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Scripts Aloud brings drama right into your ears. By using text-to-speech software, theater scripts go from the page into drama, every week. Typically 10-minute scripts are presented in each episode. It's like having a Theater Festival - right on your phone!
The Ghengis Game
by
Rick Regan
June 17, 2021
Characters:
Melinda French (Gates)
Priscilla Chan (Zuckerberg)
MacKenzie Scott (Bezos)
Whitney Wolff (Herd)
WHITNEY MANSION - EARLY EVENING
Fancy cars and limousines pull up the long driveway
approaching the castle. It is the home of WHITNEY Wolff,
young billionaire founder of Bumble.
At the entrance, uniformed staff with radios announce the
arrivals to the teams inside, and assist with the entrances
of the women exiting the cars onto the red carpet leading
into the home. The cars each drive away and the next one
pulls up until all are inside. The staff members greet each
woman by name, and lead them into the large foyer where
WHITNEY Wolff welcomes each one.
Priscilla Chan is 36, wife of billionaire Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg.
MacKenzie Scott is 50, billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos.
Whitney Wolff is 31, billionaire founder of dating app
Bumble.
Melinda French is 56, billionaire ex-wife of Bill Gates.
The women all greet each other and assemble in a large dining
room with huge floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over the
hills and vineyards of Napa valley.
WHITNEY
Ladies, thank you all for coming tonight. It means so
much to me that you sacrifice your time for our
Women's Action Network meetings. I really am pleased
to see all of you.
(general applause)
We have several agenda items to get to but first a
little housekeeping. The staff will provide drinks
and dinner. There is a pre-printed card for each of
you, so just tick off the items that you would like
and the service will do their best to accommodate.
The women pick up the menu cards on the table, and use the
pens to specify Aperitivo, Antipasti, the Primi, Secundi,
Cortorno (side dish), Insalata, Formaggi and fruit, and
dessert courses. The cards are distributed. Each person has
her own individual server.
WHITNEY (CONT'D)
And now let’s begin with a toast: To a better year,
next year!
All toast and give a small cheer.
PRISCILLA
Thank you, Whitney. Your hospitality makes us all
feel so welcome. Thank you for opening your home for
our summer meeting for 2021.
WHITNEY
So pleased. Thank you.
PRISCILLA
Now as the wine soaks in and the viandes and other
comestibles are distributed, I would like to come to
our theme of this season’s meeting: Motherhood.
(applause)
Many of you have dedicated significant philanthropic
energy, time and resources to helping mothers around
the world. I’d like to take a few minutes to focus
our attention on the central obstacles to mothers.
Around the world, girls are denied schools, families
abandon girls over boys, women are vulnerable to
sexual assault, and the list of issues goes on and
on. What are the priorities for our team here?
WHITNEY
Well, if I could jump in here, I’d like to add a few
things.
PRISCILLA
Right. Whitney, as the youngest billionaire in our
group and our newest member, let me welcome you to,
in my opinion, the most powerful team of women in the
world. Welcome!
WHITNEY
Thanks, Priss. Glad to be hosting tonight.
Now as you all know, I run a software company that
help people connect, particularly women, without many
of the adverse interactions that we are plagued with
on other sites. What me and my team have learned,
over millions and millions of member interactions is
one simple thing: Men suck.
(laughter)
No, it’s true. They are aggressive, abusive,
overbearing and, this is one of our key findings,
they smell bad. We call it The Smelly Men Syndrome.
Over and over again, we hear from users that men
interact with women, in subtle ways, to gain the
woman’s confidence - and then revert back to being a
Smelly Man. They say he is not really listening. He
is not paying attention. Often his mother is
domineering and dismissive of the new relationship.
And yes, there is The Smell.
MACKENZIE
It’s true. Jeff could smell really bad. It’s not like
he was making it happen. It was just that he would
work around the clock, for days, and stop showering,
brushing his teeth. It was gross. Probably still is.
