“My true mate is right,” Kyros stated.
Enough with the fucking true mate!
His lips twitched, and he pushed a red button on the table. “Begin, Ilion.”
“Wait,” I said, pointing at the button. “What’s that?”
Kyros quirked a brow. “Vissimo have trouble hearing through a certain frequency. We use a frequency generator in this meeting and the meeting with my siblings and King Julius so Clan Fyrlia cannot hear our plans outside the tower.”
My brows climbed. So they were aware of the frequency thing, too, huh? That made sense. “I see.”
“Ilion,” he said, shifting attention from me.
Everyone clicked on their tablets and I did the same. There was a file labelled Seconds. Glancing to check the tablet of the vampire on my right, I clicked on the file and tuned into the male on my left.
Ilion pressed his lips together. “Fyrlia knows our position. They’ll throw everything they have at this. Absolutely everything. That means we must reciprocate. I suggest a higher budget for the day. 127 million.”
There was a murmur of dissent.
Danielle was nodding though. “We can recover from an overspend. We can’t recover if they’re allowed to secure more agricultural land. That will start the end cascade.”
I straightened. “What do you mean by end cascade?”
She cut a glance my way, her blue eyes a match for most around the table. “Have you played Monopoly before?”
Great, I was getting the stupid person explanation. “Yes,” I said patiently. Until Tommy refused to play with me anymore.
“You know the point where one person is clearly going to win and the question changes from will I win to how long before I lose?”
“I do.”
“That’s what I mean by the end cascade. At a certain point, statistically, one clan cannot win. The scales tip and with increasing speed, someone will lose. That’s how Ingenium will end for one side—just like in Monopoly or chess.”
I dipped my head. “Thanks for explaining.”
So Clan Sundulus wasn’t in a good position—even with the bluff at play.
That was good to know. And really bad. The clans had to remain locked in an even battle for years to come for me to have any chance at winning.
If Sundulus was at risk of losing, it was in my interest to help them.
The conversation resumed, and I focused on it entirely, trying to ignore the fear-filled reactions of their bodies as the conversation heated and eyes blazed. I closed my eyes, blocking out the sight of their white teeth, and the discomfort eased somewhat, though it was annoying not to see their body language and expressions.
“We’re owed a favour by a town planner. Julia Dinh,” a male said. “If there are purchases today, Fyrlia will attempt to change the status of the secured land from agricultural to rural for development, of course.”
“Bastards,” another spat.
My brows climbed and remained there through what was essentially a roll call of every human they had in their control who could help them succeed and Fyrlia fail.
This was the real deal. And right now there were eight other conversations in eight other towers happening just like this one.
For a minute, I baulked at the sheer magnitude of their operations in comparison to mine. But my strategy possessed none of their restrictions, and they weren’t actively working against me.
No. I had belief in the Le Spyre network. Being from here—and human—made my strategy stronger than anything they had.
The door opened, and I squinted at Angelica before checking my watch. 1:00 a.m.
The head of each team was required to report back to the seconds and Kyros now.
I swivelled my chair so my back wasn’t to her.
She stood, hands clasped, but her eyes darted to me and she smiled.
Angelica needed to get a life. If I didn’t know she already had a harem, I’d say she should get laid.
Dang it. I was probably the only person in this room not getting any—aside from maybe Kyros.
“May I direct your attention to house acquisition,” she said.
Ilion leaned over, tapping on my tablet. He exited the slideshow I was in, clicked on the file labelled House Acquisition.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
The new document displayed a list of target properties for the day. Usually, I received a few properties from the trouble list to visit. Of course, I knew which suburbs the other realtors were working in, but not a comprehensive list of the exact properties.
This was exactly what I needed so my acquisition staff could work with confidence and ensured safety. If Sundulus was after these properties, I felt safe assuming Fyrlia would be after them too.
I worked to keep my glee under wraps, feeling Kyros’s gaze heavy on me. Pretty sure glee wasn’t the normal response to the house acquisition report.
The first page of Angelica’s summary was a list of privately-owned agriculture properties. Shoot, there really weren’t many left to secure. I read the first address and scanned the page anew.
I owned six of these. Well, I was reasonably certain.
Angelica continued talking, but I listened with half an ear, scrolling through the rest of the file. I’d already been briefed that no reports left this level. Taking pictures on my phone—even in a private corner or the bathroom—felt like a really bad idea.
Memory, it is.
I returned to the first page as Angelica detailed what was known about each property. Another head team member entered after her, and I opened the file Internet Marketing without Ilion’s help.
I skimmed over what appeared to be an online marketing plan but soon went back to the first document.
How was I going to play this?
I needed the clans to keep fighting while I crept up in the wings.
Clan Sundulus kept Fyrlia weaker. Overall, two were easier to fight than one. I had my own forecasters for Ingenium. I knew what my position would be in two years or three decades based on my accelerated strategy.
Decades that, with enough expansion, I might have a chance to finish this thing.
Seven Vissimo came in and out to give their reports. By 1:30 a.m., in addition to the first two areas, we’d covered general marketing—television and street marketing, offensive marketing, council strategies, banking strategies, SEO, industry budget, human liaisons and the largest file—forecasting for what would happen in over one hundred different scenarios, arranged from most probable to least probable. Thankfully we’d only gone through the top five most likely situations.
Keeping track of the moving parts was nearly impossible, but I focused on the worst possible outcome. If Fyrlia acquired six of the remaining agricultural properties, the percentage of their Bluff City holdings would increase by 2 percent. The end cascade would be triggered.
If they acquired one agricultural property, it gave them 50.1 percent likelihood of winning Ingenium because of the power of word of mouth.
The report also detailed what the likeliest suburbs for their turn would be based on the most probable rolls: seven, six, eight, five, and nine. That only helped Sundulus so much. Anything could fucking happen—and the forecast covered fucking everything, extrapolating data over the next twenty years.
They had to have software to generate these crazy stats. Or, I supposed, several hundred vampires on the job.
The head of forecasting left the room. As soon as she did, the seconds launched into a furious debate that had my palms sweating in seconds. Eyes blazing and teeth flashing, growls cut through the air. Keeping track of the different reports and threads was near impossible as it was. With the reaction of my body around the Vissimo, I had no chance.