I had not been home in a long time. For all the riches, luxuries and staff I was surrounded with I was still too busy to sleep in my own house most days. Probably my own fault for buying a mountain in Colorado and having my house built on it, it is not exactly the easiest place to get to. I had houses and apartments in other places as well, but this was my real home as far as I was concerned.

I stepped in through my main door into the sleekly designed home, a mix of modern architecture and ancient Greek motifs, it was artistically stunning and also incredibly practical. Well… Minus the part where it is hours from any kind of civilization. The maids that stayed here had their own rooms, and were rotated every three months. I could probably leave the place empty, but I would keep telling myself that I would spend more time at home even if I never did.

Of course, whenever I was here I brought secretaries with me. Once you reach this level of power in business you never actually have time off, and in a twenty-four hour global world, you never even had a guaranteed time to sleep.

For that matter, I was not here to relax, but for a meeting. My house had a few special features, as one might expect from me. The most important for the current situation was the fact that this place was essentially a black box if I wanted it to be. You couldn’t even get a satellite image of my house due to some very careful satellite placements. On paper, it was a system designed to take solar panels in space and transfer their energy to the planets surface, and it did do that. But that energy just so happened to bathe the area in a few different kinds of low level radiation, effectively preventing pictures from being taken from space.

“Mr. Sterling,” I was greeted by the man, Daniel Cristan, in the meeting room. “A pleasure as always to partake in your hospitality.”

“A pleasure to have you,” for now. “I keep telling you the guards are unnecessary.”

Cristan was not a good man, but he was a good businessman, and a ruthless criminal who brought armed bodyguards with him wherever he went. I suppose when you took over the Colombian drug trade by killing your partner and everyone else who opposed you it probably left you paranoid.

People might wonder why I allowed him into my home so easily, especially without guards of my own. I would ask another question, when the government contracts a company to build military technology, do you honestly think that the company doesn’t use it for other things? The computers and the AI were designed by me, but the weapons in the robotic guards stashed away in secret compartments in the walls were courtesy of the U.S. government. Honestly, I do have to wonder how no one notices things like that going missing…

“Ah, they are good for my heart.” Cristan replies smoothly, “You cannot tell me that you would not do the same if you came to visit me.”

“Your house in La Crosse I wouldn’t,” I say as one of the maids pours us both drinks. His is alcoholic, mine just looks like it. “Your estate in Colombia… Well, you have me there.”

“Ah, Wisconsin,” Cristan said wistfully, “Nice place to grow up, never even knew what my uncles were doing for most of my life. Real pity that, so many missed opportunities.”

I fought down the urge to just make the man disappear, disgusting as it may be, real change could not be made in the world without dealing with the darker elements.

“So,” Cristan rubbed his hands together as he got down to business. “You had some issues with our original deal and wanted to discuss expanding it, right? It won’t be cheap.”

“To be honest,” I lied. “I have to applaud your business acumen. Our deal was to leave those cities and refugees alone in Colombia in exchange for me interfering with the governments drones, satellites, and communications. So you decided to stop them after they crossed the border… Technically following the letter of our discussion, but not the spirit.”

The polite tone I was using chilled, “But we never signed a contract, and I would have expected you to adhere to the spirit of our agreement. Let me be clear, you will not get anything from me because of this trickery. We are partners in this agreement, I need those people happy and healthy either in their homes or across the border, and you need me to prevent the government from sending drones to turn your business into a smoking crater.”

“Ah, but I don’t think we need you as much as you say…” Cristan smiled, unfazed by my unpleasant expression. “So the value you are providing is less than we expected.”

So you want to go this route? I am not some lowly official you can push around you know, if you want to play chicken on the tracks I am game for it.

“Then let’s put that to the test,” I smiled. “I will reduce my influence to only cover half of your plantations, factories, and camps. In a week, if you still think I provide no real value to you, I will pull out entirely and compensate you for wasting your time to the tune of… How does a billion sound?”

I thought for a second, “Actually, just to make sure there would be no hard feelings, I’ll make it two. How does that sound?”

Daniel Cristan’s face was stuck in a stiff smile and I could almost hear his teeth grinding. “So many might lose their lives in that time…”

Threatening civilians? How droll.

“I do care for them,” this might be the first time I was honest today. “But there are a lot of people in the world who need help, it only makes sense to help those who can be most efficiently helped. And for that matter, I think you have the wrong impression, this is not purely a humanitarian venture, I expect to profit greatly off this long term.”

Especially when I sell out your entire operation.

“In that case…” Cristan seemed to be struggling with himself for a moment, then sighed. “Well, from the head of one business to another, all I can say is, well played, Mr. Sterling. I will make sure our agreement is honored in full.”

“Thank you kindly, Mr. Cristan.”