"Hello Mr Manston, my name is Crista Hoffman."
"It's lovely to meet you Ms Hoffman, please just call me Esmond."
"Then please call me Crista,"
The two chuckled a little, before sitting down and getting to business.
They both found the other attractive, with Crista finding Esmonds eyes to be deep and honest, while Esmond found her smile to dazzling and highly attractive, but they kept their thoughts to themselves and focused on business before them.
.
"So… I have reviewed your file and the information you've sent through.
From the looks of your proposal, I no doubt believe you would be perfect for a contract with the State government for Waste and recycling control management."
"There seems to be a 'however' that is about to escape your lips."
Esmond wasn't trying to flirt, but his tone and eyes focusing on Crista lips made her feel Esmond might try to connect with her in the hope the contract went through, however she was a lower end employee that didn't have the authority to sign off on the proposals.
She could only laugh, both unhappy about Esmonds professional conduct and a little glad Esmond was attracted by her rosy lips.
"Ahem… well unfortunately there are other factors that need to be considered so the most I can do is forward your proposal to those who will make the final decision." Refusing to say 'however', Crista tried her best to let Esmond down easy that his proposal would be ultimately rejected.
"I see… that's quite annoying I have to say, but it isn't something I didn't expect…
Thank you for your time, Ms Hoffman…"
Esmond got up and left without saying any more and went straight for the door, leaving behind a shocked and saddened Crista who felt disturbed he left calling her 'Ms Hoffman'.
'It wasn't even my fault!
I even tried to be nice… asshole.'
She just didn't know it yet, but that asshole would change her life at the worst of times…
…
..
.
"Book me a ticket out of here…" Esmond couldn't hold back his anger that the meeting didn't even last a damn minute before his proposal was rejected.
He could have sat their and argued his case but seeing that she disregarded his management proposal that far exceeded anything else the other companies had offered to accomplish.
Also, the jobs that would be offered was much greater with a large increase of wages that would certainly label him as a socialist by Fox and CNN 'experts'.
.
'Calm down and take a deep breath…
That poor girl was just doing her job alright, honestly, I couldn't believe she was the head of waste operations for the State, till I saw her name and title on her desk.
They sent some junior to deal with us, probably to get us to withdraw out application before things even got started…
Now go off and tour around the city like every other person that visits here.
Be a goddamn tourist!'
As annoying as that was, Esmond actually wanted to visit Atlantic City and gamble a little, but in parts of the United States the rules were 21 and above, which happened to be the legal age in New jersey, so he asked Carter to organise accommodation in Manhattan.
Having never been to New York or Central Park, which he greatly desired to do after watching Friends, 1994, religiously, he wanted a view that overlooked the park from his hotel.
He thought about going shopping and getting some gifts for his parents and Carter while in Manhattan, but more than anything, Esmond wanted to go stand in Times Square and say, 'I'm standing over here!'
But he was bound to get jumped by New Yorkers…
And go over to see the statue of liberty, which Esmond found a little hypocritical thinking back to the atrocities being committed within America at the time, but it was still a lovely statue in his mind.
There were some thoughts in his head to make something similar in Somalia later on or wherever he could build the foundations of his empire, but that really depended on plenty of different factors…
…
..
.
"How are things going with the new recruits?"
'Everything is being cleared and many of them have already arrived in Thailand and headed straight over towards the villas I have hired.'
There was a villa in Phuket Carter had rented for the group to use while Esmond travelled around America for a bit to collect some of the remaining materials needed within the space.
Some of it was basic plants that couldn't be sent over to Adelaide because of custom problems and affect they could have with the local environment if planted.
.
"Ok, that's good.
At least most of my worries are gone already…
What about Antons little trip around the campsites?
Has it been fruitful?"
'Other than Hayaan, we've got some candidates for Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Eritrea, as they are heavily unstable and easy unbalance so we can infiltrate in without anyone being the wiser.
However, unlike Hayaan and his brother, the other candidates have extensive families within the campsites that Anton has hospitalised for medical check-ups before flying them over to Thailand.'
