Drake walked out of the landowners office-home and said to Trinity,"Ah! It feels so good to make business deals in person! I might get addicted!"
Trinity responded in a flat tone,"Of course sir, though to try not to be so adamant in your negotiations next time, you'll have to get better at handling your mood." Drake stopped celebrating and walked quietly back to the car.
When both he and Trinity inside the car now, Drake was suddenly informed of a very important memory by Eco. As Drake listened to the summarized version of what happened his face started to pale and he slowly said,"Trinity, please inform Rivera Senior that I will be coming to discuss Important business matters."
Trinity was a bit startled by Drake's sudden mood shift, not knowing what to attribute it to. She quickly sent out a private encrypted message to Chairman Rivera that Drake was coming to meet him on Urgent Business. She added that it seemed serious as a personal note from herself to Chairman Rivera.
–Rivera Estate–
Drake and Trinity got out of the car quietly as Trinity had still not said anything. Drake was currently in what appeared to her as a very serious debate in his own mind, as he would sometimes whisper to himself, saying things like,"That wouldn't solve the ultimate problem" and "The reserves are not for the foreigners". She was more perplexed than anything, in her line of work you never question your employer, lest even begin to question their sanity. However, that didn't mean she wasn't curious, as she was getting worried that Drake may be having a Eureka moment but that it was not what he wanted. A Bad Omen is what she would call that.
They both walked up to the front of the house as an older man approached them, saying to them,"Madam Trinity and Sir Silver, I have heard of your urgent arrival, please meet the master in suite number 3."
Drake continued to ramble and seemingly argue to himself and just walked towards suite 3, a place he had talked to Chairman Rivera several times. Trinity could hear him spewing various numbers out in low whispers as it seemed he was calculating something. Trinity was really starting to get a bad feeling about this, this seemed more serious than the usual.
Drake knocked on the door of suite 3 and almost immediately heard a firm,"Come in". Drake opened up the door and also quickly shuffled Trinity inside with him. Trinity for her part quickly understood that he must need her for something in this discussion and quickly walked forward. As he closed the door Drake finally stopped mumbling to himself and Trinity could almost feel the absolute resolve on his face. Drake was on a mission now.
Drake walked up and gave a slight bow before Chairman Rivera. Rivera waved him off quickly and said,"No need for that, you have already made me a few hundred million with your stock picks, we are family now!"
Drake responded to him,"That is good, it will make this next part easier for me." Chairman Rivera was a little unsettled by the phrasing that Drake had used but he motioned his arms and said,"Well? Go on, I am listening"
Drake sighed and said,"Sir, there is no easy way to say this, but your food industry efficiency, quality, and quantity are all significantly lacking."
Chairman Rivera furrowed his brows and leaned forwards, exuding a more demonic presence in the room. He was not as smart as his son, but he had held his own until now and had experience in places that his son could never even think of, for that is how life operated. He said with a little more bass in his voice,"Speak, what are you suggesting? Do not play coy with me."
Drake kept his cool despite the pressure and said,"Sir, I have absolutely no proof that this is definitely going to happen. However, after thinking about it extensively and exhausting every other option in my mind, I have realized that the only way to make this work is with your support." Rivera had a focused face as he continued listening to the young man. Drake continued,"Sir, I Strongly believe that in 5 months an earthquake will hit the Western Coalition, ultimately triggering part of the 'San Andreas Fault' to collapse at the same time!"
Trinity stoof there stunned by what she just heard, and before Chairman Rivera could even say it, she whipped out her holo-pad and frantically searched the web for information. Chairman Rivera simply stared down Drake, keeping his eyes locked on his target. Chairman Rivera said to Drake," Besides the earthquakes and fault line, why are my food industries bad? I may not be the biggest, but I am still in the top 6 in this country!"
Drake then started laying out more information as he said,"Sir, please listen to me, after the damage of the fault line, two things are going to happen. One," he said while holding up 1 finger," there are going to be a lot of migrants and injured who will flee to the southern union in search of refuge or shelter. This will put a major strain on the southern union's food output and will make rarer ingredients worth their weight in gold."
Rivera didn't even flinch at this remark and simply responded,"That is how the food trade has been since the beginning of mankind, any big disaster will ultimately create a ripple effect that will injure other states in the process. I understand that much better than a newbie like you, by my estimates, my 'rivals' will be able to handle this influx, and expansion would be for nothing!" Rivera stared down Drake with a stone cold gaze, slowly but surely exposing more of his pressure as the boss of a multi-billion dollar business.
Drake listened to General alert him that it 'felt like Chairman Rivera was powering up', so he continued on, revealing a lot of his cards. "Chairman, I beseech you to listen, I have absolutely no way to prove it will happen but almost immediately after the fault line crash, even before the migration of refugees, a huge portion of mutated locusts, called 'Lurkers' will migrate towards northern Texas!"
Chairman Rivera froze as he heard this insane prophecy. This was just a little too crazy for him, and so he asked one of the lingering questions on his mind,"How much?"
Drake responded,"You need to multiply your entire industry by at least five-fold if you want to survive!"
Both Trinity and Chairman Rivera shouted at the same time,"What?!?" Trinity immediately shut her mouth after the shock got the better of her, but Chairman Rivera continued,"Drake, I know you are a smart boy, but surely you do not know the entire breadth of my food industry! If I really expanded five-fold that would mean investing at least 4 billion dollars!" Chairman Rivera got up from his chair and quickly walked up to Drake and despite being taller, Drake could feel a menacing aura coming from the older man. Chairman Rivera said to him a low, intimidating voice,"You expect me to believe this asinine bullshit! You come to my home, spew your fantasy doomsday theories and then expect me to invest almost 20 % of my wealth? Huh?! Say something ya jackass!"
Drake stiffened up a little under the pressure being exuded by Chairman Rivera but nonetheless did not back down. He awkwardly said to the Chairman,"Sir, please have your team look up the recent event regarding the lurkers! You will see that local bug keepers think that they are sending preliminary scouts to other areas to see if there are any good spots for their hive! It's in Colorado, on the border of the western coalition and the united state! Also ask for the report on where the california fault will rupture and which areas it will destroy! The tunnels and above ground area where this horde usually lives has been sitting on a major hot bed if the fault ever cracked!"
Chairman Rivera continued to stare down Drake, silently thinking to himself about the situation being presented before him. 'This is quite a conundrum, if what he is saying is true then that means that my rivals in that industry will probably get hit hard from the lurkers attack… hmm.. But this is a huge gamble for me and the company as a whole…' Chairman Rivera had made up his mind, and replied to Drake,"I will have to get my boys to do some independent research and provide better facts on the possibilities you have brought forward today. However, as a businessman, I must ask, what is in it for me?"
Drake smiled coyly at the Chairman and responded,"Well… apart from securing your industrial lead as the number one food producer in the country, after the 'gestation period' for the immigrants is done, you can expect to have made somewhere in the ballpark of 370 billion!"