Dr. Morel is at home, pacing the floor of his living room when someone knocks on the door.
DR. MOREL: This better be her. Goes to open the door.
He returns with a woman wearing a lab coat.
DR. MOREL: Dr. Hass, so glad you could make it!
DR. HASS: You can call me Steph. We’re not at work.
DR. MOREL: Sure, Steph, how have you been?
DR. HASS: Cut the niceties, Ian. You know you don’t care about how I’ve been. And I don’t care how you’ve been either. I’m only here because your message was so cryptic that I couldn’t help but to want to know more.
DR. MOREL: Sure, well sit down at least pointing to a chair next to the sofa.
DR. MOREL: Anything to drink? Water, tea, coffee . . .?
DR. HASS: Get on with it Ian.
Dr. MOREL: Okay, Okay. I called you here, quite frankly, because I need dirt on the Mayor and you’re the one to get it from.
DR. HASS: Dirt on the Mayor? Why would I know anything about the Mayor? I barely know . . .
DR. MOREL: Now it’s my turn to tell you to cut it. I know of your dislike of the Mayor, ever since the “incident” last year. And I know you, you’ll have kept tabs on the Mayor ever since.
DR. HASS remains silent for a moment: Fine, what exactly do you want to know, and more importantly why should I tell you?
DR. MOREL: Why? Because you want the Mayor gone just as bad as I do. I want to know about the Mayor’s connection to Clayburn Corp.
DR. HASS: Hmm, true I do want the Mayor gone. But that’s not enough. What else you got?
DR. MOREL: What if I were to tell you that I’m part of a secret resistance group and that I could get you into it?
DR. HASS: Oh, like one of those underground resistance groups from World War 2? Okay, yep, I’m in. I love a good resistance.
DR. MOREL: I thought you would. So now, what do you know about the Mayor and Clayburn Corp.?
DR. HASS: You know that they have that new Wellness department right?
DR. MOREL: Yes, go on.
DR. HASS: They’ve been working on an Unwellness program.
DR. MOREL: A what? Unwellness program?
DR. HASS: Yes, you heard me correctly. Their goal is simple, create “unwellness” in the population to drive people to use Clayburn Corp.’s wellness products and programs.
DR. MOREL: And let me guess, these programs are not low cost.
DR. HASS: Not low cost in the least. The idea is to get people feeling so bad that they believe they need Clayborn Corp.’s wellness products. So bad that they will pay whatever the cost.
DR. MOREL: And let me guess – the Mayor and Clayburn Corp. get rich.
DR. HASS: Richer as the case may be.
DR. MOREL: Damn – unfairness, inequality, and injustice for all huh?
DR. HASS: Yes, exactly.
While Dr. Morel and Dr. Hass continue their conversation, Freeya and Rashad are at Freeya’s home in her bedroom. Freeya is texting with someone.
FREEYA: See, here Rashad? Points to her screen. Carl says that he found draft banners in the copy room with the U.I.I. slogan.
RASHAD: But anyone could have printed those, the Mayor did encourage us to hang up the slogan in our homes.
FREEYA: That’s what Carl thought at first. But he checked the date on the print job and it was run two days before the press conference!
RASHAD: Does he know who printed them?
FREEYA: Unfortunately, no. He said someone used the general marketing code to print.
RASHAD: Who would have the code?
FREEYA: Anyone in marketing I guess. Which is about 20 people. That’s not all he found though.
RASHAD: What else did he find?
FREEYA: He found marketing copy promoting the green skin dye. Posters that said “ Go Green for Humanity”, “ Going Green isn’t just for Saving the Earth Anymore”, and “Go Green, it’s the law”. Seems like it was scrapped. He doesn’t think more than a few copies went to print.
RASHAD: So these were probably made to be used after the Mayor’s stunt in the park.
FREEYA: Right. I guess that they were scrapped after the fallout at the park when the Mayor realized that everyone would be different shades of green.
RASHAD: This means someone at Clayburn Corp. is helping the Mayor with marketing these initiatives.
FREEYA: Right. But why would they do that? What’s in it for them?
Author’s note: What’s in it for them? A question that, as a skeptic and a smart-ass, I find myself asking quite frequently. A big question, that almost always has complicated answers. Except when it comes to corruption, then the answer is usually easy – money. What’s in it for them? Money. What do they want? Money. Why are they doing this? Money.
The World We Live In Now 