Louis was fluttering around trying to comb his golden blonde hair that was sticking up like a porcupine that'd rolled out of bed and brush his teeth while trying to find his socks.
He was running late for his important meeting that concerned his business, Gloomy Shadow Games or GSG for short.
The night before he was out partying with the other guys from work and one of his partners who was also a dear friend for gaining the meeting, but now he was more worried about making it within 10 minutes.
Racing out his apartment, Louis bolted for the train to take him into the city where he needed to meet the client.
Praying the trains weren't behind and on schedule, Louis made his way to the station but called the office ahead to let the client know he was running late.
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"Goddammit Louis!
What the fuck did I say yesertday night?!
Not to get too drunk that you might miss the meeting and now look…"
"Felix… I don't need your shit right now.
I'm fucking sorry ok, so please try and keep the client busy enough will I run to the café."
Louis cut the phone as he boarded the train and sat down on the nearest seat, huffing, and puffing for air.
'I can't fucking ruin this…'
Louis just prayed and cursed in his mind as he watched the scenic views of Paris go past his eyes.
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"Sorry… it seems my colleague is running late…"
Felix tried to cover for Louis as he returned to his seat opposite Esmond who was being informed by Carter in his mind about the call between the two a bit before.
"It's fine, I don't mind waiting for a bit.
I've actually I never have had the chance to stay in Paris long enough before as a child."
Esmond thought about the times he was moving around Europe with his parents around 5 or 6 years old.
He made some friends during those days and even had a small crush on his teacher that taught him French.
Though he never spoke a whole deal of other languages at home beside English, Esmond would practise with random people if he came across someone that might speak one of the languages he could.
He knew it was likely he was bothering the people everything time he stopped them, but he never cared before as he found it quite freeing and fun talking with strangers.
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"Ohh… well are you staying for a long time on this trip?"
Felix asked, speaking French with Esmond, who was fluently replying back with little issue, however he was more concerned about his following steps after this meeting.
It turned out Anton had some contacts that were looking for someone to work for, mind you though, they had families and loved ones as well, but war was within their blood, so they couldn't get away.
Esmond wanted to get in touch as soon as possible and get them under his control so they could get to work in Somalia, having made his choice based on future events.
Around May and June of 2008, the UN was going to broker a meeting between those that considered themselves the government of Somalia and a group called ARS to work together so they remove Al-Shabaab and other radical groups.
It was the perfect time to get people in and thanks to Carters call before the current meeting, the first generation of Esmonds first army were soon to take place, with the last of the resources about to arrive at the warehouse, except for uranium and a handful of other resources which needed certain connections they didn't have.
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Waiting for close to 20 more minutes and talking about the news, Louis finally arrived sweating from running over to the meeting.
Esmond would have appreciated that the person was doing his best to get here if not for his own actions that caused those problems and not some freak actions.
"I apologise for my late arrival Mr Esmond."
"It's fine, thinks happen…"
It might have sounded like Esmond didn't mind; however, his tone was enough to tell anyone that he was outright furious.
Louis knew he was on thin ice from the tone, if that wasn't enough the cold daggers from Felix definitely got the message across.
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"Gentleman… I am here to buy your gaming studio.
I might have wasted my time and been nice, speaking to you in a way to make you feel like you were number one so we could come to an agreement on a price for the business…
Now… I do not have the time, so here is my offer…"
Esmond stood up, leaving money behind for his meal and Felixs, passing over his card, with his business email on one side and the offer for the business on the other Esmond wrote down.
There was no company name for Esmonds business, so it had his full name on it instead, Esmond Manston, above his email.
.
Leaving before they could say anything, Esmond took out his phone and started chatting with Carter, "Where do I need to go?"
'Don't worry, I have organised someone to pick you up.
The meeting is in a clubhouse that is frequented by some ex-special forces and mercenaries alike, so I would advise to be cautious of your surroundings.'
Esmond would of course be more than conscious of what was happening around him because of his superhuman strengths and abilities, making him close to invincible against any other on earth for now.
Sitting in the nice Mercedes, Esmond watched the city past by his car window, as he prepared himself for the meeting.
Back at the café, Louis was trying to keep it together and not laugh maniacally, seeing the price on the card for his business.
Felix had lost the light in his eyes seeing the value written down, but he felt more broken than happy the business was offered to be bought.
"Finally!
It's all paid off!
Come on man!
We should be celebrating again ahahaa!"
Louis was loving life, making sure not to go too nuts in the café, however his enthusiasm wasn't felt dearly by his friend and business partner."
"Louis… that kid was unmoving and silent as a rock…
If he buys the company, I'm not sure what we have worked so hard to create will stay together…"
Felix was worried about the company he'd spent majority of his life creating would be swallowed by some big corporation that he wouldn't be able to fight later or some young heir out spending his family's wealth.
…
..
.
Not concerned about the matter with the gaming studio anymore, Ben arrived at the clubhouse, seeing a number of cars down the streets.
It wasn't anywhere close to the city of Paris, rather on the outskirts more so, but it was high density still and full of people moving about.
Esmond went straight into the clubhouse to see many faces turn and look in his direction, stopping what they were doing or talking about just to give him an uncomfortable stare.
More than anything Esmond wanted to laugh at the mice before him, trying to scare him, though he'd faced death like it was a dear friend or loved one at this point.
However, he kept it together and went over to the bar, "I'm here to meet Pierre…", however Esmonds words didn't garner a reaction, instead he received a scornful glare from the bartender.
