“Project Greenleaf is a power project like none before it, aimed at unlocking a new power source cleaner and more abundant.” Rodger smiled with delight and flipped the switch on the light bulb on the table. “It worked better than we expected.”

He then turned to the audience and gestured for people to come up.

The light stayed on through the whole conference, countless thousands crossing the dais to look it over, encouraged to turn it off and on, or even break it. The stunned and excited masses then moved on, off through the booths and looking over leaflets on how the source was a mix of different breakthroughs all pioneered by the late Nikola Tesla.

Massive coils made of space-age metals and giant magnets spun generating fields of static charge. Diagrams of the already thirteen repurposed nuclear plants, including Chornobyl, the first plant they had set up. Charts and graphs that showed the complete reversal of the effects of the meltdown, and the return of people to the city.

How far it had all grown, how far it had all come, and how far yet it was to go.

Rodger’s face on every screen in the complex, repeating over and over.

“Join us at Project Greenleaf, and seed the future!”

Of course, it was all a lie.

“The investor’s meeting starts in one hour folks, don’t be late,” he whispered quietly to those in the know. Those who had already joined.

The few who were invited to that meeting all made their way to the tram station. Four men and four women, all stood awkwardly around like geese waiting for grain to be dropped. Harsh words were thrown back and forth as they vetted one another over who had more right to be there, a veritable pissing match of whose wallet was heavier.

Rodger didn’t care, he was there for one thing, and it wasn’t their opinions.

The tram tottled up on its magnetic track quietly and they were shuffled on. The doors closed as Rodger’s assistant made the rounds.

“What you’re getting is a new phone, one that will work no matter what, full global service. And I mean G L O B A L. Trust me, I got a call from my agent while I was down observing the Titanic last week.” Rodger then looked grimly at them, “Ste-phan will take your old ones. Yours have already been cloned and wiped.”

Sandy looked hers over, and sure enough, it was dead, even the backup burner she kept.

And it seemed she wasn’t the only one angry about that.

“What gives you the right to~”

“You invested in me; well, I’m now invested in all of you.”

The tram slowed, approaching a massive silo past heavily guarded walls, under the massive tower with its gently steaming stacks.

The old nuclear plant here in Japan had been abandoned before Rodger and his crazies had bought it. Now the zone was radiation-free and today, Sandy planned to learn how she too may be able to fix the dying investment she had made in a plant she had back in Canada.

The tram stopped in a station underground.

“So,” Rodger started, “Who here remembers the package on the Wired Warlock’s?”