WHITNEY
Michael is like that. He’ll get into some project and
I’ll turn around and think, What happened to you? You
smell awful! Of course, I wouldn’t want to be in some
space capsule with Jeff Bezos either. It just seems
like something can be done.
MELINDA
Yeah, Bill could get pretty ripe. Especially in
Bellingham. So damp!
PRISCILLA
Pee-yew!
MACKENZIE
And those are clean American men. My German cousins
smell like the Black Forest.
MELINDA
Like... pine?
MACKENZIE
No. Think bear shit.
PRISCILLA
Oh my!
MACKENZIE
Well, we hose them down and keep we keep working.
WHITNEY
So I have a proposal for this group. But I warn you,
it is bold.
They all look at the young woman, waiting for the
announcement.
PRISCILLA
We’ve had bold proposals before. I doubt if we’ll be
shocked. Heh-heh! This is a bold group, my dear. Very
bold! And fiercely proud! Fiercely proud.
WHITNEY
OK. So, some of you are mothers. Some are not. Some
by choice. Some not by your choosing.
PRISCILLA
What are you driving at?
WHITNEY
It has come to my attention, through technology
circles, that there is a race afoot, by the richest
men in the world, some of your husbands. They call it
the Genghis Game.
MELINDA
Is Bill involved in this?
WHITNEY
Possibly.
MACKENZIE
What about Jeff?
WHITNEY
Probably. And Elon. And Larry Ellison of Oracle.
PRISCILLA
I’ll ask Mark about it but if those guys are in, he
probably is too. What’s it about, the Genghis Game?
WHITNEY
So DNA researchers have confirmed what had long been
rumored around the world, that one in every two
hundred men in the world today are related to Genghis
Khan. That’s somewhere between fifteen and twenty
million men alive today.
MELINDA
Randy little fucker.
WHITNEY
Historians say that during the campaigns around the
year 1200 AD, of the captured and conquered, the most
beautiful women were reserved for him. The research
points to Genhis Khan having had roughly twentythousand direct descendants, scattered from Asia to
the Middle East.
PRISCILLA
Whitney, this is all very interesting, but what is
your proposal that is so bold?
WHITNEY
The Tiger Squad, as I am sure you know, is the secret
dinner gathering of these rich men, where they
discuss the priorities of mankind, out of the glare
and light of day.
MELINDA
Yes, Bill goes down to see Zuck every year.
(to Priscilla)
He always says it is very nice!
PRISCILLA
Thank you, Mel. It is a bit of a chore.
WHITNEY
Well the rumor is that one of them read this research
and wondered what it would require, in the modern
world, to overtake Genghis Khan’s sinister record.
When they discussed it, there was a bet made, and
some of them started working on winning the Genghis
Game, to father more than twenty-five thousand
children.
PRISCILLA
How exactly would that work?
MELINDA
What was the bet? What do they win? If Ellison is
involved, I’m sure it is about bragging rights.
That’s all he’s concerned with: who’s got the biggest
dick!
MACKENZIE
I could see investing in synthetic reproduction, DNA
modification, CRISPR technology, that sort of thing.
But in-vitro?
PRISCILLA
Or do they recruit women? I’m concerned that they
will disrupt the communities of poor people, because
who are they going to recruit, rich white girls? No,
they want VALUE for the dollar. Much cheaper to
harvest the bodies - and lives - of poor women around
the world. This is ghastly!
WHITNEY
All of that. I’m no DNA scientist but I’m guessing
one of them will come up with a way to synthesize his
genetic material. Then they all will. But the
interesting part, as Melinda says, is the women. They
are each coming up with payment schemes to pay women
to have little mini-Me’s.
PRISCILLA
And depending on the price, there is a ready market
of bodies for hire. Nepal has a terrible practice of
this, nearly industrialized! A horror.
MACKENZIE
But it could be a financial lifeline for many of the
young women. Perhaps Bill or Mark will lift an entire
village of women.
MELINDA
He’d better fucking not!
