Chapter 230: The new economic hegemon

When word got out that someone had bought the entire Reiden Global, everyone thought it was a joke. Anyone who understood about finance knew that buying a company on the verge of bankruptcy was a bad idea. But it soon became clear to everyone that this was not a hoax at all. It didn't take long for the buyer's face to come out and John Hammond's name was quickly on everyone's lips. The elderly tycoon had declared that he wanted to completely refound Ingen using the Reiden skeleton. Initially, no one took him seriously. Billionaires around the world laughed in Hammond's face when they heard the news. For anyone, this was probably the last gesture of an old and senile man, and no one had any doubts that the company would go bankrupt in a few months anyway. But Hammond was able to impress everyone. He first handed over all the Reiden files to the police, allowing the police to raid the multinational. All the crimes committed came to light and all the rottenness was eradicated in less than ten days. Hammond rode the wave and proclaimed to the media his intention to build a new society based not on domination but on economic fairness. Thanks to this single act, almost all attacks by the civilian population stopped. That was how people worked after all: they focused on a name and a face. Now that Hammond had changed the name of the company and had donned a sincere and respectable face, people had forgotten that until a few days ago they were looking forward to storming the Reiden headquarters. And then the contracts had begun. The Reiden, or rather, the new Ingen, had begun to establish itself on the market with an unparalleled enthusiasm. Shareholders around the world could not explain the sudden recovery, but the reasons were soon clear to everyone. With spectacular action, in fact, Hammond had converted all the properties of Reiden in record time to focus on the production of synthetic meat and the use of clean energy; after which he had made several agreements with all the governments of the world. Food and energy had become the main demand on the market after the agreements made with the dinosaurs, and the new Ingen had so many means that it could produce disproportionate quantities of both of these products at minimal cost. Governments had not let the opportunity pass: even if other companies could provide synthetic meat and alternative energy, none could offer as many as the new Ingen. Already in this way the company obtained disproportionate capital which went to cover the debts. In addition, Hammond also began to purchase the land previously used for breeding, converting it for agricultural and construction purposes. Several smaller companies, especially energy-based, began to approach him and do big business. The construction industry also signed numerous contracts to be able to build solar panels, wind turbines, dams and other projects. The more Hammond worked, the more he grabbed entire sectors of the market that soon became dependent on him. Very soon it became clear to both Hammond and Jocelyne that their predictions had been truly pessimistic. It didn't take a year to cancel all Reiden's debts: three months were enough. From that moment on, Hammond was free to invest capital in research and development, thus going to occupy the pharmacological, thaumaturgical, scientific sectors and so on, which thanks to the laboratories of the former Reiden imposed on him a low cost and a huge profit. By the end of the third month it was clear to everyone that John Hammond was destined to become the richest man in the world. The other multinationals, which had been convinced of the collapse of Reiden, tried in any ways to stop the advance of the new Ingen. It was all in vain. Having bought the entire company, Hammond had the means and resources that allowed him to excel in any field of the market. Synthetic meat for breeding, artificially treated seeds for agriculture, assembly lines for the automotive sector, buildings for the production of solar panels and wind turbines for energy, special drugs for medicine, laboratories for science; he had it all. And John Hammond, despite his age, proved to be very skilled at swimming in the stormy waters of finance. Wherever he went he spent little and earned a lot. Also, although he hadn't been in business for a long time, he still had many friends in the industry, who didn't hesitate to give him their support. After a brief period of resistance, the other companies realized that they would never be able to stop the new Ingen and that it was destined to take the place of the Reiden, perhaps even to become more powerful; so they bite the bullet and chose to go into business with Hammond rather than fight him. This would have enriched him even more, but at least it would have enriched them too. And after that, John Hammond's advance had become unstoppable. After another month, Hammond's capital had grown so high that the man could have bought a small nation. In a few more months he would probably have risen to astronomical levels. Hammond had gotten more money than he could spend in that and a thousand other lives even by living as a squanderer and gambling every day. Having achieved such a milestone, he could afford to fulfill his promise to Jocelyne. Creating the dinosaur coexistence movement wouldn't cost him a