signingbooks Chapter 535: You Wouldn't Want Him...
Chapter 535: You Wouldn't Want Him...
"So this is how you treat guests? You leave us sitting here for two hours?!"
Normally, if you left people from a rival corporation sitting in a reception room, you'd at least pair it with some kind of psychological warfare—videos, scenery, something.
Leo had seen plenty of examples.
For instance, fifty years ago, after Johnny Silverhand bombed Arasaka Tower, Arasaka dragged him before Saburo Arasaka and made him watch casualty reports from Night City. They even brought in an Arasaka employee whose husband had died in the bombing to speak with him.
On the Marvel side, Leo could have shown Pepper and Happy footage of civilians in Somalia being indiscriminately bombed by Iron Legion units.
But he didn't.
There was no point.
Neither of them was Tony Stark.
So the two of them simply sat in the basement reception room for two hours.
The room itself wasn't shabby.
Still, it felt like serving a prison sentence.
Leo walked in and sat down on the sofa.
Pepper looked like she was about to explode.
He waved a hand.
"Let's be direct. We're competitors. Stark Industries weapons have done quite a bit of damage to our friends in Africa."
"Weren't you the ones who attacked an American carrier group..."
"Ma'am, I don't want to argue about that. But your side used advanced industrial weapons manufactured by a global corporation, supplied them to professionally trained soldiers, and killed unarmed civilians."
He leaned back.
"We used ships cobbled together by a backward industrial base, handed them to hastily assembled militias, and attacked soldiers who knew they were at war."
"So you're admitting it?"
Pepper's tone was professional.
Professional in exactly the way corporate employees were trained to be—latching onto wording, probing for weaknesses, testing boundaries, turning conversation into a weapon.
It was almost the opposite of how she was usually portrayed.
Still, Leo could see the exhaustion in her eyes.
And the insecurity hidden behind the aggression.
So he waved his hand.
"Then let's end it here. I thought you came with something worth discussing."
He paused.
"Get out."
The word slipped out naturally.
Only after saying it did Leo realize he'd spent too much time around V, Jackie, and the rest of Night City's degenerates.
In Night City, "get out" barely counted as an insult.
Here?
Pepper's face immediately flushed red.
Happy stood up at once, expression darkening.
Pepper took a deep breath.
At that moment she realized Leo wasn't some hotheaded fool.
He was the worst kind of negotiator.
She had come in too aggressively because waiting two hours had irritated her.
Under normal circumstances, both parties would leave each other room to retreat.
Leo had simply smashed the staircase.
If she wanted to continue this conversation, she'd have to climb down herself.
And the moment she did, she'd be negotiating from a weaker position.
Pepper gently stopped Happy.
Lowering her head, she spoke.
"I'm sorry. I was too aggressive. There really is something important."
She hesitated.
"I need your help."
"Talk."
Leo tapped the table.
A large display rose from the center.
A data port extended outward.
Pepper inserted a flash drive.
As data began loading, she spoke quickly.
"I haven't seen Tony in a long time. The public hasn't either. It's been a month. An entire month inside his laboratory."
Leo picked up a cup of tea from a service robot.
"Perfectly normal."
"He has reached that age. Playboy turns into mad scientist."
"That's normal."
"No!" Pepper snapped.
"During that same period, Stark Industries began massive layoffs around the world. I can barely receive reports from my subordinates anymore. Information from other divisions is almost completely gone..."
"A scientist using information systems to centralize management is normal."
Leo took a sip.
"Our company uses systems like that too. Not exactly a trade secret."
Pepper froze.
To be fair, that possibility had crossed her mind before.
Leo continued.
"So your anxiety comes from the CEO locking himself in a lab, launching mass layoffs, and making you feel unnecessary?"
"No!"
She clenched her fists.
"That's not why I'm worried!"
"I know you hate Tony. I know you hate us. But this isn't something Tony would ever want."
"Don't be ridiculous, Ms. Potts."
Leo set down his tea.
"Stark Industries revenue exploded last year. The military used those weapons to flatten oil-producing regions."
"He was manipulated!"
Pepper blurted.
"I know it!"
She hurriedly organized her thoughts.
"Tony originally had plans to develop new energy technologies. Roxxon pressured him to put those projects aside. He kept researching them anyway. That proves he didn't want to be tied to Roxxon forever."
"Not very convincing."
"There has to be more."
Pepper was getting desperate.
Nothing she said seemed sufficient.
"Then..."
She finally exploded.
"You're impossible!"
"No matter what I say, you reject it!"
She took a breath.
"Fine. I'll say it directly."
"Yes."
"It's intuition."
"Female intuition."
"Tony is not the type of person who would stay hidden in a lab for an entire month."
"I know him better than anyone."
"Something is wrong."
After shouting, she finally calmed down.
Leo looked amused.
"So your evidence is a feeling."
Pepper gritted her teeth.
Then she reached into her bag and pulled out another drive.
This one she had clearly hesitated to reveal.
"What is that?"
"A copy of internal company data."
She looked directly into Leo's eyes.
"I stole it."
That got his attention.
"Interesting."
She continued.
"It contains records of what Tony has been researching."
"Which companies Stark Industries has been interacting with."
"Current projects."
"Maybe it'll help you."
"Maybe it'll convince you."
Leo stopped her before she could insert it into the system.
If there was one thing he trusted less than corporate executives, it was corporate flash drives.
Especially flash drives stolen from Tony Stark.
Those things probably contained enough malware to start a small war.
Pepper met his gaze.
"This is my proof."
"If I have any sincerity left to offer, it's this."
"You'll see what Tony has been doing."
"You'll see why I think something is wrong."
Leo accepted the drive.
"If you were a netrunner, that would've been a very clever move."
He turned it over in his hand.
"Now I really want to see what's inside."
He leaned back.
"Things are getting more interesting."
"Stark Industries supporters call me a traitor."
"They call him a hero."
"A war hero."
"A superhero."
"And now you're asking the traitor to save the hero."
"Please."
Pepper's voice softened.
"Believe me."
"Tony..."
She hesitated.
"He just lost his way."
Leo laughed quietly.
"That detour cost a lot of people a great deal."
He stood.
"I'll see what I can do."
"But don't get your hopes up."