29 - Chapter 27

“Please take a seat Patriarch,” said Tasha. She had to work out how to deal with Malim bin Daud. She knew that his perception would be better than hers, as the system had told her that this vampire in front of her was stronger than her, and that she had no hope of challenging him. It was, therefore, more than likely that he would be able to tell if she lied or tried to mislead him. She would have to have to use the truth as a weapon against him. If she could distract him enough, lead him down a path with selective truths, then she could get him to make an incorrect assumption by himself. That was the only path open to her, that would not either force her to use her trump card, or end up dead. Using the trump card would certainly be a pyrrhic victory, and would probably lead to her death.

Malim took a seat opposite Tasha. “Thank you.” said Mailm. “You said you were surprised to see me here, why is that?”

“I would have thought, with the reports that your daughter is missing.” replied Tasha. “That you would want to manage the search.”

“I have people for that,” responded Malim coldly. He really wanted to reach across the table to grab this woman and beat the answers out of her, but restrained himself.

Tasha felt the vampire's anger across the table. She could sense the carefully constrained lust for violence. Though experiencing them for the first time, it was not hard for her to understand them. It was almost like she had gained an innate understanding of the basics of her enhanced senses. She would need to explore it further to understand how best to utilise her new abilities. “I wish I had yourself self control.” replied Tasha. “When I lost my family, I nearly destroyed my business in the pursuit of answers.”

Malim’s eyes widened a touch in surprise, he had not expected her to reveal that little detail herself. It was enough for Tasha’s enhanced perception to notice.

“Ah, you had not anticipated that I would be so forthcoming?” replied Tashsa to the unasked question. “What would be the point in hiding it? I am sure your intelligence division has already informed you. If you are here, I am sure you have conducted a most exhaustive and thorough search on my background. Or is my assumption incorrect?”

“No, we have obviously looked into you and your businesses thoroughly.” replied Malim. This conversation was not going the way he had anticipated. She had not even brought up the business contract, nor tried to apply any leverage yet.

“When I saw you walk in, it was a reasonable assumption.” replied Tasha. “To be honest, I almost took you off the list when I saw the news of your daughter’s situation.”

“Oh and why would you have done that?” questioned Malim. “More importantly, why did you keep me on the list?”

“Do you want the business answer or the personal one?” asked Tasha

“Whichever one is the truth.” replied Malim.

“Before I do that,” said Tasha. “Let me make a guess as to why you are here.”

“Please go ahead.” replied Malim. “I would love to understand what you have deduced.”

“Well, your daughter goes missing,” said Tasha, sounding sympathetic. “Then the very next day you hear of a potential offer to buy your company. Of course, you took the timing to mean that we were somehow involved in capturing your daughter, and then intended to leverage her for a preferential deal? You decided to have me and my company researched in depth, using your considerable resources, and those of your associates, you learned about my time in the special forces, then in intelligence, and then about the amount of capital I control. That deepened your suspicions of my taking nefarious actions. If I had done it for governments in the past, what would stop me from doing so for myself?”

“Something along those lines.” replied Malim.

“Then you came here and saw that you were not the only company we had contacted.” continued Tasha. “Your first reaction was that maybe it was just coincidence, then you probably noticed the number of companies that had signed the deal with us.You probably learned that I had landed my own intelligence team to conduct due diligence. You jumped to the conclusion, incorrectly I might add, that we were leveraging all the companies, using my intelligence teams to do the dirty work? How am I doing so far?”

“Remarkably on point.” replied Malim. He had no idea why this woman was telling him all this. But the fact that she could deduce his thinking and the way events had proceeded left him feeling uneasy for the first time. This woman was truly dangerous. If he did not have absolute confidence in his physical superiority, then, he admitted to himself, that he may even have been feeling fear. He had always thought of humans as weak, but based on this meeting, he would have reevaluate his opinions. “Still, you did not answer my question.”

“Again, please bear with me.” replied Tasha. “I would like to ask you some questions. Let us see if I can lead you to the answers on your own.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Malim was intrigued, this woman was daring to play with him. She had not lied so far, yet she was not telling him everything. There was more to this story. He would play along for now. “Please go ahead.” he said a little sarcastically.

“Tell me, how did you get the details of my work history?” asked Tasha. “That should not be available even to most government agencies. Intelligence departments protect their agents and ex agents very well. Otherwise no one would work for them?”

“I have, what was the term you used, ah yes, associates.” replied Malim arrogantly. “They are very good at what they do.”

“The same associates who would be more than capable of removing all evidence of an accident?” asked Tasha.

