As Benjamin spoke up, Aqua displayed the relevant information on the screen, placing it opposite of the previous surveys. It reflected the situation of the two brothers facing off. However, while Benjamin was stubborn, William was looking for a compromise:
"I have also seen those clues, Benjamin. Of course, Siva wouldn't just allow us to eat up a part of the market share. However, in my opinion they were only kicking us when we were down. The bigger issue is still that the consumers don't…"
"Stop! William, you are talking in delusions. I don't know which hippie whispered those ideas into your ears, but spending money on the poor will not help us!"
Benjamin's voice rose as he talked, his eyes simmering with barely contained rage. William was surprised seeing him like this and even a few of the other people began to frown. A woman wearing a fine suit coughed awkwardly before saying:
"Well, I think Mister William Bender has a point…"
Immediately Benjamin sent a shocking glare towards the woman. He never expected someone to stab him into the back at this moment. But seeing that it was Miss Fenrich, head of the marketing department, Benjamin sneered inwardly. This woman has always been on good terms with his brother. Perhaps even too good…
William felt strange as Benjamin gazed between him and Miss Fenrich. He quickly tried to calm the situation down. But Benjamin was set on confrontation today. Of course, this wasn't only about the difference in opinions but also the situation with the inheritance. Some people could guess that much but no one would dare to talk about it.
Thus, the meeting continued in a tense atmosphere as two opposing fronts formed. Benjamin got increasingly angry as people began to support William. However, in the end more people stuck with him. As a consequence, the meeting arranged by William ended three hours later without any real resolution.
As the majority shareholder William could forcibly get his way, but this clearly wasn't in line with his character. He was sure that he could convince at least a majority to side with him, holding a strong belief in his own ideas. Even if he had to deal with his stubborn brother.
Thus, William didn't waste much time and swiftly found Benjamin in his office. For another hour he tried to convince his brother, seemingly with some success as Benjamin promised to at least think about it.
When Benjamin watched William leave his office and the door shut, he lost his strained smile, and his face contorted.
"Dad?! Are you watching? Do you see this? This fool is about to squander all our money, and you made him majority shareholder! Why? F*cking why?!"
Benjamin slammed the desk in anger. But he swiftly realized that he lost his composure and took a few deep breaths to calm down. Suddenly he furrowed his brows. Something felt strange below his hand. It wasn't the familiar feeling of the smooth desk under his palm.
Benjamin lifted his hand and looked down, instantly freezing in place. Somehow an invitation had appeared on his desk. It was exactly the one he had thrown away yesterday! Café of Dreams!
A chill ran down Benjamin's spine. This time he didn't dare to dismiss the strange occurrence.
"Aqua! When did this card appear on my desk?!"
"Sir… there is nothing on your desk."
"Bullsh*t!"
Without answering, Aqua displayed the live surveillance of Benjamin's office on the screen. Benjamin looked over and his eyes instantly narrowed. Indeed, in the view of the camera there was nothing on his desk.
Although the sight was a strange one, Benjamin didn't panic. There was indeed technology able to hide objects from the view of cameras. However, who in their right minds would apply such technology to some small card? Who in their right mind would even produce cards like these in this day and age? If you wanted to advertise there were thousands of more efficient methods…
Benjamin shook his head, unable to figure it out. He asked Aqua to show him the footage of the last 30 minutes and found not a single clue about how the card appeared. Would someone use stealth technology to sneak into his office and place this card here? Who would be bored enough to do something like that?
Thinking up to this point, Benjamin suddenly had an idea. There have always been rumours about secret organizations seeking to gain influence over the world. Usually, Benjamin would dismiss them as nonsense conspiracy theories. But with what has been happening those past two days a hint of doubt formed in Benjamin's mind.
As the seed had been planted it couldn't be torn out anymore. Benjamin tried to focus on work, but his mind kept veering towards the Café of Dreams. Eventually he couldn't hold back.
"Aqua, search me all the information you can find about 3121 Posmatra Road."
"Yes, Sir."
A moment later the information was all over Benjamin's screens. As expected, the address led to a place in the exhaust district. It had housed all kinds of small businesses in the past. The last one being a drug shop.
Drug shops existed everywhere in Umbran. The drugs they sold could temporarily boost strength or allow one to stay active an entire night. Such drugs had been refined until there were barely any serious side effects and had thus been made legal. Many companies encouraged their employees to take drugs to improve their performance.
However, where there were legal drugs there naturally also existed illegal drugs. Those gave more potent boost but came with serious side effects with the most obvious being the addiction they caused.
The drug store which used to be in Posmatra Road was surprisingly raided by authorities and found to sell illegal drugs. It was promptly shut down and since then the building had been abandoned.
"An abandoned building… a hide out?"
Benjamin mumbled under his breath as he searched for more information. However, from what he could tell there should have been no changes since the building had been abandoned. Being in the exhaust district it had probably become a gathering spot for some homeless. At least Benjamin could exclude the possibility that it had been occupied by some gang, or he would be able to find some news about it.
"However, the name Café of Dreams doesn't pop up even once…"
Benjamin sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Suddenly his eyes opened wide as he glanced at the time.
"Did I spend more than two hours on this?!"
Benjamin was shocked, even feeling some cold sweat running down his spine. This was completely uncharacteristic for him. Benjamin always prided himself as a disciplined person. He would never waste time when there was so much work to do!
For some reason Benjamin felt something ominous. He was short on breath. Gritting his teeth he grabbed the invitation card. His hand stopped briefly. But he managed to focus his mind and throw the card away.
But as it was the only object lying in his trash can, the card was perfectly visible, constantly attracting Benjamin's eyes.
"Aqua! Tell someone to empty my trashcan!"
"Yes, Sir!"
It didn't take long for a young woman to come into the office. She wore a puzzled expression seeing that the boss wasn't sitting at his desk and instead stared out of the window.
"What are you standing around for?! Do your job!"
"Ah, yes sir… sorry, sir."
The woman grabbed the trash can, looking at it strangely. She didn't understand why the boss made her empty an already empty trash can. Was it some kind of punishment? Did she make a mistake recently?
Unable to figure it out, the woman left the office together with the trash can. Outside, she briefly considered to just put the trash can away for a minute before bringing it back.
However, considering that the boss could access the surveillance of the entire building the woman decided not to take any risks. She took the elevator to the basement where she 'emptied' the trash can into a bigger container before returning to the boss.
Her decision was indeed wise as Benjamin watched everything happening from his office. On the screen it looked like nothing came out of the trashcan as the woman turned it upside-down, but Benjamin took a deep breath of relief at that moment. For some reason it felt as if a big stone fell from his heart.
A while later the woman brought back the trashcan, and Benjamin could assure himself that it was indeed empty now. The card was nowhere to be seen!
For the rest of the day Benjamin fully concentrated on his work. He continued brooding over the issue of the Mecutis market, discussing it with others who shared his opinion, thinking of countermeasures.
When Benjamin stepped out into his flying car it was already dark outside. The day had been extremely productive, and Benjamin had a few ideas on how to conquer the market. Now the biggest hurdle remained to convince his brother.