FROM: Bryce Barren
SENT: Tue, May 17, 11:28 PM
TO: Trent Hergenrader
SUBJECT: Finale

And here we are in the closing hours of this campaign. (wipes away tear)

After reading "Executive Decisions" I realized that what Betsy wants, more than anything, is to be relevant. For her, the possibility of the federal government coming into Rivertown to check the place out would be a dream come true. The Four Families have cornered a very small market and rule it with an iron fist but their plan is short-sighted and the country club is closed to new members. Betsy may be part of the elite but that doesn't get her very far, besides having a line on the best booze. Her dream is to be back in a well-funded, well-stocked, functioning lab doing research and having minimal contact with other human beings. If she could get connected to the Internet she would tap back into a repository of knowledge and she could communicate with other intelligent scientists rather than the Rivertown rabble.

We've already established that there's a computer network that connects the main MPD bases so the technology exists, but the local servers that provide an Internet connection are out of commission. There's still the possibility of satellite connections that would bypass the local servers, but those would be rare and expensive and we all know who has the rare and expensive stuff in Rivertown. While I would assume Rudy Reichman is using his coveted Internet connection to find porn, it does raise interesting questions about who else is connected and what that means. For example, could someone (Marshall Johnson or Carlo Reyes) have already sent word to the feds without telling the other families? Probably. In fact, the one who contacts them first would get to tell their side of the story first and use that as leverage in the power scramble that would surely ensue.

Regardless, Betsy is willing to do whatever to get reconnected to the world. Her networking problems (in multiple senses) hold her down; the possibility of romancing the unpredictable Rudy Reichman for his connection to the outside world offers some interesting ways the story could proceed. So that's exactly where I'm leaving it. Open-ended.

=-BB-=