Chapter 229 Negotiation
Schertrade pulled out a chair and sat down, biting his nails incessantly. After a long while, he slowly said, "Sir, you don't seem to have a very good temper."
"If you woke up one day to find that your life had been preordained, that your memories of the past twenty years were all false and empty, and that you knew the person you were supposed to be was incredibly stupid, you would react the same way I did," Carlos shrugged.
"Sure, that sounds pretty awesome."
Scherte looked somewhat helpless. With a look of nonchalance, she pulled a gun from her pocket and pointed it directly at Carlos's head, saying, "Honestly, I admire you guys."
In casinos, financial exchanges, or similar industrial areas, those in charge of maintenance usually have some distinctive, almost subconscious, actions before they begin interrogation or intelligence gathering.
—For example, they might eat something, strike an elegant pose while taking a sip of wine, or push up their glasses, pretend to think for a while, or simply repeat the same words excessively or act incredibly cool by being sparing with words… In short, they all like to act like they are “I’m fucking high-class, so I’m going to do some awesome things that you can’t understand and can’t imagine.”
But Scherte was clearly too lazy to bother with such fancy stuff. The way she held the gun was not attractive at all. She didn't look like she was threatening anyone. Instead, she looked like a white-collar worker who was helpless with her thorny work and had to bring her partners to review the newly completed plan. She looked like she had nothing to do and couldn't wait to leave work.
"Hey—what's there to admire or not admire?"
Being held at gunpoint at such close range, Carlos reacted with the indifference of someone threatening to kill his entire family. He pointed a finger at Scheldt and said, "We only noticed the details of these paintings. You went to all this trouble to report the exhibition, hoping someone could understand them, didn't you?"
"Since we are one of the few, and you can't find any other tourists who are more qualified, you can only assume that we are artists of the same caliber as your boss, or admit that you are a complete idiot."
“You’re quite right.” Schert did think about it for a while, but still didn’t put down the gun. “But I also have my principles, and the venue has its own rules.”
"No matter who you are or where you come from, I'm telling you this time—'Lullaby' has no place for you two. Please turn back and go home."
Carlos chuckled; this woman was certainly quite wary.
"Please, big sister."
Do you know how much effort it took the two of us to get here?
"We don't want money or any trade secrets. Those things might be valuable to others, but in our eyes... they're no different from dog shit."
"We've come here today only to have a proper talk with your boss about our ideals."
Hearing this, Schert was somewhat surprised. She had thought the two of them had come specifically to cause trouble and extort money, but she hadn't expected it to be for something like this.
She's a very shrewd person who knows how to weigh the pros and cons. In any business deal, the core of negotiation lies in the conditions and bottom lines that both parties can accept. Since the other party isn't causing trouble elsewhere—like casinos, hallucinogenic drug dens, or drug lords—it's simply a different guise for money. Perhaps they know some confidential information about the convention center, but not revealing it is already a sign of respect.
As for the bargaining chips, of course, they can be negotiated. As one of the persons in charge of maintenance, if Schert finds that force cannot resolve the matter, she is fully entitled to allocate some funds without consulting anyone and deal with these two bastards.
As for the specific amount... well, as long as it's not too outrageous, she can give an amount that an ordinary person couldn't spend in ten lifetimes, and the convention center owner will definitely not have any questions afterward, because she has resolved all the blind spots that could cause confusion.
Unfortunately, what Carlos and his group wanted wasn't something as mundane as money.
"I think you two have misunderstood something."
Schert finally put down his gun, then crossed his legs, spat his chewing gum onto the wrapper, and tossed it on the ground.
"Putting aside whether you know the boss or not, he's usually very busy. He just went to Manhattan for a meeting a while ago. As he instructed beforehand, he'll be away on a business trip for almost a month."
"Besides, we don't only have this one art exhibition in the N27 area. The owner is usually very busy and doesn't have time to linger in one place. If you really want to see him, I can leave you a phone number, next time..."
"Alright, enough of this nonsense." Just then, Merlink, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly interrupted Scheldt, "You're a smart woman, ma'am."
“Your boss is watching us from behind the monitoring room. I’ve also figured out the message he’s hidden in these paintings.”
"As a B02 agent specially authorized by Eoubs, if you don't even have this kind of courage, you deserve to die in the Gospel of Heaven."
As these words fell, Scheldt's expression gradually turned cold.
This time, she didn't say anything more, but instead raised her hand and clapped a few times.
In less than ten seconds, the password door to the dark room was opened again from the outside, and thirty people with the exact same face as her rushed in. They surrounded the two of them, and each of them was carrying a special laser gun that only appears in science fiction movies.
“I’ll only ask you this once,” Schulte said, his eyes filled with murderous intent, once everyone was in position. “Who are you? Which branch of Eoubs sent you as operatives? What are you doing here?”
Seeing this, Carlos whistled, opened his notebook, and started flipping through it as if no one else was around, replying, "Great, awesome, bro."
"However, I still stand by what I said."
"A moron like you who's only good at relaying messages has no right to know what we want from your boss."
However, just a second before Scheldt gave the order to act.
Her terminal suddenly rang.
In response, she gestured for them to stop, glanced at Carlos and Mellink, then took a few steps back and pressed the call button.
The two did not take this opportunity to attack, but simply sat quietly and waited.
Throughout the process, she only repeated "I understand," "Yes," and "I get it."
About two minutes later.
Schert waved to the group, and they immediately retreated from the dark room without any hesitation, simply obeying orders without question.
The only people left in the room were her, Carlos, and Melink.
"Please come this way, gentlemen."
"Mr. Kleeman would very much like to meet you."
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