Esmonds intentions were to find candidates for the other nations surrounding Somalia, as it would help his hold over the region firstly, but most of all it would further his goal to establish his empire.
Of course, before he sent them back to their homelands, they would go through some extensive training within the space and go through basic training and political management studies.
They would be working, hopefully, beside the Zadrisian people who would also be educated on political management studies as well as plenty more with the training facilities Esmond purchased earlier with what remained of his system credits.
It might be troublesome at first, interacting with another alien species but the Zadrisian people were comforting and a highly intelligent race, so they loved to talk and meet others.
There were little concerns about the possible issues that might arise when the two races met each other but they wouldn't be in the space alone, also Esmond planned to be involved in the process to help his human recruits not freak out.
.
"Well, the ones with the larger familys means more collateral on their end if they were to go against me in the future, but to be honest, from your reports, none of seem like it now, but who knows in the future…"
'Ahh… *sigh* that's true, but they seem like decent people from everything I can find.
Out of the half a dozen people Antons gathered, Hayaan looks like the one you want…'
"Hmm…"
There had to be a country where they could embark Phantom's operations as a Private Military Company, which came down to Somalia or Kenya, as they were connected to the Indian Ocean, unlike Sudan, which was connected to the Red Sea, and too close to Saudi Arabia.
There was little idea of how well it would go for the Phantom operatives in the future after they finished training within the space, but based on Esmonds plans of invasion, Xaafuun, small island connected to the mainland Somalia would be an ideal piece of land to hand on and then continue with the forces.
But nothing was concrete as of yet, because he wanted the opinion of his trained recruits who would have a wealth of knowledge after going through basic training.
That wasn't all, with the purchase of Virtual Labs from the system and the reward of the Virtual World, Esmond had Carter busy incorporating the two, and establishing the Virtual Labs within the stable Virtual World which eliminated a great deal of the dangers and as well as increase the rewards to be gained from it.
And it was all thanks to the stable Virtual World from the system which Esmond and Carter assumed had improved and eliminated the faults of the Virtual World System.
With little left to discuss for now, Esmond passed out in the chauffeured car taking him to New York, finally resting for a couple hours after his exhausting globe-trotting rush of flights.
.
֍ Meanwhile in the Spatial Ark Land ֍
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"I'M SORRY!"
Daniel, Esmonds father, ran straight out the front door to the cabin and tried to weave in and out of the trees all so he wasn't in the line of sight for his loving wifes deadly accuracy.
With a smile that could shatter millions of hearts, Ruby, Esmonds mother, calmly walked out the front door and looked at her husband in disgust as he tried to hide among the luscious garden and trees.
She might have been smiling, but her eyes told a different story, like Ruby was out on the hunt for prey.
Slowly she pulled her arm back and in a smooth motion Ruby threw the shining dagger within her hands through the trees and garden in the way to hit the collar of Daniels shirt as he weaved through the trees.
Stuck to the tree behind him, Daniel tried to free himself, squirming around and screaming 'IM SORRY!!', praying it would deter his wife, however he was wrong.
When he fell free of his shirt, relaxing his arms and shoulders to fall through his shirt, his eyes locked with Ruby's when Daniel looked up, feeling the fury and flames of hell growing in her eyes for his painful torture.
.
"HONEY PLEASE! How was I to know you were making some muffins and cookies for Esmond?
I thought we were a family!"
"Ohh… you didn't know?!
We are a family?!
Bullshit…"
Rubys fake smile was gone, and her anger showed as she pulled the recorder from her pocket and played the audio.
'Ahhh fuck me dead…
I lost this one…'
Daniel readied himself as he listened to the audio from the recorder which clearly recorded Rubys voice telling him to not eat the cookies and muffins that she was baking for Esmond and to wait for the second batch to which he agreed to.
