NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: To avoid cluttering the corporate thread.

Tom Lincoln awoke to a pristine day in the Lincoln Biotech main tower. A wall panel displayed the message, "Good morning, Tom Lincoln. Scheduled for Lifewyze Corporation meeting."

"Ah, yes." he remembered now. Walking to the closet, he donned his finest suit and tie. As he tightened the tie around his neck, he looked out the window, down towards the cloning labs below. The clones themselves lived in an underground facility, believing a deadly virus had contaminated the earth and rendered it inhospitable. The clones believed they were survivors of a biological holocaust.

Tom smiled when he thought about the world he had created. If he were to make a successful deal with Lifewyze today, he could expand his cloning operations in leaps and bounds. It was just the terms that worried him. In their first communication, Lifewyze had not offered a price, not offered terms. Tom Lincoln would have to hope they were serious about this meeting.

By 8 A.M. he was boarding his private jet to Northern Maraque City, where Lifewyze was based. With suitcase in hand, he took his seat, along with several Lincoln Biotech Vice Presidents. The suitcase contained information about cloning operations, projected profits, and company value, which he hoped would cause Lifewyze to make them a good deal on the company, if he chose to become subsidiary to them.

Soon, the jet was over Northern Maraque City, and landing at the airport. A limo brought Tom Lincoln and his associates to Lifewyze Global Headquarters, Tower 3. He entered the lobby, introduced himself, and waited for someone to recieve him.

A young girl of about twenty-one years of age, shockingly attractive with long blonde hair and gleaming blue eyes, greeted the members of Lincoln BioTech with a large smile. Evidently her name was Sarah, or so she had said in an overly pleasant tone. The girl was clad in a knee-length black skirt, green blouse (with the top two buttons undone) and black jacket; about her head was a small communications set.

After a brief journey in a private elevator, the party was met by a pair of armed guards, both standing well over six foot and dressed in stunning black suits. Over the shoulder of each was a Heckler und Koch MP5, loaded. As Sarah began to lead them down an ornate corridor, a door stationed every fifteen or twenty foot, more such guards were passed, often standing silently infront of doors or blocking off further corridors. It would be another ten minutes until the party would arrive at the assigned room.


Floor to ceiling windows covered the left right-hand wall, allowing for a clear look over the entirety of the Eastern side of North Maraque City. Sixteen high-back leather chairs were sat about a highly-polished mahogany table. Should one take the time to look down, they would notice an incredibly luxurious red carpet. About the table sat the following, recognisable from the golden plaques set before them;

The Rt. Hon. Sir James Irvine, Executive Officer
Lord Roger Price, Finance Director
Lord Robert Smythe, Human Resources Director
Sir James Johnston, Marketing Director
Dr. Marcus Price, Research and Development Director
Winston Charles, Biological Weaponry Division Director
Christopher Jones, Chemical Weaponry Division Director
Frederick Digbeth, Biological and Chemical Warfare Solutions Division Director
Dr. Robert Wagner, HealthCare Division Director
Maxwell Grosvenor, BioFarm Projects Executive Officer

The party sat about the table, engaged in seemingly amusing discussion, until the awareness of the presence of the Lincoln BioTech Board came unto them.

With impeccable manners, the group all stood, smiling politely, while the new men joined the table. One could not help but notice that only Sir James Irvine, Lord Price, Sir James Johnston Dr. Price had portfolios before them.

Remaining standing, Sir James Irvine spoke in a clear voice, "Welcome to Maraque, gentlemen. Please, take a seat."


(OOC: I was unsure of exactly how many people you had with you, if you let me know, I can increase the number of seats in my post.)

OOC: 5 overall, so it seems fine.

Tom Lincoln acknowledged the greeting with a smile, and allowed his entourage to take their seats ahead of him. Sinking into the leather chair, he opened his briefcase and began shuffling through some papers. Getting straight to business, he asked, "Hello, I'm Tom Lincoln, CEO and founder of Lincoln Biotech. I believe you had a proposition for us?"

(OOC: Sorry, Ive had a recent bout of ill-health and haven't been up to writing a decent post.)

Sir James smiled pleasantly and returned to his seat, swiftly followed by the rest of the Board of Directors. "Welcome, Mister Lincoln. Yes, I do indeed have a proposition for you. As you have been made aware, LifeWyze Corporation is the largest BioTech company in the world to date and a leader in medical and warfare fields.

