Chapter Eighty-Six – Negotiations – Part One

The goal of negotiation is not always about what you're asking directly for, sometimes it's in finding the line that cannot be crossed. That's often much more valuable in the long run.

-Valor Corporation CEO Goldman-

Cortez's fingers gently play across the back of my hand, a constant reminder that she's with me. Every time I glance over at her, she gives me a warm smile, one that says she missed me as much as I missed her.

"I'll need to get authorizations," Alveria hiccups, "From higher."

Wonder who a senator would consider higher. They're supposed to be the highest elected official in their districts. There are only a few entities that should technically outrank her, the head of the Senate, the head of the magistrates, and the president of the United World Order. Unless she's part of a secret faction, then there's no telling how many people are above her.

"Well, when you get them, I'll be waiting."

"That doesn't work for me, they will want to hear the debriefing before they agree to terms."

I turn to Greymore, "Everyone came back, right?"

He nods, "Yeah, they'd all love to see you. Whenever you're feeling up to it."

"I said that won't work for me," Alveria repeats.

Ignoring her again, "Glad to hear that. How were the gates?"

"Harder than usual, but nothing we couldn't handle."

"Glad to hear that too, it's about to get a lot harder. 123% harder to be exact,"

Cortez tilts her head at me, "How do you know?"

"Big purple told me."

Alveria shifts in her seat, her posture looking like she sobered in a matter of seconds, "You spoke with it?"

"You get those demands approved yet?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"Cheeky little…"

"Ma'am, maybe it's a good idea to get those approved ASAP," Greymore suggests, delicately.

She grumbles under her breath, swiping her interface.

"There, it's sent, give me the debrief."

I slow blink at her, "Once I get it in writing."

"You little shit," she scowls, "If you weren't with my daughter…"

I hold up an index finger telling her to wait, leaning toward Cortez, I whisper, "Is it okay if I'm rude to your mom?"

She turns, grabs my face and kisses me, without whispering, "Don't hold back."

"I'm considering removing you from the room," Alveria says, giving a pointed look at Cortez.

In the corner of the room, I see Sera finally sit down, she crosses her leg and leans her head against one hand, twirling a single lock of hair on her finger, like an idle habit. She looks pretty bored. Shouldn't be much longer until she fucks off.

Turning my attention back to the bureaucrat with the inflated ego in the room, "First, let's set the record straight, I don't need you. If you weren't Cleo's mother, I would've already told you to take your ball and go home. Second, don't say you're going to kick my girlfriend out of a room in my house, your authority ended after you stepped on my porch."

She laughs, again like she thinks it's a joke. Then seeing I'm still serious, her grin slowly shifts into a snarl, "If you think your false confidence is going to…"

I interrupt again, "Third, I'm not your enemy, and I don't want to have a bad relationship with my future mother in law."

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Cortez's hand squeezes as she blinks at me, eyes darting back and forth in mine. That last part just kind of came out, keep moving, don't skip a beat.

"Besides that, it's unnecessary for us to have a bad working relationship, all you're doing is making me wonder if I should be having this conversation with the WHA or hell, maybe even the WSA would be good."

"I told you before, the UWO will not allow the WHA…"

"Ma'am," Greymore says, gingerly putting a hand on her shoulder, she brushes it off with a pissed off look, he swallows, shifting on the sofa, "I know you weren't there to see it, but uh, I don't think you're keeping in mind, he's the guy that single handily took on a god and his damned army of freak shows."

I shake my head, "I couldn't have done it without all of you."

Greymore chuckles, "Not sure how much help we really were."

Looking him in the eye, "Without you, we wouldn't be here."

Alveria groans, "See? He needs us, he's not even denying…"

"Goddamnit Veronica!" Greymore roars, "Would it kill you to not be a bitch for five minutes?"

Cortez bites back laughter, snickering to herself.

Greymore flinches and slowly turns to look at Alveria, eyes growing wider as he realizes what he's just said. Her eyebrow looks like it's liable to fall off her face with the speed it's twitching.

"Bitch…" she seethes, turning slowly to look at Greymore, "You fucking degenerate drunk bastard. How dare you…"

"Sorry, ma'am, won't happen again, ma'am."

