Freedom TM

saw it. Nothing else had the scope to do this—and with such suddenness. It had to be the Daemon.
    He spoke from the back of the room. “Why would farmers willingly turn down subsidies? With prices rising, why would they not grow corn or soybeans?
    “Excuse me, you are …?” The Pakistani was taken aback by this sudden question from a junior staffer in the back of the room.
    The Major’s agronomist stepped in. “Yes, that’s a good question. Why isn’t the free market correcting this imbalance?”
    The Pakistani turned back to the front row. “Uh, we haven’t been able to determine the cause. These numbers are for the coming year.”
    The Major spoke up again. “And you have on-the-ground confirmation. This isn’t just a reporting glitch?”
    “No, it’s not a glitch. Agribusiness and biotech firms have a comprehensive network of private investigators, researchers, and surveyors throughout the Midwestern United States to enforce their seed patents. They’ve documented population movements, unexplained capital inflows, and infrastructure investments in alternative energy technologies, high-tech equipment, heirloom seed stock, and—”
    “I assume this isn’t confined to the United States.”
    The two MBAs looked at each other with some dismay. The Pakistani nodded. “We were, in fact, going to cover that later in our presentation.” He started clicking through interminable bullet points and diagrams. “We also project reductions in export crops such as cotton in Asia and Russia. Security services in various countries are reporting labor unrest in both the agricultural and industrial sectors. The number of container ships being placed into warm and cold layup from lack of cargo is rising.”
    It’s tearing apart the global supply chain.
    Staring at the screen, The Major could visualize it like a full-scale nuclear attack. But one that the average person wouldn’t notice—until it was beyond the tipping point.
    The British chap took over. “We project that if corn and soybean harvests drop another seven percent, raw material costs for almost all processed food products will skyrocket. Low-wage factoryworkers around the world could suffer food shortages, with attendant increase in social unrest. Factory production and transportation might be disrupted, with serious follow-on effects for the world economy.”
    The Major had to hand it to Sobol. The dead bastard was clever. They’d been too focused on the digital threat to see it coming. By physically changing the economy of rural America, the Daemon could render their investment reallocation moot. They could no longer simply wait for a digital countermeasure to the Daemon. Sobol was forcing their hand, and The Major did not like the enemy dictating the tempo of battle. They needed to
act
. But quietly. Without anything that could be traced back to Daemon-infected companies.
    The Major stood and looked out the window again, at the gleaming towers lining Sheikh Zayed Road. “
Change
is our enemy, gentlemen. Change means disruption. Disruption means crisis. And crisis means conflict.”
    That was, after all, why the powers-that-be had called on The Major. Conflict was his specialty.

Part Two March
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    Gold: $1,589USD/oz.
    Unleaded Gasoline: $5.34USD/gallon
    Unemployment: 23.3%
    USD/Darknet Credit: 28.7
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Chapter 9: // Seed Police
    Darknet Top-rated Posts +293,794↑
    Biotech companies spread patented genetic sequences via the natural ecosystem—much like a computer virus. Then they use the legal system to claim ownership of any organism their patented genetic sequences invade. They are raiding communal seed banks, obtaining patents for naturally occurring apples, sugar beets, corn, and a host of other plants and animals. They have immorally seized control of the food system and stand poised to claim ownership of life itself unless we take action.
    Echelon_99****/ 1,173 22nd-level Geneticist
    Hank Fossen endured the bone-rattling vibration of his 1981 International Harvestor as he turned at the edge of the field. Could he limp the tractor through another full season without a major overhaul? It had over ten thousand running hours on it. Over the past several years legal fees had forced him to forgo maintenance. He’d looked into a used New Holland, but even with the spot-price of corn reaching record highs, rising expenses made it too risky to seriously consider a replacement.
    He glanced back over his shoulder. The anhydrous ammonia