Early morning.
Kai had already arrived at Arthur's office, with his subordinate Carter following behind him.
Arthur's expensive suit was as immaculate as ever, the kind of precision that reflected a senior corporate executive's authority and presence. He was leaning back in his leather chair, taking a call and handling work as usual.
Kai sat across from the electronic desk, while Carter stood off to the side waiting for instructions.
Arthur smiled as he dealt with the request on the other end of the line.
"Yes, yes, yes, I know about it. I'll have it cleaned up."
"No problem. Let's set up another round of golf this weekend."
The moment he hung up, the smile disappeared from his face.
"I get hundreds of calls like that every day, people asking me to clean up their messes!"
Kai had no interest in Arthur's personal matters and no desire to ask, so he kept the proper silence.
After venting for a couple of lines, Arthur shifted his focus back to the matter in front of him and asked about the implant.
"You said last night there was new progress. What's the plan for tonight?"
Kai answered truthfully.
"I had Carter tracking this the whole time. He knows the details better than I do. It'd be better if he explained it to you himself."
Arthur raised his eyes and glanced at Carter, then leaned back in his chair and gave a small nod.
"Go on."
As a G4 deputy team lead, Carter rarely got any chance to report directly to someone at Arthur's level.
Standing inside that luxurious, shadowy office, Carter felt his guilt magnified until it was almost swallowing him whole.
He could barely bring himself to look at Arthur.
He did not even dare imagine what would happen if he deceived the director.
That was the real pressure Arasaka's senior management put on lower-level employees.
Carter swallowed hard and, haltingly and vaguely as ever, stumbled through the explanation of what he had "found," keeping his head down the whole time and never daring to look up.
Arthur said nothing while listening.
He just frowned more and more deeply, supporting his chin with one hand while tapping a finger slowly against it.
Under the pressure of his own frayed nerves, Carter finally reached the last line.
"I-I've finished my report. That's... that's basically the situation."
Arthur waved a hand impatiently, signaling that he could leave.
But Carter had kept his head down the whole time and never saw the gesture. He remained rooted in place, still thinking through whether there had been any holes in what he had said.
Kai reminded him, "Carter, get back to work."
Carter looked like he had just been pardoned from execution. He turned and fled the oppressive office at once.
Arthur's tone carried open irritation.
"He can't even speak clearly. At this point I honestly don't know how many people in Counterintel are still usable!"
"That bitch Susan tried to propose at the board that we be assigned a new deputy director. I rejected it on the spot."
That caught Kai slightly by surprise. He had not expected her to start pressing the attack this quickly.
If Arthur found out in a little while that Carter was also secretly colluding with that bitch, he would probably explode on the spot.
And Carter was not the only one.
Quite a few people in Counterintel had ties to Special Ops, mostly because the two departments had cooperated on plenty of operations and their employees interacted often.
The really twisted part was that Susan had risen through Arasaka like she was strapped to a rocket. On top of that, her husband was also a senior executive at ZetaTech.
ZetaTech specialized in Sandevistan development, which just happened to be one of Arasaka's weak points in R&D. The two companies had a lot of collaborative research ties.
No matter how you looked at it, Arthur's backing and personal influence were not enough to go head-to-head with Susan. She already had him pinned under her heel.
All Arthur could do was rely on his own ability and keep struggling to stay in the game.
The day he stopped being useful to Arasaka, he would be pushed off the board.
And for someone in his position, that meant death.
Kai understood how serious this was, and his tone sharpened as well.
"Then she definitely won't give up on the deputy director slot as an attack point. Counterintel really does have an open deputy director position."
Arthur agreed immediately.
"Exactly. But right now I don't have anyone I can move up to fill it. That's why this implant job absolutely cannot fail. If it does, that bitch will bring it right back up at the board."
Kai knew that whether the implant operation succeeded or not, Susan would never let the matter go.
When a mad dog got its teeth into someone, it never walked away without tearing off a piece of flesh.
Still, that part had not happened yet, so Kai cut to the main point first.
"I have solid intel on the implant now. But the most critical point isn't the implant itself. It's our department."
Arthur locked his eyes on Kai and asked in a low voice,
"You're saying we've got a mole inside the department?"
Kai nodded.
Arthur let out a cold laugh.
"Good. Very good. So it's Carter, then. You brought him in here to report because you wanted Susan to see it."
Kai nodded again and added,
"That's right. As for the actual trade, my contact already has exact intelligence. There'll be real movement tonight."
"Special Ops will definitely make a move too. But I still can't explain the full picture to you just yet."
Hearing that assurance, Arthur's expression finally eased and he gave a slight nod.
He had already known that the morning confrontation between Kai and Susan in the elevator bank had spread across every department in Arasaka Tower.
He understood perfectly well that Kai was someone he had personally promoted. Kai's attitude represented his own.
That meant the hostility between the two departments was now out in the open for the company to see.
It was exactly because of that that the board had rejected Susan's proposal. Putting a Special Ops person into Counterintel would have intensified the internal struggle and created major security risks that rival corporations could exploit.
And the board had no desire to let the balance tip completely in Susan's favor.
Balance was the best option.
Arthur said in a calmer tone,
"You humiliated Susan in the elevator bank. That bitch isn't going to swallow that quietly."
"Your position right now is still dangerous. The odds of another assassination attempt are high."
"Take my personal AV tonight."
"I've never once driven it to the company. No one will recognize it."
Kai also understood that tonight's operation carried real risk. Even though he felt the overall situation was under control, having an AV would improve their safety enormously and keep him and Jackie from ending up trapped with no way out.
Arthur handed over the control chip for the AV. The vehicle had an autonomous driving system and could be summoned directly when needed.
Kai accepted it and continued,
"To avoid making Susan suspicious, I recommend letting Carter lead a department tactical team on this action."
"I'll also arrange trusted contacts and outside help with no direct ties to the company, so we can cut off every last escape route."
Arthur agreed decisively with Kai's plan and arrangement. He had always trusted his ability and methods.
"Do it exactly as you planned. If anything unusual happens, call immediately. I'll prepare an additional Arasaka elite squad to cover your back and make sure no one catches you off guard."
An Arasaka elite squad absolutely counted as top-tier Arasaka firepower, with the best weapons and some of the strongest personnel they had.
Arthur was using personal connections to move them, and that almost certainly involved someone at the very top of M-grade executive authority.
With that safeguard in place, Kai had finally patched the last real weakness in the entire setup.
Now all that remained was to wait for the show to begin.
(End of Chapter)
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