Season 3 chapter 26
The Trillion-Credit Crisis
Deep inside the bunker, Kniya leaned forward and aggressively jammed his finger onto the 'PLAY' button of the audio receiver. "Okay, shut up. Let's listen to the actual threat."
The magnetic tape whirred, broadcasting Leon Debestez's terrifyingly cold voice through the surround-sound speakers.
"If you dared not to tell us the real location of those two trillionaire bastards..." Leon hissed on the recording. "Then I will personally ensure that we annihilate your parents from this world. We will completely erase your family tree."
"Actually," Muntari the assassin spoke up on the tape, his tone completely practical. "That would be a really great opportunity for you, Vice President. Because if he assassinate your parents, you will instantly inherit all the lands and other liquid assets they own. You would become incredibly rich at this point."
"Yeah," Filoska's recorded voice agreed smoothly. "It would actually be super beneficiary for me. Please, go ahead. Assassinate them. I would love a massive real estate inheritance."
Kniya's eyes instantly lit up. He slammed the pause button, halting the tape.
"Wow!" Kniya cheered, practically bouncing on the leather sofa. "That is definitely a great idea! I am really believing in this idea! This idea sounds too DI'an! Getting incredibly rich off the tactical assassination of your own family members? It is pure, unadulterated capitalism! This idea is so great, I am absolutely going to implement that in our corporate structure!"
Malesh stared at his business partner, his face a perfect mask of deadpan exhaustion. "Kniya, I think so, you are literally an idiot. You cannot legally weaponize family inheritance in a corporate setting."
"Absolutely, I can!" Kniya grinned, waving his hand. "So, can we continue?"
Kniya hit play. On the tape, Leon was violently panicking about the crown seizing the land, but Muntari seamlessly interrupted him with an even bigger financial bomb.
"In this way, Mr. Head of the royal family," Muntari noted dryly on the wiretap. "You really need to know that if the crown officially orders the assassination of a noble-affiliated family, all the outstanding loans that her parents currently owe would be legally transferred directly to the royal family. The royal family has to pay that debt under federal estate law."
"Oh my god, yeah!" Filoska cheered on the recording. "It would be a really great relief! Because my parents actually hold a huge amount of crippling debt from bad investments, which accumulates to exactly one trillion credits!"
Kniya slammed the pause button again. He turned slowly toward the armchair, staring at the real Filoska.
"Wait. Filoska," Kniya asked, his capitalist brain struggling to process the sheer volume of negative equity. "Do your parents really have this massive amount of loan?"
Filoska let out a heavy sigh, avoiding his gaze. "Yes. They were not pretty much the best investors. According to their own needs, they believed their investments were the absolute best, so they invested in a lot of companies. And they failed eventually. That is why they have a huge amount of loan."
Malesh blinked. He turned to Kniya. "Kniya, the royal family is really, really fucked up. Taking on a trillion-credit liability for an assassination is an economic disaster."
"What do I have to do with that?" Kniya shrugged arrogantly, kicking his boots onto the coffee table. "I am absolutely not going to pay that loan for him. Let's continue."
The Zero-Liability Threat
Kniya hit the button. The tape crackled as Leon, having completely abandoned the idea of killing her parents, delivered his final, brutal ultimatum.
"I will kill the most precious person of your life," Leon threatened viciously on the recording, dropping a photograph on the table. "And I know that you are not a cruel, heartless sociopath like Malesh and Kniya. I know you actually care about your brother..."
Kniya violently smashed the pause button so hard the audio deck rattled.
"What the fuck?!" Kniya yelled, jumping to his feet and looking highly offended. "He is calling us sociopaths and heartless?! Actually, he is the fucking sociopath, the absolute idiot! He is literally kidnapping children and tying them to chairs in dark rooms! I just exploit the working class!"
Kniya aggressively pointed his finger directly at Filoska's face.
"And that is exactly how we got to know about everything!" Kniya scolded her. "And you didn't tell us! You should have told us that thing on time, Filoska, because if we didn't get to know that thing on time, it would be a really, really problematic situation for us!"
