Chapter 97 : Meiko’s return

““Down with the Doessons””

“Give us a better salary!”

“Improve our work conditions!”

“...The situation is as you see, sir.”

One man in military gear reported to his employer, who gave him a nod as he watched through the window the huge crowd of workers standing in front of the buildings.

He could hear them despite the closed windows. Their voices repeated what was written on their signs.

It had been three days since the strikes had begun…

“Your orders, sir?” The man in military gear asked, holding his weapon tightly.

“Stand by for now, I’ll talk to them.” His employer answered. He knew what would happen if he said to the man to let loose.

But he had his orders. The Chairman had clearly stated to not act impulsively.

Perhaps he had hoped for the situation to calm down a bit before making some compromises. Workers had families to feed after all. But from the looks of it, the situation was not calming down.

That was why he personally decided to go outside and meet his workers, in order to negotiate the return of the workers to the excavation sites.

“They don’t want to negotiate sir. They keep telling us they won’t send representatives.” The private soldier warned cautiously.

His employer knew. He knew the chances of successful negotiations were bleak. The situation seemed impossible to solve.

The workers were asking for more than ‘just a raise’, they were asking for all Doesson family members to step down.

Including a bastard like him.

…But how could he not try his luck?

He was a lucky one. His father did not recognise him officially, but he acknowledged his skills. Thanks to that, he had risen through the ranks, getting quite close to the main family.

As such, he was a bit overconfident in himself…

He had heard through some connections that the position of the main family was questioned, the Chairman’s heirs being qualified as incompetent. He had personally met them, and while the main heir, Davie, was competent enough to shoulder the mantle of leadership in the future, his son, Dannie, was not.

To put it in simple words, he was nothing more than a spoiled brat.

So if he managed to make himself appear strong enough within the family, he could easily throw away that brat.

Such was the way of the Doessons.

Of course, Davie Doesson would probably not let it happen without a fight, but he just had to show that he was loyal to his half brother. That was it.

And what better chance but to rise in ranks than to save the family from its current crisis.

Or save his own skin for that matter…

“It looks like I don’t have a choice. Prepare to go out.”  He said, releasing a sigh as he fainted resignation on his face. Though his heart was racing at the opportunity.

His father might disagree with what he was about to do, but so what? Quite frankly, he had been one of the Doesson family members who best treated his employees, and they did not know he was a Doesson.

“Are we going to kill some of them, sir?” The contracted soldier asked, an eerie smile on his face.

His employer shook his head.

“No, that would cause too much backlash. Let me talk to them.”

His private soldier looked at him, blinking his eyes with an incredulous look for a moment before he nodded. This was his boss, his orders were to be followed. Who was he to say out loud that this was a stupid move?

And so the man came out of the building under heavy escort. Some of his men even wore armored skinsuits.

He met the crowd that surrounded the entrance to the only huge building within this excavation site. 

When he came out, the crowd calmed down a bit. He could recognise some faces. Surprisingly, there were not just some low rank workers within the crowd. There were some administration staff, who usually worked within the same building he had been holed up in.

He cursed inside when he also spotted in the group some of the excavation site team leaders and managers, who were supposed to be loyal men handpicked from the ranks.

Since the crowd had calmed down and all its attention was on him, he spoke up.

“Employees… Would you please elaborate why you are angry?” He asked first the obvious.

The people in the crowd whispered between themselves until a few spoke up.

“W-we’ve had enough with our work schedule!” One said.

“Y-yeah! You’re exploiting us! Give us less hours and better work conditions!” Another pointed out in a louder voice. Many agreed and voices of discontentment created another cacophony.

“Please calm down! I understand, I shall pass those problems-” The man tried to say in order to regain control, however…

“That’s what you keep saying!”

“Right! You guys from the Doesson family always say the same thing but do nothing!”

“Yeah! And when my sister kept complaining you killed her by overworking her!”

“We hate you!”

““Down with the Doessons!””

The crowd did not listen. They began throwing objects at the man and his escort.

“S-silence! I said silence! Listen to me!” The man cried out loud, but each time his shouts drowned in the sea of shouts. No one was listening to him anymore.

