4. Equity

Aristonicus ate a pizza, drank some ice tea and sighed as he felt his stomach full with food, a long time since he had felt that way. He enjoyed the moment, Alex laughing with him, swigging some cider he bought and talking about work.

“Don’t tell anyone about this ok?” Aristonicus said, “I don’t want to be locked up by the British government or made a lab rat or something.”

“Whatever gripes we have with Reform, they want to privatise everything,” Alex said sighing.

“Matho is always moaning about them,” Aristonicus laughed.

“And you’re not?”

“Oh no I am, I just found it funny,” Aristonicus said, “who knows, I can do a lot of things now, a lot of things I couldn’t do before.”

It was approaching 6pm, and Aristonicus worked three more hours generating electricity it was a solid 2.25 gigawatts the equivalent to £8.1 million.

“Whew…” Alex said, “what am I going to tell my wife?” He laughed, “she’ll think I am a criminal.”

“Say you got lucky in crypto, the rest I can give you in stocks, that way you’re set for life. Well as you wish. Or government bonds if you prefer. Or we can both have a polite conversation with her. I don’t know, I don’t exactly want randoms knowing I can wield electricity.”

“13.5 million, plus what’s already in our bank accounts from before,” Alex said, “that’s crazy.”

“I am really tired,” Aristonicus said simply, “this shit is exhausting.”

“Oh for sure,” Alex said, “so I get a further £2.7 million, and you get £10.8 million, for a man in debt you sure have turned things around huh?”

“I guess I have, it’s January the 3rd, I have a whole year ahead of me.”

“Look I’m not an accountant so I don’t know what the best way to divide the funds is, putting it in our accounts might make us more liable for taxes, I honestly don’t know.”

“You think?” Aristonicus laughed, “does that mean we have to pay taxes on the 6th or the 1st of April?”

“You going to buy a house?” Alex asked, “I seriously need to get a better place, mine has mould on it.”

“I don’t even have a place, this is my place,” Aristonicus laughed, “you know how slowly lawyers move when you want to buy something.”

“It’s true, you better get started.”

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Aristonicus stared at the man with a bit of annoyance.

“Whatever I’ll make some seller happy,” Aristonicus muttered.

The warehouse was cold and lacked the heating necessary to make it properly habitable.

I’ll get something truly worthwhile, not going to cheap out when I can buy something that would make Matho’s eyes pop, something that would make Thera faint.

He looked at the time and Alex was twiddling his thumbs.

“Get a computer game or something, I don’t want you to be bored watching me generate electricity,” Aristonicus said, laughing at his own suggestion.

“Are you going to be ok?” Alex asked, “that shit looks draining.”

“What is it 9 o’clock yeah?”

“That’s right.”

“Give me until midnight, download a game or something, anything you like.”

Alex just laughed, and downloaded a game on the company internet.

“I guess we need to leave some money in the company bank accounts,” Aristonicus said, “for the electricity and internet bills and other stupid things.”

“Business rates?” Alex said.

“We have a conservative council here right?” Aristonicus said, “Reform, Conservative, same shit different branding.”

“Ok, you going to work now?” Alex said.

“For sure,” Aristonicus said.

He turned himself into a human battery for three hours, generating the same 2.25 gigawatts, collapsing onto his sofa feeling drained of all energy.

“I finished a few of the Starcraft 2 human campaign,” Alex said, half laughing, “how is my favourite human money machine doing.”

“I could be… better,” Aristonicus huffed, “£8.1 million in the company bank account, what’s the name of the company again?”

“You bought it, you don’t even remember the name?” Alex said, “‘Alt Energy Limited.’ A scam business which you have made semi legitimate.”

“Keep the £8.1 million in the company accounts, if we divide it too soon you get less,” Aristonicus said.

“Well, see you tomorrow, I’ll have to explain to my wife somehow how I got so much money,” Alex said scratching his head, “I might head to the gym in the morning, that ok with you boss?”

“No worries,” Aristonicus said, “all the details are there, I will grow the finances, we just need to buy some assets or something. I don’t know I’ll sleep on it, I wouldn’t mind a different house. This warehouse is miserable.”

Matho came back to his home after a long day at the hotel, and talked with Thera.

“Aristonicus says he’s ok, I don’t know how that can be true?” Matho began, “he buys a scam business and tells me he’s fine?”

“Maybe he dabbled in crypto and got lucky,” Thera whispered.

“Don’t get me started on that stupid gambling,” Matho began, “it’s a synthetic economy, sure some people get stupid rich, but what the fuck did they make? Did they produce anything valuable? Huh? They played with digits on a screen.”

“Supply and demand and all that,” Thera parried, “is that really what you think Aristonicus did?”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like it, he was just as critical as me about it, he say’s it is a scam. Why would he suddenly invest in it?” Matho began, “it doesn’t make any sense to me. Oh well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough.”

“Tomorrow is a Friday, the 4th huh?” Thera said, “back to work for me.”

“I’m reminded of those anti work anarchists,” Matho said, “god those people were useless, if you want a society liberated from work, you have to work to create it!” Matho moaned.

“There’s like five of them, these people are less influential than a 3rd rate football team,” Thera said.

“Technocrats who are supposed to be social democrats have driven our country into the arms of the far right,” Matho moaned, “I’m going to go crazy.”

“Go to sleep you crazy, let’s do something more interesting than politics.”

They did, holding hands and clutching each other’s warm bodies to comfort each other before the start of another day. They watched a series, and then went to sleep.