The Wanderer - 253 (Patreon)

Chapter 253 – Business, Debts

[2009 – October – Friday]

"Can I offer some refreshments, Your Highness?", Emma asked as she sat down at the head of the table that pointed towards the window, and Elijah, who stood in front of it and had his back half-turned towards them.

“No. Please don't bother, Ms. Frost.”, T'Challa replied, taking his place at the opposite end of the table while his mother sat to his left and his bodyguards positioned themselves around him, “I would like for us to get straight to business.”

“I understand.”, she acquiesced, giving John who stood by her side a look, followed by a small nod that served as an obvious prompt while simultaneously sharing her intentions with him through her telepathy.

Following her order, he quickly disappeared into one of the guest bedrooms before coming back with a black box that had a handle on top.

“The remains of Ulysses Klaue as promised.”, Emma gestured as John handed the case to one of the female bodyguards, who handed it to the Prince after giving a quick scan with a small device that she pulled from her pocket.

T'Challa on his part had a somewhat grim expression as he undid the clasps that kept the container closed and lifted up the top. Emma saw him flinch back a little as he was greeted by the sight of Klaue's severed head, which was held in a glass container that was attached to a small cooling device.

He quickly closed the case again after recognizing that it was indeed Klaue's head and turned to her as he asked with a frown: “That is not what we expected when you offered to pass us the remains of Ulysses Klaue. Where is the rest of the body?”

Emma could spot a hint of disgust in the Prince's eyes and understood that he apparently was not a fan of the rather grizzly 'head in a box'-delivery, though she wasn't too bothered by it. There were many people who thought much worse of her, after all.

Still, there was no reason to leave a bad impression when it was so easy to shift things in her favour.

Putting on a wry and somewhat repelled expression, Emma replied: "I'm afraid this is all I can offer. The circumstances of this man's death were out of my control, as was the way his remains were handled. This is all that is left of his carcass."

T'Challa's frown deepened a bit, though his disgust faded visibly as he looked at her.

“Then would you please explain how it came to this desecration, Ms. Frost?”, he inquired, his accent sounding out sharply.

"Of course.", she began with a nod, "As I am sure you are aware Frost International is largely involved in transportation and logistics, and since we conduct our business globally, our contracts sometimes lead us to less orderly parts of the world."

"In such cases, it is company policy to protect the intactness of the shipped goods with extensive measures since anything else would leave a stain on our reputation. For that purpose, we employ several security companies that plan the safest routes and security measures, and provide the manpower.", Emma emphasized with a short pause before continuing.

"And sometimes, when our contracts demand that we deliver something to regions where the law is not always upheld by a stable government, we hire additional private mercenary teams that are familiar with those regions."

“And while I cannot reveal the details of those contracts, it suffices to say that three weeks ago, Frost International was tasked with the delivery of some more sensitive goods, the destination being the Mozambican coast near the South African border.”

"Through a leak on the employer's side, Ulysses Klaue had gotten information of the delivery date and location, which he sought to use to his own benefit by forcefully taking possession of the goods and reselling them through his own channels, which he has a reputation for doing with anything that he can get his hands on."

"Lucky enough, after incurring severe losses, both in terms of damaged goods and fatalities, the mercenaries employed to protect the transport managed to prove why their services are so expensive by killing the leader of the attempted robbery, which was surprisingly enough Klaue himself, and forced the rest of the attackers to retreat."

“And seeing as there existed several active bounties on Klaue's head on the black market, placed there without a doubt by his rivals and others who obviously wished him dead, the men that we hired for protection sought to bring 'proof' of the man's death back with them in hopes of exchanging for said bounty.”

"In the end, after I realized that Klaue had led the attack and that he was a fugitive with outstanding orders for capture in Wakanda, I paid the mercenaries for his remains with a considerable sum, which was what led to this meeting today.", Emma ended her 'explanation', sounding rather convincing even though she had not spoken a single truthful word. Alas, such was her gift.

The way she also subtly insinuated that the payback for Klaue's head had to reach a significant level to cover her 'considerable losses' wasn't too shabby either. On the contrary, it was a rather good example of suggestive speech patterns that placed certain thoughts into focus on a subconscious level.

After all, all those present knew that she didn't plan to hand over Klaue's head out of the goodness of her heart. She expected some sort of recompense without ever stating so out loud, which was a deliberate action on her part.

Not telling them what she wanted just yet gave Emma a broader spectrum of options since simple negotiation tactics told her not to show her cards before the discussion of compensation had even begun.

