THE MOMENT
"Already?" Randall, the CEO of Crowning Technologies, asked with a broad grin. He wasn't surprised, but he still impressed himself. He'd chosen Cleo as his CFO, and she excelled at her job. The company held an emergency meeting to discuss the 'Hostile Takeover' bill that had been signed into law that morning. And, Cleo already had proposals for their private army ready to be put into action. The bill came as a surprise to him and likely every other corporation as far as he could tell, but, he was feeling positive about his chances with fast movers like Cleo on his board.
"As soon as you sign off on it, assuming there are no objections," Cleo looked around the meeting table and found only encouraging smiles. "We can start signing recruits by the end of the day today."
"Then, let's get it going," Randall grinned. He glanced around the table, and no one raised any issues. He gave them a firm nod, then put pen to paper. Everyone was focused on him signing, and they didn't notice the intruders right away. But, within the few moments it took to sign his name, the entire staff was surrounded by armed soldiers.
"Good morning, my name's Phoenix, and I represent Sharp Development," a red-haired man in a white blazer introduced himself. "According to the new law, I'm very close to owning your company," he smiled as he gestured at the gun-wielding enforcers. They wore white protective gear with red accents, and their faces were covered by a smooth white shield. "The question is, am I close enough, or do I need to be a little more hostile?" Each soldier moved a weapon closer to the heads of each seated member.
"You're close enough," Randall raised his arms in surrender. It was one thing to hire soldiers to send them to their deaths, it was another to put himself in danger.
"Wonderful, if you could just make it official, please," Phoenix smiled and placed a translucent red clipboard loaded with papers on the table in front of Randall.
"How did you act so fast...?" Randall was still impressed by Cleo's work ethic, and it genuinely left him humbled that someone else had gotten more organized even quicker. He'd never even heard of Sharp Development, and keeping tabs on competitors was part of his job. He continued asking questions as he signed away his life's work to save his life.
"I'll be honest, we cheated a bit," Phoenix grinned. "We kind of saw it coming."
"What? How? We all got the news at the same time," Randall shook his head.
"It was officially announced when signed into law this morning," Phoenix nodded as his smile grew wider. "But, we've been lobbying for it for a while now."