After taking his leave of his estranged fiancee, Fortunato made his way out of The Meadows the same way he had come… backtracking to his office, in the section of the station that had originally been his little tramp ship, so very long ago.
When he arrived there, he did three things. The first was to start running the program he’d created for uncoupling his ship, the original Finger, from the rest of the complex. It would take a while for even the necessary maintenance checks to be completed. He then opened up his personal console interface, unlocked a shortcut icon he’d previously disabled, and then activated it. The program it ran was completed before he could even begin the third thing, which was to open up a line on the internal address systems of all the casinos and businesses.
“Attention, Gaming Commission, mobsters, and assorted lackeys… the last time my little partnership with the casino syndicates was reviewed, we left the door open for either side to buy the other one out… until quite recently, I’d hoped to come up with the funds to take back my station,” he said. “When that fell through, well… I went a little crazy. I admit it. I overstepped some boundaries. Well, now it’s time for me to step back. After much introspection, and having given the matter careful thought, I have decided to exercise my exit option.
“I know you’ve been eager to see me go for some time… even to the point of keeping a standing offer open in the hopes that I’d been enticed by it. I once laughed that off as being foolish optimism, but I’m man enough to admit that I was wrong and you were all right. Your foresight has paid off: I’ve sent my identity signifier to the escrow agent, and the funds have already been transferred. I was afraid that the value attached to the offer might have been based on an outdated figure of the Finger’s collective worth, but I see it was updated just a week ago… just one week. I’m sure things haven’t changed all that much in six days.”
He laughed, then glanced at the screen showing the progress of his decoupling program. It was fully initialized and ready to go. He gave it the final okay with a flick of his finger.
“Now under the terms of the deal, I am taking my ship and leaving you with the brand name and all that goes along with it. Yes, that’s right… I’ve decided to give you all the Finger,” he said. “I know you all have much to discuss in terms of new divisions of power, shares of profit, any deals that may have been made… and of course, crisis management, so I won’t be sticking around. I will, of course, wish you all the same good fortune that the Fickle Finger brought to me.”
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