New York. Lyndon tower. 07/11/2012. 09:30.
"Hello grandpa." Nathaniel said, walking into the office of Robert Lyndon.
"Ah my unfilial grandson. When were you going to tell me that you are dating the favorite daughter of the most influential man in the state?" Robert grumbled.
"Probably between never and ever. I'm not seeing her because she had a wealthy family and we are not dating."
"Yeah yeah, your grandmother told me about this, it does not matter. Just make sure to keep the girl happy, I don't want my relationship with that family to become tense. Why are you here by the way? I'm busy with work if you can't tell." He said, making a movement with his hand to encourage Nathaniel to leave.
"I'm staying but it's not to mess with you grandpa, although it is a very fun thing to do. I have a business proposition for you."
"Business?" Robert asked, his interest picked.
"Yes, I want to create my own business. Well, not exactly. I want it to become a subsidiary of our company but with total autonomy and ownership."
"What is your business going to be about?"
"Officially, security informatics."
"You planned that from the very beginning did you? Since you learned that Ryan was stealing from us. I did not understand why you wanted to steal all of his computers at the time beside payback obviously, but now I do. Wait, you said officially?"
"Yes but please don't ask anymore grandpa, there are things that are better left unsaid."
"Fine. What's in it for me and the company then?" Robert said he had learned by now if his grandson did not want to talk about something, nothing could change his mind so he decided to move on.
"Rent money and discount on the software protection I will provide."
"Discount, you are really going to make your own flesh and blood pay?" Robert said indignantly.
"Well, you were the one who launched the subject of the money so you had it coming. Moreover, nothing's free in this world, you told me that yourself."
"Alright, since it is your first idea on a business, I will help you this once. I'm going to ask the IT to accommodate a place for you and your employees to work freely."
"IT? I never talk about IT, I found the perfect place for us to settle in. Here." Nathaniel said, fishing out blueprints from his bag and putting them on the desk, pointing at a specific place.
"Where did you get those blueprints from?" He asked vehemently.
These blueprints represent the Lyndon tower before and after its refitting nine years ago. Robert had to buy the entire decrepit tower at a never seen low price in Manhattan and had remodeled it to his liking. He had made sure that the copy of these blueprints got 'lost' from the city hall and other governmental agencies. Robert was a little paranoid and liked to stay hidden from public view.
"From your study in the Hampton. Grandma allowed me to keep them and work on it for my project."
"Well, I believe you did not look at these blueprints right. The place that you're pointing at has been sealed when I refitted the tower." Robert said. He knew how much his wife doted on Nathaniel so he was not overly surprised to learn she let him take them out.
"I know, I want to re-open it and renovate it to meet my needs. It is basically an empty floor that we are wasting away. This is New York, no space is allowed to not be used."
"You know what this underground floor is, don't you?"
"Yes, this is an anti bombing shelter built in the early fifties, there are a lot of buildings in the city that had one like that, albeit not this large. Why did you choose to seal it instead of renovating it?"
"For starters we found that the bunker is connected to the underground sewer and the subway. It represented a security problem that I did not want to deal with at the time. We also had all the places that we needed and more, so spending more money to fix a floor that I did not know I would have any use for, sounded like a bad investment."
"That's where our opinions diverge. You see a potential security problem, I see a way to leave the tower without being detected. It can be useful in quite a few situations. Especially here, you see that wall? If we were to breach it and build a tunnel for one hundred yards, we could link the tower to a maintenance electrical tunnel. It could be advantageous for a couple of reasons."
"Like what?" Robert asked, doubtful.
"We could connect our electrical network to the city line. If we were to be cut off of electricity, we could still power up the tower." Nathaniel said, preferring to hide the others reasons it will be advantageous for him.
"What's the point? If we are cut off of power, it means the block is too."
"That's where you are wrong. Look here. That maintenance tunnel power up the west side is not our block." Nathaniel said, showing a new file to his grandfather.
"Where did you get that blueprint? It was not in my study." Robert asked.
"I visited City Hall yesterday to find out exactly what was below the surface. Fun fact, did you know the blueprint of the tower is missing from it?"
"No I did not but I'm not surprised, it has surely been misplaced, this is not the first time it happened and not the last when you see the state of our administration."
"Yeah right. Grandpa, this is me, not a reporter, you can say that you made sure it was never there in the first place to be lost. I will not report you, you know. I did go there for that exact purpose, I was pleasantly surprised that you took care of that already" Nathaniel complimented.
"Like you think this is so easy. They have back up on paper and on a database for every blueprint in the city. Just destroying the one they gave you will not be enough and I remind you they look at the state of the document when you give it back, if it's damaged, you need to pay a fine."
"I never said the building was open to visitors when I was there. Our administration really needs funding, no security camera, no pass. Only a key is needed and dodging a snoring fifty year old guardian." Nathaniel shook his head.
Looking at Nathaniel for a couple of seconds, Robert was going to say something but ultimately chose to abstain. Sighing, he got back to the original topic of conversation.
"This is going to cost you a lot if you want to do everything and getting authorization from the city is going to be troublesome, you will need bribery funds to get everything that you want. I know a couple of people I can suggest to help you with that if you want."
"Thanks but giving dirty money to dirty people is not really my style grandpa. If my plans are going like I expect them to be, I will have all the authorization I need."
"Good, they are here if you end up still needing them. One more thing, you will not get Jean and Amal in whatever you are trying to create. I'm keeping them."
"Don't worry, you need them more than me. Moreover, they are used to your character by now, I don't think we could find new bodyguards to stay beside you 24/7 even if we offer them a million dollar a year."
"And I believe this is your cue to leave. Now." He said, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
Picking up his blueprints, Nathaniel put them back inside his bag and made his way to the exit.
"Bye grandpa!" He shouted before leaving.
It was only after the door of his office closed and Robert was back alone in his huge office that a good natured smile formed on his face and he let out a chuckle.