Soul Bound

1        Soul Bound

1.2      Taking Control

1.2.5    An Idiosyncratic Interlude

1.2.5.14 Hexoikos briefing

Nadine: “Rizah, we’ve got an hour. Tell me about the big dynasties and how they’re related to each other. In particular, who is likely to oppose which sort of changes to society, and what form would that opposition be most likely to take?”

Rizah appeared, wearing a sensible tweed jacket with a baggy floral-print silk scarf loosely draped around her neck. Her matronly figure, short iron-grey hair and slightly wrinkled round face would have fitted in at UCL without comment. Today, instead of peering at Nadine over her rimless reading glasses with their upturned corners, like she suspected Nadine of being late handing in a paper, she was smiling brightly.

Nadine made a mental note: Rizah enjoyed being given research projects. She only hoped she’d survive the presentation. Think ‘commander’, she told herself. I’m not a student being tested later, I’m the chancellor - I get to pick which bits I’m interested in. She tried to visualise Rizah as a bottom-rung academic waiting for Nadine to decide whether to fund a grant application.

Rizah: “There are about 60 million individuals in the world who each have a net worth of over 1 million CFF. These are the top 1% of the population; but even among them, there are vast inequalities. Only 1 in 1,000,000 of the population owns more than a hundred million CFF and there are fewer than 6000 individuals worth a billion or more. Those 6000 individuals, between them, own nearly a quarter of all the wealth on Earth or off it.”

Rizah: “But even among them there are differences. There are about 60 individuals in total who are beyond the effective reach of the law. On average each of these untouchables owns over a trillion CFF, more than most countries, but few know for sure who has how much because they are arranged into 6 dynasties, known collectively as the Hexoikos, and they don’t willingly share such information. So be warned: much of what follows is only informed guesswork, based upon outdated, incomplete or unreliable sources.”

Nadine: “So these dynasties are not monoliths, with all the dynasty’s wealth being owned by a single patriarch? There might be internal divisions in some of them?”

Rizah: “The wealth is usually held by trusts, with individuals holding shares in one of more family trusts. But bear in mind there’s a difference between having your name on a share certificate, and being able to decide how the income gets used or being able to cast meaningful votes that influence the family decisions. Someone who betrays or abandons their family can very quickly find themselves penniless, declared incompetent and locked up in an asylum, or worse. Patriarchs may not own it all, but they have vast control and when they tell a 15-year-old heiress that they are going to marry some old geezer from another dynasty in order to cement an alliance, the heiress has little choice except to make the best of it. They may not even get to choose the names or genders of their children.”

Nadine shook her head. To get that far, and still find out you’re powerless? Why did so many people sacrifice liberty for wealth beyond their own personal needs? She was finding it hard enough to spend her in-game wealth sensibly. What did these untouchables do with their wealth? Buy bigger paintings and houses? Use it to get yet more wealth and power?

Nadine: “Ok, give me a quick rundown on who they are and where they got their wealth from, before you start in on the alliances and which ones we’re most likely to end up opposing.”

Rizah produced a long thin bamboo cane to use as a pointer and tap the left side of the wall screen, which took on the appearance of a corkboard holding a map and a picture of a florid faced man with keen eyes and wispy hair. Threads of coloured wool, attached to the cork by thin steel pins, connected to Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, Little Britain to the picture.

Rizah: “This is William Astor, Earl of Shrewsbury and Regius Professorship of Engineering at Cambridge University. The Astors are an old family, but their wealth only shot up over the last 15 years when William’s robotics patents were supported by his wife’s family. The Astors are the least wealthy of the Hexoikos, at 11.94 trillion CFF, but it is increasing steadily at 0.6 trillion a year. They hold a significant stake in many robot-intensive businesses, such as the manufacture of electronics and personal goods. Not to mention Ultramarine, which is run by Henry Astor, his younger son.”

She tapped Kesariya, Israel on the map, and another thread appeared, linking it to the picture of a smiling couple wearing conservative middle eastern clothing.

Rizah: “This was Yosef and Ezra Harriman. Ezra’s pioneering work in theoretical chemistry triggered the revolution in material sciences, and Yosef used that, along with his inherited money and contacts, to try to save the planet. She died of the Sayyid virus and he was assassinated, but not before they’d changed half the world over to supplying its energy needs using their cheap efficient solar fabric. Their son, Benjamin, is trying to hold things together and continue their legacy, but Yosef’s brother Albin is fighting him for control and their power and wealth is dropping. 13.34 trillion, and going down by 0.3 a year. Benjamin runs the transport and energy side of things, while Albin’s taken over resource extraction. Replanting forests, improved crop yields, low pollution trains - that’s all Harriman.”

She tapped Iguazu in South America and Devil’s Pulpit in North America, which both linked to the picture of a sterile hospital room containing a figure almost mummified by tubes and devices. Its eyes were closed, but Nadine spotted a tiara on its head.