"We do, however, lack any form of cloning research, ergo we have no cloning technology. Having discussed this weakness, we feel your company may be an excellent asset, yet before we can come to any such decision, I wish to know what your projected profits are for this year, any balance sheets you might have for the past five years and a list of the capabilities of your facilities.

"If your company is indeed valued, we are willing to buy up your company and place you on the board of directors. Lincoln BioTech will become a single division, of which you shall be head. Current staff will remain, however LifeWyze security will replace any previous security.

"Do you find this agreeable?" Sir James leaned back on his chair and crossed his legs.

OOC: Sorry about that, hope you're feeling better.

Tom Lincoln nodded and gave a quick smile. "Mostly agreeable." he answered as he pulled a stack of papers out of his briefcase. "The change of security could present a minor issue to our operations, however. I'll get to that later."

He stood and passed several papers around the table. "We're a small corporation, and our operations model that. However, over the past 3 months our profits have risen dramatically. Our net income for this year totals $65 million, which leads to a projected $260 million for the year. We have 471 employees and pay out $41,900,000 in wages per year, and I can give you the breakdown on staff and wages if you'd like."

Tom continued with his presentation. "We make a profit of close to $218,022,000 dollars per year." he waited to see the reactions of his audience before advancing. "This technology is relatively new, and our company is only two years old, but I can give you some sheets on that." he handed Sir James the corresponding papers.

"Our facilities are relatively large given we are such a small company. We have a lab, a hospital, corporate offices, and of course, a clone living facility. Our labs can grow in excess of 50 clones per year, the hospital has 200 beds and plenty of surgeons, the corporate offices have room for 500 employees, though only 221 of our employees have offices there. The clone living facility is where all our attention goes, and it is a small city unto itself. It's largely empty right now, as we're too small to get the word out about our work, but I think that cloning will become very popular once enough people get the message. Questions?"

Sir James nodded absently, running the figures and the information through his head. No doubt their marketing was very poor, for it was by sheer chance he had happened to hear of this company. Furthermore, they had limited operations due to cash flow restrictions. Logic dictated that...

"Mister Lincoln, through joining the LifeWyze Corporation, your would-be division would become immensely well-known worldwide due to our already well established corporate image. Not only that, but we would be willing to put a cash injection into the Division of say... up to two-point-five billion universal standard dollars across the future fiscal year with a view of return in six months.

"However, what are the problems regarding security?"

Sir James Johnston swiftly added in his own voice: "How would you feel about your company, future division, being rebranded, Mister Lincoln?"

"Internal security is the only issue." Tom Lincoln was pleased to hear that a deal would likely be made soon. "The clones in our facility live...isolated lives. They believe that a third world war rendered most of the earth uninhabitable, either due to nuclear fallout or the presence of harmful pathogens. Therefore, a complete change of their regular security could raise some questions. But outside of the cloning facility, it wouldn't be a problem."

Sir James thought for a moment. "What is the requirement to keeping them aware and active? For what purpose are the clones directly for?"

Tapping the mental encased folder he looked over to Sir Johnston, who nodded. Once the question was answered, he would reveal the rebranding plans for both Lincoln BioTech, and an enormous portion of LifeWyze as a whole.

"Most of our clones are used for spare parts. Women can also have clones manufactured to bear children. In the case of the former, we can extend the life of the sponsor by up to 60 years. Aside from that, we keep our clones active to ensure the highest quality of product. We experimented with clones kept in persistent vegetative states, but their organs were much more likely to fail upon transplant. We concluded quite strongly that the organs must be used in a regular manner in order to function regularly." Tom Lincoln made his tone as convincingly sincere as possible.

"There is an idea which we experimented with but abandoned for moral reasons..." he continued, to the shock of some of his associates. "That is, effectively replacing any deceased member of a society if we can get a good DNA sample. With the correct memory imprints, it would be as if they had never died. We don't know what your moral stand would be, but ours was decided."

Nods went around the table like some bizarre mexican wave before Sir James spoke, "Well, activity would prevent muscle atrophy, I suppose. In the case of transplantation I can see the benefits but would not harvesting all organs and freezing them not be more cost effective?

"As for reviving lost members of a society; while on a moral stand point I am sure we have no complaints, I fail to see how it could be profitable. It may well even be detremental to evolution..." Sir James leaned back thoughtfully and gazed at Tom across the table.

"While it may be slightly more cost-effective, frozen organs cannot be of the same quality as fresh ones. We believe in supplying a first-rate product to those who can afford, and that means fresh organs. For example, a defect could occur during the thawing process, perhaps some of the cells die off and the organ is rendered unusable. We've found it much easier to simply allow the clones to lead 'regular' lives, and we already have most of the facilities in place." Tom sank back into his chair and began putting papers back into his briefcase. "Shall we begin negotiations?" he raised one eyebrow and looked around the room.

