CHAPTER 1 (pp. 1–16): ANCIENT SEEDS OF FORTUNE (or A LATE NIGHT WITH EL PULPO)

International Trade Lawyer Solomon Digby Ryan is suffering from initial symptoms of corporate burnout i.e. erratic nocturnal habits and seborrheic skin conditions. Late one night in the Giblin Eunsen Library (while conducting routine trade investigation) SDR stumbles upon the unfortunate death reports of a Japanese Bacterial Plant Pathologist who helped influence the import / export practices of the global apple trade. Disturbed by the horrifying accounts he begins to question the impact of his own personal actions on a larger bureaucratic system before uncovering an abandoned model of the Keynesian System. In the next 24 hours he quickly learns how individual actions have a virulent and lasting power.