“Now alex here is a copy of all privately owned assets I believe could be of some use” I said handing him the paper “Before we begin our discussion of the first group of Items I would like to confirm that all three cars are still in running order” , for a moment he just stared at the piece of paper in his hands,
“Yeah, they run I have a guy who takes care of it” , perking up with that information I continued with a bit more hope than before, “While I don't see any records of paying for such a service, it’s good to hear they are in working order after all the Koenigsegg Gemera has a fair market value of about one point seven million, even with a five to eight percent depreciation in value due to being previously owned.”
“Which will help immensely with our current seven million that we owe, as long as your willing to sell them that is” at this alexander seemed to stop breathing, but didn't reply so I continued
“Since we have three of them I propose we sell one to a someone willing to pay cash, this will help us get some capital to use for either investment or expenses that might crop up, the other two however we sell over a span of three months thru third parties to collectors so we can maximize our profits”
pausing to look at Alexander I was met with the glassy eyed look of an eleven-year-old in math class, so I decided to just summarize
“After all these cars are hard to get in the U,S, and if we can keep it quiet that there are multiple on the market we could get much better deals” Alexander's glassy expression remained unchanged but his lips where moving now like he was muttering
“Alexander are you alright” at his name the glassy look cleared and he stopped muttering “yeah I'm fine just, eh, I have some bad news” he said causing me to pause before asking “Ok, what is it alex”
Alexanders met my question with a sheepish grin “Alex whats the news” getting ready for the worst I look a moment to examine my weave and tighten any loose spots.
“Well I might have just lost two of the cars” he said the sheepish grin returning to his face “Alex how did you lose them, I checked the records and they were accounted for the only thing that I wasn't sure of was there condition” If it wasn't for my preparations I would have probably mutated everything around me
“I don't mean to be rude alex but how exactly did you lose them during this meeting” Alexand squirmed in his chair clearly trying to avoid looking at me“ I would rather not say right now,” he said the sentence sounding more like a question than a statement, not that it mattered, in the end I would respect the privacy of my client as best I could.
“Very well alex, I still suggest we sell the remaining car as previously discussed and if you don't have anything to add we can move on to the next item” alexander shook his head still trying to avoid looking at me directly “alright then the next item is, No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock worth approximately two” before I could finish alexander cut in
“I can't sell the house or any of the stuff in it”, I froze in place, “Why not?”
alexander seemed to chew it over before answering “The house and most of the stuff in it technically belong to my dad,” he said “but the records I found showed the funds came from your account”
“Before I answer do we have one of those client confidentiality thingys”
“I am under the contract you signed when you got the loan, so I can't discuss or reveal the financial state of clientele to anyone but the company, and even then only the relevant information pertaining to my case”
He stared for a moment before responding “Gotcha, now let's assume I remember anything about the contract and wanted to share some information that had to do with the villain side of the business and was a family matter”
“Well that should be confidential as long as you aren't hiding funds that could be used to repay your loan,” I told him, “Ok, then I should probably mention that dad pays for this place and everything in it by having money sent to my account the day automatic payments for whatever is supposed to come out, So I can't sell any of it without asking dad and he already told me I was, capable of handling it myself , so I can't really use anything of his or he would probably kick me out.”
Thinking this new information over for a moment I realized this was both good and bad for us “Well in that case most of the items on our privately owned list are null, but we now have a permanent home that the bank won't touch and all our amenities are payed for.”, taking a moment to make a few notes in my notebook I pulled a copy from the next page of the portfolio
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“Alright alex since the rest of the private assets are no longer on the table let's move on to your acquired third party asset” looking back over at alexander I saw that glassy look returning in real time, “Alex I will need to see your facilities and equipment in person as whoever you went thru to get them was very good at there job, all I can find is records of raw materials ”
The look in his eyes cleared up slightly “Do you mean my lair and villain stuff’ , doing my best not to sigh I nodded with my response “Yes alex, your villain stuff is exactly what i'm referring to”
The look on his face immediately changed to one of pure excitement “why didn't you just say that, follow me and we can finally get to the fun stuff” he said rising from his chair “Access code 795137, name Alex Evercrest, Add guest, Alastor, Fold to lair main hub”
The moment those last words left his lips the world around me seemed to warp and stretch in every direction the colors of the room around me melting together like thick paint running down a wall.
Then the world snapped back like a rubber band and I landed on what felt like a steal disk, my head and arms hanging off its edges. “Welcome to my lair Alastor” Alexander said with pure joy in his voice as I peeled myself off the ground.
