Chapter 195: Stalk The Queen

Lillian smiled as she read the email Ethan had sent to her.He was clearly aimed on milking the hospital dry and sending a message... A very, very expensive message.

She exhaled, leaning back in her chair as she scrolled through the attached draft Athena had forwarded through Ethan.

"...Nationwide panic?" she murmured, eyebrows raised, "Ethan, you dramatic little—"

But the smile wouldn’t leave her face.

For the first time that day, she allowed herself to relax and lean back,

And the hospital? They had walked right into the trap.

Her eyes read over the highlighted phrases:

[Reckless endangerment, public misinformation, false medical claim, psychological distress to consumers, financial, reputational, and safety damages to both OmniMed and OmniTech Corp]

It was brutal and so very excessive... But at the same time it was necessary.

Lillian took a long breath and typed her response back to their legal team, attaching Ethan’s terms.

{Proceed with the case and schedule a meeting. I want everything documented and give them zero leniency.}

Then, almost as an afterthought, she added manually:

And increase the compensation demand. They should feel this.

She hit send.

The reply came within sixty seconds.

[Understood, Ms. Hayes. We’ll move immediately.]

She let her head drop back against the chair with a laugh.

"God, you’re rubbing off on me," she whispered to herself with a smile.

A few minutes after the confirmation from her legal team, her comms beeped and she pressed the answer button.

"Ms. Hayes," her secretary’s voice came through, sounding unusually stiff, "there’s... someone here requesting to see you, a representative from Dawn Hospitals. He says it’s regarding the legal notice OmniTech sent."

Lillian raised an eyebrow.

"That fast?"

"Y-Yes ma’am, he’s... very insistent."

Of course he was.

Their hospital was probably in full–scale meltdown right now.

"Send him up," she said.

"Yes ma’am," the secretary answered

She closed the intercom and exhaled slowly, letting her heartbeat settle.

Then she smiled.

Ethan’s influence was dangerous.

And she loved it.

A knock soon came at the door.

"Enter."

The man who stepped in looked like he had been dragged through a hurricane of panic. His tie was crooked, his briefcase clutched too tightly, and sweat dotted his temple.

"Ms. Hayes," he said quickly, bowing his head, "I deeply apologize for arriving so soon, but my board insisted I handle this immediately. We... we did not expect OmniTech to respond so swiftly."

Lillian gestured for him to sit.

He did so stiffly, swallowing.

She rotated her tablet with Ethan and Athena’s prepared document toward him.

"Mr. Pierce," she said in a professional tone, "your hospital spread a false medical claim about a life-saving device on day one of release. You created widespread confusion, you may have discouraged several patients from seeking medical attention out of fear."

She tapped the screen gently.

"This is OmniTech’s outline of damages. And this," She dragged a finger to the second page, "is the minimum compensation."

Pierce’s face went white.

"We... we’re prepared to cooperate fully," he stammered, "but these numbers—surely some adjustment—"

"No."

The flatness of her tone even surprised her a little.

Pierce blinked rapidly as he read through, "M-Ms. Hayes, the board—"

"The board," she said calmly, "should have thought about this before signing off on a false statement."

She leaned forward slightly.

"And we have all the evidence showing it was knowingly released."

He froze.

"Yet," she continued, "OmniTech is willing to negotiate, if you comply with every condition outlined."

Pierce nodded so fast his glasses nearly slipped.

"Yes—yes, of course. I’ll call them immediately."

"Good."

She stood, offering her hand.

"This meeting will be recorded."

"O-of course."

"And Mr. Pierce?" She added as he shakily stood.

"Y-Yes?"

Lillian flashed the same soft-but-lethal smile Ethan always wore right before destroying someone in silence.

"Next time your hospital thinks about commenting on OmniTech’s research... don’t."

He nodded vigorously, nearly tripping over his own feet on the way out.

When the door finally shut, she fell back into her chair, covering her face with both hands.

Then she burst out laughing.

But here she was...

Intimidating a hospital executive into tripping over his own feet.

She lowered her hands, staring up at the ceiling.

"Ethan Carter, you are a very dangerous man."

A new message appeared — from Ethan.

Ethan: Meeting go well?

