Chapter 527

Arthur groaned, watching the big Minister walk out. The long, catered lunch with the Menteri Pendaki Menara had been long and boring, filled with a lot of false pleasantries that had drained Arthur while he smiled and nodded and made sure that the briefcase with the pottery – and a small pouch of beast stones – was given to the man.

Just enough to whet their appetite, keep them on the Benevolent Durian’s side. The whole Clan was growing, and the new Minister needed to be placated. It annoyed Arthur that he had to bribe the man; especially since his predecessor had just received another payment literally two months ago; but cabinet reshuffles meant that such things had to happen.

The only good news was that this one seemed more inclined to work with them.

Once the older man had disappeared, Arthur turned to Manager Kong, the real person in charge. She did all the real work, and so long as her boss was placated and not giving other orders, it was she who managed the daily expenses and support given to organisations.

“The first batch of our bumi scholarships that went through the Clan are coming out,” Manager Kong said, quietly. “They’re all testing much higher and with a larger amount of stones than before.”

“Sounds like the partnership is working out then, no?”

“Yes, for now. We’ll need more time to tell if it’s changing the survival rate, of course.” Her lips pursed, as she added. “The Minister also mentioned that he thinks it might be good to use your contacts to send people through the other Beginner Towers.”

“Which ones?” Arthur asked curiously. “Kuching is okay, but you know how it is…”

“Not Kuching,” Manager Kong shook her head immediately. Idly, Arthur noted how her hair grown thinner, whiter than ever. The stress of her position was getting to her, and he wondered what would happen if – when – she retired. “Dhaka and Bhutan.”

“Oh…” Arthur hesitated, inclined his head. “That’s possible, but we only ever negotiated for Malaysian Towers. That’s part of our agreement, and we’ve kept to it. If we’re taking out spots and reserving rooms and… helping?” he waited for the nod before continuing, “the scholarship Climbers, we’re going to have to come to a new negotiation.”

“Can,” Cynthia replied. “We had our people draw some papers up.” She reached for her bag, only for Arthur to still her with a raised hand. “What?”

“Later. Can’t we just talk?”

“About what?” her eyes narrowed.

“The TG Group.”

“I’m already helping you – and not helping them – as much as I can. You know I can’t do much,” she opened her hands. “I don’t have that much power.”

“And your boss?”

“The Menteri is new to his role. He isn’t going to want to make any changes right now,” she said. “Nothing major at least.”

“What can you do?” Arthur said, softly.

“Beyond what I’ve done now?” She grunted. “We can run another audit on their people. Restrict their Climbers when they go in, but they have so many companies, it’s hard to do it. We don’t have control of what happens outside very much. I can make recommendations on what happens when a Climber breaks the laws, under my jurisdiction, but…”

“Someone has to capture them first. And there are not that many groups who can actually arrest Climbers. Or police willing to do so.” In fact, most polis were happy to take a bribe or just look away when Climbers were involved. Unless whatever was happening was truly egregious, they let them get away with too much.

In their defense, they were stretched thing dealing with non-Climbers as it stood. As much as Arthur’s current life was made up of them, the Climber population was still a tiny percentage of the total population, and a rich one too.

“Exactly. We mostly manage the Tower itself, everything outside is…” she sighed. “It’s hard. There are others who handle that, really.” At the look he gave her, she shrugged. “I interface with them for you, because of your Clan. I handle all the Clan registrations, but even so; outside of the Tower things are tricky. We can’t stop people from doing things…”

“Not that some governments haven’t tried,” Arthur said.

“Maldives. Germany. Some of the US states,” Cynthia muttered. “We’re watching them. It’s easy if you’re Singapore, they’re so small, but for us… Well, the government is talking about splitting up the Menteri.”

“Splitting it?” Arthur said, surprised.

“Taking portions of other parts of the government, make a Menteri all about Climbers and managing you all outside. The number of you all are increasing, you know…” she said, quietly. “It’s making some people worried.”

Arthur grunted. “The Imans?”

Cynthia looked around, checked that no one else was watching them too quietly before she nodded. Arthur grunted in exasperation. The religious groups were all fractured, of course, but some groups had no desire to involve the Tower. They preached against the entrance into the Tower, calling it the work of the devil or a test. Others just excluded Climbers, not daring to give them any power.

It helped curtail some Climber influence, balance things out; but as Cynthia said – their numbers kept rising. In a few decades, it was possible they would make up a significant portion of the country – certainly a significant portin of the ruling class.

No way to stop it either, not when countries were desperately happy to have Climbers of their own. Magical enchantments, new technology from the Towers and, most of all, the allure of potential immortality meant no one was ever closing the pandora box.

“Amongst others. You know how the Catholic church is acting, right?”

“A little. Something about their new Pope reverting a lot of their old ideology?” Arthur wasn’t entirely certain, since it wasn’t something he paid attention to. The number of actual Roman Catholics in Malaysia was quite small, there being a wider variety of denominations. Not that their religions had not taken a hit since the formation of the Towers.

So many religioons had not hada n explanation for the Towers, and subsequently had their believers lose faith. Add in on-going fragmentation with the automation, digital lifestyles and lack of social cohesion and a lot of their followers were not that active. Those few organisations that managed to keep their core, however, had a tendency to get rather extreme – though, in which direction, seemed up for debate.

“Exactly. Some of the others are talking about it. We’re getting a group that are copying the American’s version of megachurches.” She grimaced. “There’s talk about dealing with them.”

“How?” Arthur said, curiously. He was not certain he liked the idea of the government getting involved in what religions people were allowed to worship, but the line between religion and cult got foggy for him, being a non-believer for the most part. More agnostic rather than atheist, leaning towards the Buddhist belief in karma and reincarnation.

Much nicer to come back as a bug than be tortured before being dumped back into reality. Or just tortured forever.

“That’s what they’re discussing.” Cynthia sighed. “Not my department, except that we’re talking about how it lines up with Climbers. And whether we let people like that in, or what we do about people who do come back. Which is why they’re talking about the new department.”

“Right…” Arthur groaned, making note to talk to Casey about this. If they were creating a new department, they needed someone they could trust in it. Someone… “Oh…”

Manager Kong looked serenely at Arthur as he came to a realization why she had this conversation with him. He mentally tagged ‘more political than he thought’ to his elavuation of her. Still, she had been a good friend for their Clan so far.

Backing her was not a terrible idea. They’d just want someone else in her position too, when she left.  Which also meant that they’d have to make sure her own position was not compromised along the way.

Gods, he couldn’t wait to be back running the Tower.