113 TAKING DELIVERY OF AN EMPTY SHELL
Zolan started to rise, ready to intervene on his son's behalf, but a hand on his arm stopped him.
"Chairman," said Kelly, his longtime advisor, her tone calm but firm. "You must let the heir fight his own battle. Only then will the board of directors recognize him. You can't shield him from every storm."
Zolan hesitated, then exhaled slowly and sat back. "Very well. Let's see how he handles it first… if he couldn't, then I'll walk in."
Across the hall, Garius Zetheris barked out a laugh. "This boy's still in high school! How can he possibly run a major company like GenSyn?"
The audience murmured, half in agreement.
Zairgid rose from his seat. "Vice-Governor Faemore," he called, his voice steady, "may I ask why you object to my winning the bid?"
Faemore Melrose turned toward him, adjusting his coat with deliberate slowness.
"Running a corporation like GenSyn Industries is not a child's game," he said. "Its main ingredients and compounds come from the battlegrounds in the Space Rift. Without a solid military backing, I cannot in good conscience approve your acquisition."
"See?" Garius crowed, slapping the armrest. "Told you so!"
Zairgid frowned. "I knew they'd try this," he muttered under his breath.
But Damen didn't flinch. He reached into his jacket and slipped a folded letter to Zairgid. "Show him this."
Zairgid took it and read the letter and his lips curved into a confident smile.
He raised his voice so the entire hall could hear. "Vice-Governor Faemore, I have here a letter from Lord Nicaesa of Fortress Myrone, offering his full military support for my acquisition of GenSyn Industries. Do you require stronger backing than Lord Nicaesa himself?"
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Even the other family heads straightened in surprise.
Zolan's jaws dropped at the news. Even he couldn't believe his son would have the backing from the God of War in Myrone.
Zairgid walked calmly to the front and handed the document to an aide, who passed it to Faemore. The vice-governor unfolded it, scanned the signature and the official seal and his expression faltered.
"This… this letter is genuine," he admitted. "How did you convince Lord Nicaesa to write this? He rarely interferes in city affairs."
Zairgid gave a faint smile. "That doesn't concern you, Vice-Governor. Let's just say—I have strong backing."
For a long moment, Faemore said nothing. Then he sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Very well. I withdraw my objection."
The hall erupted again in disbelief and envy, while whispers of new alliances forming in real time to deal with this new change in the landscape of the city's power shifting.
Garius leapt to his feet. "Are you serious, Vice-Governor? This is outrageous!"
But Faemore was already turning away, unwilling to meet his eyes. He wasn't going to go against Fortress Myrone because of Garius' objections.
Zolan leaned back in his chair, finally allowing himself a smile. He turned to Kelly.
"See?" he said softly. "That's my boy."
-----
"What do we do now, Father?" Shawn asked, his voice low and urgent. "That Damen and Zairgid pair just took GenSyn. They stand in the way of our monopoly on elixirs and medicine in Melrose city."
Garius slammed his palm on the table, seething. "After waiting so long before Kaiser Qiltera was brought down. I'm not about to lose to a child."
Shawn rubbed his temple. "But the governor approved their purchase. How do we—"
Garius cut him off with a thin smile. "Running an industry takes more than a signature. It needs people. Without staff, GenSyn is just an empty building. Wait until they fail to deliver next month's supplies — the governor will come begging the Zetheris to step in."
"How do we make sure they fail?" Shawn asked.
Garius turned to his assistant as if the answer were a tool to be handed over. "Go. Poach every scientist, technician, manager — every single employee at GenSyn. Not a single human remains: not the lead researchers, not the lab techs, not even the cleaning staff."
Shawn frowned. "Won't they just hire replacements?"
"Not if the Zetheris issue an ultimatum to the scientific community," Garius said, the smile widening until it resembled a threat. "Anyone who works for GenSyn will be branded an enemy of our house. They'd be ruined — socially, financially, maybe worse."
They both laughed, their sound brittle and private, the kind that belonged to men who dealt in leverage and ruin.
-----
"We have much to do. Acquiring GenSyn was only the first step," Damen said, his voice brisk as he walked down the polished corridor of GenSyn building.
Zairgid shrugged, still half in disbelief. "I don't get why you pushed so hard to buy this place. I'd rather we'd bought the android manufacturer — at least they'd have staff. And the nurses are nice."
He flashed a grin that didn't reach his eyes.
"Buying GenSyn proves you're more than a party boy," Damen replied. "Now when your father looks at you, he won't see a useless heir — he'll see someone with an actual job."
Zairgid let the idea sit. "Maybe. He's been smiling at me more lately and scolding less."
Kail closed his eyes and stalked through the lab wings and checked security feeds. "Why is this place a ghost town? There are no staff. No nurses. Did the governor sell us an empty shell?"
"Garius must've poached the teams before we took delivery of GenSyn," Zairgid said. "He thought we'd fold and sell it back to him if we have no staff."
"Lucky for him we came prepared," Damen said.
Within an hour the compound thrummed with motion. A few hundred android guards marched into GenSyn: human-sized sentries, drone hounds, autocannon platforms.
Kail stole them from the Order of the Cockerel, wiped their logs, and rewritten their software. He'd already integrated the building's security onto a single network that obeyed him.
"Security's handled," Kail announced. "Network, patrols, perimeter—everything's synchronized."
"Now what else do we need?" Zairgid asked.
At that moment Dorin strode in, grease-stained and efficient-eyed. "You called for me, Damen?"
"You came at the perfect time," Damen said.
Dorin glanced at the silent assembly lines and dormant bioreactors. "Tell me what you need."
"We need you to get the manufacturing back online," Damen said. "If we don't produce next month's elixirs and medicines, the city will revoke our license. We can't let Garius' threats or the absence of staff be an excuse."
Dorin's expression shifted to practical interest. "This facility's big, but restarting a line is doable. Some of those humanoid guards can be reconfigured as production assistants. I'll need replacement parts and access to the lab schematics. But the server has been destroyed, we can't work without those."
"I'll get them for you", Kail replied to her and smiled.
There was no data he couldn't recover and besides he could borrow designs and plans from other organizations who have them easily.
"That solves the short-term problem," Damen agreed. "But we still need scientists. Without R&D, GenSyn will never compete with Zetheris."
Kail's jaw tightened. "The Zetheris have sent ultimatums to any scientist who works for us. They will be blacklisted or worse."
Zairgid straightened, his resolve hardening. "Then I'll get my father involved. Aukuoma Industry has clout and contracts of its own and won't be intimidated by the Zetheris. He can help us recruit."
"Wee woo, wee woo!"
The sudden wail of the alarm tore through the corridor, echoing off the sterile metal walls. Red lights began to pulse overhead, painting everything in flashes of crimson.
"What is happening here?" Dorin asked in shock.
Kail looked up from his datapad, his eyes wide with horror. "We have an Intruder alert!"