"Just play the rest of the tape!" Filoska groaned, completely exhausted.
The Psychological Curtain
Kniya hit play. The tape recorded the heavy sound of the lounge doors shutting as Filoska walked out of the room. For a moment, there was only static silence.
And then, the disrespectful, sandwich-eating guard spoke again.
His tone was completely different. The sleaze and the insolence were entirely gone. His voice was suddenly sharp, highly professional, and terrifyingly cold.
"Sir, finally the act is over," the guard reported smoothly on the tape.
Sitting on the bunker sofa, Filoska's jaw dropped in absolute shock. "Wait... what?! This was all an act?!"
"Yeah, of course I know that this was all an act," Kniya stated, rolling his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "No member of the royal family's private security has the absolute courage to disrespect the leader like that. It was an act just for you. To break your psychological defenses."
On the tape, the guard continued his briefing.
"Are we going to send Muntari—the top-class assassin—to kill Kniya and Malesh now?" the guard asked.
"Absolutely no," Leon replied darkly. "We are not going to send him to kill Kniya and Malesh. We are going to send him to kill the Head of the Bunti-Bunti Corporation."
In the bunker, Kniya and Malesh both sat up straight, instantly recognizing the massive corporate entity.
"Why, sir? Why are we going to do that?" the guard asked.
"Because," Leon sneered. "Bunti-Bunti Corporation is going to have a massive deal with Kavilson Steel to transfer critical technologies and other things needed. If they get killed, the tech transfer stops."
"Understood," the guard replied. "So if you are going to send the top-class assassin to that place, then who is going to kill Filoska, Kniya, and Malesh?"
"I have other assassins for that," Leon stated coldly. "And she is going to regret it... because I am also going to kill her brother too, after I make use of him."
The Power of the Bribe (Six Days Ago)
The tape clicked violently, reaching the end of the reel.
The bunker fell completely silent.
"So, Filoska," Kniya said, leaning forward in the present, a massive, triumphant grin spreading across his face. "Do you know what happened at that exact moment of time? Let me just jump back to the past."
(Flashback to six days ago...)
Kniya, Malesh, and Salesh were sitting around the audio receiver in the bunker. The transmission had just ended. The threat to violently murder Filoska's brother hung heavy in the air.
Kniya didn't panic. He just calmly pulled out his encrypted corporate phone, typed a single message, and pressed send.
Twenty minutes later, the heavy titanium vault door of the bunker hissed open.
Kniya stood up, gesturing toward the doorway. "Here is Filoska's brother."
Salesh and Malesh whipped their heads around, absolutely shocked. Standing in the doorway, clutching a candy bar and looking incredibly confused, was Filoska's little brother, completely unharmed.
"Kniya, how did you get him?!" Malesh demanded, his deadpan logic failing.
"This is the power of the bribe, Salesh," Kniya bragged, adjusting his suit jacket. "You should understand. This is the power of the bribe. I simply bought the loyalties of the royal guards holding him."
Kniya looked at his business partners, his expression turning serious. "Okay, guys, I do not believe into the royal family actually, because of the reason I literally do not consider myself the part of the royal family. I am capitalist by the mindset."
"But you are actually a part of that family," Malesh pointed out logically. "And your family is aristocratic."
"But I am not!" Kniya argued fiercely. "I am capitalist by the mindset!"
The little brother, still standing nervously by the heavy titanium door, looked at the three terrifying billionaires arguing about DNA.
"Excuse me..." the brother asked quietly. "Who are you guys?"
Kniya slowly turned his head to look at the kid. A massive, incredibly evil grin spread across his face.
"We are so fucking rich people," Kniya sneered playfully. "Much richer than you, fucking idiot."
And with that, Kniya let out a loud, dark, echoing evil laugh that bounced off the concrete walls of the bunker.
(Back in the present...)
Filoska opened her mouth to scream, to cry, to violently demand to see her brother, but both Kniya and Malesh instantly raised their hands, showing their palms to strictly stop her from speaking before she could even utter a single syllable.