"Very well. What we propose is the purchase of your entire shares for 200% their market value, after which we shall instate you, Mister Lincoln, as Director of the Division for the proposed Division, putting you on the board of our directors with an annual salary of two and a quarter million universal standard dollars per annum. You will have a reasonable level of autonomy, obviously.

"Lincoln BioTech will remain at its current location, however we shall be making it part of the larger subsidiary DoubleHelix, of which you shall run the division RedHelix. Now then, do you have any amendments?"

"None at this time, and we find your offer most agreeable, Sir James." Tom Lincoln and the rest of his associates stood in unison. "I believe the most recent stock price was at $5.73, and we have 100 million shares to liquidate." He held out his right hand to shake with Sir James.

Sir James arose from his position at the other end of the enormous table and moved over to shake the hand of the newest member of the Board of Directors. The acquisition of Lincoln BioTech had gone smoothely.

"Very well, Mister Lincoln, would you care to come and view the facilities you shall soon be involved in?" There was a warm smile as he opened the door.

Both guards outside the door remained expressionless at the emergence of the group after so little time. "Would you kindly see to it that these people are escorted to the financial department for payment, and then removed from the building?" Yet another faux smile as the board of directors fell in behind Sir James and Tom Lincoln.

The exception was Lord Price, who accompanied the now redundant board of directors to his department.

"I would love to." Tom Lincoln came up to Sir James' side and flashed a quick smile. Tom viewed this as the first step to a profitable future for both companies. Not only would this agreement keep Lincoln Biotech going, it would surely keep a lot of people in their jobs.

It was perhaps a further two minutes before they reached the lift shafts at the end of the building and descended a floor. When the doors parted, there was none of the ostentatious decor that had so marked the reception and board areas. Here, all was clinical white. Every single wall was made of glass; though admittedly some walls were of frosted glass, offering the privicy of any normal room.

"This, Mister Lincoln, may I call you Tom? Tom, is our primary research and development center. We have another here in Maraque North City, as well as three more abroard, however all our major works are carried out in the safety here."

Safety was an understatement, for armed guards walked down every corridor, each door seemed to have some sort of electronic locking mechanism and cameras were everywhere. It all seemed rather comically overdone.

Moving to a room with frosted glass, Sir James spoke again, "Currently in this room we are developing a new breed of silk worm. Not something you will be required to worry about, I do not believe, for that falls into WhiteHelix."

Whether or not Tom would have asked about what exactly WhiteHelix was, there was no chance.

"No, no. RedHelix for you, so you maintain full control over your cloning operations. You will have many more new people under you, however. Indeed, you will be responsible for our entire medical biological engineering research sector." This brought a grin from Sir James.

"Our medical research is going quite well, currently we are involved in a development race with America over an adaptation of the human T-cell to provide what will effectively be a cancer vaccine. They are further ahead as they started before us, but we are advancing more quickly, according to last check."

By this time they had reached an area where transparent walls stretched out in all directions, with countless people in gleaming white coats working about various projects. It was a brief moment of silence in Sir James' tour.


(OOC: Got MSN Lincoln?)

While Tom was curious about the worms, he didn't ask about them. He was much more devoted to learning about his own affairs as part of Lifewyze. It seemed as though his new postion would require a broader base of knowlege than he currently held, though he was sure he could amend this. All he could do was nod and stare in awe at his surroundings.

Finally Sir James paused his speech as they entered a new hallway. Tom noticed people working on either side of him, and finally had cause for a question. "Is this RedHelix?"

OOC: nope

Sir James smiled lightly. "No. RedHelix is spread between three countries, including this facility."

Directing him down the hall, they came to yet another transparent room, wherein several mice were scurrying through a simplistic plastic maze. A single mouse was being either injected with something, or having blood taken from it.

"This is RedHelix. Our medical research programme of what is now DoubleHelix BioTechnology." He looked into the room unseeingly. "Resistant Cell Therapy."

Speaking as though Tom were to understand, he began walking once more.

(OOC: Have you something similar or can you get it?)

Tom nodded and continued behind Sir James. Looking all at the adjacent rooms, he quickly realized the importance of his new post. Cloning would now just be one of many things he needed to oversee.

OOC: I have AIM but I don't give my sn.

(OOC: Well it might well be time to discuss the details OOC elsewhere.)