Having been stood up by the bartender who'd left to serve someone else, Esmond asked another for Pierre but was turned away again, leaving him annoyed.
'Carter, call that prick now, otherwise I will fuck up the next asshole that doesn't answer my question.'
Carter called the number for Pierre which started ringing upstairs, so Esmond turned to leave for where the rings were coming from, but those drinking and talking, the customers filling the clubhouse all stood in his way.
.
"Now look here… I have no problems with you guys, but if this is how you want it to go down, then get ready…"
Esmond wasted no time, saying some words to dissuade the group of people in his way, yet it fired them up instead, which was more than perfect in Esmonds mind.
Two of the guys rushed at Ben, one attacking the mid-section and the other going for Esmonds head, however they weren't expecting Esmond to drop completely to the floor and shove at their shins to make them fall hard, giving him the perfect moment to knock them on the back of the head.
It looked absurd, yet it was effective enough to catch two people straight off guard.
The next guys rushed at Esmond didn't know when everything went dark, as he was already knocked out by a slap out of nowhere.
.
For the next dozen or so seconds, Esmonds smacked and beat through the guys blocking his path to the stairs, leaving no one standing in after he was done breaking everyone in his way.
The bartenders that ignored Esmond before were quacking in their shoes, worried he would come over and slapped them unconscious for ignoring him.
Making his way closer to the ringing tone, Esmond came across one individual sitting in the corner booth that overlooked the entrance and second where the group of guys were beat moments earlier by him.
'Bastard probably planned it…'
They were the last thoughts before Esmond sat down across a brunette man with a large scar across his face, covering his left eye, yet it didn't affect his vision from what Esmond could see.
He had a large scruffy beard that was well maintained and shaped, giving more of business and well-cut appearance.
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"Mr Pierre… must say you're a hard person to find…
Even have a little cheer squad for yourself… sadly that just were enough to hype you up…"
Esmond didn't hide his anger having to deal with Pierres little stunt to bother him, no doubt was a plan to see what he was made of.
"Apologises… Mr Manston.
I just wanted to make sure you were someone worth our time.
After all you are asking for quite the commitment."
Pierre was an old pal of Anton or whatever one would call a friend in the business of intelligence and the spy game.
When he heard someone was willing to take one the western powers, he thought horseshit, but he knew Anton well he wasn't one to come back into the game after being burned by Blackwater.
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"So, what do you think about my proposition?"
Esmond said it loud enough for those on the ground floor moaning as they got up and came upstairs and grabbed some seats or stood close by and listened to the conversation.
"Well… WE… feel your thoughts are quite out their… and we feel quite inline with those feelings if you can promise what you preach of course…"
Many of the men here were deadly soldiers who'd faced death and lived through the trauma that comes after which made Esmond feel a little at home with his guards around him, yet they weren't hardened enough in his mind.
He could understand the need to protect those closets first and why they had left the businesses in the first place, so Esmond made sure for many, their families were well looked after and managed.
"I'll be forward then…
I will take Nigeria."
.
There was a strong silence and deathly gazes directed at Esmond hearing he wanted to take Somalia.
It was somewhere he could find uranium and add it to the SAL.
According to the data Carter found, the uranium was too low of a quality to mine, but the materials in the space were improving with the levels going up, which Carter picked up on as the latest batch of materials were mined.
The system had started to grade the materials that were being produced in the space and what was brought in from outside.
Anything that came from outside of the space was [Common] quality, even exquisite hand-crafted goods that were made from some of the finest materials, had the same quality evaluation.
That was the same for all the materials produced before in the space, but with the upgrades of the system and space, the materials were now, [Common] [Stage 1] or [Stage 2].
Might not seem like much, but Carter picked up on it immediately and learnt the performance of the materials had increase double if it was first stage and triple if it was the second stage.
At first Esmond didn't pick up on what that meant, but that quickly changed into jubilee.
The tensile strength of steel is anywhere from 50,000 to 90,000 (PSI) but the space was producing steel with double if not triple now.
It wasn't the only material affected, as all the materials had a quality change which depended on their characteristics.
This meant getting a hold of Somalia had to be the next step before he could mine some uranium for his space.
It was important for Esmond so he could create his engines for the ships, choosing not to use some of the engine types he knew about right now as they required some technical personal at all types.
However, he only learnt not long ago while chatting with Anton that it could be purchased in American from Amazon and eBay, however the amount wouldn't be anything large or active enough to harm anyone.
Hearing this and Carters confirmation it would be enough for the space to possibly recognise, Carter was ordered to check for silly ways to find the remaining ores and materials needed so they had their own supply for everything within the space.
Esmond was hellbent on not losing this time because of stupid issues in the past the caught him in danger like supply lines being cut by allies and other nonsense.
.
"If you guys stick with me, then you'll see Somalia and other nations come into our fold as they turn into paradises, and you can turn into wealthy tycoons under my umbrella…
Plus, I want to expand upwards too, so it's up to you if you want to stick with me."
Esmond pointed to the sky, leaving most of them wondering what he meant, but those smart enough quickly understood he meant space, making the think what type of person would be able to make an army in space during this era.
"I think we are all in agreement… so what's next Mr Manston?"
Pierres voice had changed from the earlier arrogance to a much more pleasant and heart-warming tone having gotten the 'all clear' from everyone that they were in.
There were others as well that had already left the choice with him, but the 20 or so that were here now in the clubhouse need some reassurance they weren't working for some prissy lad that couldn't handle anything.