Corporate Man is called in to investigate reports of vile, unethical business practices at Great American Business Company. What he finds there just might destroy him (except we all know the ending to The Tragic Death of Corporate Man so it should be fairly obvious that it can't really destroy him, though it can come close).

Enslaved by the Bonus Whores is an all new Corporate Man Adventure Serial. Chapters will post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

After nearly a decade of imprisonment, Corporate Man returns to find the economy in ruins and his deadliest enemies in control of all but a fraction of society's wealth. He embarks upon a quest to set right the wrongs of the business world; a task that will ultimately destroy him.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Chapter 20


2.a.iii
Tanya took a deep breath and said, “Some of us.  You have to understand, the players that they didn’t… remove from the game the night of the election were eliminated after nine eleven.”
Mr. Jones furrowed his brow, but before he could ask, Tanya continued, “We haven’t been able to prove that the attacks were initiated by them, meaning our government or the corporate conglomerates that control our government, or if it was truly an act of terrorism by scary foreign guys and the party in power just took advantage of the situation.  What’s clear, however, is that certain powers were granted to certain agencies in order to deal with the supposed threat.  Those powers were then, of course, used to force those like us into hiding or, in some cases, to eradicate us.”
Mr. Jones shook his head.  “Who?  Who’d they get?”
“Remember Ben Buck, the Dollar Man and his sidekick Two Cents?”
“Yeah.  Dollar and Cents.”
“Well, Professor Inflation got a hold of Two Cents.  No one knows what that bastard did to him, but Two Cents has been worthless ever since.”
Tanya turned the pickup into a parking lot of a huge grocery superstore.  She shut off the engine and said, “We still don’t know who killed Ben.  His brains were smashed in with the Gold Standard.  Most people think it was a member or the Foreign Market but I think it was an inside job.  Only American hands can lift the Gold Standard.”
Tanya opened her door and got out of the pickup.  She motioned for Mr. Jones to follow her.
“Here?” he asked.
“We need supplies.  I doubt the stuff at The Office is still good after all this time and we need to lay low for awhile.”
“But here?  This is a Waldos,” he said.
“Yeah, I–”
“Companies like this are part of the problem.”
“I know,” Tanya said.  “But there are no locally owned places anywhere near here.”
Mr. Jones made a reluctant exit and followed Tanya toward the superstore.
“Who else?” he asked.  “Anyone ever locate John?”
“As in John Q Public?”
“Yeah.”
“No.  After his brief return in the late nineties he fell off the radar again.  No one’s seen him since.  Most members of The Union are unaccounted for or assumed dead.  Miss Pension suffered the loss of most of her family at the hands of The Crash.  She went after that beast and ended up a quadriplegic.”
As they crossed the threshold of the Waldos superstore, Mr. Jones wrinkled his nose and held his fist up to his mouth.
“Oh God.  It stinks.”
“They all smell like this,” Tanya said.
“It’s like… panic sweat and fast food.”
“With a hint of cheap plastic and formaldehyde”