The Mech Touch

Nitaa, who had been standing guard all this time, witnessed the entire meeting. She was no longer able to hold herself back.

"Sir.. from what it sounds like, you are in a difficult position with regards to the man you trust to manage your affairs. While I’m not entirely familiar with the organization known as Flashlight, you consider them to be a legitimate arm of the government, correct?"

"They’re bastards, not to the detriment of our state. I’ve never gotten the idea that they have forgotten their original purpose and gone rogue. They are the hidden guardians of the Bright Republic."

"By extension, Gavin is also contributing to the state, correct?"

Ves shrugged. "Perhaps. If Crindon is correct in his allegations, then I agree that Gavin isn’t doing anything wrong in the eyes of the Bright Republic."

"Then the problem is not as severe as it initially sounds. While it is true that it is problematic that a trusted person on your staff is holding double loyalties, his second loyalty is at least to an entity which isn’t diametrically opposed to you. Is the Bright Republic corrupt?"

He had to think for a moment to formulate his answer. "It’s not perfect. There are factions in play that are occasionally fishing for advantages, but compared to some of the states I’ve visited, it’s pretty orderly. If the Bright Republic was corrupt, then it would have never lasted against the Vesia Kingdom. Spy agencies like Flashlight exist to root out officials who are willing to sell out their home state to the Vesians."

One of the reasons why the Bright Republic remained on par against the slightly larger and more powerful Vesians was due to the disparity in intelligence and covert operations.

Due to the fractured nature of the Kingdom, the Vesians never unified their intelligence operations across their entire state. This constantly put them on the backfoot against the Brighter intelligence agencies.

Seeing how effective agencies such as Searchlight and Flashlight fared against the Vesians, the government granted them more autonomy and power. They were elevated into one of the most vital pillars of the state in the event of an inevitable outbreak of war.

Though Ves discovered that the intelligence agencies weren’t entirely devoid of bias, he did not consider them corrupt.

"Then what Gavin is doing is acceptable." Nitaa concluded. "It’s not easy to stomach, but it is not something that you can prevent. Not with your current standing in society. If..."

Ves immediately waved his hand. "You know my stance on the matter. I’m not about to throw my weight around as a Holy Son. My situation is too precarious for me to expose this secret to a greater number of people."

"You’re not going to tell your girlfriend, sir?"

"HELL NO!"

Nitaa blinked. "Okay, sir."

"Ahem. I apologize for raising my tone." Ves rubbed his eyes.

His emotions fluctuated a lot today. He hadn’t even processed Gavin’s double loyalties yet! How could he possibly think with a straight mind right now?

"I think the decision that you’re currently inclined to take is the best." Nitaa continued. "A competent intelligence agency will just attempt to co opt Gavin’s replacement if you decide to sideline him. If they are aware that you are suspicious towards your assistant, then they will simply turn someone else on your staff into their informer. The only way you can ensure absolute loyalty from your staff is if you replace them with Kinners."

Ves let out a deep sigh. "That’s not really realistic. Replacing my entire staff with Kinners is not only expensive, but also a very clear sign that I am paranoid and have something to hide. Knowing Flashlight, those sneaky bastards will just take that as a challenge to spy on me harder."

Neither of them believed that they could ever get rid of this problem without overhauling the entire organizational structure of the LMC.

That was a bad idea for many reasons. As much as Ves considered the LMC to be ’his’ company, he only owned 49 percent of its shares. Flashlight effectively controlled 21 percent of the company’s shares through a holding company called Sibilant Asset Management.

In fact, if the agency wanted to, they could have simply decided to insert more of their people in the company openly. That was what they had already done with Leland, after all.

What rankled Ves the most about this awful situation was the duplicity and lack of trust. Ves had slowly started to warm up to Gavin.

Though he still withheld his most sensitive secrets from his assistant, he already started toying with the idea of bringing Gavin into his true inner circle.

Now, Ves was forced to discard this plan. Knowing that Gavin answered to someone else besides him meant that Ves could never reveal any of his sensitive secrets to him. Just the possibility that some of it might be passed on to Flashlight was too great!

"I can’t take the risk!"

At this moment, Ves felt more alone than ever. One of the closest people he got along with turned out to be an informant who could never be fully trusted to carry his secrets.

Ordinary mech designers didn’t have to worry too much about this problem. Their most valuable secrets mostly consisted of complex, abstruse theories and techniques related to their design philosophies.

Without adopting the same mindset as the mech designer in question, their trade secrets weren’t very valuable in other people’s hands.

Only the MTA could really make use of the information, but even then they much preferred to exchange the secrets for merits in an open and aboveboard fashion. With their wealth, power and influence, they had no need to resort to force or trickery to get what they wanted.

