Saturday was supposed to be a free day, a time for relaxation and taking a breather, but Kyro was starting to forget what that meant. They were phrases that were starting to lose meaning in his vocabulary.
Earlier in the day, he had went to meet up with a so-called friend who might help him, but to no avail. The man put forth all kinds of excuses until Kyro exposed him, and then he just said that he wouldn't sink with him.
It was as simple as that—no one wanted to go down with him. Yet none of them cared for the fact that if they supported him, they could rise together. No, they were too caught up in their own imaginary worlds.
Since they themselves could never reach the top, it was fun to see a giant fall. Once he was out of the picture, someone would need to take his place, and all of them hoped to be that person.
'Fools.' Kyro cursed and looked at the latest data from the sales department. It wasn't only the stock that had dropped, but even their value in the eyes of normal people who knew nothing of the complicated business matters. All of the subsidiary companies under the Dioscuri name were suffering the backlash of the public.
'Isn't this a bit too much?' The public was acting as if he'd committed an unforgivable crime when nothing of the sort had happened. Were Mosleys that powerful? His and Gale's empire didn't have a stable footing for sure, having just changed hands, but everything was falling apart way too fast.
His creation wasn't a paper tower that could be blown away by a single gust of wind. But who then was pushing him down? And with this much power and authority?
As he thought that, there was a knock on the office door. The building was mostly empty, but for the token crew to make sure everything worked as expected, so he hadn't expected an interruption.
When he raised his eyes, he saw a face that he had no wish to see at the moment, but Lara was away, so the person entered upon observing that he'd been noticed.
"I wan—"
Frank was cut off when Sheila threw the glass door open and sprinted to Kyro's desk. She smashed a bunch of documents on it, breathing hard. Her red face betrayed that she had run up the flight of stairs just to get up here on time while the lift was occupied, by Frank most likely.
"I need to tell you something," she rasped, lacking the breath to speak.
Kyro had an urge to kick them both out, but he was growing numb to hearing that something went wrong again. Under such circumstances, he wasn't the least bit surprised that the duo showed up at his office. It was inescapable that they would come over with one thing or another.
"Go ahead then," Kyro said, leaning back against the chair. The sooner they finished, the sooner he could go back to trying to figure out why everything was failing at a speed three times the one at which he was repairing it.
Sheila took a deep breath, her hands shaking a bit. "I know it looks bad, but there's an explanation. You must understand that—"
"Better start from the beginning." With so much stuff going wrong, Kyro had no idea to what in particular she was referring. "Or do you want to start?"
His words startled Sheila, and she turned to Frank, her eyes going wide. "I said I'm going to deal with it," she told him, frowning.
"And I told you I can take care of it on my own," Frank stated. He then turned to Kyro, looking unapologetic. "It wasn't my fault. Someone used me as a tool."
It was something Kyro had guessed from the start, but what exactly did he do? Couldn't they just get to the point? He didn't have the time for their drama. "Explain everything from the start, or leave. As you can guess, I'm a bit busy at the moment." Sarcasm dripped off his voice like honey, but he couldn't care enough to hide it.
His words had an effect. The two instantly straightened up, looking at each other guiltily. Sheila then was the first to speak up. "This morning, Densel Electronics released a product that is identical to the one developed by our T. A. Electronics which was supposed to be revealed on Monday. The only ones who knew about it were people from the development team and the advertising department."
"And how are you involved?" Kyro asked, shifting his gaze to Frank.
The man stood still, hands crossed before his chest. "In no way. The only reason I was in contact with Densel Electronics was because I got information that they were planning to make a similar ad campaign as ours and I was trying to gleam some extra information from a friend of mine there. It wouldn't be good for either of us to look like we're copying another."
"Right..."
This Frank seemed to attract disaster like a magnet. Every step he took was somehow detrimental to his reputation. Kyro was no longer certain whether the guy was just super unlucky, or someone was playing him.
Or he was a problem onto himself. Could he have leaked the knowledge to worsen Kyro's situation himself? Possible, but for some reason Kyro doubted that. It was all just too perfect. The evidence lined up too nicely.
And that was a problem. Like the fall of Dioscuri, it was just too smooth. There wasn't a single wrinkle that would allow someone to grab onto a differing opinion. Everything was placed on a platter for Kyro just to pick up.
"Solve it then, go and work with the development team to tweak it somehow. Put a new spin on it or something, make it our own. If not, come up with a reason to delay. Don't just stand here and throw excuses at me. You've only got a day and a half to save the situation."
"I... I'm not fired?" Frank asked in disbelief, his hands falling to his sides. Sheila shared his reaction, though hers had confusion added to it.
Kyro smiled at them without any humor. "I don't care if it's your fault or not, but you're not escaping this ship with the rats. If it sinks, you'll be sinking with me, so better do something about patching up those holes."
The two stared at him, stunned. They probably had no idea how bad the situation truly was, thinking that the media was just exaggerating as always. Anyone that wasn't on the top in the company was told that their positions were safe and there was no need to panic. This was just a momentary dip before rising up again.
It was somewhat satisfying to see the realization dawn on the duo. At least now he was no longer the only one in this building aware of the dark future looming over them all.
Kyro shooed them away soon after and returned to his documents. After a moment, he put them away and leaned against the table. This was not working. He needed a new approach to this disaster before everything fell apart around him.
And the two had given it to him. He needed to find out who was throwing Frank under the bus. His presence had seemed like a secondary threat, unimportant in the face of what else was happening, but it no longer seemed to be the case.
"Someone wants to destroy Frank with my hands. I wonder, is this just trying to keep one's own hands clean, or a sort of offering to gain my good will?"
There were only that many people who knew how deep his hatred for Frank had ran. In the public, it had been seen as him playing around, being an evil mastermind who had chosen a random target to test his skills. By the time he had gained the attention of the press, two years had passed since the incident with Jane. On top of that, her boyfriend was only a cousin of the Brons family, so no one had dug out the truth and discovered the connection.
"Time to play a game then. Let's see which familiar face is pulling the strings."
The smile that came unto Kyros face then could have frightened demons back into hell.