Rizah: “In 4th place, on 13.72 trillion and holding steady, are the Huttlestons who Bungo already told you about. The breakthrough his company made in being able to reliably create designer babies took him from merely super-rich to untouchable because in return for alliances with other dynasties he could offer them heirs with drive and intelligence. Their holdings include Athanasia, Bodyline and Aura Psyence.”

Nadine: “So a big chunk of the health care and pharmaceuticals industries. Why do they keep such a low profile?”

Rizah: “They also control companies in the nuclear and chemical industries like Baogang Solutions whose reputation is less than stellar. Anyway, moving on, the Spreckels...”

She tapped Hanover, Germany bringing up a picture of a tall muscular man wearing jodhpurs and holding a horse whip. He had a cigar sticking out of his wide grin at a pugnacious angle and was posing for the photograph with his arm firmly wrapped around the shoulders of a famous politician.

Rizah: “This is the public face of Alwyn Spreckels. Devout Christian, philanthropist and family man. The godfather who deals with everything as a personal relationship and who can make your dreams come true if you stay on his good side by showing him proper respect and doing him the occasional small favour. He inherited two things from his father: vast tracts of land, and a tiny memory stick containing records of influential people doing things they shouldn’t be doing. The latter was more valuable. The Spreckels are probably worth 13.94 trillion and holding steady, but it’s hard to place a precise value on things like a hacienda full of indentured workers, or pictures of a newmedia magnate poisoning his wife.”

The next picture Nadine instantly recognised. The fit tanned face sticking out of a space suit, that looked like it should appear on the cover of a Dan Dare comic, had been a staple of recruiting posters and press releases connected with space for the last 20 years. He was iconic. A promise of where guts and determination could take you.

Rizah: “Feodor Yerkes made his first fortune with self-driving electric cars and his second fortune by risking his entire first fortune building the Kilimanjaro compound Lofstrom loop then dominating the bandwidth supply for mobile devices. Then he allied with the Astors and invested heavily in automation in order to boost the space resource extraction industry and set up ASGuard almost incidentally, in order to prevent his launch facilities getting bombed. Not only are the Yerkes currently in 2nd place, with 14.12 trillion, they’re also gaining 1.1 trillion a year and accelerating. He owns a percentage of every Luna habitat and the companies based there, which he re-invests into infrastructure and funding ventures in the asteroid belt and beyond.”

She tapped the map a last time, creating a thread between Jiang Socrates and the fabled Song Mountain, near Luoyan, an ancient capital city of China, where the treaty enshrining the New Detente has been signed under his fathomless eyes. He’d chosen a spot nearly equidistant from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong as a political move to signal intentions of neutrality between the major internal Chinese factions of the time, but since then the city, where the Yellow River met the Silk Road, had become once again a place of power.

Rizah: “And in 1st place, of course, are the Jiang dynasty, worth 16.15 trillion and steadily increasing. Everyone knows he was the one responsible for stabilising the financial system and bringing an end to the Bad Years. And as far as the public are concerned, his reputation is unquestionable, and the stakes the Jiangs hold in banking, finance and online retail companies are something those companies ought to be grateful for. Nothing serious gets done in Chinese politics without at least the appearance of consulting the Sages.”

Nadine: “But in private? What are the Hexoikos really up to? You've told me about Jiang, the financial dynasty; Yerkes, the off-planet dynasty; Spreckels, the dynasty into property and propaganda, Huttleston, the medical dynasty into skirting regulations; Harriman, the environmental dynasty; and Astor, the automation dynasty. But who, other than the Spreckels, do the wombles need watch out for?”

Rizah: “That depends upon the direction you decide to lead them in." then added with enthusiasm, "But first, let’s go through all the marriages and alliances between the dynasties!"

Her face fell as Nadine failed to hide an inward grown.

Rizah: "...or would you prefer to concentrate on the major ones for now, and pick another day to look at the marriages between remote family members with few shares and even fewer prospects of ending up in control of the dynasty?"

Nadine: "How many major ones?"

Rizah: "Ten marriages. And of course we will need to also cover the children of note from them. That only, um, another nineteen." She smiled weakly.

Was Rizah taking pity on her? Something felt wrong about the two options she was being offered and it puzzled her enough to make her raise her hand to pause the conversation. Then she remembered who was meant to be in charge here. Nadine was the one with the authority to take control of the conversation all along, even if she hadn't exercised her ability to do so and had left a power vacuum - a temptingly untended console that lured Rizah to enter unopposed with a siren song of clicking control levers, their polished brass glittering like a Rhinemaiden.

She perked up at the realisation. All she had to do was take control!

Was that why the Hexoikos existed? Because society had allowed them the ability to seize or demolish all those smaller than their smallest member, the Astors? Had they all chosen to use that ability by coincidence? Or would a dynasty lose that ability if they chose not use it, and get replaced by some more ruthless dynasty? She didn't know.

But she wasn't going to let that stop her. Both options offered involved a long lecture. Her head would explode. If she asserted control, then she could make a third option. That must be justified - it was practically self-defence!