Chapter 146: Resolution

Chapter 146: Resolution

Leandro - GrainScape Technologies

Right at the entrance of a gated facility, a man got off the leading truck and made his way over to the security booth.

“Good afternoon, Lee. How have you been?”

“Same old, same old.”

“Oh, then you’re doing really well, then,” Leandro smirked. “Why don’t we catch up over a beer tonight?”

“Sure. We can chat later. Let’s get this inspection over with first.”

“Okay, I know the drill.”

“I know, but I still have to go through procedures.”

Lee, the full-figured inspector, closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them. His pupils lit up brightly, as if showing off his optics.

“Okay, as an official food inspector working on behalf of the city of NLA, I must inform you that we will begin our inspection. As a reminder, we will be recording throughout the proceedings.”

“Yes, sir. We’re ready.” Leandro replied in a more polite tone than before.

He then turned back to the convoy behind him and signaled for them to come forth while Lee did the same to his people around the heavily fortified compound.

The gates before the convoy soon opened, and the trucks filed in one by one. Each vehicle was then directed to a separate berth spread out around the warehouse by the entrance.

Leandro followed Lee toward where the leading truck was parked. By the time they arrived, there were already half a dozen men going through the contents of the truck. They each wore full-body protective suits and matching masks. On their chest was the label ‘Department of Health’, denoting them as government employees.

Leandro knew better than to strike up a casual conversation as the inspection took place, especially while it was being recorded. He tactfully made himself sparse as Lee headed for his coworkers.

Leandro found himself a quiet spot in the shade and dove into his optics to kill time by reading the news and watching videos when he suddenly heard his name being called out.

“Leandro! Come here now!”

He glanced over and saw his friend, Lee, who was looking over with an urgent expression.

I have a bad premonition about this...

He quickly jogged back over to the truck, where Lee then pointed toward a burlap sack. Leandro knew the contents should be fine grains his company had grown, and other popular ingredients that were high in demand among high-level corpos.

That was why his heart ached when saw the handheld detectors the inspectors used glowing red.

It meant it had detected harmful chemicals at a quantity that exceeded the limit, and not by a small margin. Otherwise, it would only glow orange.

“This...this can’t be! We examined the mycotoxin levels before we took off. They should all have less than 5 ppb!”

“Logistics Manager Leandro, I have to formally inform you that we have detected concerning amounts of harmful chemicals in your shipment. Your entire convoy is to be detained as we inspect them thoroughly.”

“That’s...okay. Please give me a few moments as I contact my superiors.”

As Leandro moved to make the call, he couldn’t help but dread what was to come. The shipment he was responsible for was worth millions, and that wasn’t even the worst part.

Their artificial greenhouses were in the center of the continent and transportation wasn’t quick or cheap. They had contracts with various customers and if they didn’t satisfy them, heavy penalties awaited them.

And all this mess would be blamed on Leandro because the company verified the quality of each shipment before it headed out. He was the last person to touch it and signed off on it. His expression paled when he remembered all the hyenas back in at head office that wouldn’t let go of the opportunity to get rid of competition.

Leandro glanced over to his long-time friend and saw that he was on a call as well. That dashed any last thoughts of covering up the incident for as long as possible while he went into hiding.

“...I am willing to hear your plan out. Why don’t you tell me what these ‘investments’ entail?”

“Ten million cred—”

“Unacceptable.”

“If your company is having cash flow issues, we can accept other forms of payment as well.”

“This is not about insolvency. The amount is ridiculous for such a small matter. There is no way our shareholders would agree to it.”

“Well, our company won’t budge, either. We would like to see you guys take responsibility for your actions.”

Come on Thorne, you’re directly referring to them now. Well... I guess I should be surprised he even entertained Will’s corpo talk at all.

“...On the responsibility issue, our company has an answer for that. It turns out a former worker of ours may be involved in the nefarious activities against us. They were terminated recently after the squabble with your alliance, and it seems they didn’t take it well.”

The agent from GrainScape Tech proceeded to place down his handheld terminal and placed a call through it. It was answered right away, and the terminal projected a holographic image in between him and Thorne.

The projection showed an unfamiliar man tied up to a chair with his mouth gagged. I didn’t even have to search him up, as a quick message from Claire identified him as an executive from GrainScape who had managed one of their branch offices. That office was exactly the one our alliance had attacked toward the end of our conflict with the High Gate Group.

“As you have said, we are more than willing to take some responsibility.” He turned to the projection and called out to someone on the other side. “Do it.”

Having heard his words, a figure swiftly went into the frame, positioning themselves right behind the restrained corpo. In one casual motion, the figure held a gun up against the former executive’s temple before pulling the trigger.

At the sound of the gunshot, I paused my work and focused on the video feed.

“I believe we have shown our sincerity, don’t you agree?”

Thorne scoffed at him, but soon received additional instructions from our negotiators.

“Five mill—”

“We are willing to invest two million credits in your company to resolve these disruptions.”

“Three.”

Will’s eyes flashed for a moment and he went silent.

It seemed the general direction had been settled and only minor negotiations remained. I tuned them out once more and refocused on the work before me. They could slowly decide on the precise amounts themselves. I had more important matters to attend to.

However, as much as I wanted to continue working on the power armor, the successful talks with GrainScape meant it was now okay to proceed with our cooperation scheme with Sensorial.

That was why I muted Thorne’s meetings and placed a call to my new friend.

“Rollo...If I’m receiving a call from you, I assume things have settled, then?”

“Yes. Let us start seriously considering how to cooperate toward more beneficial pursuits. Would you like to come visit my workshop?”

“...Do I have a choice?”

Why does he sound so hesitant? I thought we made it clear that we’re cool.

“Of course. We can go to yours if you want.”

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