Freddy opened his mouth and Tjan held up one hand. "No, wait, let me
finish. I know it's your schtick to come after us this way, you've
been at it for years. I think it's because you have an unrequited
crush on Suzanne Church.
"Here's what's really happening. Lester Banks and Perry Gibbons have
taken jobs with Disney Parks as part of a straightforward
deal. They're going to do research and development there, and Disney
is settling its ongoing lawsuit with us with a seventy million dollar
cash settlement. Half goes to the investors. Some of the remainder
will go to buy the underlying titles to the shantytown and put them in
a trust to be managed by a co-operative of residents. The rest is
going into another trust that will be disbursed in grants to people
operating rides around the country. There's a non-monetary part of the
deal, too: all rides get a perpetual, worldwide license on all Disney
trademarks for use in the rides."
The announcers smiled and nodded.
"We think this is a pretty good win. The rides go on. The shantytown
goes on. Lester and Perry get to do great work in a heavily resourced
lab environment."
Tania-Luz turned to Freddy. "It seems that your story is in
dispute. Do you have further comment?"
Freddy squirmed. A streak of sweat cut through his pancake makeup as
the camera came in for a closeup. "Well, if this is true, I'd want to
know why Disney would make such a generous offer --"
"Generous?" Tjan said. He snorted. "We were asking for *eight billion*
in punitive damages. They got off easy!"
Freddy acted like he hadn't heard. "Unless the terms of this so-called
deal are published and subject to scrutiny --"
"We posted them about five minutes ago. You could have just asked us,
you know."
Freddy's eyes bugged out. "We have no way of knowing whether what this
man is saying is true --"
"Actually, you do. Like I say, it's all online. The deals are
signed. Securities filings and everything."
Freddy got up out of his seat. "*Would you shut up and let me
finish?*" he screamed.
"Sorry, sorry," Tjan said with a chuckle. He was enjoying this way too
much. "Go on."
"And what about Death Waits? He's been a pawn all along in this game
you've played with other people's lives. What happens to him as you
all get rich?"
Tjan shrugged. "He got a large cash settlement too. He seemed pretty
happy about it --"
Freddy was shaking. "You can't just sell off your lawsuit --"
"We were looking to get compensated for bad acts. We got compensated
for them, and we did it without tying up the public courts. Everybody
wins." He cocked his head. "Except you, of course."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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