章節 28: Progress, plans, loyalty
"Laly! Broge! Lardy! Come to me!"
The elves apparated in front of Gaude a moment later with a quiet pop.
"Report the progress of your teams! Broge, you go first."
"The mining team has discovered three coal veins, one of them anthracite, four iron ore deposits, one copper vein and a bauxite deposit in the Highlands. We have also found a minor gold vein, it has been fully mined and the gold was delivered into vault number five. The anthracitic coal was tested for Sulfur content and it was measured at point six percent.
While there are multiple Uranium deposits in the South-Western Britain, many of them are occupied by Muggle companies.
Mining operations have started on copper, anthracite and iron ore. The first batch of bauxite is already waiting in the aluminum mill's storage.
The titanium mill is under construction and ore import contracts are waiting for your signature.
The ore refineries and metal factories have been temporarily connected to the local power grid.
The cement factory has been fitted with additional filtration systems after complaints from the locals.
That is all."
"Give the liaisons orders to secure the necessary contracts and permits to begin Uranium mining, refining and enrichment. It might be dirty, but fission plants will provide us with enough power to become independent. Make sure the power grid engineers are aware that I want transmission done underground. Nobody likes ugly power lines.
Secure permits to build nuclear power plants and commission a project with the highest possible safety rating. I want at least three independent measures to shut down the chain reaction and a high assurance that there won't be any coolant leaking into the environment even if the facility gets nuked, not to mention hit by an earthquake.
Also, commission a project for a Thorium breeder research reactor.
I would much rather use a more abundant fission fuel. Lardy, you're up."
"Yes, Master! The explorers have been looking for ore deposits, magical plants and creatures. We have covered the entirety of Western Europe. We have yet to expand our searches to other continents.
There has been a sighting of Blisterful Blabberweed in Sudan, however it dates to 1930.
We have found an additional two hundred and fifteen unaffiliated elves. They have been rehabilitated, completed the introductory course into proper service and properly dressed. They are awaiting your orders in room five.
That is all from me."
"Both of you, keep up the good work."
Laly! You're up."
There have been no issues in clearing away the fallout of Master's adventure tonight.
Those captured during the event are peaceful in their holding cells. They're waiting to be contracted and conditioned into proper and loyal servants to Master.
There are newly-found masterless elves that are waiting to be bonded, good food can only do so much to keep them healthy.
The maintenance team has obtained copies of documents incriminating multiple high-profile companies in bending and outright breaking of laws and regulations as well as in-house embezzlement of funds by the staff members. In other words, we are prepared for the eventuality that they attempt to suppress our expansion.
The Muggle lawyer you hired has been most helpful. Her productivity doubled after we introduced her to the 'energy drink' the Potions' lab developed. She has been mostly going over the document copies that the maintenance team has been procuring.
We discovered a man following the lawyer, he has been captured. We've found out that he works for a person named Ajax.
The potions store has earned a hundred and fifty-three thousand Galleons in the past four months.
The funds in the Muggle companies' vault are running low due to all the investments that have been made. It would be highly beneficial if funds were added as soon as possible."
There were quite a few matters that caused minor concern. Gaude started addressing them one after the other.
"First of all. What's with your fluent speech and vocabulary? Have you been replaced by people taking Polyjuice Potion or something?"
"Master, the service teachers have been insisting on improving our speech, so I used my salary to hire a tutor for all three of us. We have also been taking the 'energy drink' that everyone's started taking so that we can learn even faster. We have reached what our tutor calls 'A-level in communication'. While I do not know what that means, I believe it should be good enough for daily needs."
"Very well. Keep up the good work. Add an education fund to the budget, so that every Muggle, wizardkind and elf can study what they want, as long as it aligns with the goals of House Vywin.
Sort the incriminating documents into folders by the company they pertain to. Keep looking into the dealings of all the bigger British companies.
Find that Ajax, and bring him in. Take at least ten elves with you. I have a bad feeling about him.
Spread the information gathering network to at least to New York, Paris, Berlin, Beijing and Hong Kong within this year. Once that's done, expand the other companies to those countries.
Have legal establish a telecom, road construction, power, advertising and various machinery manufacturing and electronics companies. All those companies should be under ambiguous names. Have the conglomerate office staff take care of hiring the moment the companies are established.
Have engineering research into the latest developments in all the fields our companies are active in. Buy, drug or kidnap the people responsible for the innovations, then give them the loyalty potions. After that, have them sign a contract.
Make sure their salaries will be higher than what they got from their previous employer, that way there's less of a risk of them trying to break the contract.
As for the funds, create a highly plausible paper trail from offshore for tonight's loot.
As for Emilia. I may have said it thrice before but give the girl a raise. She deserves it. She also deserves a permission to hire her own team. She's going to need it.
Now to the magical staff. I'll get to bonding with the elves right away.
Repost the recruitment ad for the three positions and add a few positions for dedicated runecarvers. Set the interviews on Sunday afternoon as usual. Oh, and let the current heads of each department do the interviews.
Speaking of raises. Ten percent to the magical employees.
I'll be buying the Leaky Cauldron. I've had it with the dingy place. Construction will be doing a makeover on it. As much as I like a good disguise on top of the Firepit, a luxury hotel for the Wizardkind will do just as well as a dump with the bonus that it won't hurt my pride.
In fact, I'll buy every damn shop in Diagon Alley. The money made by the potions should be about enough, add to that the proceeds from the raids. The Goblins don't ask where the money comes from, they're content with getting their cut. Let's just do a total makeover on the entire street. Otherwise my eyes will start bleeding each time I have business in Gringotts or even my own shop.
