Chapter 85: A Timer

Damian and Vanessa sat across from Dmitri, smiles tugging at their lips. Strange, really—what began as them being practically ’kidnapped’ had somehow led here.And right now, they found themselves thanking whatever god they believed in for it.

How else would they have gotten this opportunity?

Their job was simple, their old ’friend’ Lillian was entering the big leagues as she was now the COO of the fastest growing company in the US.

All they had to do was dig up her past, drag her traumas into the light, stain her name and by extension, OmniTech Corp’s and the payout would be handsome.

The silver lining to this was that they’d have eventually heard of her success and they would have done the exact same thing....but for free.

"W-we want to thank you once again, Mr. Volkov," Vanessa stuttered out. Dmitri still intimidated her so she was sure to thread carefully.

Dmitri leaned back on his chair, his eyes never leaving the two. Now, he could’ve used threats to get them to do what he wanted but it seemed these two greedy foxes worked better when motivated.

Their shared past with OmniTech’s COO made them a useful pawn in Nathaniel’s game.

Giving them a small smile, he started, "what were the results?"

Their job this time was simple, poke Lillian just enough to see how she’d react to the past visiting her.

"It seems she’s not over what happened yet, so this should be easy enough," Damian explained, going into the details of the phone call, "though, she might’ve gotten herself a feisty guard dog but it’s nothing we can’t handle."

"Good then," Dmitri said in his Russian accent, "just know that there will be consequences if you fail."

"O-of course," Damian let out, forcing a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Beside him, Vanessa nodded quickly, clutching her purse as though it were some kind of shield.

Dmitri’s gaze lingered on the two of them for a moment longer before he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. His smile never leaving his face, but there was no warmth in it.

"You should understand something, yes?" he said softly, his Russian accent coming out even more, which made his words somehow even more terrifying, "I and my employer have a reputation to uphold, we can’t be known for working with failures now can we?"

"N- no," they shook their heads, "we won’t fail."

"Good," Dmitri leaned back, "you’ll have half the pay before the day ends, you can leave now."

This sparked the light of greed back in their eyes, "t-thank you."

With that, the scrambled to their feet and out of Dmitri’s office.

His gaze never left their backs as he watched them basically run out his office, his expression took a darker look as they left.

He had dug into the two and if one thing was for certain, they’ll do anything for money. Now, he wasn’t judging them or anything like that as he wasn’t much different, but unlike him, they were liabilities.

As long as they price was right or mouth watering enough, they’d even risk betraying him. Therefore, they had to be disposed of after they served their purpose.

If not, they’d just be walking loose ends and Dmitri hated loose ends.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when his phone suddenly rang. Looking at the screen, he realized that it was an unknown number which made him want to decline the call.

But as they say, curiosity killed the cat and Dmitri was curious enough to answer the call.

______________

While all that went on, Nathaniel had finally scrubbed his name clean of any stain James’s stupidity had dropped on it.

But when he opened his mail, he finally understood why OmniTech had used James. It wasn’t intended as a blow towards him. Rather, it was a distraction tactic.

OmniTech had made sure that he would be distracted enough to not disrupt the deal with Google and as much as he hated to admit, it was a smart move.

Nathaniel leaned back in his chair, lips pressed into a thin line as his eyes lingered on the mail.

So that was their play.

It was honestly clever and pretty effective, but most of all, it was infuriating.

He clenched his fist on the desk, the leather creaking beneath his grip. James had been nothing but a sacrificial pawn to them, discarded the moment his usefulness ended. And Nathaniel had wasted precious time cleaning up the mess.

Time he could’ve spent destroying OmniTech Corp.... But it didn’t matter, because soon enough, OmniTech would wish that they hadn’t crossed him, and it’ll all start with a blow to their COO.

Picking up his phone, he dialed Dmitri’s number which rung for a while before the call was answered, that, in itself was unusual.

Dmitri never let his phone ring for long but Nathaniel dismissed it as the phone being further away or something.

The line was silent for a good while before Nathaniel asked, "how is it going?"

Dmitri needed no context as he quickly understood, "everything’s going according to plan, they’ve started poking the COO."

"Good," Nathaniel said, though he didn’t notice the strangeness of Dmitri’s voice. "Oh and Dmitri, make sure this one doesn’t also end in failure....I hate failures."

"Understood," Dimitri said before Nathaniel ended the call.

OmniTech Corp’s downfall was already underway and he couldn’t wait to see how it’d play out.

_________

Ethan, meanwhile, set his phone down with a wide grin. Nathaniel was now on a fast-running timer and soon enough, he’d be out of the way.

Everything was falling into place, just as he wanted.

The only issue would be Nathaniel’s father, but that too was already accounted for. Every single card was now in his hands and it was up to him to decide when to play them.

’System,’ he mentally called out, ’compile the list of materials I’ll need for ONI, I’ll be sending it to Irina.’

[Understood.] The system responded.

It was time to start partitioning his brain since suppressing it wasn’t sustainable.