Blood Zero Sky by J. Gates

between me and the lamplight, I see a wicked-looking knife in his hand.
    “Now, there was no telling where the government stopped and the Company began,” he continues. “There was no telling where the Church stopped and the Company began. The Church they kept, since it served their purposes, but the government they simply phased out. And the people were glad to see it go. Think of all the evil things governments did: make wars, imprison people, lie to the populace. Certainly, a publicly owned Company would never do any of those things to its own employees! With the government gone, there was nobody to oppose the will of the Company, because the people were all employees, the employees were all stockholders, and the stockholders were all going deeper and deeper into debt thanks to the generous and unprecedented credit opportunities offered by the Company. Nobody could quit—they were Company property, through and through. There was nobody to complain to. No escape. The entanglement was complete. The ensnarement was total.”
    Somewhere, the sound of sirens. More gunshots.
    My thoughts spin around me, a vortex of confusion. I’ve heard this story before, but it always sounded so different. After the great economic collapse, the Company rescued the world from a corrupt and inefficient government system; that’s what really happened. The way this speaker is telling it, the Company was the problem all along. And he acts like people don’t have any choice but to work for the Company! The more I think about it, the angrier I get.
    “If somebody doesn’t like N-Corp, they can quit and go to B&S,” I say.
    “That’s right,” the voice says. “B&S was the only other company to realize the genius of the N-Corp strategy and emulate it. They were a Chinese-based electronics manufacturer, but they quickly acquired huge holdings all over the world. They took up the name of a small American engine company, Briggs & Stratton—later shortened to B&S—for its positive brand association, just as N-Corp chose to use Nabisco. They followed N-Corp’s business model precisely, all the while protecting themselves fiercely against any N-Corp takeover attempt. Then, before the world governments were completely subjugated, they put into place territorial divisions to separate the last two companies, so that the giants would not become one. N-Corp was given one half of the world market, B&S the other. But the truth is, there is no difference between them. In their greed, in their ruthlessness, in their disregard for human dignity, they are one. ”
    “No . . .” I begin to contradict him, but I’m interrupted by the sound of an explosion, then footfalls clattering down a staircase. “Ethan! They’re coming.” This new voice is foreign, low and commanding, lilting, dangerous.
    “Thank you, McCann. We’re almost ready,” says the first voice, and just then the voice’s owner—Ethan, it would seem—steps forward into the light. He’s younger than I expected. Thirty years old, maybe, with fine features and a trim, compact body. He’d be downright handsome, except that the shapeless brownish hair that falls into his almost indolent blue eyes gives him a look of being somehow unfinished.
    The other man, McCann, comes to Ethan’s side. The quivering lamplight etches the fine lines of his dark-skinned, muscular arms and his square jaw. Through the shadows, his fierce brown eyes shine.
    “Ethan, we can’t hold them off much longer,” he whispers.
    Ethan turns back to me just as gunshots resume above us.
    “Time is up,” Ethan says, leaning close to my face, his ice-blue eyes almost sharp enough to cut me. “You have to choose.”
    “Choose what?” I say.
    He holds up the knife.
    “You helped Clair and you could be very useful to our cause.”
    My head is spinning. I might or might not puke.
    “Ethan . . . ” says McCann.
    “May, the people of America, the people of the world, need you.”
    “I don’t understand. Who