Lillian smiled, biting her lip.

My Little Midas: I might’ve scared the representative.

Ethan: Good, how’d it feel?

My Little Midas: I think you’re rubbing off me way too much.

She could picture the smile on his face as the three dots appeared on the screen.

He sent one more message which read good job before she set her phone down.

***

Meanwhile, across the city,

Ethan closed the chat window and rested his chin on his knuckles, his eyes narrowing at a new set of alerts Athena pulled up.

Victor’s bots were dying out and his slander campaign was collapsing.

His hospital pawns were folding like wet paper as they all scurried back to whatever holes they came from.

"Now then Victor," Ethan said, "you’ve created enough distraction, what’s your next move?"

{I think he’s already made his next move,} Athena said.

{Cameras around Lillian’s route home... two individuals appeared, the same people were also seen around OmniTech.}

Ethan calmly listened to her words, before sighing.

"You’re saying they’re following her."

{Tracking her,} Athena corrected quietly, {moving just far enough to look like just another random passer-by.}

A new window popped up displaying a grainy footage, which zoomed in.

A man leaning against a car, pretending to scroll on his phone, and a woman reading a newspaper across the street.

"How long?"

{A few hours ago,} Athena answered, {though they rotated shifts, changed vehicles, swapped accessories, quite a few times. If I hadn’t begun cross-referencing movement patterns, you wouldn’t have noticed.}

"Are they armed?"

Athena hesitated.

{I don’t have a clean enough line of sight yet... but one of them has the posture of someone trained.}

Ethan tapped his finger slowly against the desk.

"So this really was a smoke screen," he muttered with a small smile on his face.

Athena’s avatar folded her arms.

{Irina’s men are ready to remove them,} she informed, {just say the word.}

"No," Ethan said immediately. "Not yet."

Athena looked visibly surprised.

{...No?}

"If he wants to move on her, let him take two more steps," he said with a dark expression on his face.

"Then I’ll deal with him once and for all."

He leaned forward, eyes fixed on the footage of the watchers.

"I want him to think Lillian is alone," Ethan continued, "unguarded, and vulnerable."

{Isn’t that risky?} Athena asked softly.

"Not when I’m watching."

For the first time since the slander started, his expression had changed from the previous satisfied one to that of a a darker one.

"In war, Athena... the worst thing an enemy can do is believe they have an advantage."

He tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowing.

"And Victor? that advantage is exactly what we’ll give him...or at least make believe he has it."

The camera feed zoomed in again, the woman with the newspaper looked directly at Lillian’s building entrance.

Ethan’s smile was really cold.

"Good," he whispered, "go ahead, Victor."

His fingers tapped the desk again.

Tap, tap, tap.

"Move your piece."

***

Victor silently stared at the video feed before him.

Lillian Hayes walked out of OmniTech’s front doors, completely unaware of the two people shadowing her from opposite ends of the street.

His people weren’t amateurs. They made sure no to get close, stare or even linger.

They blended perfectly.

His plan was simple, just as the collector had said, OmniTech was distracted by the wave online.

So that left their queen vulnerable, and that was the purpose of this plan, a distraction.

For the first time since the morning’s disaster, Victor felt the pressure in his chest fade.

Yes his slander campaign was settling down but it had created enough opening, after all, he heard that OmniTech Corp was threatening lawsuit against the Dawn hospital.

So that should keep them distracted enough.

The Collector silently observed Victor, his expression unreadable except for the faint curl at the corner of his mouth.

Victor observing as his people followed Lillian.

The hospital fiasco had blown up in his face, yes, but it had also done exactly what he needed:

It pulled OmniTech’s attention upward.

Leaving the ground exposed.

"They’re busy posturing online," Victor said, almost reassuring himself, "they won’t expect anything physical."

The Collector just smiled and muttered, "confidence is good Victor, but confidence before you even win is just plain stupid."

Victor frowned at the man’s words, he still hated how much the man thought he stood atop the world, and he hated even more the fact that he was right.

"OmniTech’s attention is currently on Dawn hospitals and clearing what happened online," he explained, "the people put on this are professionals, there’s no way this will fail."

The man just chuckled in response before standing, "I’d love to see how all this plays out."