'How did they get the news?' Alex ponders.
Alex can see that everyone in the meeting room is happy. It means they know that Apollo has contacted us. Which leads him to conclude that someone intentionally leaked the news about this when Shelly came to call him. It needs at least 2 people to leak this news in a natural dialogue.
'Staff would definitely be perplexed at the notice of a sudden meeting and they would try to get information from higher-ups to prepare themselves for the meeting. A strict and rigid higher-up would definitely not reveal anything so they would go to an approachable one that would be Peter the head of HR department.'
Alex tries to construct various scenarios inside his mind.
'Peter should have said something like "I heard that Apollo has contacted us." This would incite them to confirm the authenticity of the news. So they will turn to either Head of Foreign afffairs Kent or John the Vice-President. Kent is tight-lipped so the one who confirmed their speculation should be John.'
'Now, why would they reveal this news before my arrival? It's simple, the staff would be exited at the prospect of cooperating with Apollo and it would be no easy feat to calm them down and make them listen to the possible risks.'
Alex is now sure that Peter is a lackey of John. Why is he sure of this? It's because in this company, everyone except 3 people address Alex as CEO or Chairman. The 3 exceptions are Shelly, Peter and John. John relies on the fact that he is 'more experienced' than Alex to address him like this.
Shelly calls him as 'Alex' in private but will definitely address him by his position in public while Peter cashes on the fact that they were classmates.
Peter was picked up from the roads by Lia who felt sorry for him. He was suppressed in his former company by higher-ups and his girlfriend cheated on him. So when Alex and Lia helped him, he was grateful and he used to call Alex as CEO before but now he calls him informally, forgetting his position and overstepping his bounds. He acts as if they were best of friends which adds a layer of security. If Alex demotes or fires him, it would seem as if Alex forgot about his friends after he got rich. While the truth is that Alex never interacted with him in college.
'They say that snakes have short term memory and would bite the hand that fed them. It seems that Peter is a snake but luckily he is a poisonless snake. There won't be any problem to deal with him later. While this John is somewhat intelligent like a pig. Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals but they are still raised as livestock by humans.' Alex stops regarding these two as humans.
'Micheal wants to deal with me using these two idiots?' He chuckles inwardly.
'I can fire these two guys right now without facing any consequences.hmm.....Can I use them in some way?.....how about I use these two as baits.' Alex suddenly feels that this situation is not as dangerous as he expected it to be.
He quickly calculate few plans.
"Good morning, everyone." he greets everyone.
"We have been contacted by Apollo Corporation for a possible collaboration."
People in the room are obviously exited but are maintaining composure.
"This cooperation will definitely be a crucial step for our company to expand." Alex continues.
'I know that it's going to be hard to make them give up the thought of cooperating so instead of showing rejection towards this I show my enthusiasm which will make my opponents to lower their guards.'
Alex came into this room with the thought of steering clear of the deep waters of Lunet family but now he is ready to head into their muddy waters.
'I will show you what I means to coming for wool but going back shorn.'
"We have to drop a few plans so that we give our absolute best at this project." He decisively cuts off few profit making plans. This will free quite a few people which means that he has more resources of an emergency and sufficient wriggle room.
He spends about 2 hours in the meeting room to clear up proposals and to prepare for my war. Alex also uses this opportunity to observe the staff and mentally made a list of trash who needs to be thrown away.
Now he is back in his office.
'Let's look for more information'. Alex started to read about all the projects in which Micheal was involved. He also looks at the companies Micheal took over. This all gave him a general idea of what tricks he may use against him.
While Alex was immersed in his schemes, Shelly knocks on the door of the office and enters with lunch. Shelly had taken the role of bringing lunch from the canteen in this 2 years. Alex, Lia and Shelly used to eat lunch together but now its just the 2 of us.
"Do you have any plans?" She asks while setting up lunch.
"Yes and I am planning to clean the trash as well." Alex replied..
"Really!!?" She exclaims and heaves a sigh of relief.
"Now it seems that I was worried for nothing."
"Alex, did you see that new movie?"
"Alex, do you know...."
Shelly now starts to talk about all the things that happened around her. Unfortunately, most of which are not interesting in the slightest but I know that she is doing this for me. She is doing this to distract Alex from work.
When he is alone, he always thinks about Lia and reminisce about their time together which makes him more depressed of her loss. Alex overworks himself to distract his mind from suicidal thoughts. He knows that doing this is akin to drinking poison to quench thirst but he couldn't think of any other solutions.He had overworked himself during those 2 years which resulted in company's explosive growth. He dreams of Lia during his sleep, thinks of her while doing daily chores and works for the sole sake of keeping this company which was founded by her father.
All this and frustration of not having her drove him to try some extreme sports. He started fighting underground, raced in many dangerous courses tried bungee jumping etc...
'Right now I don't know what I am going to do in this life. I may expand this company to be number one in the city, then the country and then what? Would I keep working till my death?'
'I don't want to think about this topic as it always leaves me with helplessness and a headache.'