Corporate Practice

Contrary to expectations, there was no angry phonecall. In fact, the only acknowledgement from PR of her actions was a text message from Paul containing only a smiley face, which from most people would have been interpreted as approval but from PR could mean anything. Which could in itself have sent her into an avalanche of second guessing and paranoia had she let it. Knowing that that path led to madness, she let the matter rest and tried to get on with the rest of her life.

Mbantuwe had been somewhat better company than expected. He hadn't chosen to catalog all her scars like he was secretly planning to cash in the warranty before time ran out, although as a medic, maybe that was just too much like work. He didn't assume that because she could endure pain that meant she enjoyed it, or that not breaking furniture in fits of passion made him a failure (she'd likely been listening to too many SOLDIER floor horror stories over the past year) After the initial reservations, he had not expressed any disappointment about her 'averageness', and there was no hidden agenda that she could see so far.

Irritatingly, bringing him back seemed to have made the garrison act more warmly towards her, as though she'd hit some arbitrary 'oh, maybe she is human after all' threshold. One or two even tried to make friends, but that ship had sailed with that grenade. Pearl was generally quite difficult to aggravate, but one thing she had a strong stance on was attempted assassination, and an apology wasn't going to cut it even had she been offered one. Pearl felt that Robin and command were more well intentioned towards her, but they couldn't show it without making the garrison hate her more. Without much else to occupy her time, she spent increasing amounts of time putting together her company.

After some initial hiccups, slowly her haulage company had begun to grow. As word got around, she gradually found more reliable drivers, ones she could trust to be honest or at least not get caught if they weren't. One, named Fitzwilliam, distinguished himself enough to help her with the paperwork and run things on the rare occasions when she wasn't around. Pearl had canvassed for opinions from the SOLDIER floor for the name of her company, and then ignored them all and went with 'Elite Transport'. A few local firms tried to undercut her bids for contracts, which if she had ever intended her business to make money would be more of a concern. Also, Shinra Supply had enough money that they didn't need to be efficient.

These few weeks were mostly still a learning curve, where she began securing slightly longer runs, although she still couldn't go on any herself. Her drivers had learned by now that she actually knew something about the trade, but they still didn't realise how sharp her hearing was, which helped her to keep on top of things, to the point where she was starting to gain what looked like actual respect.

Obviously, this was too good to last. Just as she was beginning to feel confident, the threatening letter arrived. Spurio Shipping, with whom she had been contracting to carry her trucks out of Junon harbour, was discontinuing doing business with her, effective within days. They didn't own all the non Shinra docks in Junon harbour, but they were a big enough player that no one else operating out of Junon was likely to want to irritate them. This meant that the docks were essentially closed to her trucks until she adhered to a long, needlessly complicated list of procedures, which also lost any profit on intercontinental runs, which up to now had been her best earners. Even a company not intending to make a profit had to bring in something.

She also found out that she was being sued in the civil courts by a company she'd never heard of named Adamant Holdings. Calls to Midgar discovered that the company headquarters was a plaque on the wall of a residential address in Cosmo Canyon, and no one seemed to know what they traded in or why they felt the need to bother her. More an irritant than a threat, as they weren't using the Shinra system, but something to keep an eye on.

The closed docks were a more immediate issue. It might eventually be dealt with, but in the short term, she was forced to immediately stop taking on new contracts if they left the continent. After that, she went to see Shinra Supply.

It wasn't a fruitful meeting. Shinra Supply was giving her contracts because it was convenient for them, their generosity did not extend to allowing a civilian company to use military port facilities. She was on her own, and without a lawyer she trusted, she would forego legal advice for the time being to save costs. She could keep her company afloat, barely, with local runs that stayed on the continent, but it would severely cut into the available contracts and almost entirely prevent her from taking SOLDIER transfers.

Her company was still far too small to draw attention at this level. One of her trucks on an outstanding contract was suddenly impounded at the port on safety grounds. She got it back by pointing out that she was using the same model as Shinra Supply, so any safety issues would have to be taken up with them. But it cost valuable time and money and they barely managed to fulfil the contract before it went out of date, running at a loss overall. She sold that truck a few days later, just in case any surprises had been added while it was out of her hands.

The legal case was probably just an attempt at trying to get her to waste her money paying lawyers. Worst case, she could just let the company fold and start another one with a different name, rather than trying to prop it up against people that had deeper pockets than she did. The only issue with that was that the next company she started up would probably face similar obstacles, so it was best to try to keep it alive for now if she could, while injecting as little extra cash into it as possible until she knew it couldn't be driven into the ground.

With that in mind, her next port of call was Spurio Shipping's local office, after swinging by a clothes shop for a few reasonably fitted suits. She kept her sunglasses, but left behind her sword, taking along a Shinra handgun borrowed from Mbantuwe instead. She had never been a great shot, it was more half-hearted disguise than a weapon she planned to use.

