Cryptonomicon

"Okay," Avi says, "the upshot is that the Crypt is going to be potentially much bigger than we thought at first, so this is good news. But there is one thing that we have to deal with." Avi has known Randy forever, and knows that Randy won't really be bothered by what is to come.

All eyes turn towards Randy, and Beryl picks up the thread. She has arrogated to herself the role of worrying about people's feelings, since the other people in the company are so manifestly unqualified, and she speaks regretfully. "The work Randy's been doing in the Philippines, which is very fine work, is no longer a critical part of this corporation's activities."

"I accept that," Randy says. "Hey, at least I got my first tan in ten years."

Everyone seems immediately relieved that Randy is not pissed off.

Tom, typically, gets right to brass tacks: "Can we pull out of our relationship with the Dentist? Just make a clean break?"

The rhythm of the conversation is abruptly lost. It's like a power failure in a discotheque.

"Unknown," Avi finally says. "We looked at the contracts. But they were written by the Dentist's lawyers."

"Aren't some of his partners lawyers?" Cantrell asks.

Avi shrugs impatiently, as if that's not the half of it. "His partners. His investors. His neighbors, friends, golfing buddies. His plumberis probably a lawyer."

"The point being that he is famously litigious," Randy says.

"The other potential problem," Beryl says, "is that, if we did find a way to extract ourselves from the deal with AVCLA, we would then lose the short-term cash flow that we were counting on from the Philippines network. The ramifications of that turn out to be uglier than we had expected."

"Damn!" Randy says, "I was afraid of that."

"What are the ramifications?" Tom says, hewing as ever to the bottom line.

"We would have to raise some more money to cover the shortfall," Avi says. "Diluting our stock."

"Diluting it how much?" John asks.

"Below fifty percent."

This magic figure touches off an epidemic of sighing, groaning and shifting around among the officers of Epiphyte Corp., who collectively hold over fifty percent of the company's stock. As they work through the ramifications in their heads, they begin to look significantly at Randy.

Finally Randy stands, and holds out his hands as if warding them off. "Okay, okay, okay," he says. "Where does this take us? The business plan states, over and over, that the Philippines network makes sense in and of itself--that it could be spun off into an independent business at any time and still make money. As far as we know, that's still true, right?"

Avi thinks this over before issuing the carefully engineered statement:

"It is as true as it ever was."

This elicits a titter, and a bit of sarcastic applause, from the others. Clever Avi! Where would we be without him?

"Okay," Randy says. "So if we stick with the Dentist--even though his project is now irrelevant to us--we hopefully make enough money that we don't need to sell any more stock. We can retain control over the company. On the other hand, if we break our relationship with AVCLA, the Dentist's partners start to hammer us with lawsuits--which they can do at virtually no cost, or risk. We get mired in court in L.A. We have to fly back there and testify and give depositions. We spend a ton of money on lawyers."

"And we might even lose," Avi says.

Everyone laughs.

"So we have to stay in," Randy concludes. "We have to work with the Dentist whether we want to or not."

No one says anything.

It's not that they disagree with Randy; on the contrary. It's just that Randy is the guy who's been doing the Philippines stuff, and who is going to end up handling this unfortunate situation. Randy's going to take all the force of this blow personally. It is better that he volunteer than that it be forced on him. He is volunteering now, loudly and publicly, putting on a performance. The other actors in the ensemble are Avi, Beryl, Tom, John, and Eb. The audience consists of Epiphyte Corp.'s minority shareholders, the Dentist, and various yet-to-be-empaneled juries. It is a performance that will never come to light unless someone files a lawsuit against them and brings them all to the witness box to recount it under oath.

John decides to trowel it on a little thicker. "AVCLA's financing the Philippines on spec, right?"

"Correct," Avi says authoritatively, playing directly to the hypothetical juries-of-the-future. "In the old days, cable-layers would sell capacity first to raise capital. AVCLA's building it with their own capital. When it's finished, they'll own it outright, and they'll sell the capacity to the highest bidder."

"It's not all AVCLA's money--they're not that rich," Beryl says. "They got a big wad from NOHGI."

"Which is?" Eb asks.

"Niigata Overseas Holding Group Inc.," three people say in unison.

Eb looks baffled.

"NOHGI laid the deep-sea cable from Taiwan to Luzon," Randy says.