Greed God chapter 65

January 21st 2016 Metropolis 10:00 AM EDT

I  got Dinah settled in and then headed back to Metro the next day. I was  making some progress on word of mouth with Kara's help. She knew a lot  of people, and watching her perky ass bounce around my shop was a good  way to enjoy my day. Sadly it was Thursday, so she had to be in school.  Technically so did I but I wired the principal a hundred grand and told  him to take care of it. I would graduate with full honors even if the  old bastard had to write my homework for me himself.

When  I finally showed up at the store, I didn't stay to sell all day. I  merged a few thousand worth of glasses, leaving me at twenty five  thousand GP and then headed out to explore nearby. I told Cherry to text  me when Kara showed up, but I was not a storekeeper and yesterday  annoyed the shit out of me. Instead I was going to do some recon on my  competitors, specifically, I was going to take over Galaxy Media.

If  I wanted to bounce someone currently in the star lineup for Metropolis,  Galaxy Media was my best bet. Wayne Enterprises was stupidly powerful  even here, and this was LexCorp's home turf. It was absolutely insane to  consider trying to topple one of those giants from a storefront even  with magic powers and a nestegg like that. I needed to make a name for  myself first, get myself off the bottom rung, and the best possible way  to do that was to get a foot in the door somewhere like Galaxy.

Morgan  Edge was a notorious scumbag, and it would be just like him to take a  hopeful up and comer into his company to get his hands on the kind of  tech I had. Once I was in, a bit of corporate espionage and maybe some  strongarm tactics would help me work my way up, and then I could put  myself in a position for a takeover. Edge knew me, and he would assume  that I was striking out on my own to prove myself and that I had more  money than sense to throw at the problem. He would meet with me because  of my dad, and invest because of my product, and the whole time he would  do his level best to fuck me over.

I  strolled casually up to the front desk. Slipping out my ID. as I smiled  charmingly at the receptionist. "Hi there, my name is Nick Lord. Can  you tell Morgan Edge that his old friend Maxwell's son is here to see  him?" Morgan Edge and my father were NOT friends. Their relationship  could best be described as being one of malicious apathy. They did  however act civil in public so most people didn't know that, even though  dad had been doing his spy thing and had been out of the public eye, he  WAS still the second richest man in Metropolis.

Her  eyes widened in shock as she stared at the ID, swallowing hard. "Oh! Of  course, Mr. Lord, I'll let Mr. Edge know you're here to see him." She  sprang to her feet circling around the desk. Causing the massive tits in  the low cut top she was wearing to jiggle. According to her name tag  her name was Tiffany, and it wasn't exactly a mystery why Edge had hired  her to work his desk. But then, I appreciated eye candy too, so I  followed the harried receptionist to a waiting room and graciously  accepted the offered organic cola while she ran this up the chain.

I  considered as I waited how to play this. Manipulation was an artform,  and people like Edge were proficient, if amateurish. I'd need more  cunning than the superficial charm I'd used to get into Dinah's panties  to get into a position to take advantage of Morgan Edge. That said, I  COULD manipulate him, I just needed to make sure to take the right  approach. Everything can be exploited, and Morgan Edge wasn't some  master schemer. He was a slum lord with a TV company.

He  would be wary, be careful of me trying to pull the wool over his eyes,  but that was a vulnerability of its own. People like Edge were control  freaks, they got off on setting people up like dominos and watching them  fall. The main flaw in that kind of thinking is that by assuming you  can plan around everything you have to trust your instinctive read on  people. Edge liked to think he was observant, but what he really was,  was biased. He had preconceived notions of how things would go and  relied on them too much.

If  you want to manipulate someone like Edge, you just give him what he's  expecting. I would play the brat, the power hungry teen tired of living  in my fathers shadow. I would show him someone impulsive, greedy, and  heedless of consequences. Now I was some of those things, so it wouldn't  be hard to fake, but the point was that by showing him someone with an  obvious agenda he wouldn't bother to look for a more subtle one. Showing  up here intending to use him to springboard my company to greatness in  an obvious way would make him complacent.

Someone  like me shouldn't have the ability or resources to take apart a media  giant like Galaxy Media and steal it from him, so that wouldn't occur to  him. And as long as he thought he had a handle on my real goals, I  could let him "manage" me while I made my moves behind the scenes in  peace. All I had to do was fail a few obvious embezzling schemes and  engage in a bit of nepotism to try to get my own people hired in to sell  the idea that my "plans" were progressing, even if not very  successfully.

