"So annoying!" Thea sent away another middle-aged man with an extraordinary bearing, threw away her signing pen, and stood by the window looking into the distance.
The middle-aged man she communicated with earlier was just a small shareholder. Logically, it wouldn't be Thea's turn to meet him personally. But although this man's status was low, there were quite a few people standing behind him.
Yes, every word and action of his represented the US government, as well as those people hiding behind the scenes controlling the nation's lifeline.
It wasn't some melodramatic dog-blood drama about swallowing up assets or opposing the merger. It was a problem that neither Thea nor Malcolm had realized.
With the merger of Queen and Merlyn, the new group's business covered military R&D, new energy extraction, urban construction, shipping, and a huge pile of other fields. The group had nearly a hundred thousand employees! Perhaps this alone wasn't enough to attract the government's key attention, but what was fatal was that Moira was serving as the Mayor of Star City, and Thea was brazenly carrying out a group merger under her governance.
The merged new group would dominate Star City alone. Added to Moira's care—under the collusion between business and politics—did you mother and daughter plan to rename Star City to "Queen City"?
The "Beacon of Freedom and Democracy" absolutely could not allow this kind of news—which would let that unmentionable country launch massive attacks—to get out. The middle-aged man who just walked out of Thea's office was only here to do preliminary probing. He spoke in circles for half the day just to convey one meaning: Could your group headquarters perhaps relocate somewhere more... appropriate?
As for where to relocate? The higher-ups felt that the two international metropolises of the Beacon Nation were quite suitable for the new group's positioning. Thea politely sent the middle-aged man away. She was now a big shot who could make the ground shake with a stomp of her foot; she couldn't just immediately agree because some small character said so. This involved a huge pile of issues.
Looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the workers constructing in the distance, Thea let out a breath of frustration. "Damn it, what bullshit international metropolis! Isn't it just Gotham and Metropolis? These two hellholes..."
From a business perspective, big cities were definitely beneficial for the group's development, but Thea really didn't want to go! How bored would she have to be to run to Metropolis and Gotham to make money?
But not relocating was indeed inappropriate. At the very least, it would affect Moira's political career, which was something Thea didn't want to see. Which was more important: her mother's life ambitions or the lives and safety of the group's employees? Thea didn't even consider it; she automatically chose the former...
In her view, Metropolis and Gotham definitely held dangers, but for her current strength, the danger wasn't great. The speed of the Yellow Lantern Ring was unrivaled among all Lanterns. If Thea couldn't run away, then there really weren't many who could.
She instructed her assistant to check if the group had land in Metropolis and Gotham. The new headquarters had to be built tall and big. Presumably, once the news spread, the government would know her meaning, and they would return the favor within certain rules to give her some care.
Fortunately, things like relocating a group headquarters—buying land, building towers, moving various departments in—could be dragged out for a long time. In the short term, Star City was still Thea's base camp.
But there could only be one headquarters. Should she choose Metropolis or Gotham?
Although she was very familiar with Gotham, Thea really disliked the weather there. Although they hadn't stopped the artificial rainfall work, the speed of cloud accumulation was too fast. As long as they slacked off for a few days, the sky would be covered in dark clouds again.
Although Thea could absorb sunlight and moonlight, she couldn't absorb sunlight that was blocked. Staying in Gotham for a long time would slow down her strengthening speed significantly.
On the other hand, the Court of Owls had tentacles in every aspect of Gotham. Taking a large group over there would definitely cause conflicts according to common sense. If the conflict was small, it would easily expose the fact that she secretly controlled the Court. If the conflict was big... hitting her own people would be too much of a pain in the ass.
Considering all aspects, Thea gave up on Gotham and prepared to march into Metropolis.
The government side was very happy to receive the news that she wanted to enter Metropolis. They didn't know Thea's various concerns. From their perspective, they also hoped Thea would go to Metropolis.
Gotham was chaotic and disorderly, and Wayne Enterprises was controlled layer by layer. The government wasn't afraid of Bruce Wayne doing anything big. On the contrary, the extremely egoistic Lex Luthor gave them a huge headache. He managed Luthor Corp so tightly that not even water could splash in. Yet, Lex's parents had deep connections in business, politics, and the military, so they couldn't touch him at all.
Lex Luthor's genius mind, arrogant personality, plus immense financial and human resources—how could he not arouse fear? Hearing that Thea was going to Metropolis, several true high-level officials were very happy and instructed their subordinates to process her new group merger matters as quickly as possible.
With the government giving the green light, work that would have originally taken at least three months was completely finished in just over a month. The big signboard of "Queen-Merlyn Group" formally appeared on the stock exchange.
Although investors couldn't understand how these two groups with completely unrelated businesses merged together, seeing the crazy rise of the group's new stock, a huge crowd of people still enthusiastically threw money at Queen-Merlyn Group.
Because of the government's overt or covert pushing, Thea's personal net worth reached a historical high, at one point even approaching Bruce Wayne's. Many calm investors quickly figured out something was wrong and sold off part of their stocks, but it still allowed Thea—who had invested quite a bit of private money beforehand—to buy low and sell high, madly earning hundreds of millions of dollars.
If this large sum of money were in that unmentionable country, it would definitely be invested in real estate. But Thea took out a map and looked around, wanting to find a city without superheroes. But unfortunately! She couldn't find one at all. Buying a house in this world was just waiting for it to be flattened by evil aliens.
Pocketing the money, just when Thea thought her days would continue like this, Amanda Waller of A.R.G.U.S. came to visit personally.
Having connected with the military, Thea wasn't as desperate for A.R.G.U.S. as she was in the beginning. She knew clearly that Waller coming to her door meant nothing good, but she couldn't just kick her out either.
"Big Sis Amanda... you looking for me for something? You see, I'm very busy right now," Thea said, pointing at the documents on her desk. The new group had over ten Presidents and Vice Presidents combined, but in the early stages of the merger, many matters required her decision; these people couldn't help. She didn't even have time for her date with Diana last week. Instead, she called Diana to the office, and the two closed the door and read documents for a whole day.
"There is indeed something I need your help with." Amanda lowered her attitude significantly. It was no longer the attitude of calling her to come and waving her away like before.
Thea wasn't someone who didn't know good from bad. Since she received respect, she put down her pen, waiting for what followed.
"I have a subordinate named June Moone, a Doctor of Archaeology, very capable. A month ago, while conducting an investigation in Peru, she accidentally fell into an ancient cave. After we rescued her back, several medical experts were helpless regarding her condition. Her consciousness seems a bit disordered. I heard you have some abilities in healing? Can you help me take a look at her?"