“Sir, what should we do?!” The private soldier called out as he shielded his employer against the crowd’s projectiles.

“Don’t provoke them!” The employer yelled. The last thing he needed right now was for his guards to begin blasting. The crowd was simply too huge to even try this kind of thing. The first shots would certainly scare the crowd, but then only anger would be left…

Besides, the guards were only lightly armed. Bringing up heavy weapons would only destroy the Doesson’s reputation anyway.

Not that their reputation was relatively good to begin with.

“Don’t let them enter the building! I need to consult my fa-, the Chairman.”

The Doesson bastard promptly went back inside, under the protection of his guards. Some guards remained right in front of the steps leading to the door, creating a security perimeter and blocking access.

The crowd was so angered that it continued throwing stuff at the guards.

“Halt! We can’t let you enter!” One of the guards warned when a few people within the crowd approached them.

“Hah? You wanna get beaten up?” A strong looking miner answered; provoking the guard. 

“One more word and I’lll shoot you!” The guard warned, though this was just a warning, he would not shoot as according to his order.

““...”” They stared at each other like that for a while, other guards also engaged in a death stare contest against tough looking miners.

But then…

*Byup*

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

The sound of a firearm, then an agonizing scream.

One of the miners suddenly fell to the ground, screaming in pain as blood flowed out from his stomach.

“W-what just happened!?” The head guard asked in outright confusion to the guard who was standing right next to the man who just fell to the ground, looking completely shocked.

“I don’t know! I didn’t shoot!” He answered in a panic. It was clear to his superior that he was not the one who made the shot.

The crowd was also in a state of shock.

“Oh shit! They really shot!”

“They’re trying to get rid of us!”

“We can’t let that happen! Get them!”

After a short state of terror and bafflement. Some voices rose within the crowd, pushing the miners to act for their lives by taking down the guards.

The miners blindly followed those words. As if the rope of reason just snapped, the crowd of miners and excavation workers became a mindless mob.

They charged straight at the guards and the closed door they were guarding.

“S-stop! We didn’t shoot!” The team leader of the guard tried to calm down the mob, but it was already too late.

“Then who shot him!?”

“I-it wasn’t u-gah!?”

“Kill them !”

The guards were mobbed by the angry mob.

At the same time, the doors of the building opened. 

““Wha-?”” The guards on the other side were surprised. Why did the automatic door open like that?

The mob did not care, it just entered the building and beat up every official looking guy and their soldier escort who looked on in panic.

Of course at that point there were some people who fired back.

One of the guards had slipped out of the mob. She observed the escalation of the situation with a cold look, from her position on the roof of a nearby building.

She was the one who shot the miner, and she silently made her escape afterward.

The reason was simple. She was not one of the guards after all.

She had infiltrated the place in order to make the current events. For that she shot one of the miners, and what happened afterward was nothing of her concern.

For she was used to such things. She had done such dirty jobs in the past more than once, a long time ago…

Though she did not necessarily like this kind of crowd control, back-handed kind of blow, she would still do it. 

For this was for the future of her family.

Observing the situation with cold eyes, she pushed a button on the side of her helmet.

“...This is Warspite. The mission has been accomplished. All agents, it’s time to retreat.”

Emily declared the end of the operation.

***

It made the headlines everywhere.

Breaking News! 

Doesson Industries’ greatest problem!

The strike of the century!

Shooting within the streets of Borkina 10! Do the Doesson have no morals?

Doesson offspring mobbed by angry workers.

…

…

…

…Will the Doesson family regain control?

“You sure made a mess, mother.” Rika said while looking at her mother, Meiko. Her words sounded reproaching, though her expression said otherwise.

“Fufu, it was easier than you think.” Meiko said as she drank warm tea a serving bot just served on the table. “There were still quite a lot of Eiko family loyalists still in service.”

“Still, why were there so many still there? I would have thought the Doessons would have purged the company when they acquired it?” Ticia asked, frowning. Though the frown could also be the fact that she drank tea and that she did not really like. But for some reason it felt weird for her to be the only one asking and drinking coffee in this set up.

“It’s not that easy. There were some heavyweights within the company that were essential to running it. You can’t fire people like that.” Meiko replied in a matter of fact way, a smile on her face.

