Chapter 5: Took The Bait

"Any news from the hacker that took the job?" Mark asked as he walked into his office the following day, and his assistant, Ted, sighed heavily. 

He had stayed up all night trying to get in touch with the hacker named "sinful" whenever they came online, but all through the night, he never heard the notification that the other person was online, which left him disappointed. 

"They haven't revisited the firewall; I'm starting to think that they gave up or something; maybe we should find someone else to do it," Ted suggests.

Mark glared at him as he hung his jacket on the rack. 

"If it were easy to solve, wouldn't it have been solved a while ago? What nonsense are you spouting?" Mark asked comically.

"I'm thinking we should source help from the foreign hackers; it might be something they are familiar with since they broke it in the first place," Ted explained.

Mark stared blankly at Ted, wondering how he had chosen someone as dumb as Ted to be his assistant. 

"We will wait for them to come and solve it. The website won't allow them to take another job without finishing or dropping the current one they are working on," Mark explained, and Ted gave a nod of understanding. 

"Then I will keep an eye out for them. They might just be busy with other things for the moment."

"You should. How did the property acquisition go? Did the team get the needed ones?" Mark asked as they started discussing the business for the day. 

"It didn't go smoothly; the people from Chairman Nelson's side are also eyeing the property, and once they heard you were the one that specifically chose those places, they offered the sellers more prices," Ted reported, and Mark grinned evilly. 

"Don't worry, let them have it. Any amount above the prices I offered is a loss for the buyer and a profit for the seller." He had thrown down the bait waiting for the prey to be hooked and without disappointing him they caught the bait. 

Although the properties on the first list were valuable, his aim had been the second list from the beginning. If he had gone for the second list from the beginning he knew they would have had to fight the other people for it and he would end up spending more than he intended to. 

"You can get in touch with the owners from the second list with you and do it fast so we can begin the second phase of the new project," Mark instructed while sorting out the file on his table. 

"Concerning the new project, Sir, the foreign company refused to sell the materials needed for the chip to us; they claim to have limited quantities at hand, and they already sold them to another company here in Salem." Upon hearing the news, Mark paused, and his expression became as hard as a rock.

It took him three months to convince the company to sell them those materials, and after all the arrangements were made and everything was sorted out, they went back on the agreement. 

"Are they willing to pay the agreement bridge fees?" He asked calmly, making sure he didn't allow his anger to cloud his judgement.

"They agreed to pay the compensation alongside our initial deposit. I thought it was suspicious that they suddenly cancelled their initial agreement and readily chose to pay back the compensation fees given the financial state of their company, so I looked into it and found out the materials were all sold to Henry Hamilton's company," Ted reported. 

"Henry Hamilton?" Mark asked curiously as he searched his memory for the name.

"Henry Hamilton is the Husband to Mabel Hamilton, the one we had a partnership with over the Nexphone four summers ago." As Ted explained, Mark finally remembered the person, Henry Hamilton. 

"You mean the sucker from last year's banquet? The one who wanted to match me with his daughter?"

Ted's face twitched as he heard the nickname given to one of the country's most famous businessmen. He wasn't surprised that his boss didn't remember him by name, as Mark only calls people he finds impressive by their names. He could forget a random person he met a minute ago while still remembering a notable person who was dead by name and face and their work. 

"Are they planning on making the chips too?" Mark asked curiously; he was interested in chip making and intrigued that a second-rate company like Hamilton's wanted to make them too. It has taken him and his team one year to learn the basic technology needed to produce the chips, and even then, they aren't sure the production would be successful.

"I'm not entirely sure about what they intend to do, but it's been confirmed that they work closely with the Willows, who are also part of Chairman Nelson's people, so I think they are just a tool to stall you."

Mark massaged his nose bridge as he heard the hateful name for the second time within an hour. 

"We don't have to do anything; just keep an eye on them and report back to me. We will look for other companies to buy the materials from. Chairman Nelson is looking to expand his influence. So we will allow him to play a bit more."

"Your father sent a message," Ted reported cautiously, Mark's expression turned blank as he heard his father send a message, "What does he want?" 

"He wanted to ask if you had gone to visit your grandfather lately, it was all over the news that Fredrick went to visit him a few days ago. It would appear that the master is still worried that your grandfather would change his mind about who his successor would be," Ted explained. 

Mark felt truly exhausted by the number of problems that needed to be solved, he looked at his schedule for free time so he could arrange a meeting with his grandfather. 

"I don't have any free time this month and the next, why don't we fix a meeting with him in three months? You can show my father the schedule if he is dissatisfied" Mark instructed and dismissed Ted, who couldn't help but wail in his heart about his boss' attitude.

'Young Master Mark you have three free spaces on your schedule, you just don't want Young Master Fredrick to think you are competing with him for your grandfather's attention.'