Not wanting to face the smug look on his wifes face as she stopped the recorder in her hand, Daniel jumped up and pulled out the dagger from the tree and tried to aim it at his that he loved so dearly, so he could distract her enough that he could race back into the cabin and lock her out.
His survival plan had changed from running to going all out and consuming all of the cookies and muffins if he was going to inevitably face his wifes wrath.
'Ride or die baby…' Daniel prayed in his heart before giving it his all and racing to the cabin.
.
Far away observing the two, Carter couldn't understand the turmoil between the loving husband and wife couple that looked like a fight scene straight out of Hollywood.
'I swear Esmond told me back then his parents were normal people other than their few quirks, but this… is fucking mental…
No wonder their son turned into the homicidal maniac that used to sing while slaying through his foes…'
Carter looked over the cabin from time to time to see if things were ok and if anything needed to be done, but what he increasingly found was Ruby and Carter running amok while their son was out, creating his empire.
Difficult to understand the duo, Carter focused on making his second city which was closer to the training facilities where the human recruits would be heavily busy, learning a great deal of knowledge that will make them some of the most knowledgeable people in the whole world.
Carter thought about mentioning the Zadrisian people for joining the Phantom armed forces to help fill out the ranks if they struggled to find people.
Finding trustworthy people was difficult and it was even harder to keep them without their dreams and hopes growing to huge proportions, so Carter was trying to find a solution to the issues and so far, he'd come up with taking refugees.
He hadn't informed Esmond of his thoughts just yet as he was focused on building the city and palace that needed to be built, however he already started looking at ways to capture and transport the refugees they need to build their forces.
.
'Hey Carter, how's the second city coming along?'
"Problems, *sigh* I do not like how the city square needs to be the central items within the second city.
I thought about moving the palace to the outskirts of the city, just to give you privacy, however the system has issues with that, so I checked the requirements, and it needs the palace as well as the summoning square to be the central figures of the city."
'Mmm, just get it done, but make sure to leave space to expand the summoning square and palace.
Maybe set the square for two purposes.
To summon the Zadris people and work as a point where the citizens can gather if I call.'
Carter appreciated Esmonds suggestions as he failed to receive any sort of help from either Daniel or Ruby, because it made them feel like they were intruding on their two sons' creativity.
.
"What about colour schematics then?
I was thinking the classic, midnight purple, yellow gold, jet black and snow white to line the halls of the palace and make up of the building, butttttt… it's up to you."
Esmond agreed but also wanted the addition of scarlet red as it reminded him of his past guards, he created because of a specific film series he quite loved and tried to recreate during his many lifetimes.
Star Wars…
Carter had already downloaded the film series and added it to Esmonds laptop for him to watch from when he returns and use his Golden Knowledge ability to get a wide array of knowledge.
It would offer them a great deal of new schematics that could help change how they constructed their armed forces and battleships.
Not able to wait, Carter had already watched the Star Wars, having accidently first downloaded Star Trek because of the mislabelling of files, which he found very interesting and wanted Esmond to use his ability on next.
.
After watching Star Wars, Carter finally understood after the countless lifetimes what Esmond was trying to recreate with the clones and various forces that were made up from those clones.
Examining the process from the viewers point of view, Carter could instantly tell with his A.I. intelligence programming, that they couldn't get the clones to live for so long and have a consciousnesses because everyone was different and unique.
That became evident from the stormtrooper who smashed his head into the ceiling when he was moving in the halls with his squad.
'We kept thinking of them like clones with a singular mind, however each and every one is unique.
Fuck… how did we not figure something so simple out… jeez… a bunch of morons was the only way Carter could see himself because there were too many lifetimes wasted to this project and it always failed.
What they found instead was new limits and evolution points of humans that could make them highly durable in all types of harsh terrains and environments, creating elite troopers that utterly wreaked havoc on all Space Legions and Empires they came across.
Carter already knew Esmond would want to create the clones again and he also believed it would be highly possible this time round, but it depended on time, a great deal of resources and most of all, how long it took Esmond and Carter to figure it out from the Golden Knowledge ability.