An invisible pressure rolled off Edgar and filled the entire room.
A normal person would already be breathing hard and shifting in their seat.
But was Ivan normal? Clearly not. He met Edgar's eyes with a completely calm face, like two lions sizing each other up in the dark.
Only a knock at the door finally broke the silence.
"Come in."
The people who pushed the door open weren't the security Edgar had called. Homelander led the rest of the supes in. They spread out in a line behind Ivan, each wearing a different expression: contempt, mockery, unease, forced calm, and guilt.
This was clearly a planned show of force.
"Homelander, Stormfront, The Deep, Lamplighter—" Edgar's gaze moved across every face and finally stopped on Queen Maeve. "And Queen Maeve."
"Excellent. Except for the runaway Starlight and Black Noir, almost the entire Seven is here."
Edgar laughed out of pure anger. He wasn't an ordinary man. After a single second of surprise he snapped straight back to his usual composure.
"But I don't remember inviting any of you to my office. Who called you here? Maeve?"
One look from him and Maeve dropped her head. She hadn't wanted any part of this demonstration, but Ivan had leverage on her.
"Or The Deep?"
Everyone whose name Edgar spoke either stared at the floor in silence or let their eyes dart around, unable to hold still.
"Since none of you will admit it, that leaves Homelander and Greevs."
Right then Edgar's full authority as Vought's Executive CEO came down like a hammer. Under that pressure even Homelander felt a flicker of tension. His Adam's apple bobbed.
The contemptuous look vanished completely. Still, to keep rep in front of the others he forced himself not to show a single trace of fear.
"Was it you, Homelander?" Edgar demanded.
Homelander pressed his lips together and had nothing to say.
"Enough. Don't forget you've got a promotional short to shoot at noon. Go do your job. Getting mixed up in this does you zero good. Stop wasting time on meaningless crap." Edgar spoke to Homelander exactly like a father scolding a son.
Homelander's face looked ugly, but he still didn't dare talk back. He swallowed his anger, turned, and stormed out of the office.
The others followed right after him.
Now only Edgar and Ivan remained in the room.
"Ignorant. Stupid." Edgar stared at Ivan with ice in his eyes.
"I thought you had real potential, the perfect candidate for the next Vought CEO. Now I see you're completely brainless. They will always be tools for Vought, never the masters! Greevs, you've disappointed me. If you'd tried some other method to hold onto your position I might have respected you more.
Instead you put all your chips on them. What are they? A pack of selfish, spineless pieces of shit…"
"Hah. I know."
Ivan, silent for a long time, suddenly cut him off.
At the same time the red landline on the desk started beeping.
Edgar frowned, shot Ivan a glance, then picked up the receiver and put it to his ear. "This is Vought CEO Edgar. What is it?"
"Mm. Mm-hmm. Understood. What about the other board members' opinions? The termination agreement was rejected? But…" Edgar hadn't finished speaking when the director on the other end hurriedly hung up.
...
Inside a luxury hotel room in Chicago.
A fat, bloated Vought board member sat naked from the waist up on the bed. His hands trembled as he tore open the envelope that had just arrived.
Inside were files on his tax evasion and a pile of compromising sex photos. Any single one of those leaks would be enough to destroy him.
The more serious ones could put him in prison for the rest of his life.
He wasn't the only one who received an envelope. The rest of the board members had all gotten Ivan's little gifts one after another.
...
"Well done." Edgar set the phone down.
"That's an effective method."
To Ivan's surprise, Edgar didn't get angry at all. Instead he nodded in satisfaction. It meant his judgment hadn't been wrong. Greevs really was raw talent worth shaping.
"If I'm not mistaken, the USB Madelyn kept with dirt on government officials and board members is in your hands now."
"No wonder I could never find it. You got there first. In that case I assume the doppelganger is also under your control."
Edgar stood up and gave Ivan a smiling round of applause.
"Looks like my eye for people isn't bad after all. Greevs, I formally take back everything I said just now and cancel every decision I made against you."
It was hard to believe how fast one man could change faces, and how deep his schemes ran. Maybe that was the real reason a man like Edgar had managed to become CEO of Vought, whose foundation was laid by Nazi supporters.
"You're too kind, Mr. Edgar. Without your support I never would have made it this far. There's still a great deal I can learn from you. Compared to you I'm nothing more than a baby who's only just learned to crawl."
Ivan had no intention of pressing the advantage. His goal was already achieved. He'd solved the immediate problem and even picked up a solid chunk of Fantasy Points.
Besides, this still wasn't the right time to force Edgar out. Homelander had always wanted to break free of Edgar's control and run Vought alone, but if it ever came down to a real choice Ivan didn't believe Homelander would side with him. On top of that, Edgar still controlled the research on Compound V.
If Ivan interfered too early it could delay the development of Compound V. That would be a pure loss.
Ivan had never forgotten his real plan.
He was waiting for Edgar to develop the V24 from the original story. It was a compound that could grant temporary superpowers, much easier for the human body to absorb than regular Compound V. It still damaged the body, but at least Hughie and the others wouldn't drop dead the second they injected it.
Ivan had been eyeing Hughie's teleportation and Butcher's laser eyes for a long time. Of the three different colored laser eyes he'd only collected one so far. He was very curious what kind of reaction would happen once all three were fused together.
"You're no kid. You're a young man full of life. I'm just an old man about to be buried." Edgar mocked himself while picking up his phone. A message from Butcher inviting him to a meeting sat on the screen.
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69