Henry Bosak sat aboard VirCopter One, en route to headquarters, reading $Billionare magazine as the blades whirred above. His face, lined yet bright with post middle-aged vivacity, shone on the cover. This week’s cover story, “Where in the World is Henry Bosak?” hailed his return and named him the second most important person in the United States, next to the President. Already he was the highest paid and most respected CEO for the last ten years running. Worlds turned on his decisions as his simple words “let’s get it done” brokered multibillion dollar enterprises between the business world and governments alike. He was the one man in America respected for his temperance and clear thinking whom the European Union listened to without castigation. But up until one week ago, he had been on sabbatical in Tibet, cleansing his chakras. A nasty side effect of one of VirCorp’s byproducts caused a rare form of cancer in over a thousand children. The court ruled in favor of VirCorp, but Bosak disagreed. In a bold move, Bosak paid all of the victims’ families out of his own pocket and went underground in a state of total moral paralysis.

The article concluded, as usual, lingering on future projects in the works including a privatization contract with the US Armed Forces. Already VirCorp held more lucrative defense contracts than any single other corporation in the world. Bosak smiled to himself as he closed the magazine and stretched his legs, letting the gentle swaying of the craft relax his muscles. After a week of meetings in Australia, he was back in the game. His first order of business back at headquarters was to meet with Oliver Falcon. When discussing the potential contract with the military, Falcon mentioned he just might have a revolutionary idea that would help bolster their proposal. If all went well in the meeting, Bosak would have some juicy bait to dangle in front of the Board. Proof he still had it together after the stock plunge.

Still, Bosak disliked Falcon on principle. While he personally appointed the VP, he held serious doubts about the man’s scruples. (Bosak himself was accused on many occasions for lacking ethics with the expediency through which he acquired and dismantled corporate empires.) Still, like any good manager among his people, he realized that personal distaste and professional distaste should remain mutually exclusive. Keep your friends close, keep your backstabbing employees closer. The Chinese sage’s words proved right. When VirCorp had gone way over budget, Falcon managed to make the necessary cuts to streamline their numbers.

Laying people off is always a sensitive business and Bosak didn’t approve of Falcon’s style. Redundancies are painful to make, so Falcon introduced his concept of “fun-sizing” into the corporate culture. When an employee was redundant, he received his pink slip with a bite-sized candy bar stapled to the form. More often than not, the manager signing the slip had already eaten the chocolate by the time it reached the employee, making it a profoundly empty gesture. Still, the effectiveness of Falcon’s terminations didn’t lie.

Always concerned, Bosak kept in close contact with eyes and ears in the corporate grapevine, both current employees and outside advisors, to keep him informed of what fell through the cracks. Something big was brewing, but full knowledge of it was limited to Falcon and a handful of researchers. Bosak learned that suspicion isn’t a bad thing when the integrity of one’s self and one’s shareholders is on the line.

In order to give Falcon a chance to prove himself in a more ethical light (while keeping tabs), Bosak gave him the go ahead to create a working organizational model to present to the Joint-Chiefs. He was eager to see what Falcon had come up with.

Suddenly the chopper bucked and Bosak bolted upright. The pilot’s drawl crackled over the comm. “We’re making our descent, sir. You might wanna’ buckle up, things are gonna’ get a bit more dicey!” He nodded at the cockpit and secured himself in the seat. The chopper bucked once more then whirred towards the landing pad below.