannon fully charged. With the help of a hundred or so charity sites they raised over ten million dollars. The amount wasn’t enough to do much on its own, but leveraged many times over and trading in conjunction with their fund’s own moves, it just might be able to help push things over the edge Gavin thought as he grabbed the summary printout off his table. He left in good spirits to meet Rohan.
After they both ordered, Gavin pulled the report out of his canvas bag. Rohan perused the details.
“Three major disasters, thousands dead, hundreds of fake sites and all we raised was ten million?”
“Uh… yeah, in less than two months. The fuck were you expecting?”
“Shit, I don’t know… a lot more than that. This isn’t going to do anything.”
Gavin mulled it over, “Well, we just need it to cause some disruption, by the time we’re ready the fund will have billions under management.”
“Dude, seriously. I don’t think this is going to move the needle in the slightest. Where’s all the money stored right now?”
“Won’t move the needle? Are you shitting me? When we first thought of the idea, I told you we might raise five or six million. Tops. Why didn’t you mention anything then? Do you realize how many hours I put into this?!”
“Gavin, you thought of, not we. I’m just the help, remember? Don’t put responsibility for your failure on me, that’s why we have this hierarchy. Now seriously, tell me. Where is the money stored?”
Hundreds of hours of effort were being laid bare, but he kept his cool.
“Mostly in Greek banks, they offered pretty good rates and the Greeks are notoriously bad with taxes and ID checks.”
“Ok, this isn’t all bad. If we need to make a quick getaway, can you reroute the money back into bitcoin?”
“Yeah, shouldn’t be a huge problem. Why would we do that?”
“Like I said, in case we needed to make a quick getaway.”
“This was just a hedge so you wouldn’t have to sacrifice your lifestyle if things blew up? Are you shitting me?”
“I honestly expected the same from you. What, you think you can just walk away from this without anything to fall back on? Lawyers cost money Gavin, accountants cost money. If we’re on the run, just being able to stay mobile and survive, that costs money. When I realized the kind of risks you were taking on our behalf, I had to think ahead. For all of us. We might have to disappear at a moment’s notice if shit hits the fan. This little slush fund gives us an emergency exit.”
Gavin looked at Rohan with disgust, “You’re a fucking coward, you know that?”
“What we’re doing, this doesn’t just effect you Gavin, think about that for a second. Are you willing to jeopardize Mila for your actions? Even if you don’t, she’ll need the money. I might be a coward, but in this case, I’m the coward who’s thinking for the whole group.”