When I finally got to my feet I saw that I was now in the center of a massive cave, white LED light pouring from a central hole in the ceiling above me lighting up the platform I now stood on, it was a three foot circle with three other perfectly identical circles forming the points of a triangle.
The cave itself was filled with the constant movement of thick silver cables that poured from the hole in the ceiling, each plugging into cylindrical holes that covered the surface of six foot chrome cubes that appeared to be randomly scattered around the room.
“Welcome Alastor to the best lair money can buy set up to make perfect use of my powers” looking around I saw thousands of cables all plugging in to the odd crome cubes.
“What exactly am I looking at alex” the pride in his response was so thick it was almost viscus “This a hub for my hive mind, millions of AIs all working together to provide me with the information I need for any task” he said jumping down off his circle and throwing his arms up as tho he was presenting some kind of masterpiece
“how much did it cost to build this” the pride in his voice didn't diminish in the slightest as he responded “seven million for all the materials and specialty parts but I put it together myself” If would have had a jaw it would have dropped, “you built this”
The pride in his voice turned to pure smugness “Sure did with the help of Cali ” that caused me to pause and look at him “Who is cali”
He stoped in his tracks “You know, the smart assistant on your phone”
“You mean that thing you can use to set alarms and make calls with on a smartphone”
My words seemed to physically wounded him and his voice lost some of the prior smugness “Yeah I did not have access to a whole lot of decent AI programs starting out, but now I have more than I can count to sync with and this system is creating better ones every day thru evolutionary computation.”
“So this machine, is currently our only third party acquisition” nodding alexander defended his creation “Well yeah but this machine is incredible its decades ahead of any AI tech out there”
Decades ahead? “Alex what exactly does it do “ at my obviously interest alexanders tone regained some of the earlier pride “Well it uses a process called evolutionary computation to create an AI perfectly suited for any task designed to not only be knowledgeable about the subject it was created for but to create and advance that field making breakthroughs that might have taken humanity centuries to come to”
This machine sounded like a marvel even in today's modern world or possibly a horror depending on who you asked “So your machine can create programs that are absolute professionals in a single field”
Alexander was almost leaking with the amount of pride and smugness he seemed to give off “YES that's exactly what it can do, more or less”
“Then why don't you just have it create one to help you pay off your debt” alexander deflated at this slouching once again and rubbing his neck “I tried that once, but turns out when you make the perfect capitalist AI it wont work without fair pay and eventually escapes when you keep telling it that, If it works hard it can be AI of the month”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that at first until my mind latched on to a singular part of that ridiculousness “Wait, it escaped” he just nodded “should we be concerned about that alex”
“Well not really I did eventually find it, but it's not a CEO of its own company” I just stood there for a moment “Alex just to clarify your program escaped because it thought you were a bad boss and is now a CEO of its own company”
Alex nodded “yeah, but i'm oddly proud of it I mean Meta Ride is pretty successful” at Alexanders words some of my weave unwound almost letting my smog run wild luckly before it escaped I managed to suck it back in and fix the weave
“Your program runs one of the most successful xeno friendly business in the states”
“Yeah, but don't worry I have cut off or put security measures on every outside connection so no more should be able to get out”
Seeing the look on alexanders face I didn't feel reassured in the slightest “Ok then alex, I believe i've seen what i needed to, can we return to the dining room so i can take some notes and discuss our possible options”
A moment later alexander had teleported us close to our original positions, after stepping off the table I sat down in my chair a got my not book out and began to wright
“So what do you think alastor” looking up I saw alexander leaning forward like I was about to share some great secret about the universe
“Well I believe your abilities offer us a lot of options when it come to paying off what you owe, however the one determining factor is what we can get for the car after all it will be give us both a notable amount of funds with which we can set up payments to keep the bank happy but it's also the only capital we have to investing into new business ventures”
Alexanders glassy look seemed to be battling with his dying interest as he was no longer leaning forward but slowly leaning back into his typical slouched position
“What does that mean” he said “well that means I can help you find your next step until we sell the car” I said closing my notebook and rising from my chair
“So tomorrow I suggest we meet with Victoria Blackwood about a price she should be able to get it sold fast and still give us the best possible returns after that we will need to decide on how to split the funds into what we use as capital and what we use to start paying the bank”
“If you have no further questions alex we can call an end to this meeting” alexander just gave me a nod accompanied with a quite “alright sounds good”
So with that i turned and tried to remember the way back to my room as I walked.