Offer the shop owners contracts that let them continue working in the shops, for a fixed salary and bonuses depending on the results. The contract should include keeping the place clean and customer-friendly.
I want casinos, restaurants, theatres, and shops where half the goods aren't on the street and the other half covered in dust and a bookstore where you can just name the book and it'll appear in front of you, instead of having to browse through shelves upon shelves or chase after the more active books. We live in a world full of magic, so the shopkeepers should damn well use it.
I am very pleased with all the work that you all have been doing. Keep it going.
Where is my goddamn Snyckers?"
"Thank you Master, but what is a Snykers?"
"It's a high-sugar Muggle food. Some gooey caramel sauce and nougaty-peanut goodness covered with chocolate."
"We have not come across any product of that kind, would Master like to have some chocolate instead?"
Suddenly, a bar of chocolate appeared in Laly's hand. She hands it over to Gaude. Gaude took a good hard bite and felt blood sugar levels return from the grave almost immediately.
"Better?" Laly asked.
"Better.", Gaude replied.
After a few hours of sleep, Gaude got up once again, the stress of the previous night not letting him sleep long. It looked like Laly had been patiently waiting in front of him. She gave him a bow and reported: "Master, Ajax has been captured and delivered into holding cell B6. Three elves have been delivered into the healing room, the bullets have been removed and the appropriate potions have been given. None of them were badly injured. Ajax was aiming by hearing."
"Good. Make sure the uniforms of those elves get their names embroidered onto them. For now, make me Charles Vywin and take me to where Ajax is held."
Laly, Broge and Lardy already had their names on their uniforms. It was to set them apart from the rest in the beginning.
With a pop, Gaude was in the holding area that was attached to the interrogation room. There, a woman was on the ground, in her undergarments. The elves had been thorough in making sure that she had no hidden weapons.
Gaude spoke: "Laly, why didn't you tell me Ajax was a woman? Nevertheless, make sure she's properly knocked out."
She took out her blowpipe, put in a dart and shot it into the woman's extremely well-toned butt that looked like it was begging for it.
While Gaude was fairly certain that with the help of magic he could take the captive on, there was the risk that she had a suicide capsule or something similar.
"Now let's move her to interrogation."
Laly apparated into the cell and took a hold of the man inside, then disapparated. A moment later, one of her subordinate elves from the maintenance team took a hold of Gaude's hand and in the blink of an eye, he was next to the interrogation chair.
The woman was now shackled onto the chair. Gaude injected a cocktail of loyalty-inducing potions directly into the woman's bloodstream, opting for efficiency instead of subtlety.
After that, Gaude uncorked a phial of Snape's very own overhauled Wiggenweld potion under her nose.
The woman's eyes shot open.
Gaude spoke: "Good morning. At first I thought I should address you as Francis, but you look more like a Francesca to me. How are you doing?"
As to why Gaude was addressing Ajax as Francesca, it didn't have anything to do with first, second and last name. It was for personal reasons, yet the captive didn't seem to even notice it.
"Charles, is this really necessary?", she asked, seemingly greatly confused by her predicament.
"I'm afraid so. After all, I've heard troubling news that you had my lawyer followed. That was not nice of you at all. Tell me, who put you up to it?"
"I'm sorry about that, it was the group's idea, you see, they didn't really like how you came out of nowhere and started investing big."
"The group? I'm afraid you'll have to help me remember who exactly you're talking about. I've been involved with many groups as of late."
"You know, the British Investors' group, the one with the old dog Tygrett in the lead."
"Oh, that one. Perhaps I should go and meet Mr Tygrett personally. It seems that our relationship needs a bit of maintenance. I'll tell you what, you sign this contract here and you'll be free to go, delivered back to your home like nothing ever happened and all.", Gaude said, pulling up one of his general purpose contracts for criminals where intentionally going against Gaude's interests meant death.
"Read the contract properly and sign it only once you're done."
He handed Ajax a pen to sign the parchment.
"That's a weird contract, buddy. But since it's for you, I guess it's fine. I'd kill anyone else if they tried to get me to sign something like this."
That was exactly why Gaude loved loyalty potions combined with a drop of befuddlement draught mixed in. If he had a time machine, he could even make Hitler his loyal subordinate and order him to go around the world and care for all the homeless kittens.
"Alright, now let's get you out of this thing. It was really distasteful of me to even put you in it and I sincerely apologize."
Gaude gave Laly a sign and suddenly all the cuffs became undone, releasing the woman.
"Close your eyes, you're going back home now. I'm afraid I'll have to insist on you taking me to old man Tygrett's place after you've had a change of clothes."
###
Half an hour later, near George Tygrett's manor.
A black van stopped on the driveway.
Gaude, wearing old man Charles, asked Ajax: "Is that the house?"
"Yeah, that's the one. I'll just take you there."
"No need. I'll walk. Thanks for the lift."
"Just don't piss the old man off, I'd really hate if some random guy put you under for him." Ajax was once again wearing a loosely fitting coat, toupee and large sunglasses. Her voice, the only thing that could've given away her gender, was once again modulated into a masculine one.
Gaude had already summoned Laly, now he was just waiting for Ajax to leave. Once the car was out of sight, he said: "Take your team to the house, find every male, take them to confinement. We'll be indoctrinating good old George next."
By the afternoon tea time, Gaude had indoctrinated the entire group. Emilia was presented with ten boxes of documents to work through, with strong recommendations to hire a team. They'd most likely be on it for months, even with overtime.
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