After sending the message that everything was ready, Meiko asked to be picked up. 

She had been going around, gathering allies within Eiko Excavation’s old employees that lived in the Borkian system. 

According to the plan she had shared with them, they would now enter ‘part two’ of Meiko’s scheme. When Meiko had told them her scheme, Rika could not believe the plan came from her mother. She acknowledged this was a very efficient plan however…

In order to achieve ‘part two’, a group of individuals needed to infiltrate the excavation site on Borkian 10, the nearest planet from Borkian Prime with the biggest rare earth excavation sites. Meiko would be waiting for them there to be picked up.

Initially, Ticia had planned for Lidia to lead the team. She could not go herself, as it would be too obvious.

Ticia wanted to entrust to her daughter the mission, not only in order for her to gather ground experience, but also because she knew she was the most efficient clone for such a task. Lidia was also rather happy and proud to be selected for such a mission. Like her sisters, she had wanted to help her mother and show she could be of help.

However, all these plans fell apart when the Malaise Tower incident happened…

As part of her punishment, Ticia cancelled any participation the Nulls would have in such an operation. Lidia’s role was henceforth removed.

It was a great disappointment to Lidia, but at that point what could she do? She was the one who decided to blindly follow her eldest sister. Complaining was not an option.

As a result, Ticia and Rika had to search for a new leader in a panic. They thought of putting Chloe in charge, but she would be leading another mission.

That is when Emily stood up.

‘Just leave it to me!’ Is what she said to her daughter with a smile. Ticia had no other choice but to accept.

Of course, the clones going on the mission did not go with their striking white hair. Ticia made sure to dye all their hairs pitch black and that their physical resemblances was not noticeable, so that no one could tell they were clones.

The result was as the headlines showed : A complete success.

Now the Doessons were stuck in deep trouble. Their workers would probably not trust them anymore, even those who were loyal.

Alexander, Davie and Dannie were holed up in the Borkian Prime branch of their business, and few news had come out. No doubt they were racking their brains on what to do next.

As for Emily and her teams, they would not come back yet. The plan made them go to other sites controlled by the Doessons in order to destabilize them further.

“Still, that went a bit too easily…” Ticia mumbled to herself. She had not expected things to escalate this quickly.

“...Actually, this is thanks to my parents.” Meiko said, making both Ticia and Rika frown.

“My grandparents?” Rika asked, to which Meiko nodded with a sour look on her face.

“Yes. The old employees told me when I gained their trust, but…”

The Eikos did not go down without a fight. They had planted the seeds of gangrenna within the Doessons company in order for someone to destroy it from within in the near future.

They knew from the beginning what Alexander Doesson’s plans were, but they also could not go against their daughter’s happiness. As a result, they made sure that if something were to happen to them and their daughter ended up hurt by the Doesssons, she could take back her parent’s property.

That was written in their will, which Alexander had begrudgingly accepted.

“Wow. So they knew all along?” Ticia said in amazement. Basically, the parents knew they would die one way or another. Still, they decided to put their daughter’s happiness first and prepare for the future, even if it meant their death.

Ticia was more than impressed. She respects the Eiko couple now. Could she do the same thing for her daughters? She wanted to say yes, but then again, her daughters would never let that happen…

“That’s- yes… I think so…” Meiko replied, holding back tears from flowing from her eyes.

Seeing that, Ticia nudged Rika with a small elbow bump.

Rika looked at Ticia, she understood what Ticia meant to say.

Rika let out a small sigh. She stood up and sat next to her mother, putting a hand on her mother’s shoulder.

“R-Rika…” Meiko's tears only grew. She was moved by her daughter’s action. Rika just awkwardly looked away while Ticia watched with a soft smile on her face.

Still, Meiko held back from crying. After a small moment, she was back to normal. Though Ticia made it clear through eye contact that Rika should stay next to her mother.

“They really went all the way with their plan…” Ticia commented after a while.

They had even put to premature retirement some of their employees, and asked some of them to create small companies in the mineral extraction business, both rare and less rare earths. The plan was for these loyal people to answer Meiko’s call if she were to ask for help, which they did.

