It was a dark room. Stereotypically so.
It was around ten meters long, and half as large. Its ceiling was a few meters high.
A few rays of light came into the room from a small window, right below the ceiling, but failed to break much of the obscurity.
In the middle of the room, there was a table.
Together with several chairs, it was the only piece of furniture around.
The whole place didn't seem to have been cleaned much, and its only use, beyond the coolness factor that Coreen would definitely point out, was its discretion.
It was a cave.
The kind you would find below an old building, where there are more people than money.
In this cave, around this table, there were several people.
Their faces were cast in shadow, but if you squinted hard enough, you might be able to see their facial expressions.
All of them were grave.
One of them spoke out, breaking the silence.
-I believe you all heard about it, right?
The lack of answers only increased the tension. They all knew.
-That fucker...
That comment came from another one. Out of all of them, he seemed the most rash.
-How did he do it?
The one who said this kept his face as calm as possible, but he couldn't keep his face straight. Even him seemed uneasy.
-I know, but... How much do you all want to know?
The one who answered was a woman. She seemed slightly arrogant in her behavior. She was clearly the calmest out of all of them. Enough that she would try to get benefits for her information.
-Stop this, Ava. You stand to lose as much as all of us.
The one who spoke out seemed to be the oldest.
-Tsh!
Ava did not like her name. Not only Ava, but they all had names of various origins. Not using names from the place they lived in was due to their family's tradition. It was a stupid tradition, as far as she was concerned. And the one who called her out should know it, yet he still did.
-Anyway, you should tell us. You can't act by yourself anyway.
The oldest continued.
It was true that while Ava had a developed information network, she was vastly inferior in operations compared to the others.
Knowing so, she gave up on getting benefits.
-When I saw he was suddenly accumulating wealth, I looked into various possibilities. I didn't have to search for long to find out he made a company.
-We all know so much, get to the point!
The one who interrupted her was the rash man from earlier.
-Shut up, Arthur.
Arthur was particularly annoying to her. He was given a good name, with historical significance, and wasted it. His name couldn't have been further from his character.
-So, after looking into the records, I saw a lot of transactions from various companies. I confirmed they were all shell companies, and looking into the origins proved difficult. But it turns out to be easier than expected to find the origin of all that money. His activities are genuinely declared. I expected to find some blackmail material, but there was nothing useful. His activities were all legal. It's just the company he deals with that's troublesome.
-Troublesome? Not shady?
That choice of word seemed to trouble the oldest among them.
-They are shady. But they also have the backing of several governments. I looked into it. They look like a game company from the outside, but the majority of their revenues are from top-secret government contracts. I couldn't even get a look at that side of their business.
-What kind of work does Coreen do with them?
The oldest asked. He probably had a flicker of hope.
-I told you, I have nothing on him. It seems he's gaming for a living.
-Gaming for a living? Did things evolve to that point?
What he meant was that he did not hear about it. It was not as impressive as Ava's, but they all had an information network. The fact that they did not hear about it meant that it was not the growing esports industry they kept an eye on. That meant getting paid from actual gaming, not the spectacle thereof.
-Why are they going to such lengths to protect the identity of their players, though?
The eldest seemed lost in thoughts.
The one who started the conversation did not speak since then, and finally left his silent observation:
-It is not the problem at hand. We did not meet today for this.
The fact was that if them, who didn't meet often, did meet, was because of their troublesome competitor.
-That's true, our alliance only exists to take out all the others, we aren't here to preserve world peace.
Arthur added. The mention of world peace spoke volumes of the possible scale of the matter, as many major powers were involved, but that did not mean anything for them, who were dealing with a problem of another nature, but equally important to them, as it concerned their direct future.
-Yes, we need to do something. He was cast away with only enough money to provide for his living expenses only because of his poor results. If he shows he can bring money in, he might compete against us again.
The oldest said.
-It would be a problem. He might be unable to make as much revenues or profits as we do, but he's the son of the first son.
The first spoke. It was only the plain truth, but it was his role in the group. Being the one who was able to say the obvious to make sure everyone was on the same page.
-Who knows how much he will be advantaged.
Arthur said.
Yes, it wasn't a question of if he would be advantaged, but how much he would. It wasn't hard to see how much he was favored. He was cast away, yet he was given the budget for a lifetime of not doing anything. He did work at some point, but it was to be able to buy for pleasure, not survive.
The fact Arthur spoke this showed that his thoughtfulness was actually opposite to his rashness. To an outsider, he might seem unfit to do business, but this thoughtfulness was the facet of him that made him as successful as he was today, enough to stand equal to all the others in this room.
-So, that's nice and all, but what do we do?
Ava spoke out. The reason she wasn't as good with operations as the others was not only because she didn't develop in this direction, it was because while she was good at gathering intelligence, she wasn't good at acting upon that intelligence.
-It's simple. Last year, I did a trial run and sent someone to test the security of his apartment. He was also ordered to check everything that was in his home, and kill him if he thought it necessary. I know everything there is to know about the layout of his living place as where his room is. The Patriarch will die soon, if we want to prevent him from making a comeback, we need to kill him. If he games for a living, he must be doing it often. We can just make sure to learn his routine and kill him noiselessly while he dives. It will leave us a lot of time to clean up most of the traces that it was a murder, time and rot will do the rest.
The eldest explained his plan. It was deceptively straightforward, but it also contained several precautions. The fact that he even prepared for this day a year ago, when he was still cast out with almost no chances of making a comeback, was already proof that he was a monster of preparation.
At the mention of this plan, everything shivered. Because they all knew they had a lot of preparation to do. Not to deal with Coreen, but to deal with the eldest when no either competitors remain or when the Patriarch dies. Because then, their alliance will dissolve, and if someone could kill them all in their sleep, it was him.