And once again Jim felt like the mark in a three-card Monty game. He didn’t put his hand on his wallet but he almost did. Instead, he shook the hand that Connors proffered and allowed himself to be escorted to a chair at a small table to the side of the huge desk. The former chauffer took another chair next to him and put on a sheepish grin, “I guess you’re starting to wonder whether the lunatics are running the asylum but I assure you there is a reason for all this.
Jim vented a particularly heavy sigh and said, “Mr. Connors, I think I’m too confused at this point to know what to say. I think I’d like to head home at this point. I’m just a regular guy who takes the commuter train back and forth to work and doesn’t expect to have the CEO spying on him on the drive from the airport. Maybe we should call it a day.”
“I can’t blame you for feeling that way. But before I send you home, let me try to explain and if what you hear interests you, we can continue.” Jim nodded his head. Connors continued, “You know all this is your own fault. When you called your friend Dave, it triggered all this. And it wasn’t the fact that he wanted you to interview for the Missouri job that caught our attention. It was how Dave described you. As it turns out Dave isn’t your biggest fan. He kind of thinks you’re an idealist about politics and how the world works, although idealist isn’t the word he uses. As you probably know Dave is not at all idealistic or even particularly ethical in how he approaches work or even life in general. Dave works at that office because he works quite well with other people like himself. And unfortunately, that is valuable more often than we wish it were. So, he’s a kind of negative standard. If he says someone is a loser, we assume he means that person is honest. So that’s why we interviewed you in New York and that’s why you’re here. Now this job is a technical one and so I needed you to talk to my team. They think you’d be a good addition to the group. Your background and your skills are a good match. So that’s great.
But our organization is extremely unusual in a number of ways. For instance, the compensation package is completely different from any other company you’ve ever heard of. And the secrecy agreement is much more stringent than anything this side of the Sicilian Mafia. So, as you can imagine we take the candidate selection process to extreme lengths. For instance, we’ve done a background check on you that would make the CIA jealous. We have access to intelligence sources that are pretty much comprehensive.”
At this point Jim spoke up, “Are you guys working for the US government or some other country?” Connors shook his head, “Just the opposite. We do most of all this to avoid the interference of the federal government. And if Dave’s negative description of you got you that interview in New York, it was your answer to Milo that got you to Wyoming. Do you remember what he asked you and what you answered? He asked, “What’s the biggest threat to your family’s long-term well-being?” and you said, “Our own government.” Well, that was the secret password. That’s the golden ticket. This company exists in the form it has because I believe that same thing you said. Our government is the greatest threat to the future of its citizens that exists on this planet. More generally it’s the greatest threat to all of humanity because it is so powerful that there is no longer any brake on its power and its mission is no longer tied in a meaningful way to our welfare.”
Connors had now managed to direct Jim’s thoughts away from his own predicament and toward the larger reality of the modern world, something that Jim spent a considerable time thinking about before he became unemployed. Jim asked, “Well, what could you hope to accomplish against a coordinated and all-pervasive system of control like the feds?”
Connors smiled. “You’d be surprised. Or maybe you wouldn’t be. But the way we do it is to build our own society right out in plain sight. We’ve formed a tight-knit community of like-minded individuals and their families and we go about our lives looking for all the world like everybody else but like the iceberg the great majority of our organization is hidden from view and provides the opportunity for us to thrive away from the government’s habits of interference.”
Despite his earlier alarm at Connor’s tactics, Jim found himself intrigued by this crazy story of a secret organization hiding from the government in plain sight. “But surely the IRS and several other federal agencies would detect all this additional commercial activity and come crashing down on you. Won’t all the excess consumption by your employees trigger alarm bells in those who spend their lives looking for people avoiding taxes?”
Connors countered, “It would if there were excess consumption to detect. But what my set-up entails is internal capture of all or almost all of the commercial and industrial needs of our communities. Did you notice the automobile that we drove here in? That doesn’t come from Detroit or Japan or Korea. We make them ourselves. And we also make the gasoline it runs on, at least when we fill it up in town.”
Jim jumped on this statement, “But not having any commerce is just as bad as having too much. I’m sure the government monitors the apparent economic activity in an area and would notice if a large population like a whole town or several towns didn’t seem to buy or sell anything.” Connors smiled, “Very true and that is why we very carefully balance our apparent commerce to expectations. In fact, we have all this down to a science. But that’s hardly all we do to maintain this masquerade. I am one of the largest government contractors outside of the defense procurement sector. My enterprises support a very large lobbying effort in DC and I keep all the most important congressional leaders well-greased. In addition, I employ another retinue of former government regulators on staff to make sure that we are well regarded by the deep state. It’s people like these that your friend Dave involves himself with. The levers of power are lined up in the correct order. I leave nothing to chance.”
Jim considered these details carefully. And then said, “But to what end? Where can this all go?” Connors replied, “I’m building something that should one day be strong enough to come out in the open and tell our masters, “No more! We’re free and we’ll stay that way and we’re too strong for you to hold us down.” That’s the end game. But in the meantime, we’re a family. Every family in our organization has the resources and opportunity to thrive and live a great life. Everyone has the creature comforts of modern life and in addition education is addressed comprehensively and the level of expertise in the faculty rivals what you could expect at MIT or Cal Tech. Our humanities curriculum isn’t as developed as the technical side but it’s adequate. And best of all the government is kept at bay. We live our lives without the interference of Washington bureaucrats telling us what we can and can’t do; what we can and can’t think.”
Then Connors stopped talking and watched Locke. He was silent for several minutes, looking like he wanted to say something. “What if I say no? I know a lot of stuff that you don’t want known. What would happen?” Connors looked at him seriously and said, “Do you mean would we kill you or something? We’re not evil men. You wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think you were basically a decent man. If you say no, we send you home and that’s the end of it. I’ll be very disappointed but we’ll find someone else to take that spot. If someone went out of his way to make trouble for us with the government, I couldn’t say how it would end up. We have built up some protective arrangements into our government connections but they are unpleasant and dangerous. We work with some questionable people in the intelligence agencies and if we told them that you were a security risk, bad things might happen but it wouldn’t be something we would initiate. Are you telling me you are thinking of informing on us?”
Jim answered quietly, “No I’m just trying to understand how you can allow a safety risk such as myself to threaten your whole operation.” Connors said, “We’re good people and we’re smart. We can tell the difference between the trustworthy and the dishonest. We recognize good people. When we find them, we treat them fairly and depend on them to treat us the same. It works. Are you interested?”
Jim smiled, “You don’t pay your employees money. So basically, it’s as if I had a sign across my chest that said “WILL ENGINEER FOR FOOD!” Is there a chance I can get an Amazon gift card for Christmas?” Connors scowled and said “Why is it always the engineers that think they have a sense of humor?” Jim laughed, “Because we see the cosmic irony of trying to get anything done by the boss’s schedule. Will you be driving me home to the airport? I’ve got to get home and start uprooting my family.” Now it was Connors’ turn to laugh, “I’ve got more important things to do than that. Luckily for you we’ve got an airfield on the property. I just drove you from Bozeman to get a good read on you. Can never be too sure of the new guys you know.