So  when Edge came into the room, hard eyes scanning me with glee, I just  smirked at him, raising an eyebrow and waiting for him to come over to  initiate a handshake. I saw the subtle hint of annoyance on his tanned  face that he smoothed over, and the bald, bearded man walked over with a  big, friendly, and obviously fake smile. "Nicky! Look at you, all grown  up! Haven't seen you in ages, and look how big you got. Plus I hear  you've been making moves of your own, your old man must be proud. I'm  surprised he didn't take you under his wing."

He  held out a hand and I shook it casually. Giving a devil may care shrug.  "I don't need his help. If I get him to hand me everything then  everyone will just think I'm a useless layabout. No, this will be much  more fun. Still, it's good to see you too Mr. Edge. I was in the area  and I figured you might be interested in checking out my new business  venture. It's going to be big, so I thought I'd give you a chance to get  in on the ground floor."

Which  was business talk for 'give me your money'. Still, from his point of  view the timing would just be confirmation that I was a lazy brat. One  day as store owner and I didn't do as well as I hoped, so I was getting  bored and trying to pawn all the work off on him so I could rake in the  cash. It had the added benefit of being kind of true so it was an east  sell. Of course, at this point Edge probably assumed I was hocking some  low level crap. I hadn't sold enough glasses for his investigation to  have turned up a spare pair of the things.

I  pulled out a pair of the flagship model H rank glasses and handed them  over. "I have a private in with a particularly brilliant scientist. They  make these for me special. They're cell phone specs full internet  capabilities and super high resolution screens in the lenses. Voice  activated, and the flagship model you have there is solar powered and  has a massive internal storage. The cheaper model is only two hundred  but those high end specs are two grand. Consider those a gift."

He  would try to reverse engineer them. But it was functionally impossible  with the technology he had access to to make a design that would be  cheaper than what I was selling them for already, if he could recreate  them at all. Luthor could probably manage, but again, I doubted even  that asshole could put together a version cheaper to produce than mine.  Two grand would barely be enough to pay for the storage architecture,  and that wasn't even counting having to miniaturize it. Edge tested the  things out, his eyes getting wider and wider.

Finally  he smoothed over his features. "These aren't a bad product Nicky. I  don't know if they're up to Galaxy Media standards, but you've always  been like a nephew to me. I'm sure we could work something out. I could  set you up with a nice oversight position for the department that makes  them, give you a cushy salary and a nice office. How about you bring in  your scientist friend and we can talk it over? I'm sure getting them  supplies and production facilities has been a pain, I can take care of  all that for you."

Ah  yes, the old 'this isn't worth my time but I like you so I'll throw you  a bone' strategy. Used to convince people their products were worth  less than they were since the dawn of time. I put on skeptical  expression, tinging my voice with worry. "I mean, I thought they were  pretty great. This is definitely the kind of product that can help me  make a name for myself on my own. The scientist I contract with will  only deal with me, but...I guess I could work with Galaxy for  distribution." I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "I'll get you a list of  materials that we need for large scale production."

I  had absolutely no need for any materials, but if I could get him to  start shipping me stuff I could use the points income to cover actual  production and then resell his 'supplies' through back channels for  additional profit. It was way more sustainable than the way I was doing  it now, and if anything actually netted me a profit in both fields. It  would also give me another avenue of commerce to work with Penguin on,  and it was always nice to keep lines of communication open when  possible.

He  looked a bit annoyed but nodded, putting on a amiable smile to cover his  irritation. "Of course Nicky. Like I said, they're a neat little  gimmick, I'm sure they'll do ok. Once you see that they aren't selling  as well as you expected we can talk over production. Maybe figure out a  way to cut costs a bit. I'm sure your one scientist hasn't optimized the  process yet. Not like my whole R and D department can do." He shook his  head. "In any case, we can work out the details with the lawyers."

He  walked over to the bar of the conference room I was waiting in and  pulled out a decanter of what looked like cognac. "In the meantime we  should be celebrating your first big business deal. I know Max isn't a  drinker, and I'm sure you don't indulge much either." He winked at me.  "We can just keep this between us though." He was clearly trying to get  me drunk before we made the deal. Unlike my dad I DID drink, as well as  do multiple drugs, or at least I had. Now they mostly didn't effect me  anyway so it hardly mattered. He passed me over the glass of brandy and I  took a sip, enjoying the smooth, sweet, liquid as it burned down my  throat. Step one was one. Now onto to step two. This company was going  to be mine.