WHITNEY
Hang on. My proposal is that we flip the tables on
them. We can focus a counter offensive on supporting
families, supporting villages and supporting girls
around the world. That is the kind of work that we
all should be doing.
MACKENZIE
You know, hypothetically... there is another way.
WHITNEY
Mac?
MACKENZIE
A Mother Earth Game. If they want to synthesize
manhood, we could synthesize womanhood.
MELINDA
Ooooohhh! I’m game! Tell me more.
MACKENZIE
If we recruit women to have children with their own
husbands - but with our eggs. Think of it, what man
is going to contribute and support a wife who is
having Elon’s child, in Africa or South America?
None. They will probably kill their wives first,
unless they are lied to by the wives. And if the men
find out, the world gets much more dangerous for the
children.
PRISCILLA
There would be a negative outcome component,
something like fifty percent.
MACKENZIE
So he would need, say, fifty thousand live births, to
harvest a viable twenty-five thousand or so.
WHITNEY
I think this is getting a little out of hand.
MACKENZIE
Don’t be a ninny, Whit. Think bold. If we each target
a hundred thousand women, with our synthetic eggs,
but matched with their husband’s material, then give
them, say, ten years of, oh, fifty-thousand dollars a
year. We’ll have them lining the streets to sign up.
MELINDA
The husbands might stay involved. But, unfaithful
bastards... I don’t know.
PRISCILLA
The women would get a guarantee of financial support.
And we could strengthen the community as well, with
schools, doctors, banks.
MACKENZIE
Mobile telephones, electronic banking, support
starting their own businesses.
PRISCILLA
We could re-make the entire world.
MACKENZIE
If we work together to produce the necessary science,
I think it is achievable, within the decade.
PRISCILLA
Gosh, Mac, why wait that long? Act fast, break stuff!
We did the mRNA vaccine in less than a year. We can
tackle this.
WHITNEY
What if there was a language component as well? Like,
lessons in English. Then they could use my app.
PRISCILLA
And basic science teaching. Biology, chemistry. Girls
and women should know these things.
MELINDA
That’s all very good, but what about religion? The
boys in the holy-roller club will raise holy-hell!
MACKENZIE
Our women will run-over the priests and mullahs with
bicycles and rikshaws to get a shot at this jackpot.
They will be the change.
PRISCILLA
(dreamy)
I can see one-hundred thousand of my sons and
daughters, sprinkled around the world like
wildflowers in a meadow.
MELINDA
(coy)
I am afraid I have a leg up on you, ladies. My
foundation already has much of the technology in
place. I admit that I had not considered such a bold
proposal but I am willing to be the greatest mother
in the world.
MACKENZIE
Hmmmm, yes, well, we’ll see. My Scott Foundation has
been pioneering reproductive research for the last
decade. I suppose I could license it to you.
PRISCILLA
Well, my chemical and biological research institutes
could be focused, and may already be, on this task.
If I get an early lead, I will let you know.
WHITNEY
But you’re not serious, are you?! Don’t you see the
ghastly implications? You would become colonizers
again. Like Conquistadors or the East India Company!
MACKENZIE
(grandly)
Leopold cut off their hands. I would lift them out of
their misery, for the sake of my children. So, is it
one-hundred thousand children then? Is that the bet?
MELINDA
At least fifty-K to keep playing. I’m in.
PRISCILLA
Count me in. I warn you though, I move fast. If Zuck
is involved, I’m going to show him who’s boss.
MACKENZIE
Oh I’m in. If Jeff is doing twenty-five, I’m doing a
hundred! He can suck it!
WHITNEY
Well you all are bold! I don’t have the deep pockets
for the Motherhood Game but I’ll gladly be the judge.
Report back to me your - confidential - findings and
I will keep score.
MACKENZIE
May the best mother win! To the Motherhood Game!
(toasts)
ALL
Here-Here! Now, let’s eat!
Servers come from every direction, pouring wine, delivering
plates and the party commences.
END