10 - Chapter 9

Tasha decided to return to her room after asking James to look at both HR and recruitment teams. Given that they intended to ramp up team size significantly, they needed to fulfil those roles quickly. Behind all of Tasha’s decisions and push was to complete the next quest. She looked over the quest again.

Quest: Make your first significant investment

Make your first significant investment with a stated objective.

Reward: Quest points, Quest to find out more about your family

Status: In progress

Without putting in place the appropriate structures it was impossible to make a significant investment. It wasn't like in the stories, or as shown by hollywood. It wasn't even like it was shown on programmes like Dragons Den or Shark Tank. You couldn't just throw money at a company and magically be an investor. An investment was only considered finalised when all the paperwork was in place and due diligence completed. The right business structures, people, paperwork and processes needed to be in place to move forward otherwise time would be lost fixing issues as they came up. By ensuring she put in place all the people and processes in advance it would actually speed up the investment process going forward.

In the end, it was all to push on to find out what happened to her family. The quest clearly hinted that there was more going on, and she meant to get to the bottom of it. Just because she was waiting for the quest didn't mean there were no avenues she could follow. She could also push forward on another facet of the investment, full background checks.

Tasha decided to call her old friend and teammate Hanna. They had worked on multiple government projects. Hanna had even helped her out with looking into her family, but the lack of money had impeded the search.

“Hey Hanna, how are you doing?” said Tasha when Hanna picked up.”Are you busy? On a job?”

“Good to hear from you Tash. I am sorry I couldn't help more before.” replied Hanna. “What do you need? I am not on contract at the moment.”

“I need you here Hanna and I want you to bring the team, I need the full team for an extended corporate intelligence gig.” said Tasha. “I can give you full details when you get here. In fact, book the first flight you can to me and bring who you can today. We have a team event this evening in London. I will book you all at the Waldorf Astoria until we sort out offices and accommodation.”

“Are you sure you can afford the bill Tash, I know we are friends and I don't mind helping you out, but I still need to pay expenses and the rest of the team.” asked Hanna.

“I want you to take over as Head of Security for my group of companies Hanna. You can bill me. I want an in-house team going forward. Find and buy the teams we need, or even the companies.” replied Tasha. “Also start up the investigation into my family properly this time. I will fully fund it. Let's start with a budget of £100m.”

“Are you serious Tash? How did you get your hands on that kind of money?” asked an incredulous Hanna. “Last I heard you had spent every penny you had already?”

“I will tell you when you get here, and bring a comms person too.” replied Tasha. “I am expecting you here in time for the event. Just confirm numbers and I will book the hotel. If you can't get me, contact James. He is back running my life.”

“Sure, let me see who is available. You know half our old team would drop everything to come over.” teases Hanna.

“Let them, I think you will need them. I am thinking of running a full psyops team. I have certain suspicions, and I will only talk about it in person.” said Tasha. They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Tasha returned to the conference room to see Sunny waiting for her.

“So I got the employment contracts done first. It was straightforward to take a standard contract and update the terms we needed.” said Sunny, “As the terms were identical for all of us with small changes, they are all ready to go.” He handed Tasha his own contract.

Tasha took a few minutes to read through the document. It looked like what she needed.

“This looks fine, let's get yours signed, then we can get everyone else.” replied Tasha. “How are the deal memos progressing?”

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“They will take a little longer, but will be done shortly. Usually the due diligence is on the numbers and past financials. By removing that requirement you have made life much easier for us.” replied Sunny.

He took his contract and signed it, then handed it to Tasha for her signature.

Tasha signed the contract and handed it back. “Welcome on board officially,” said Tasha.

Sunny went off to get everyone else. Soon he returned with James, Ingrid, AJ, Sally and surprisingly Robert.

“Everyone, Sunny has your contracts ready. Lets get them signed and we can talk about next steps.” said Tasha.

Everyone reviewed their contracts then signed them. Everyone was done within 15 mins.

Tasha finalised the contracts and handed copies to Sunny.

“Right apart from Hanna, who will be coming on as head of security for the group, our core team is here.” stated Tasha. “What I am sharing will stay in this group.”