billionth of his fortune. Throwing away some money wasn't a problem. The movement grew very rapidly. In that era of uncertainty, many people were looking for an ideology to cling to, and the ideal of coexistence that the movement proposed was very tempting since it prevented major changes. Hammond had also funded very expensive large-scale advertising campaigns. Many were happy to join it, especially the young people. Hammond obviously broke away from the movement immediately. Even though he was the one who founded it, he didn't want people to confuse the movement as his own means of propaganda. Unfortunately, people tended to judge the actions of the riches even when they did something good. So he had stepped aside and assumed the role of mere financier. Very few people knew that he was behind the birth of the movement: for everyone, he was just one who truly believed in the cause, like all its members. To take the credit for the birth of the movement was another person, who Hammond had immediately framed to be the perfect figure for that role. "We are now live from the headquarters of the newborn MCD, the Movement for Coexistence with Dinosaurs". A troupe of reporters stood near a large building where several people were constantly entering and exiting. The one who was talking was a middle-aged guy and he had the microphone pointed at a red-haired woman with a magnetic smile. "We got permission to finally interview Claire Dearing, the movement's founder. Tell us about yourselves, Mrs. Dearing: what led you to create the MCD?" The woman named Claire Dearing smiled. "Before all this started I was working in a zoo" she replied. "I didn't often come into contact with animals, but I've always loved dinosaurs. And even after all that has happened this affection has not faded. I chose to believe that peace between our species is possible and that we can learn a lot from each other, if only we really want to" "Tell us, why is it so important to keep the peace with the dinosaurs?" "Well, first of all because war never benefits anyone, and our past proves it. Secondly, because being able to win any conflict would mean devastating the ecosystem, causing an ecological collapse that would inevitably lead to extinction. Thirdly, then, we have no guarantee that we will be able to win the war, and according to what we know so far, a conflict would end in a bloodbath, regardless of the winner; virtually all of us humans would lose at least one family member. These reasons, taken individually, should already be enough to convince us that keeping the peace is the best choice to make. But there are also others, more peaceful: for example, the possibility of interacting with another culture, being able to relate to each other, learning from our differences" "Your words are wise, but tell us: do you think lasting peace is really possible?" "If there is commitment on both sides, yes. Dinosaurs have so far shown that they don't want to run into conflict, so we don't have to fear being attacked. If we humans do not give them reason to fight us, then peace will never be broken" "And how should we do?" "Changing our mentality. That's what we should have done years ago after all. We need to stop considering ourselves a step above all other forms of life. Instead, what we must do is weigh our choices by evaluating the life of any creature in the same way we would evaluate human life. This means that we can no longer afford to carry out actions that destroy, pollute, poison or impoverish the environment. We must focus on living in symbiosis with this world, not in conflict with it" "They are high goals. Is it really possible?" "At the moment it is already happening. The economic crisis due to the shortage of resources and the blockade caused by the dinosaurs are forcing large multinationals to replace the energy produced from oil with that produced from alternative sources. By continuing at this rate we will stop polluting, and at that point we will just have to clean up everything we have done so far. But this is only the first step. As I said, it will take commitment. We will have to focus on waste disposal, an eco-sustainable lifestyle, etc. The road is long to go, but we are confident we will succeed" "There are rumors that John Hammond, the new richest tycoon in the world, is directly involved in the movement" "That's it. John Hammond was one of the first to join the MCD and is still the largest financier. Mr. Hammond firmly believes in the possibility that humans and dinosaurs coexist and he wants to personally contribute to keeping the peace" "Do you have the support of others?" "Other billionaires? At the moment only a few. One of them is Benjamin Lockwood, who has also made himself responsible for large donations. But we hope that in the future others will join our movement" "How is that money used?" "For the moment we are mainly donating them to the prisoners that the dinosaurs are freeing. Secondly, we are funding a lot of scientific research in order to ensure eco-sustainability. We have also allocated some funds to the construction of recycling plants around the world" "We finished. Thanks for the interview!" "No problem" That was just one of the many interviews that Claire Dearing, the new head of the coexistence movement, found herself supporting. And with each interview, the movement gained more and more support among the population, especially among young people. It would be a long time before the new ideology spread enough to have political clout to enact new laws and referendums, but after all, all great things had small beginnings. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS HI! has been a long time. I think it's time to have one of our little chats. 1) First of all, our dear Henry Wu. Well, who could it be but him? It would have been a crime not to give him credit for creating such a marvel of genetic engineering as the Mother Cell. In this story, as you have surely understood, the character of Henry Wu has been slightly modified: his is the mentality of an environmentalist willing to do anything to save his home planet, even to unleash what is in effect a biological disaster. His character is very similar to what we have seen in the Jurassic Park franchise, if not identical, except for his relationship with John Hammond (who is represented here as his best friend, while in the franchise they only had a working relationship ). In case anyone is wondering, his look in the story is the one shown in 'Jurassic World Dominion', even if he is slightly younger (as Hammond is still alive, so he is at least 10 years younger than in 'Jurassic World Dominion' ). 2) In the last few chapters we also learned more about the story of Henry Wu and John Hammond. In case someone struggles to follow it, I'll summarize it: initially, Hammond founds Ingen in order to save the planet using Wu hybrids, and he creates the Indominus rex to impress investors. This causes the accident at the Mega Beast Park where Alan, Ellie and Ian are involved, and Hammond is convinced that it is better not to play with nature, separating from Wu albeit with a lot of pain. Wu is then recruited by Ludlow and Eli Mills, who with the promise of financing his research allow him to create the Indoraptor to use it as a biological weapon, which in turn breaks free and kills Mills, but Wu manages to escape . Hammond hears of this and informs the others, and Ian tries to reveal the truth, but Ludlow discredits him by ruining his career. Some of the hybrids' genetic material is then used by a rival company, the Energyne, causing an accident that destroys much of a city and leads the NMWA to ban genetic manipulation. Wu is then recruited by Reiden and using Robert Oz's studies after years of work he creates the Mother Cell, implanting it in a spinosaurus egg for four years, which he then secretly releases. The egg is, of course, Sobek. 3) All the hybrids shown in the various chapters come from various 'Jurassic Park' video games, except for the Indominus rex, the Indoraptor and the Scorpios rex which come instead from the actual franchise. 4) The Mega Beast Park incident is both a reference to the Jurassic Park incident in the first film and the Jurassic World incident in the fourth film. 5) Eli Mills is one of the antagonists in the film 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'. Here he is a colleague of Ludlow's. Had they met in the franchise, surely those two would have gotten along. 6) The Energyne and the Rampage incident are clearly two references to the movie 'Rampage', where three creatures (a gorilla, a wolf and an alligator) are mutated by a genetic fluid that transforms them into monsters. 7) One of Reiden's plans, which is to create giant locusts to ruin crops around the world, is a clear reference to 'Jurassic World: Dominion'. 8) Now let's talk a little about dinosaurs. The new addition to the group, Snock, is a giganotosaurus. Its name is the same as the one that the fandom gave to the spinosaurus of 'Jurassic Park 3'. Giganotosaurus was one of the largest terrestrial carnivores, competing for primacy with other theropods such as the tyrannosaurus, the carcharodontosaurus and the spinosaurus. It lived between 99 and 97 million years ago in South America. Length estimates range from 11 to 15 meters, while weight estimates range from 4.2 tons (if we consider its body mass similar to that of allosaurids) and 13.8 tons (if we consider it like that of other large predators such as the t-rex). 9) Unfortunately, the fact that animals used for illegal fights can develop mental problems is not at all my narrative device: many dogs used for fights are in fact incapable of integrating with members of their species or even with humans, and many of them must be shot down even after having saved them because they are too dangerous to leave them free. Unfortunately, sometimes people don't realize that, like us, animals have emotions, and that if they are used for certain things they don't remain indifferent even if they cannot express their pain. 10) The atrociraptors that Snock has chosen for his team have the same names as those that appeared in the film 'Jurassic World Dominion'. Taurus is the name of the carnotaurus that appeared in the 'Camp Cretaceous' series. Maltawin's assault on the illegal market is also another reference to 'Jurassic World Dominion'. 11) The people in Jackson's team are those who appear in the film 'The Tomorrow War'. 12) Kash D. Langford is another character from the 'Jurassic Park' franchise, who appeared in the 4th season of 'Camp Cretaceous'. 13) Ian Malcolm's speech before the NMWA is inspired by the final one in the film 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'.