The Armourer: An Opco Boone Adventure: Difference between revisions

“What? Give that here.” The Precedent Commander scowled. It aggrieved him to see this undirected, crackling energy.

Commander Hare shook his head thoughtfully. The kid had it bad: it was time to have some fun with him. He chuckled to himself, dug into the the hopper and pulled out a lightweight chro-moly [[engagement letter|engagement iron]] with a [[silencer]].  

He tossed it over. “What do you make of this one then, lad?”

The boy nodded “Nice pick-up. Handles smoothly, though a touch front-heavy — I guess on account of that front-loaded defs module.”

''Cloyingly submissive, the little bastard.''  

“Significant parol vulnerability.”

The boy continued to inspect the [[Side letter|side-arm]]. “Oh, look at this. There’s a general [[indemnity]]. That’s mad! Who the hell fits one of those onto a ''confi''?

Hare cleared his throat.  

The boy flipped a catch. “What the hell ... A BOC indemnity!” He carefully set the piece down on the bench and started working at it with his [[redline]]. “That’s positively dangerous.”

He made a couple of careful incisions and slowly, delicately, withdrew the offending mechanism and dropped it in a sterilised waste receptacle.

“That was ''close'', sir.”

Against his better judgement, Hare heard himself blurt out, “What is a “bock indemnity”?”

“It’s an [[indemnity]] in the [[breach of contract|contract breach]], sir. Someone has crossed the wires here and routed a [[reimbursement]] [[covenant]] into the breach mechanism. The terminals are close together, and it’s easy to do, but standard reference works cite an elevated risk of localised explosion from this configuration. High degree of [[Indeterminate liability|indeterminacy]], exothermic chain reactions possible.”

“Oh, a Bee-Oh-Cee indemnity,” Hare said, quickly. “Right.”

The boy snorted. “Who the hell drafted th—”

 

But at that moment the he saw the date-stamped authenticated signature below the serial number. “B.A.H.” The boy read the room. He flipped the piece over and inspected the handle. "Whoa: this destroy or return recoil is a nice piece of work. Sweet.”

E. J. smiled back at him. “Gimme another one, sir. We got a lot to get through. The Eagle Squad needs these at the front line”

The precedent depot was a caged area recessed and towards the back of the warehouse. As E. J. entered he ran his hand along the rail. A patina of dust lifted. ''Busy down here much?'' E. J. got to the counter. He pinged the bell. An elderly man in a yellow cap shuffled into the booth, expectorating into a soft commitment. He set down a cigarette. His eyes were red-rimmed but kind. He smiled, pleased of the visit.

“Sorry about that — I was, ah, distracted for a minute. Now, young man. How can I help you today?”

The old man chuckled softly. “Alright, alright. They talk about all the Cadets in the officers’ mess, you know. I hear you’re a good one. Boone said you nailed your closeout aptitude testing.”

But, now you need a long wait. Now, listen to me: as long as you don’t touch anything, I’m happy to let you go in. But this is a sacred space, understand? This is reserved sanctuary for the Eagle Squad Commanders, and you must respect it. There is their clause library; their control; their golden stream of authority. There is so much vital wisdom here, catalogued and arranged carefully. Some of the scripts are extremely fragile.”

E. J. navigated the boilerplate, running his gloved finger across the dusty spines. It was all here: all the ineffable, intricate, technical engineering and wiring schematics they contained. This was the articulated history of the Eagle Squad’s exploits — all the derring do; all the struggles; all the pear-shaped hulks and wrecked prospectuses. Every aspect: third party rights, representations, warranties, covenants, conditions precedent, conditions subsequent, waivers, notices, assignments, governing law, non-exclusive jurisdiction, exclusive jurisdiction, sovereign immunity, process agency, and protocols, organised by [[trade association]] and cross checked by regulatory regime.  

There were shelves and shelves of them, all housed on ancient mahogany. He hit the ISDA stack and the boy stared in awestruck wonder at the ancient wisdom they contained. There is was: the motherlode: the [[1985 ISDA Code of Standard Wording, Assumptions and Provisions for Swaps|1985 Code]]. The [[1987 ISDA Interest Rate and Currency Exchange Agreement|’87]]. The [[1992 ISDA Master Agreement|’92]]. The [[2002 ISDA Master Agreement|’02]], and even a prototype [[2008 ISDA Master Agreement|2008]], still in its shrink-wrap, never used. And every conflict, every situation, every skirmish, every desperate last stand in furtherance of those sacred testaments that the [[Eagle Squad]] heroes had ever mounted. User guides, tax addenda, elections schedules, bail-in protocols, master confirms, closing agendas, global securities — ''everything''. Work manuals to deal with every situation.  

“''Wait a minute''! Could there be —” he said out loud, but before he finished the thought, he was racing down the aisle. The stack was alphabetical, by topic. He let his fingers do the walking. “[[BIPRU]] ... [[BIS]] ... [[Bid-ask]] ... [[bifurcation]] ... [[big data]] ... ''[[Biggs constant|Biggs]]''”

''There it was''. He pulled the file. It slid out easy, like a sword from a stone. Gently the boy cracked the file. It was light. It was — ''empty''. The hoson was missing. The boy noticed an insert in a cardboard pocket glued inside the folder. It was date-stamped 1997. He pulled it.

REMOVED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES. Refer armory. ''[Signed]'' O R. M. Boone, E.S.C.

“Whoa,” E. J. breathed. “The original [[Biggs hoson|Biggs Hoson]] itself.” There it was: that famous, emboldened period: the tiny, microscopic, indivisible unit of legal markup. E. J. just stood there and took it in, in its iconic, finical exactitude. So ''stark''. So ''simple''. So ''elegant''. So ''pure'', in its absolute, utter, limit-attaining pedantry. E. J. whispered: “None smaller. None more pure. None more pedantic.”