Varian woke up at 2'O'clock from meditation and freshened up.
Before their little party was over, Micheal received a message.
The meeting was advanced and it'd start at midnight. Micheal left hurriedly for a place and asked Varian to meet him by 3.
The rest were asked to start preparations for the meeting immediately.
Varian could guess the reason from the holograms Boo found..
(George Astor, the mayor of Yan City was found to be artificially inflating the prices of the beast cores he stockpiled. He embezzled at least 20 million karma points.)
Mayors were in the bottom-upper cadre of officialdom. Above them, there were officials at cluster level and officials at planetary level.
The top most were the Federation level officers. Of course, Astor family had none at such level.
So just a Mayor's scam wouldn't have troubled them.
But—
(Vincent Astor, Mayor of …)
(Ayden Astor, Mayor of…)
(Chase Astor, Mayor of…)
(Myles Astor, Mayor of…)
…
(Diego Astor, Pearl City Mayor embezzled…)
There were around hundred such posts.
All of them were Astor Clan members.
'Boo, did all this happen just a few hours ago?' Varian asked for the third time. It was still surreal such a thing was possible.
'Yes, Master. A few minutes after you entered the party, the news attached with ironclad proofs flew all over the metanet.
The Astor Clan tried to suppress the news. But their influence only stopped at Earth. The other seven planets are now fully aware of this. Even on earth, this news is spreading like wildfire.'
Varian sighed in wonder.
The Astor Clan was really in deep trouble. Even though people knew politics was and officialdom had darkness, they couldn't stand it when it was exposed.
There would be a very strong public opinion against Astor Clan. Of course, Astor Clan would go down because of public opinion alone.
Its rivals would use the public opinion in their favor and bring down the Astor Clan.
Then this new clan would make promises to act against corruption and people would believe it, until the day they would be exposed.
"So, Micheal would be very busy now." Varian chuckled.
He reached the designated office nearly an hour ahead of schedule.
"CONTROL the narrative!" Micheal's screams nearly shook the ceiling.
"Come up with a convincing lie. Say that these hundred mayors are not our own people. Their ancestors joined Astor clan for their own greed." Micheal growled into his comm.
Varian wisely chose not to enter for the time being.
"Actually fuck it. If worst comes to worst, let's hang them all and convince public that we are also victims." He ended the call with a slam on the table.
"Nova, don't be fucking late!" He yelled at Varian.
Varian was early by an hour, but it didn't matter.
So Nova Reeves apologized. "I'm terribly sorry."
"Whatever. Now sort these files. I need to meet a few delegates today. Call their secretaries and fix the appo—"
Varian's work began in the early morning.
Micheal had almost no breathing time as he kept calling higher officials. He requested, cajoled, threatened and finally, even begged.
The ones that agreed with him, he praised them after hanging up the call.
The ones that refused—
"Nova, list them down. Check if they have a weaker member in the family. Mother or children." He ordered in a cold tone.
"Yes." Varian's body stiffened and he replied in a colder tone.
Micheal was too engrossed in his work and didn't notice the peculiarity.
Time seemed to fly and Micheal had a mountain of things to do.
A few butlers initially approached him for suggestions regarding the arrangement for meeting.
Even though he was busy, he displayed his professionalism and helped them out.
Varian didn't like that.
'Boo, spread the news in all media. Do not allow it to be taken down. Also, find some of their darker corruption material on them and publish it."
'Yes, master.'
Micheal's world nearly came crashing down when five Astor's Cluster Officers's scam was leaked.
Damn it!
They had only twenty-five clusters under control. Now, five were collapsing in front of his very eyes.
"Fuck! Enigma! You bitch! I hope you die a dog's death." He cursed and slammed the table.
Crack.
It broke down, and the files flew into the air.
Micheal was now losing control. The always calm and composed Micheal, he was breaking under the pressure.
Varian flashed an imperceptible smile and right then, a butler rushed into the room.
"Sir Micheal, do you think we can use less expensive delicacies for the gue—"
Boom!
Slap!
The butler crashed into the wall as blood flowed down his battered cheek.
Micheal lunged at him and held his collar before slapping him again.
"You think I'm your nanny? Why don't you think for yourself?" He slapped Thomas with the back of his hand.
Slap!
Slap!
After a few slaps, he threw him out of the office. "Fucking maggots."
Varian hurriedly bowed and acted like a frightened Level 2.
Micheal looked at his hand and paused for a moment.
He seemed to have realized what he had just done. He looked back and saw the blood staining the wall.
Micheal raised his finger to tap the comm before retracting.
He couldn't bring himself down to apologize.
So he turned to Nova Reeves, his one day assistant who seemed very competent, "Inform everyone they can contact me after 7 PM. Until then, they better stay out of my sight."
"Yes, sir." Varian hurriedly opened his comm and repeated the exact same words.
In his mind, he ordered Boo to change them.
All the butlers under Micheal received the message.
'Sir Micheal is very busy. Do not disturb him till 7 AM. Until then, you better stay out his sight.'
Micheal resumed his work, and before he knew it, the suns were already down. In fact, it was only a while before the meeting begun.
"Those guys didn't come for help again. Phew." Micheal leaned back on his chair and rubbed his forehead.
Today was easily the worst day of his long career.
His body was fine, but his mind was overwhelmed from the pressure.
"Sir, exquisite soothing juice."
Micheal glanced at the newcomer, Nova Reeves, serving him his favorite drink.
He didn't think much and gulped down the drink.
Another annoying comm message sounded, and he raised his hand in annoyance.
"Huh?" As he dealt with the news, his vision suddenly blurred.
'Am I overworked? But I am an Awakener!
"Nova, my head—" He called out to his personal assistant.
"Shh." Nova's previous docile smile shifted into something different.
A predatory smile.
"Boo, let's go."
Micheal felt himself being thrown into some strange room before he lost consciousness.
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