Chapter 137.

Slightly dejected, I lowered my head. I bent my body forward a bit thanking them for their time before I immediately packed up my things and followed Val out the door without another word. Val told me beforehand if things turned out this way to follow behind her and leave without saying anything further. Don’t show desperation; we’re not the ones in the weaker position, that was what she claimed when we discussed things. I still didn’t understand where her confidence came from.

The moment the door shut behind me, I heard a loud bang from inside the room. Had I pissed off the cranky old farts that badly? I just went along with Val’s instructions though, don’t blame me.

“THAT WRETCHED WOMAN!”

When I heard the seething rage in their voice, I immediately hightailed it out of there. It turned out it wasn’t me they were mad at, but a woman instead. By that, they naturally meant Val, right? What the hell did she do? She was silent the entire time after the start.

When I caught up to Val, I noticed she had a devilish grin plastered all over her face. 

“Val, I feel a bit out of the loop right now, didn’t I completely mess up just now?”

“Mess up? What are you talking about? Didn’t you see how ugly their faces were the moment they realized they were getting blackmailed in broad daylight?”

“I couldn’t see their faces too well in the room.”

“Then you missed out on the chance of a lifetime. It was extremely satisfying to put those dirty old money-grubbers in their place.”

“Val, did you do something? They sounded pretty mad at you rather than me for some reason.”

“It’s nothing much, Mr. Genovese. You don’t need to worry yourself about the conflict going on behind the scenes.”

“I’m seriously confused, can’t you clear this up for me a bit?”

“All I’ll say is you weren’t the only one with dirt to blackmail them with.”

“What? When did you do that?”

“When I secretly slid my business card over to them while you were in the middle of answering the only question they asked you. Weren’t you curious why they ended the meeting so abruptly without warning?”

“What was on your business card?”

“Nothing much, just a bit of interesting information I got a hold of off of a peculiar black market information broker on the dark web.”

“Isn’t that going a bit too far? I mean, wasn’t me acting like some traitorous street thug in a turf war already pushing the limits a bit? If you go any further than that, aren’t you afraid of the repercussions or backlash?”

“It’s never too far when you’re dealing with scummy old businessmen with only money in their eyes. There will also be no repercussions in this particular case; they wouldn’t dare. In all honesty, this meeting was somewhat of a farce to an extent.”

“If this’s how it was going to turn out, was there even a need to bring me or make me work so hard on that stupid presentation?”

“The presentation isn’t necessarily useless; it serves the purpose of making everything look completely reasonable and natural on the surface. There will be rumors that spread as well within the firm. Inevitably, there will be leaks here and there to media outlets through employees to those snoopy reporters who caught wind of this meeting. With the data you put together, nobody would think there was anything truly underhanded going on behind the scenes.” 

“Additionally, with how you’re a former employee with the firm, it looks even less suspicious when you’re acting as a bridge between our company and your old firm. The deal looks clean, and it’s all thanks to your good name and effort.”

“Only those inside the meeting know the true nature of this underhanded deal. It’s important for publicity purposes. Maintaining a dignified and righteous appearance in the eyes of the consumer is key to maintaining a company’s reputation. The more trust we garner in the people, the more we’ll be booming and raking in cash later on. In case you were worried, I made sure no recordings or minutes were left behind for this meeting. They wouldn’t want what was said in the actual meeting to spread either, so they readily complied with the request.”

A chill ran down my back when I heard the full explanation of the underhanded exchange that unknowingly transpired right in front of me. I once again reconfirmed my boss was a big-time schemer whose bad side I should avoid at all costs.

“Val, I’m still curious though, can’t you just let me in on what dirt you have on them?”

“Fine, here’s a hint. You remember the weird introduction I instructed you to break the ice with?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“There were a few hidden keywords in our little back and forth banter that really made them pay attention.”

“Keywords?”

“Yes. Bank, next week, tax, and collect.”

“Sorry, now you’ve lost me.”

She squinted her eyes like a vulture, “Well, that’s only natural. You don’t know the context of why those would be keywords that would trigger them. They are words they would be particularly jumpy around at the moment.”

“And what is this context that I’m ignorant of?”

“It’s quite elementary, my dear Mr. Genovese.”

“Even if you pinch above your lips with two fingers like that, there’s no mustache, so please drop the poor impressions.”

“You’re just grumpy because you’re the only one who can’t see the bigger picture.”

“I’m not grumpy. Just hurry up and tell me already.”

“Should I? Should I really tell such an impatient sidekick who doesn’t know his place?”

“I’m not a sidekick, and quit going off-topic.”

“Haaah, it’s lonely being at the top with nobody around to understand my thought processes.”

“Enough of the crappy jokes.”

“Sheesh, I’m just in a bit of a good mood after a great success, don’t ruin it for me you party pooper.”

“Fine, I won’t ruin it for you, but just explain to me what’s going on.”

“Well, do you remember how I mentioned I cut ties with my family before?”

“Yeah, I do. What about it?”

“I did cut ties, but I still occasionally hear a few things about them through various means. My sister, in particular.”

“You have a sister?” I was genuinely surprised. I couldn’t imagine what her sister would be like at all. Just the thought of their being two of her gave me a headache.

“Yeah. I can’t say we get along very well, but she is still my blood-related sister despite how  I cut ties with the family. After I quit taking up contracts, our lives basically diverged along two completely separate paths. Due to one particular reason, we really aren’t on good terms at the moment though.”

She said that with a strange look on her face. I wanted to ask her about it, but it felt like we’d get off-topic and I’d never find out what I originally wanted to know if our conversation went off on another unexpected tangent.

“What does your sister have to do with any of this?”

“It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll try to make this short. The reason those old fogeys reacted strongly to those words was because of how they were caught in a trap recently. They’ve taken part in extremely shady dealings over the last few years. The little success of their firm, coupled with their rapid expansion in recent years, got to their heads; they’d grown complacent and cocky, which led them to overestimate their abilities.”

“They’ve been embezzling and laundering their firm’s funds to several offshore bank accounts in countries considered tax havens while disguising them as donations, losses, and fake investments so they could reap big tax breaks from the government. Simply put, it is tax evasion at its finest; on a level that normal civilians would never be able to wrap their heads around. We’re not talking small amounts here. We’re talking about unknown billions of dollars in dirty money being moved through many unscrupulous channels.”

“Eventually, they incurred the wrath of the wrong person when they got greedy and ventured too deep by expanding into an industry they should have never tested the waters of. When my sister caught wind of the operation they’d recently wet their hands in, she posted all the information she had on them to an online darknet market.”

“She did that to show them she was dead serious. Her words were not empty threats when she said she’d destroy them if they didn’t cough up the appropriate sum. Though she cared little for the money, her intent was simple, bleed them dry and hurt them with what she knew they cared about most, how much money they had hoarded away in their accounts. If they suffered a great enough financial loss, they would think twice about crossing the line they crossed for a second time. They would forever fear incurring an even greater loss. After all, business is all about risk and return; when the risk far outweighs the return, a smart businessman will step back.”

“Anyway, the post my sister made was a direct threat to the board of directors in code that only the two parties would understand. Essentially, if they wanted her silence, in a week’s time they would hand over an extraordinary sum of cash to her. Should they refuse, she would leak all the dirt and documents she’d compiled to both the public and authorities.”