Malim looked uncomfortable for the first time. He did not know how to answer without being caught in a web, so he just stayed silent.

“Let me change the subject, since you don’t want to answer that question,” said Tasha, showing no sign that she wanted him to actually answer. “You wondered why I had my intelligence team here.” She passed him the intelligence work up on his company, along with the offer they had put together.

Malim opened the document and read through it. The more he read, the more concerned he became. The level of due diligence was on another level. Yet, that made him doubt his original theory, if this is how they had pushed the companies into agreeing to the contracts, then maybe there was no other leverage.

“As you can see,” said Tasha, reading his thoughts. “We have used the intelligence team to vet our investment possibilities. This was the reason all those companies signed the agreement. Now you asked why we invited you, and why I didn’t take you off the list.”

“Yes, that is what I want to know,” said Mailm. He was becoming more and more uncomfortable.

“Well the business reason should be obvious at this point.” replied Tasha.

“Yes, you wanted the largest impact on the sector, and based on your research you need my mining holdings.” replied Malim.

“Exactly, now the reason for keeping you on the list after the news of your daughter broke,” replied Tasha, “as I said that was personal. You know your associates were not as careful as you thought. I was notified that you had managed to get personal details about my work history.”

That shocked Malim to the core. How had this woman learned of the Syndicate's and the Ancestors actions? It just should not be possible. Yet, he could tell she was not lying. He did entertain the possibility that she could control her physiological responses enough that she would lie to him effectively, but discarded that possibility as ridiculous. If she was telling the truth her intelligence network had to be monstrous. “What did you hear?” asked Malim.

“I heard mention of a group calling itself the Syndicate.” replied Tasha fishing for a reaction.

She got it, when the colour drained from Malim’s face. “How, how did you hear that name,” he whispered.

She ignored his question and carried on. “So the personal reason for keeping you on the list,” said Tasha. “Here is an organisation that could look into my past. Since you had also suffered from your family being targeted, I thought you might sympathise with my family situation. If we did business together, you might be incentivised to help me to get to the bottom of what happened to my family.”

Malim was getting more and more concerned now. He had been instructed not to harm this woman in any way. Yet, she had already revealed that she knew about the Syndicate. What else had she learned when she looked into his family? More importantly, what information had leaked when the ancestor had the syndicate look into her. He would have to try and keep her guessing.

“Well, if we do end up doing business together.” replied Malim, affecting nonchalance. “Then that is definitely something that we can look into. Of course, it is not something I can agree to by myself, but I can certainly float the possibility with my associates and see how they respond.”

“You have to let me finish, before we get to the business and request part of the conversation, Malim,” said Tasha. “You can’t rush to the desert before the main course.”

Malim was starting to feel like he was being hunted. Just her having learned the name of the syndicate would cause him no end of trouble. The fact that it had happened during a request that his family had initiated, would cause even more trouble.

“So, that was my intention, until I saw you attend personally.” carried on Tasha, as if she was just narrating a simple story to children. “But then, why would you attend, and why would you be so angry? What did you know that I did not? Was your mysterious Syndicate responsible for removing all information relating to my family’s ‘accident’? Why would you continue to think that my company had targeted your daughter? Do you want to know what I think Malim?”

“I am sure you are going to tell me.” replied Malim

“I think you came here believing that I had targeted your daughter.” replied Tasha. “For the record, I did not even know that the girl was your daughter before I saw her picture on a new report yesterday morning. When you walked into the meeting room, you looked like you wanted to beat information out of me. Why would that be?”

Malim was getting more and more confused and concerned. Confused because she had not lied, she did not know his daughter, and she had wanted to find out about her family’s accident. Concerned that she was able to deduce so much just by the fact that he was here. What else had she perceived? What more would she deduce? This was becoming more problematic for him and his family. This woman was no ordinary mortal. Even without the dragons backing her, her intelligence contacts, and her wealth would make her a very dangerous enemy. If she truly did have a connection to the dragons, then she would be a terrifying enemy.

“So the reason you came here was to accuse me of being involved in your daughter's disappearance.” continued Tasha. “All the while, your family were the ones who used your associates, the syndicate, to remove all details about my family’s accident. Now why would your family have done such a thing? And why would you carry on believing that we would target your daughter?”

“What is it that you actually want to ask?” said a very sombre Malim. All the rage had drained from his countenance.

“The only reason you would be so angry, and blame me and my company, is that you felt we had a reason to target your family, and your daughter specifically.” stated Tasha. “So my question is why did you or your family cause the death of mine?”