60 Chess (1/2)
”Ivan Storme, I have been anticipating meeting you,” Everal Argentear sat behind his desk with a leisurely smile. ”And who might the beautiful lady by your side be?”
”You can call me Iris, the president's main wife.” Iris acted coy as she pulled Ivan's arm into the crook of her elbow.
”Well, Ivan, Iris, it appears the two of you were simply meant for each other. Please, have a seat.”
Ivan didn't sit in the indicated seat, instead opting to walk past the desk and look out the window over the top of the crimson and gold tinted clouds along with several other cloudscrapers which had also pierced the cloud layer.
”You have quite the view here, it really must make you feel on top of the world.”
”Indeed, with enough money you can do everything, so having a massive amount of it truly makes one stand above the rest. Money is power after all,” Everal turned his head and responded matter-of-factly, not offended by Ivan ignoring his previous invitation to sit.
Absentmindedly gazing out the window, Ivan nostalgically commented, ”You know, if this was me in the past, I would have immediately agreed with you.”
”It is quite unfortunate I know absolutely nothing about your past. Ivan Storme, the man that appeared out of thin air. Would you care to enlighten me? I have been thinking that you were someone Mazur Ral Vendick concocted up in one of his crazy experiments and implanted false memories into.”
Iris sat down on one of the chairs Everal previously invited them to sit on, watching the two probe each other with words.
”It is no longer important. What I can say however, is that I used to be like you – ruling the world with money. However, in the end, I was wrong.”
Everal sat there silently while Ivan looked at him with a look of madness that was barely veiled by an emotionless expression. Ivan's eyes sent chill directly down his spine, like a predator waiting to pounce upon its prey.
”Money can give you power, but it cannot give you authority. No matter how much money you have, how many connections you have or how much power you wield, as soon as the authority above you chooses to act, there is nothing you can do about it.”
”So what do you suggest someone in my position should do?”
”Isn't that a simple solution. Don't just seize money and power, seize authority.”
”You make it sound so simple, taking something such as authority isn't so easy. Besides, those who sit up the top also must follow the rules.”
Everal could see the expression on Ivan's face twist into pure malice through the faint reflection on the window. This sparked many inspirations of thought, but he kept them all to himself secretly.
Ivan turned around, his expression already returned to a complete poker face. ”But enough of that, I heard you wanted to meet with me.”
”Indeed, I have a very strong interest in the Celestials.”
”What about us interests you so?”
”Four-dimensional beings. You stumbled upon a certain item somewhere in the galaxy, or perhaps somewhere outside of it during that incident following Oberon II. I would like to purchase some of that item off of you.”
”Oh, you must mean that incident involving your son, I believe? Speaking of him, how has that Captain Argentear doing these days?”
”Very well, these days, he broke military command a few years ago though and was punished under military law.”
”That's harsh, did he get sent to prison?”
”Not at all, we kept it all quiet and he is currently under home confinement. He shouldn't be chasing you down like a stray cur again.”
”You have such a strange sense of humor, Everal. I was only thinking on shaking hands with him and talking about the good old days.”
Iris didn't know whether to laugh or cry as the two were devolving to almost sending blatant insults and threats at one another.