“Jessie!”
“What? What?” With her husband’s second shout, Jessie finally put down the laundry basket, leaving the remaining clothes on the washing line and heading inside. “What is it, Art?”
“Look.”
On their television screen, a reporter was standing about fifty yards away from a burning building, the fire behind her blazing freely. The area she was standing in looked familiar, but with the fire and the number of people rushing around in the background, Jessie couldn’t place it exactly. It was only when she focused on the words moving across the bottom of the screen and the words the reporter was saying that it all clicked.
“…we are still waiting to hear what the exact cause of the collapse is, but early reports are blaming a ransomware attack. Despite this, an official statement from Trident is yet to be released as they calculate just exactly how many trillions of dollars have been lost and whether we will be able to get it back. Let’s go live now to Michael Forrester, who is stationed just outside the Trident building on Wall St. Michael, what’s it like over there?”
Jessie’s mouth dropped open as the camera cut to another reporter standing in front of the Trident building. It was where her brother worked five – sometimes six – days a week and where he had made his livelihood for over twenty years. Michael Forrester started speaking, but Jessie could only hear a ringing in her ears now. The reporter was constantly dodging people that charged toward the building, desperately trying to get inside on the hunt for answers. Catching snippets of information, Jessie slowly glued the pieces together over what had happened in New York.
“Oh my God,” she mumbled, grasping the kitchen counter for support as her knees became weak.
Watching the television screen, Jessie could see rioters surrounding the Trident building, throwing all manner of objects from bricks to individuals’ own shoes at the windows, desperately trying to break their way in. Whatever security force had been protecting the building before was long gone, just the exterior of the building standing in the way of the rioters. And that didn’t look like it would hold up for much longer.
“Sam…”
“I’ve tried calling him already,” Arthur spoke softly to his wife, walking toward her and guiding her body into one of the stools that circled their kitchen island. “I couldn’t get through. But we’ll keep trying. He’ll be fine I’m sure, your brother is prepared to deal with something like this.”
“Is he?” Jessie looked up at Art with a questioning gaze, searching her husband’s eyes for answers. “This looks bad, Art. Do you think it’s real? Do you really think all that money is just gone?”
Arthur bit his lip and glanced back up at the TV. The news report had moved on from the scene in front of Trident and was back in the studio now, three men and women discussing the effects of what had happened. Their conversation was just a low drone over the thoughts swimming around his head though, Arthur quickly trying to process the magnitude of this disaster and how it would directly affect him and his loved ones.
Shaking his head and speaking honestly, Arthur tried to answer Jessie’s questions and help put her mind at ease. “I don’t know, but if it is gone, they’ll find a way to get it back. Money can’t just vanish into thin air. They’ll print more or come up with some solution. I know it looks bad now, Jess, but give it a couple of days and this will just be a big blip. I bet Sam is locked away in his office as we speak coming up with a way to spin the solution and make all of this madness disappear. Mark my words, in a week we’ll have forgotten all of this even happened.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Arthur replied, giving his wife’s shoulders a quick squeeze. “They’re always over the top with these things. It’ll be fine.”
Standing just behind Jessie, Arthur tried to make himself believe his own words. He knew Jessie was intelligent enough to know he was only trying to make her feel better; to convince them both that what had happened wasn’t as extreme as the news reports were leading everyone to believe. The two of them watched the report in silence for a few minutes, calculating just how much would change if one of the world’s major banking groups had truly gone bust.
Could they print more money? It was a question Arthur mulled over for no more than a few seconds in his head before deciding against it. He wasn’t sure how far Trident’s global reach spread, but he knew money had a value for a reason. If countries could just print more and more, that value would be entirely lost and any inter-country relationships would suffer as a result. Hawaii was still technically a part of the States, but at times even they felt like they lived in a different country altogether. Would they still be remembered by those at Trident or in the White House when relief was surely delivered as a result of this catastrophe?
“Have you checked our accounts?”
“No, not yet.”
“Where’s my laptop?” Jessie asked, turning to look at her husband. She didn’t know what to think or how to react to this disaster. All of a sudden, she didn’t feel safe. She felt like everything had changed. Receiving her laptop from Art, she lifted the lid and navigated to the Trident website. “Come on,” she mumbled as she waited for the page to populate. The loading circle just
