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Ethan's overbearing voice hung in the air of the venue for a long moment.
Everyone present was stunned by his proposal, and even Reyes, standing beside him, felt his head buzz.
New Future is going international? How did I, the project department manager, not know about this?
Full of questions as he was, Reyes still put on a look of understanding and nodded along from the side. To save face, he could always corner his junior brother about it after the meeting.
The bosses below the stage lowered their heads in thought as they turned Ethan's terms over.
In fairness, the points he'd raised offered them personal upside greater than the three points in their own proposal. Especially the last one. If Ethan could genuinely help them into the international market, every company in the room could ride the opening to a new tier.
But that was a hypothesis. Set aside whether Ethan's New Future could even gain a foothold abroad. Even if it could, the world's number one energy giant, Maha Energy, still stood squarely in the way. It was no secret that Maha's foundation in the Republic had been wiped out by Ethan. At home, they couldn't touch New Future. But abroad, Maha would throw everything it had into blocking them. Which made Ethan's final point, in practice, an empty promise.
Having reasoned it through, the old man in the lead seat spoke again.
"Mr. Mercer, we're all businessmen. Businessmen don't believe in the future, or in plans. We believe in tangible, present interests. New Future hasn't touched the international market yet, and none of us can be sure it'll succeed. So here's a thought. Follow our proposal first. And if New Future really does find its footing abroad later, then we'll do things your way. How does that sound?"
Standing to the side, Reyes let disdain cross his face.
This old man really never tired of having it both ways. Do as he said, and the crowd below the stage came out the biggest winners no matter whether New Future succeeded internationally or not.
"Yes, that's the prudent way to handle it."
"Just so. This minimizes our business losses."
"The public gets cheaper electricity, our companies don't take too heavy a hit. A fine solution."
Watching the chorus of agreement, Ethan gave a cold laugh from the stage.
"I think you've all misunderstood something. The proposal I just laid out wasn't open for negotiation. I've said it. You execute it. There is no room for you to haggle with me here. Do I make myself clear?"
The room froze at the sheer arrogance of it, and then the anger they'd swallowed earlier surged back up.
Who did Ethan Mercer think he was? Some ancient emperor, whose every word was law? Had one Hidden Dragon program made him forget himself entirely?
The faces of several front-row bosses darkened further.
"Mercer. You really think you've got us cornered? Push us too far, and we go home and deregister our companies. Tomorrow, the Republic wakes up to two hundred thousand more unemployed."
A contemptuous curve touched the corner of Ethan's mouth.
"Before I came here, I ran the numbers with the relevant people at the Market Regulation Bureau. Thanks to abundant energy, the emerging industries in development can absorb roughly eighty to ninety thousand people. And with the Hidden Dragon rollout, New Future's own talent gap runs around fifty to sixty thousand. That leaves fifty thousand unemployed."
Slap.
Ethan brought a bank card down onto the table.
"There are two hundred billion marks on this card. At ten thousand a month, that's enough to carry those fifty thousand people all the way to retirement."
Ethan's cold arithmetic raised a sheen of sweat on every forehead in the room. Only now did they grasp that the lifeline they'd been clutching so tightly was nothing at all in this man's eyes.
"Mr. Mercer, do you imagine solving that one problem is enough?"
A boss in the second row stood, threatening openly now, past any pretense of hiding his intent. If they couldn't force New Future to back down today, they'd be staring at bankruptcy.
"Every boss in this room is worth hundreds of millions. If we all cash out and walk at the same moment, do you doubt the entire market collapses?"
"This is thuggery."
Before Ethan could speak, Reyes slammed the table and shot to his feet.
"Doing this, you'd be deliberately wrecking the market. Where's your concern for the public interest? Where's your responsibility as businessmen? And if it came to that, do you think the state would simply sit on its hands?"
The boss gave a disdainful smile.
"What about the state? The government has to follow the law too. Tell me, which law does cashing out my own assets break?"
The bosses around him chimed in.
"Just so. It's our money. What's the crime in pulling it out of the market?"
"Pure coincidence that everyone cashes out at once."
"There must be eighty or a hundred bosses here today. Add it up, and the cash-out runs at least a trillion. I wonder if Mr. Mercer can plug a hole that size."
"And then we take the money, travel abroad, live out our days as gentlemen of leisure. Not a bad outcome at all."
On the stage, Reyes was livid at the shamelessness on display below. He genuinely hadn't expected that the figures at the very top of the energy industry would turn out to be this petty, this indifferent to consequence.
"Heh. I'd think twice about going abroad."
Just as the crowd was feeling smug, Ethan's flat voice cut through the venue.
"If you truly dare to pull something like that, you'll find abroad isn't as safe for you as home."
The chill in the words put a shiver through everyone present. Unbidden, they recalled Ethan's ferocious record from six months back, when he'd broken into the Aurelian Republic single-handed.
Crack.
A sharp sound broke the crowd's spiraling thoughts. The old man seated at the center of the front row swung his cane hard and struck the boss who'd just been talking.
"Some things you can say. Don't you dare think about actually doing them."
The struck man didn't offer a word of objection, only apologized to the old man, timid. The old man didn't spare him a glance. His gaze swept the room, and his warning came out cold.
"Remember this. Industry competition is one thing. But the precondition is that none of you harms the national interest. Mass layoffs. Cashing out to crash the market. If anyone here is truly so blinded by greed that they dare do such a thing, then I'll spend whatever years I have left on nothing but grinding that person into bankruptcy. If I don't, my name isn't Ambrose Whitlock."