They had no more obligations to do so, yet they still did out of their relationship with the Eiko couple. Meiko must have been deeply grateful when they explained this to her. 

When she went on a journey after telling her daughter she had a plan, it was partly false. She was only moving forward from a slight feeling. She encountered an old employee from her parent’s time whom she knew personally. That person was very close to the Eiko couple, but he disappeared a few months before the incident. He was the one who told her everything. His disappearance and early retirement was part of the plan. 

When he learned about Meiko’s ‘death’, he used his resources to verify the information, and when he found out no real rapport was made, he deepened his search. 

By pure coincidence, he found Meiko while she was moving in the shadows and made contact with her.

Following a discussion between the two of them, they created the entirety of the plan.

He created a new excavation company and sent the news to other former Eiko employees. They all immediately agreed to merge their new business venture into one company, which Meiko promptly named Reisei Ryōri. 

Reisei Ryōri meant ‘Cold Dish’ in an old tongue that was used in the Nichibotsu State millenniums ago. Meiko’s goal was clear, much to the Eiko loyalists’ pleasure.

The ownership of the company was split fifty-fifty. One part to Meiko, and the other part to Rika.

Rika was completely surprised when Meiko told her, while Ticia was already counting the number of alcohol bottles they could buy just from the number of zeros that flowed in their account.

The Eiko loyalists took no shares in this new company. They simply gave every share to Meiko, and Meiko, as she had promised in the past, split the shares between her and her daughter.

The company was more polyvalent than Eiko excavations. Thanks to the Eiko old employees' ventures, they now had access to smelting and refinery facilities.

This was a thorough plan from the Eiko couples that made everyone gawk at their preparedness.

“...Actually, one of my parents' closest collaborators said there was another reason…” Meiko said in a darker tone. “Rika, you know that your grandparents migrated from the Nichibotsu State, right?”

“Yes? What about it?” Rika said, tilting her head. Migration from the Nichibotsu State was nothing unusual.

“This is not a random event, dear. They were sent here.”

““...Eh?””

At Meiko’s dramatic tone, both Rika and Ticia were bewildered. What did Meiko mean?

She explained it to them.

According to what the old Eiko loyalists told them, the Eiko were special agents from the Nichibotsu State.

One day, a man they had never met and to whom Nichibotu’s officials seemed to receive orders from came to  meet them.

They told them to become migrants, lead a group of people from the Nichibotsu’s state and create an excavation company for rare earth within the Borkian Empire and try to create a monopoly.

The Eiko couple did not question the orders, though they did have questions. Loyalty to the state had been ingrained in their mind after all.

“Wait, does that mean…” Rika had a sudden realization.

“That’s right, the Nichibotsu’s State has some goals to grow their territory…” Meiko said, still in a dark tone.

““...”” 

There was a small silence afterwards as Ticia and Rika digested the information.

“...I’m guessing this infiltration is not just in the  rare earth extraction business…” Rika guessed, now mirroring her mother’s dark face.

The situation was more serious than they thought. 

“...Initially, my parents had no plans on betraying the Nichibotsu State, but it apparently all changed when I was born…” Meiko continued.

Apparently, their train of thoughts changed from loyalty to the state to fondness for their daughter. The further years passed, the more they questioned their orders. They also had some thoughts about the person who gave those orders, who did not seem to be from the State of Nichibotsu…

In the end, they decided to betray their birth state and their former loyalties for the sake of their daughter. In that way the Doessons were just a means to an end…

“That’s… quite a lot to take in…” Ticia said, now feeling very tired.

What was implied by Meiko was something that Ticia and Rika could not brush over. Something was brewing, and they would need to be prepared…

“Does someone know how that person who gave orders to the State of Nichibotsu looked?” Rika asked, but Meiko shook her head.

“No, my parents were the only ones to meet them, and they did not say anything particular about them…”

“...” Rika was now deep in thoughts.

Ticia also thought of the situation, but she quickly stopped. The matter was too deep and they still had matters to finish.

“We’ll see what can be done later. For now, it's time to begin part three of the plan.” She said, focusing back all attention on the Doesson.

Meiko and Rika nodded, dark expressions on their faces…