Chapter 498

Arthur watched the car drive away, a serene smile on his face till the vehicle turned the corner and disappeared down the street. Probably to get caught in a traffic jam moments later. He then slumped against the other vehicle, sighing.

“I do not believe that worked,” Eric said, admiringly. “But are you really going to make him a Climber?”

“Mmm? Oh, yes. Can you imagine how excited Rick is going to be? Someone else who uses guns?” He chuckled silently. “I bet those two will have the time of their life.”

“The polis won’t like it, ah,” Jan muttered.

“No, I don’t think they will. We won’t mention it to them,” Arthur said. “He isn’t going to join the Clan till after he enters anyway. So it’ll be fine. At least long enough for us to get everything moving.”

“Everything?” Yao Jing said.

“Get everyone who can get in to meet us. Clan head meeting at… 11?” Arthur frowned. “And make sure we get food for everyone.”

“Nasi lemak? Roti?” Yao Jing asked, getting an absent wave from Arthur. The big man hummed, finished wrapping the rope up expertly and stored it in the suitcase. Arthur climbed into the car, waiting for everyone to get in and closed his eyes, deciding that he needed a little nap. It’d take them an hour or so to get to the Clan building anyway, what with traffic and everything else.

Time enough to rest, and maybe consider what their next steps would be.

 

***

 

Laying everything out for the team took the better part of a half-hour. There had not been that much new information from Numair, even if he had been willing to talk about it. However, it did chart out some hierarchies of power, confluences of interest and the players involved. Mostly, it had been quite expected, though there had been a few surprises.

“TG Group and Hai San after us, together. And it was TG that had connections to the Mamak Gang who you pushed out and the Templer gang who this Numair came from?” Mel said, slowly, looking at the document she had been writing everything that Arthur had related so far. He nodded, before she tapped a name that had yet to be added to. “What’s the girl got to do with it?”

“Nothing, as far as we can tell.” Eric sighed. “She’s a contractor, supposedly from overseas. Manila.”

“She wasn’t local?” Arthur said, surprised. “Her accent was good…”

“Not that good,” Jan muttered.

“He was distracted. By her other skills.” Uswah grinned a little, mimed a motion to her chest.

“Really?” Arthur said, feeling a little attacked. Especially from a fellow Yin Body user.

Casey who had been silent till now, listening to all this raised a hand. “I don’t need – or want – to know what you did with the informat. Or how you got it.” She glared at Eric who opened his mouth to explain. “But how sure are you?”

“Very,” Eric said. “They used code, but it’s not very, uhh… good?” He continued, after a moment. “I am still restoring old messages, but all the most recent ones – dealing with us – are ours. Orders came from inside the Templer group itself, but Numair met with the TG manager who put the order through.” He turned the tablet he was using around, showed her a picture taken from the networking profile group he had found. “Confirmed he works for TG too. In their ‘Business Relations’ department.”

“Which we know is code for mostly people who work with the gangs and government,” Casey said. “Their Vice President is Lawrence Koh. Middle-aged, three wives, has four houses and makes too much money even for a VP of TG. He probably supplements income with bribes, which Datuk Izzah – his boss – turns a blind eye to.”

“Right. So they decided to really just forget about everything else and just try to kill me.” Arthur scraped the coconut infused rice on his plate together with his spoon and fork, pulling every last grain of it into a small pile, one colored red with the curry that had been part of this ensemble. “Because I’m affecting their profits?”

“Small, for now, but it’s growing. Same with the Prime Group, actually,” Casey said. “The Clan is bringing out more cores and people than ever before, driving local prices down. On top of that, the addition of more Clan runners into the first few floors means we’re affecting their business too.”

“Not to mention Kuching is beginning to get its feet underneath it,” Rick said. “We should have a few international teams coming soon to try to run it.”

“We’re only making what? A million or so?” Arthur said, grumpily. “We’re not that big yet…”

“Yet. We’re increasing at an exponential rate,” Casey said.

“Doubling or more,” Mel explained to those who looked confused. “Each time. It keeps growing bigger and bigger, because more of our people are getting higher each month.”

“Right. We’re even training people who were stuck on lower floors,” Uswah said, proudly. “Fewer deaths.”

“The government is really happy with us, because of that. If we keep this up, we might see a significant increase in the number of Beginner Climbers in a few years,” Casey added.

“And even a small change in local beast core prices is a big one when you’re the TG group. Or Prime. They’re talking millions in change.”

“I hate rich people,” Arthur muttered, putting his hands in his head. When Rick and Casey looked at him, he sighed. “Don’t look at me like that. Most of you all just think about your wallets, about what it means.”

“A corporation has a duty to its shareholders-” Rick began.

“We take care of our family, Arthur-” Casey protested.

“And hell to everyone else,” Arthur replied. “Exactly my point.” He shook his head. “You’re not that bad, but I still hate them all. The world would be a lot simpler place, if we didn’t have rich people or powerful Climbers.”

“Tyranny of power,” Mel murmured. “Before it was just people who were rich, then the Towers added people who can Climb. At least Climbers have to go back into the Tower system eventually, leave the rest of us alone.”

“Except we built systems to keep them here. Figured out ways to cheat the Tower,” Arthur added. “’Cause we’re humans and cheating is what we do.”

Mel nodded, while Jan and Yao Jing looked at one another. Then, Yao Jing leaned over, whispered. “Isn’t the boss rich too?”

“Soon, maybe. Not sure he is yet…”

“Right.”

“I can hear you…” Arthur growled, though they had a point. For all his complaints, after clearing two more Towers and the stones flowing in, he was going from penniless to rich quite quickly. In all the ways that such things mattered.