Platform City

By Mel C. Thompson

In a desperate attempt to avoid too much scrutiny, the Cayman Islands pretends to be searching for oil. They build dozens of massive oil rig platforms under the pretense of having found massive reserves. They pretend to be surprised when the geologists "turn out to be wrong." Then they create an overseas territory and give it autonomy. This creates a new kind of state. Since the Caymans is an overseas territory of the UK, Platform City becomes and overseas territory of an overseas territory. This proves to be sufficient to keep regulators and law enforcement off the scent of all the new money flowing through the new micro-state.

Also, there are people with issues to work through about relationships, fame, peer pressure, religion and power politics. Sometimes the going gets a bit rough, and other times major conflicts are smoothed over. Whatever you're looking for, you might find it, or become disillusioned by it, if you hang out in Platform City long enough.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mel C. Thompson
• Release date: Dec 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005621865

Mel C. Thompson

Mel C. Thompson is a retired wage slave who survived by working through temp agencies and guard agencies. Unable to survive in the real world of full-time, permanent work, he migrated from building to building, going wherever his agencies sent him, doing any type of work he could feign competency in and staying as long as those fragile arrangements could last. He somehow managed to get a B.A in Philosophy from Cal-State Fullerton in spite of his learning disorders and health problems. Unable to sustain family life due to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, lack of transportation and lack of income, he lives alone in low-income housing and wanders around California on buses and trains. He began writing at the age of 14 and continues till the current day. (He turns 64 in June of 2023). In his early years he wrote pathetic love poetry until, in his thirties, he was engulfed by cynicism and fell in with a group of largely antisocial poets who wrote about the underground life of drugs, sex, alcohol, poverty, prostitution, heresy, isolation and alienation. In his fortes he turned to prose and began to write religious fiction with an emphasis on the comedic aspect of theology and philosophy. He now writes short novels focusing on the attempt to find meaning in a economic world beset with money laundering, unethical marketing, contraband smuggling, human trafficking, patent trolling, corrupt contracting and every manner of spiritual and psychological desperation and degradation. When he is not writing, he wanders from hospital to medical clinic to surgical room attempting to sustain what little health he has left after a lifetime of complications resulting from birth defects and genetic problems. When he is able, he engages in such hobbies as reading, walking, yoga and meditation; and whenever there is any money left over from his healthcare-related quests, he goes to wine tastings and searches for foodie-related bargains. Before the pandemic, he spent many years gaming various travel-points systems and wrangled many free trips to Europe. He is divorced and has no children, no pets, no real estate, no stocks nor any other assets beyond the $550 in his savings account. His career peaked in the early 2000s when he did comedy gags for a radio station and had about 10,000 listeners per week. However, currently, he may have as few as five active readers on any given day. He no longer has the stamina to promote his work and only finds new readers through ran...

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Platform City

Mel C. Thompson

Copyright © 2022

Mel C. Thompson Publishing

3559 Mount Diablo Boulevard, #112

Lafayette, CA 94549

[e-mail]

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Cover Photo Credits

Cover photo image is entitled CH-47 Chinook helicopter flyby (March, 2014). Author: SPC Glenn Anderson. This image is a public domain work of a US defense agency and can be found on Wikimedia Commons. Note: The use of public domain works within this project in no way implies the endorsement of this project by the authors or organizations initially posting those public domain works.

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MCTP Book Design and MCTP Artists

For information about Mel C. Thompson’s graphic design work for book covers or page design work for book interiors, or for any other inquiry regarding other MCTP artists and writers, please use the contact information above.

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Table of Contents

Scene 1, Platform #6, Westminster City

Scene 2, Platform #3, The Red Light District

Scene 3, Platform #10, Number Ten Downing Street

Scene 4, Platform #7, The Forbidden City

Scene 5, Platform #6, Westminster City

Scene 6, Platform #6, Westminster City

Scene 7, Platform #3, The Red Light District

Scene 8, Platform #21, Hollywoke

Scene 9, Platform #13, The Thirteen Colonies

Scene 10, Platform #11, The Pentagon

Scene 11, Platform #9, Caribbean Pirate Radio

Scene 12, Platform #14, New Jerusalem

Scene 13, Platform #14, New Jerusalem

Scene 14, Platform #1, Little Manhattan

Scene 15, Platform #7, The Forbidden City

Cast

Platforms

Context, Physical Situation And Set Design

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Scene 1, Platform #6, Westminster City

Return to Table of Contents

Jen Escalantes:

It’s not every day that I get to have a personal meeting with a spy.

