That was why she was sitting at the end of a very long and very expensive polished oak table. It was in a room lined with wood paneling, and carpeted in some very plush material. Paintings that were definately originals hung on the walls. The lighting was subdued enough to relax, but still bright enough to keep one awake. A bank of high windows backlit the other side of the table, giving a terrific view that she would have appreciated had she not been in the situation that she was in.
And seated at on either side of the opposite end of the table from her were the four really big men, and at the head of the table was Saoko Nagasawa, with her hands folded on the table top in front of her and a smile on her face.
"Well, it's nice to finally be able to talk with you, Miss Tendo," stated Nagasawa.
"Uh... thanks..," Nabiki replied.
"Unfortunately, it's not under better circumstances. For you see, you attempted to trick our clients. And you might have gotten away with it, had you not allowed for one glaring flaw."
"I did..?"
"That's why we're having this conversation. You simply didn't realize that no matter how long it took someone was going to notice who you had sold the images of. And when they did, it would take one of them to inform your so called 'clients' about it. When that happened, even a fool would realize that they had been had, and would inform our clients of the situation. If they hadn't seen it for themselves that is."
"I didn't..."
"What you didn't do is realize that Cyberdyne isn't a fellow student in your school. They are a rather large coporation with very diversified intrests. You may be a big fish in your little pond, but in our world, that is a very little pond indeed."
"Umm... I didn't mean to..."
"Oh, but you did," replied Nagasawa, raising her brows, "That is why you did not ask for permission before hand. And tried to hide it at the same time. But in this case, the risks were just too great to justify the chance."
"So... What does that mean?"
"It's very simple. Developing, designing and producing an android takes a great deal of capital." The lawyer slid a folder all the way down the table. "That is a report detailing how much such a project would cost."
Trying to keep her hands from shaking, Nabiki reached out and grasped the folder. She opened it up and scanned the pages, before coming to a set of figures that made her head spin. That was a lot of zeros tacked onto the end, and it was definately more than she expected to see for years yet. "That's... quite a bit."
"And it's only for one android line."
"Huh?"
"You owe our clients that much for each of the six lines that have had to be ceased. Unless the originals chose to allow for production to resume. Plus the amount of the intial payments made to you."
"That... much..?"
"Yes. Though there are many ways for you to pay it. We could always try to use your image as a replacement. Or you could work it off. Then again, perhaps you have some wellspring of funds that would allow you to pay what you owe in cash, check or wire transfer. And there are other ways as well."
"I..."
"Though we are interested in any other possible schemes that you may have initiated without the knowledge of our clients or those you have scammed."
"I didn't..."
"How do we know? You could have sold the images to Cyberdyne's competitors without our knowledge and that would not be known to us. Unless you told us, that is."
"Ummm..?"
"Just remember that we will find out, Miss Tendo. Our investigators are trained to track and gather evidence on individuals who siphon, steal, and cheat in the order of millions of American dollars. A Lone school girl from Tokyo will not be able to keep her secrets for long."
"Umm..."
"We can wait, you know. We have all the time in the world. You on the other hand..," trailed off Nagasawa, while:
(Posted Fri, 16 May 2003 06:48)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.