Ves did not have this luxury. His secrets were immensely greater than that of anyone else. While they granted him immense advantages in his career, they also weighed him down.

He needed to be a lot more careful about who he trusted from now on. At the very least, Ves became more determined than ever to diversify the LMC. Since most of its employees consisted of Brighters, organizations like Flashlight were spoiled for choice on who they wanted to turn into their informers!

He felt as if he lost a part of his innocence today. His distrust towards his own company and his own workers had increased.

Even if the ones responsible turned out to be a government-sanctioned intelligence agency, what if he wasn’t so fortunate next time?

What if the Vesians managed to infiltrate his ranks?

What if the Five Scrolls Compact managed to turn his trusted men?

"Knowing is better than not knowing." Ves whispered to himself.

"Have you decided how to go forward, sir?"

Ves closed his eyes. "Yes. I’ll stick to my earlier decision and act like there is nothing wrong. There’s no benefit in kicking up a fuss. If I was in his place, I wouldn’t have refused the request either. Gavin isn’t the culprit here. The real problem is Flashlight."

Frankly, Ves didn’t know how he should handle Flashlight. Despite earning their trust, they remained very suspicious about anyone due to their very nature.

He knew that they must have heard about his sudden decision to go on a grand expedition. Even if Gavin didn’t pass on a message, Calsie or any of the other executives at the headquarters of the LMC would have been able to leak the details to the spooks.

Perhaps Flashlight even learned of it as soon as Ves mentioned it over a comm call.

What Ves needed to do was sound out Flashlight’s thoughts on his grand expedition. After all, for one of the Bright Republic’s promising mech designers to go on a random, multi decade tour to an entirely different star cluster was very concerning!

Who knew if Ves remained committed to his home state?

What would happen if he decided to neglect the LMC in favor of another mech company?

Would Ves even want to return to the Bright Republic after he ended his grand expedition?

While Ves was technically free to do what he wanted as long as he didn’t violate the Bright Republic’s laws, Flashlight never really paid attention to the rules in the first place.

No, if Ves wanted to avoid any problems on their end, he needed to resolve the gulf between them in a different way.

He discussed his thoughts with Nitaa, who suggested a logical-sounding suggestion.

"You need to hitch them onto your wagon, sir. So far, this grand expedition is mostly centered around your interests. I can understand why Flashlight feels left out. What if you remedy this situation by obtaining their buy-in?"

"How would I be able to do that?"

"Ownership of an expeditionary fleet can be divided in shares." Nitaa said. "Rather than owning shares in the expeditionary fleet in your personal capacity, instead you should put it in the name of the LMC. Since Flashlight is a major shareholder of the LMC, that will in effect give them a small but substantial stake in the success of your grand expedition."

Ves grimaced upon hearing this suggestion. He originally planned to keep the LMC out of it and purely contribute to the expeditionary fleet with his own fortune. Involving the LMC meant that he would give a greater voice of how the expeditionary fleet was run to the other shareholders of the company.

That included not only Flashlight, but also the Larkinson Estate!

However, what mollified Ves a bit was that Flashlight and the Larkinson Estate would never be able to overrule Ves no matter what kind of votes they made.

This was because the LMC would never be able to become the majority shareholder of the upcoming expeditionary fleet.

"Gloriana will call the shots of the expeditionary fleet!" Ves revealed. "Ownership of an expeditionary fleet is decided by how much money and assets people commit to the expedition. No matter how much ships, wealth and other assets I can contribute, I can never match Gloriana’s financial might! Just the factory ship she promised is enough to buy out the LMC at least a hundred times!"

Of course, Ves hadn’t actually fixed the ownership structure of the expeditionary fleet with Gloriana as of yet.

As long as it wasn’t set in stone, he could always use his Devil Tongue to good use in order to convince Gloriana to adopt a fifty-fifty ownership structure between the both of them. That meant that Ves owned half of the expeditionary fleet despite not contributing as much to its formation!

Of course, even if Gloriana was gullible enough to fall for his manipulation, the Wodin Dynasty and the people backing her probably wouldn’t agree. A factory ship built according to the standards of the Hexadric Hegemony was immensely expensive. So much so that Gloriana already told him that it was impossible for her to finance the procurement of such a mighty vessel out of her own pocket!

This essentially meant that neither Ves nor Gloriana would be the ultimate owners of their expeditionary fleet. Instead, that honor was reserved to the investors that Gloriana managed to beg for money.

While this sounded as if Ves and Gloriana would both be at the mercy of the whims to faceless bankers, in truth it probably wouldn’t come to that. If Gloriana managed to convince her Wodin Dynasty to invest in the expeditionary fleet, then she wouldn’t have to answer to a stranger.

It all depended on how well Gloriana sucked up to the moneybags in their state. Ves was about to meet her in a month, so he would find out soon how much progress she made.