She'd expected to be ushered into a plush office, all cushions and oak cabinets, but she was instead led through a busy dockfront warehouse to the office overlooking it, with hard steel chairs and stacks of cheap cardboard files. Regional Director Wei Song was not someone who sat back and watched other people work, or wasted energy with comfort. She still had the shoulders of a stevedore, and had probably clawed her way up to her position from the warehouse floor. Such people were not to be underestimated. Four of the current generation were posted outside her office, huge, powerful looking people with bull necks and not very well hidden holsters.

Once inside Pearl accepted the offered drink (tap water) and got down to business after the introductions.

"Why are you trying to crush me?"

The director blinked, straightening her own reading glasses, and then smiled politely.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I run a freight company, a new startup, and your representatives are refusing to deal with me, which essentially means the docks are closed to my people. I wondered why."

"I'm not familiar with the specific case, but are you confused about why we might not facilitate a competitor?"

"Competitor? I'm a client, I can't compete with you in any meaningful way, you have entire fleets of ships, I'd struggle to put together a convoy of trucks. Why me, and not any of the other freight companies in Junon?"

"Startups expand."

"They…do, but my contracts are mostly Shinra Supply, we were never bidding against you."

" Hmm… I'm only speculating here, but Shinra is… a valuable client for us all. One we pay attention to."

"No doubt. But they have more than enough freight contracts for all of us. Why target me?"

Song laughed. "You may be overestimating yourself- business in the modern world is fast paced, you can't really complain if you can't keep up with the best."

Pearl set down her glass. "Your letter mentioned that some of my 'business practices' were unsatisfactory, can you expand on that?"

"As I said, I'm not familiar with your specific case. We're a big company, we deal with a lot of requests like yours on any given day."

"Can you direct me to someone that can answer that question, then?"

"…Possibly I could, but why should I?"

Pearl held her poker face. "Because why make an enemy you don't have to?"

Director Song straightened her glasses again. "Was that a threat? What makes you think you leave here alive if I don't want you to?" One of the guards outside took a step, his boot ringing on the steel gantry.

Pearl reached for her sunglasses, then hesitated. If this woman somehow didn't already know who she was, it was probably best not to inform her. "Sorry. It's the stress, you understand. If you tell me what I'm doing wrong, then I might be able to rectify it and do business with you."

Song cocked her head. "You can find the details of our code of practice in our brochure."

"Read it. Not detailed enough for my purposes. And what I got at the dockside would render any intercontinental runs too expensive. Funny how there were not a problem in the first few runs I ran with you."

"We have no shortage of clients, you are less than a footnote in our annual accounts. Sometimes quality control takes some time to catch on, it's unfortunate, but unavoidable." Song sighed. "Look, what are you expecting from me? Why did you come here today?"

"I came here," Pearl said, standing, "to find out if the outstanding issues could be resolved, or if they were just a result of your company fucking with us. I believe I have my answer. Thank you for your time."

Director Song had exactly as powerful a grip as she was expecting, and she held for slightly longer than appropriate, meeting her eyes. "I wish you luck into the future, Ms. Matheson. Truly."

Pearl elected not to respond. The men with guns followed her to the door.

000000

Her staff were waiting for her when she returned. She didn't have many, doing much of the admin and loading work herself when she had the chance. Since there was far more floorspace than cargo, much of that time was spent doing things like sweeping the floor or playing darts in her office. But the five drivers she had were present now.

"Trouble, boys. We've been locked out of the harbour."

Fitzwilliam blinked at her. "What the hell for?"

She shrugged. "Good question. Anyway, this means we're going to get fewer contracts for now until I get things fixed up. I won't have enough runs to keep full time drivers busy from now on."

She paused, watching their faces. No one flinched or walked out, which was a good sign. She got no comforting hugs either, though. After a moment, she kept talking.

"I need to fulfil any outstanding contracts, even at a loss, gaining a reputation for not keeping my word would hurt more than the money. But after that, it'll be contract to contract work until I get this fixed up. I'll still be running cargo, and there'll be some work for anyone that wants it, but not full time. Anyone that wants to take up full time work anywhere else, I won't stop you, but if you're freelancing, I'll still have cargo to send your way sometimes if you want it."

More silence.

"I know, I'm not the most attractive employer in the game right now, it looks like someone out there doesn't like me, and you might not want to be in their crosshairs. So it's up to you, if you want to keep doing runs for me in your free time."

There was a pause. Her drivers exchanged glances. Then the one on the left, Dewari, grinned. We'll be waiting, boss." His teeth were completely black, but at the present moment she'd never seen anything more beautiful.

"You serious? Could be dangerous." Pearl said, honestly surprised.

"Trucking's a tough business, babe. It's not gonna be our first time taking some heat." That was true enough. There were a lot of bandits and monsters on long lonely roads, it wasn't a career for the faint hearted. That said, it also wasn't a career for the stupid. They didn't all nod. She'd lose some of them, but her company was not dead yet. For now, that would have to be enough.

Welcome to "SOLDIER: Business Management Sim", folks! Please review, compliments are not compulsory.