Everyone perked up, most had partial information, but no one had the full picture of what Tasha was planning. Still Tasha was not going to share the existence of the system with anyone yet.

“So I have been asked to run the investment programme for a VC fund called Myriad Dragon Enterprise. They have already given TA Consulting £1Bn to start with. What will be news to most of you is that this is just a small tip of a massive iceberg. We have the option to draw down up to £1Tn to invest as I see fit. The remit for investment is not financial return, but to improve and help humanity and our technology.” revealed Tasha. “That is not all. I have already agreed a deal with UCL, in partnership with Oxford and Cambridge universities. We are going to invest a minimum of £200M, probably a lot more to develop state of the art satellites. We are also going to have first refusal on launching our own fleet. An option I intend to fully take advantage of. The meeting is on Friday with the deans.”

AJ, Sunny, Sally and Robert were left gobsmacked by the news. They had known it was a significant contract, but just the start was already more complex than they could have imagined. This explained why Tasha had been so reticent to mention any details until the contracts were finalised.

“There is more, mostly speculation at this stage, that I am not willing to reveal at this stage.” continued Tasha, “But, I am sure you can already see some of the issues, challenges and threats we will face going forward. I need you all to run your sections independently. I will be busy looking for investments and other concerns. If you can't reach me, you can talk to James. As COO he has my full confidence.”

Tasha gave Hanna’s details to Sunny so he could have her contract ready too. She left them to work out how to proceed with her plans. She checked her messages, and found Hanna had confirmed she was bringing 5 people total and would arrive just in time.

Tasha went down to reception and extended the bookings for her now much larger team then she decided to take a walk.

Tasha was lost in thought as she wandered down Drury Lane towards Covent Garden. She noticed, in her peripheral vision, a bunch of muscled men in gym clothes, talking and joking loudly. Tasha kept an eye on them, but generally ignored them, but they also noticed her.

They started making comments about her looks, one even classified her a MILF. Tasha found the comments juvenile and a little demanding, but was thick skinned enough to mostly ignore it. The men didn't like the fact Tasha was ignoring them. They sped up and surrounded Tasha.

“Hey little lady,” said one of the group, “how about letting us buy you a drink?”

“Not interested,” replied Tasha curtly. She attempted to go around them, but they closed ranks to try and box her in. Tasha sighed. “Are you all really this stupid? I told you I am not interested, but obviously the steroids have killed off your brain cells. Get out of the way, before I make you.”

A couple of the guys looked uncertain now, but the little alpha of the group became even more aggressive. “What can a little thing like you even do, we are all MMA fighters, you don't think we can stop a little thing like you?” He was really getting aggressive and in Tasha space.

“Oh fighters, really, and you think you are ready to go pro, really?” replied Tasha in a mocking tone, “How about a bet then, let's go for a spar. If you win I will go get a drink with you and whatever else your little minds are thinking about. If I win, I get the satisfaction of teaching some idiots who not to mess with.” Tasha was purposefully increasing the pressure. She needed to vent her frustrations on someone, and she needed to test her new stats. It looked like these idiots wanted to volunteer in place of training dummies, who was she to say no to such a kind offer. She wasn't the least bit concerned about them being able to harm her even before the stats increased.

“I am guessing you are coming from a gym, I am sure there is a ring there we can use? I wouldn't want to leave you knuckleheads laying on the pavement.” mocked Tasha further.

The big guy was barely holding himself from attacking her. One of the others pointed the way to the gym and Tasha turned that way followed by the group. She entered a modern looking gym and pointed to the idiot squad, as she had taken to calling them in her mind. She certainly wasn't going to bother learning their names. At reception she continued to wind up the idiots. “These guys were begging for lessons in how to fight, and I offered to instruct them. Can we borrow your ring, I promise it won't take long.” You can charge that one, she said pointing to the alpha of the group.

“You will all have to sign waivers if you want to spar, the gym won't take responsibility for accidents or injuries.” said the manager.

“I am happy to sign, as long as they all sign first. I also want copies of their signed waivers, can’t have them complaining about it afterwards.” further taunted Tasha.

The group were too wound up to let the cold look in Tasha’s eyes any notice as they quickly signed their waivers, but the manager certainly noticed. He was sure the men were about to learn a very painful lesson.