Chapter 492

Arthur's head banged against the table in his office – and what a joke that was, that he had an office – his eyes swimming and mind exhausted. They had been going over the finance documents for the last hour, following the trail of cores that had arrived and been expended since the attack over a month ago. Utilizing both the official records and the unofficial ones that they now had to keep, since their agreement with the triads changed what they had on hand.

"Can't we just stuff it under a bed or something?" Even after they had lost one shipment, even after the expenses of more bribes and contractors and buying up their new headquarters, the fact stood that they were fast growing a surplus.

"We can, if that's what you want..." Gina said. "But maybe something more secure? For the money and cores."

"Can't put in a bank, right?" Arthur said.

"Yes. The government closed that loophole. Now they can go into even security deposit boxes and check if you're a Climber," Casey confirmed. "And they do check."

There was a disagreeable noise from Gina, but when he looked up from where his head was pillowed, the older woman shook her head. "Sit up, boy. You're not a child. There's no need for so much melodrama."

"I hate this stuff, you know."

"You'll like it better in a few years, when you have more to hide. Or need to hide it somewhere else."

"So, what are our options?" Casey said, curiously. 

"Don't your people have ways of hiding things?"

Casey hesitated, then shrugged. “We have a few things. Mostly shell companies we flow funds too. International agreements with other Clans, that allow us to draw upon.”

“We used the germach system too,” Gina said. “Best to have your contact in another country though.”

“Singapore?” Arthur said, curiously.

“Thailand,” Gina said. “I can let you know who I worked with. We could set-up an account that way for the money.”

“We don’t have that much… could just buy a big safe.”

“And keep it where?”

Arthur grimaced, but she had a point. He’d have to think about it, where he would hide the money. Not with friends or family, of course, but also – had to be someone they could trust. The triads had their people, and he realised, he might have to ask them for their own bankers. At least in the short-term, and maybe some extra money in his own residence, that could be accounted for easily.

Didn’t help though with the influx of cores. Those would not leave their hands, at least not in the short term.

“We could just use it all up?” Arthur said, looking at Casey.

“It’s one option,” she nodded. “But a reserve is a good idea too. Gives us some extra wriggle room.”

“Yeah…” You never knew if someone was going to stop you from entering a Tower, or just try to put pressure on the Clan. Or if they needed to find cores because someone needed a sudden power jump while outside.

Or just to finance extra bribes or bring in help that wasn’t directly tracked. Really the reasons for having money that his enemies might not know about were myriad. The question was…

“So, fine. We need to keep the cores here, keep them hidden and quiet. Maybe start putting together contacts to people outside, build a second ledger that way.” He frowned, looking to the side where Rick normally sat. “We could split things.”

“You want to use the MacKenzie’s,” Casey said, flatly.

“Amongst others,” Arthur said. “No point in having him and not using him.”

“It’s dangerous,” Gina said, warningly. “If we have to rely on their help, they’ll want more. Try to make us pay.”

Mel nodded and Arthur snorted. “I know. They’re a last resort option, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start building it. I’d rather have more cards than less.”

“It’ll slow down how much we make then,” Gina said. “We’re only just beginning to get regular cores from the KL Tower. Nevermind however many months before the Kuching Tower can get us anything.”

Arthur nodded, knowing that they were not going to make much from that Tower. If anything, they were better off concentrating on developing the KL Tower, putting people they trusted and money into it. Of course, it was still being run remotely and they needed to improve that, but that mostly came from him ability to communicate with those within, which meant he needed to upgrade his own Clan Head skills.

Which meant climbing more Towers.

“I know. Let’s still do it.” He tapped the table. “In the meantime, we can hit other Beginner Towers. I want us to be going in every few months from now on.”

“Every few months?”  Casey said, shocked. “That doesn’t leave us a lot of time here.”

“Well, that’s why Gina is here, no? And we’ve got Hamid starting up soon, and you and Rick are pulling in new people all the time. We even have a few older Climbers who aren’t interested in moving further coming out,” Arthur said.

“Why so much of a rush?” Gina said, carefully. He noted the suspicion, the concern in her eyes, recalled her own experiences and answered carefully.

“Because I’m not going to make the mistake of not being ready. We hit Beginner Towers, spread out the Clan in as many places as we can be, but mostly – we do it so I can keep progressing.” He tapped his chest. “I need to find a place to cultivate and get more power, some Tower or Towers that lets me increase in strength. There’s no way to hit the third Threshold before I have to do the Intermediate Tower, but I’m barely above the second right now.”

“You’ll need to be much stronger to even think about the Intermediate Tower,” Gina said.

“Yeah.” Arthur nodded. “We’ll also want to plan for that one.” He grimaced. “We might want to consider not doing Malaysia’s too.”

“Finding a safer one?” Casey asked.

“Exactly.”

Gina looked satisfied by that, even a little happy if Arthur was to call that small nod anything. While the Malaysian Intermediate Tower was not the hardest around, it was certainly harder than average. It made little sense to Arthur to go into it first, not when they had global connections and the ability to travel.

Of course, that left them vulnerable to international chicanery but that was something for future Arthur to worry about. For now, the next few months – if not years - were laid out. The only thing that mattered was making sure they pulled it off.

Like a shark, they needed to keep swimming. Forward, always forward, or else they would drown or their enemies would catch them in their nets, dragging them down and into oblivion. And that, Arthur would not allow. Not for himself, and not for the Benevolent Durians.

So, onwards. Ever onwards.