Foggy Bottoms:

I’m not a spy. I’m just a low-level ambassador to a micro-state that most of the world doesn’t even recognize yet.

Jen Escalantes:

The world doesn’t recognize Taiwan either. Some powerful countries don’t need much in the way of external validation. But back to the platform you run. That place is crawling with spies. How could you not know of their existence? They’ve been seen in hotspots all over the Caribbean frantically gathering information on everyone.

Foggy Bottoms:

I can’t comment on anything to do with US intelligence operations at this time.

Jen Escalantes:

At this time? That makes it sound like there are times when you could comment on US intelligence operations.

Foggy Bottoms:

The US is a very optimistic country and we never like to eliminate the element of hope; and so we rarely say anything is absolutely precluded. In addition to at this time, we also encourage our spokespersons to use the phrases under the current circumstances and pending the completion of our investigation. We need to make everything look like an ongoing process which includes everyone’s concerns.

Jen Escalantes:

Although really, you’ve made up your minds already who to side with and who to throw under the bus?

Foggy Bottoms:

Geopolitics can be unkind. But what about you Miss Escalantes? Are you a spy? After all, you show up at a rented cubicle in the UK Consulate once a week and claim to be the Ambassador from the Cayman Islands to Platform City? If anything seems like a front, that does?

Jen Escalantes:

That’s like a one-hour-per-week job for me. After all, the prime minister of the Cayman Islands and the prime minister of Platform City don’t have much to say to each other.

Foggy Bottoms:

. . . because the prime minister of Platform City is upstairs at Number Ten Downing Street partying his brains out while your boss, the prime minister of the Cayman Islands is downstairs calling all the shots. And, by the way, shouldn’t your boss be at the Cayman Islands most of the time instead of living here and being the de facto ruler? That’s quite a conflict of interest — having one guy run two countries at the same time.

Jen Escalantes:

To be honest, the Cayman Islands practically runs itself. It’s a well-oiled machine and nothing there is changing very quickly. My boss likes to be where the action is, and he says there’s more action here in Platform City than a dozen island countries combined.

Foggy Bottoms:

Are you flirting with me, Ms. Escalantes?

Jen Escalantes:

Yes, I am, but not because I’m trying to pick up on you. I’m trying to get you a little revved up so you’ll be more open to doing me a favor.

Foggy Bottoms:

A favor?

Jen Escalantes:

You know the lady who runs the red light district on Platform #3?

Foggy Bottoms:

Who doesn’t? But are you trying to set me up with a sex worker?

Jen Escalantes:

She doesn’t do sex for money. She’s only the platform owner and manager. She takes a cut of everyone’s action, but she’s holding out for real sex, like sex from real dates, not johns.

Foggy Bottoms:

Sure, I’ll go out with her. Tell her to come by Platform #13 tonight around seven. We’re still renting out our top floor to everyone’s favorite French chef. Food and drinks are on me.

Jen Escalantes:

No, no. She insists on treating when she’s out on a date. And a government man like you? — you’re lucky to be bringing home 200K a year. She could light that much money on fire every month and not miss it, so it’s no use putting yourself out.

Foggy Bottoms:

Sounds fair to me.

Jen Escalantes:

Great. Let me know how it works out.

Foggy Bottoms:

You seem to be quite a flirt. Are you and the prime minister of the Cayman Islands in some kind of open relationship?

Jen Escalantes:

Oh no, darling, I’m strictly monogamous. He’s cheating, but I’m not.

Foggy Bottoms:

Is that fair?

Jen Escalantes:

I don’t care that much about arrangements being fair. What I care about is arrangements being happy. And me and the prime minister are quite happy. He cheats. I flirt.

Foggy Bottoms:

To tell you the truth, I’m considering trying monogamy sometime.

Jen Escalantes:

Why not? Everyone needs a little security.

Foggy Bottoms:

And while you’re arranging for people’s emotional security, your boss is busy arranging for their financial security.

Jes Escalantes:

Teamwork, honey. Teamwork.

Scene 2, Platform #3, The Red Light District

Return to Table of Contents

Foggy Bottoms:

Don’t you see it as a conflict of interest to be working as the owner of a sexual-fantasy super-mall and also as the national health director?

Lolita Maxwell:

I don’t see it as a conflict of interest, but more as an interesting conflict.

Foggy Bottoms:

And there’s another thing that’s been bothering me since I got here. The prime minster of the Cayman Islands is really the acting prime minister of Platform City. So the prime