She breathes out slowly, finding calm after a few more tense moments, and she's about to speak when I hear a thunderous crash from upstairs, like wood splintering. We all stand abruptly as agents storm in from the front door, weapons drawn and pointed towards the stairs.

"Wait!" Cortez yells, holding up a hand, "Don't shoot her!"

Her? Does she mean…

A small white fox with a big bushy blob of a tail bounds down the stairs, splinters of wood falling out of her fur. She stops at the middle step, eyes sweeping the room until they land on me. Her small glacial blue eyes widen and she lets out a small whimper.

"Niva," I say, walking toward the stairs.

"Careful, she's…" Cortez begins.

She bounds the last steps, jumping between the legs of the suits, she coils for a moment then leaps through the air. The impact is like a pallet of bricks as she connects. Knocking me backward and into the couch, sending it falling backward. Holy fuck… what's her strength stat?

"Really strong…" Cortez finishes, leaning down and helping me up.

I can't even reply, I'm struggling to breathe, felt like I was tackled by a six hundred pound man. Knocked the air right out of me. Niva coils and jumps up my arms, running around my shoulders then back down into my arms, rubbing herself against me. Doing an excited little yipping thing.

"I missed you too," I manage to say, holding her in front of me, "You've gotten bigger since I last saw you."

She's nearly double the size she was before. Still roughly the size of an earth fox though, but definitely not a little baby fox anymore.

"She keeps sneaking out and hunting," Cortez sighs, scratching behind her ears.

It might be my imagination, but I swear it looks like Niva is grinning at the accusation.

"I thought I told you to keep her inside…" Alveria says, giving her daughter a stern look.

"She has been inside… most of the time."

"Fuck's sake, Cleopatra," her mom replies, rubbing her temples and shaking her head.

Alveria waves the agents to leave and stand guard outside again. She's about to chew Cortez out, but she pauses, swiping through her interface.

"Shit…" she whispers, looking surprised, "They approved it all except for the nukes."

"Seriously?" Greymore asks, she gives him stink eye for a moment, "Ma'am."

"Yes, they want a list of his team, and justification on a few of the demands though."

Did I not ask for enough? Eh, whatever, one of my conditions is that I want an open line of communication for special requisitions. I can always ask for more stuff later. Alveria looks at me, squinting, as though she's a little disappointed they approved so much.

"What do they want justifications for?"

"They want to know why you want an additional special contractor with experience building extremely tall structures such as cell towers, specifically in metal working. They also want to know why you want an engineer who specializes in rockets."

She swipes down on her interface, raising an eyebrow.

"They want to know why you want to be based out of the Mediterranean."

"First two are for a special project that I can't disclose yet. They are very important. The third answer is because Cleo said she'd love to live there some day."

Cortez gives me a smile, entwining her fingers deeper into mine.

"I doubt they will accept that as valid justification."

I shrug.

"They also want to know why you need to borrow the Eiffel tower for a day or two."

"Again, relating to the special project. Anything else?"

"They want to know why you want to speak to the head of the UWO sports commission."

I give a half grin, "I need to sanction a new sport. Going into details about it right now could potentially jeopardize my plan."

"Okay…" she looks me up and down, trying to measure if I'm just fucking with her. She'll understand soon enough, "Who is going to be on your team roster?"

I pull out a piece of paper, the logo of the strip club watermarked on the upper corner. A series of names are written out, I slide it across the table. She takes a few moments examining the names. Pausing on one.

"I'm hung up on a name."

Cortez sighs, "He already said he wanted Tran, get over it mom."

Alveria looks up slowly from the list, "Why do you want Mira Stormborn on your roster?"

Cortez's grip becomes tighter as she slowly turns to look at me, her eyebrow doing the same dance her mother's did earlier. Niva stiffens as well, looking up at me with a judgmental glare.

"I need her."

"Need…" Cortez breathes, tilting her head back.

"They're going to want justification for why," Alveria says.

"I can't give it, not yet."

Alveria mutters some choice curse words under her breath as she swipes through her interface.

"She hasn't been very helpful since she arrived, what makes you think she'll agree to help?" Greymore asks.

"I think he might be the only one who could make her useful," Fisban says, finally talking, I almost forgot she was there, she's been very silent.

"Anything for her darling," Cortez grits under her breath. Her hand is squeezing so hard that it's more of a death grip at this point.

This is going to be… fun.

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