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Wolf eyed the swaying branch above his head. He had managed to persuade Stefolous to live in his pond and true to his prediction more tortoises began to make their home there too. Slowly, word that Owl had been tortured and had died from his wounds began to spread outside his area into the rest of the jungle. Wolf twitched his ear to chase off an annoying fly. A leaf in the branch above rustled. “Do not be shy, Bob,” Wolf said reassuringly. “I cannot climb. If it makes you feel safer, you can talk from the branch. I will not be offended.” “A fruit bat told me you wish to speak with me.” “Yes. Have you heard? Owl is dead.” Bob’s voice quivered as he replied, “I have heard Mr. Owl died from his wounds.” “That is right. You were his assistant. Did he reveal any secret to you?” “There was no secret Mr. Wolf. We went through the account books and Mr. Owl noticed that the service fees charged to the government was exorbitant.” “Do you still have the numbers?” “Yes I do, sir. But what do you want with it?” “The editor of The Tortoise Express, Stefolous is under my protection now. If you can show him the numbers then he may be able to write an article which will impeach President Fox.” The squirrel above him was silent for a long moment. Finally he said, “But Vice President Rat will kill me if I come out of hiding.” “He will not, I assure you.” “But he will, sir.” “No, he will not,” Wolf explained patiently, “because he is sick and tired of Fox’s greed too. And he wants all the lies, deceit and fraud to be revealed to the animals. If he had been looking for you, he would have found you by now. Instead he told me how to find you, and promised me that he will not do you any harm.” Bob swallowed three breaths in quick succession before saying, “But Rat is one of Fox’s cronies.” “That is what Fox made everyone thinks. But consider this: Was it not Rat who gave the account books to Owl? Do you think that he would have done that if he were part of the scheme to cheat the jungle animals of their wealth?” Another thoughtful pause. “You are right, Mr. Wolf. He couldn’t be involved. He is innocent.” “I thought you would see sense. Now could you show me the numbers?” “Yes, sir. The books are hidden about five yards from here.” Wolf stretched himself to a stand before following Bob who leapt from branch to branch until he came upon a hollow tree. The squirrel crawled into the hole that was once a woodpecker’s nest and threw out a bundle of leaves to the ground. Then he climbed down, unrolled the bundle, and arranged six accounts side by side on the jungle floor. Account Books in '000
Wolf commented, “They all show the same amount of profit.” ”10 million is the minimum amount required to be a government contractor, because a firm that doesn’t make profit has led to canceled projects in the past. That was why President Monkey put up a regulation that requires a minimum profit.” A pause. “But there is more. Owl noticed that the investment reported in each firm is the exact amount of equity in another firm. And that these investments are a lot higher than their Facility item.” “What do you mean?” ”The firms are investing more than half of their assets in another firm. That is not normal because a firm’s reason for existence is the business itself, so a normal account will only show a small percentage of money allocated to investments in shares.” “And for that reason, Owl suspected that…” “A single animal or entity was controlling the supply chain, and charging a fee from each firm. Owl went out and physically checked the addresses, and he found that only two of them had real workers. So he made the conclusion that the government was overpaying for the services of transporting the bamboo flowers.” “Why didn’t he report this to the cabinet?” “He did not want to stir any trouble. Instead he tried to persuade President Fox to pay our debts off to the goats directly, with their choice of transportation service.” Wolf folded the numbers back carefully and rolled them into a bundle. Then he offered his shoulder to Bob and raced back to the hyacinth pond.
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