Clever as Latho’s practical application of the ancient art of corruption has been, it’s not like it got it out of having to do any kind of physical labor.
It’s simply an incontrovertible law of corruption: you can’t just take everything, because that attracts attention. Depending on the customary or accepted base level of corruption in the surrounding society, you can reroute between 10% and 90% percent of the existent funds into dark channels, but never quite 100%. And neither Canada nor Japan are anywhere near the top of the list of corrupt societies, so our current location, whatever it may actually be, can’t be, either – thus there remains, unfortunately from Latho’s viewpoint, a still somewhat sizeable hill of coins to deal with.
The task is much more manageable, of course, but Latho still has to pace itself. Methodical digging at a moderate pace, with appropriate pauses, that’s the thing. And, unfortunately from Gregory’s viewpoint, not wasting any effort on helping or rescuing any people beyond the one you’re specifically after. It might appear uncharitable, but Latho has to keep the overarching goal in its sights…doing bone-breaking work in a boneless, squishy body makes due restraint critical.
And it’s not like Gregory is at an actual risk of dying, here. He’s one of the heroes, after all – and while that doesn’t mean he can’t die under any circumstances, suffocating under a pile of money is not among the sets of circumstances under which a movie hero can die. Or have you ever seen that happening? Movie production companies, even bad ones, simply make way too much money to be comfortable with that sort of imagery…
More on Monday.