T'Challa kept quiet for a few moments, seemingly processing the information. And as good as her performance was, Emma was sure that he had his doubts, as any intelligent person would have.

Doubly so considering that Klaue had been in possession of an amount of Vibranium that surpassed any quantity of this metal that had been officially found since the start of recorded history.

Though given the circumstances of this meeting, which she had arranged for to specifically hand over the remains of a terrorist that had killed dozens of Wakandans, the Prince couldn't just accuse her of lying, especially not with Elijah's presence acting as a deterrence.

Still, that didn't mean that T'Challa couldn't otherwise ask what he wanted to know.

"Hmm.", humming while in deep thought for a moment, he voiced out, "Setting the unfortunate state of the body aside, there are other issues for which I hope you may be able to provide an answer, Ms. Frost."

"Of course, as long as it is in my power.", Emma agreed without hesitation, nodding gracefully.

“When Klaue used the diversion that he had created with the explosives to flee from Wakanda and escape justice, causing many deaths in the process, he took something with him that was not his to take.”, T'Challa expounded.

Looking positively innocent and professionally ignorant, she took the bait and asked: “From the gathered reports that I received, Klaue's most valuable possession that he had on his person when he died was the gun in his hand, Your Highness. Though if you could tell me what it is that you are looking for, I may be able to investigate more deeply?”

"Vibranium ore. A considerable quantity of it to be exact. Too much to overlook or just carry around.", the Prince revealed with a stern expression and piercing eyes, "I hope you can provide me with the coordinates of where your men clashed with Klaue and his men so that my father can deploy tracking teams to find what has been stolen from our country."

Shaking her head inwardly, Emma could hardly believe that T'Challa had been groomed as royalty, given how clueless he seemed when it came to negotiations, revealing such valuable information so off-handedly.

Either way, her plan had always been to deny being in possession of the metal, though hearing T'Challa point the conversation in the direction of Earth's most valuable, naturally occurring metal was definitely in her interest.

Well, 'naturally occurring' might be a slight stretch since the metal came from outer space if one believed the words of her younger brother, which Emma did, and not just because the spies she had sent to Wakanda had dug up the same information.

Still, compared to Adamantium, which was strictly speaking a fabricated chemical compound of different resins that produced said metal, 'naturallyoccurring' seemed much more fitting in the case of Vibranium.

Controlling her facial expression in a perfectly timed manner, Emma's face mirrored a flawless mixture of surprise and intrigue, basically what one would expect when telling a businesswoman about something as valuable as a great quantity of Vibranium.

“So it is true, then?”, she breathed out with quiet astonishment, “There is more Vibranium in Wakanda. A whole mountain even?”

Seeing the Wakandan Prince, his mother, and all his bodyguards freeze up at the same time was sign enough that her words had hit a nerve, which made her smile inwardly. Forgotten was the Vibranium that Klaue had stolen as T'Challa seemed to mentally fumble for an answer, the gears turning in his mind visible through his eyes.

"I am not sure what you are talking about Ms. Frost.", he eventually stated, choosing the rather generic path of simple denial, which was a bad choice given that it immediately put him on the defensive side, which played right into her cards.

“Well, the mercenaries tracked down Klaue's fleeing men and found their base after a rather unpleasant journey through the African jungle, or so I have been told anyway.”, Emma pressed forward, knowing to strike while the iron was still hot.

"And while they did not find any of the Vibranium ore that you are looking for in the base, the mercenaries managed to get their hands on Klaue's right-hand-man, who they managed to convinceto tell them all he knew about his boss, including his past and eventual future plans.”

"He revealed that Klaue had hidden away some Vibranium, which he had gotten his hands on while in Wakanda. But since Klaue didn't trust any of his men with such a valuable metal, none of them knew where he had hidden it or if it even really existed, which is unfortunate given that he will certainly not tell anybody in his current state.", she said rather dryly, gesturing in the direction of the black case with Klaue's head.

"Still, the man also revealed that Klaue had the tendency to rave endlessly about the 'treasures of the Golden City' and the mountain of Vibranium that was hidden in Wakanda. It seemed he held quite the grudge for being branded a thief when he took little more them a crumb from what was a bread factory in comparison, so to speak."

"I wasn't sure if I should believe those words since there was no evidence of Klaue possessing even a single gram of Vibranium but it seems that I was too hasty in my conclusions.", Emma ended with a thoughtful expression while the Wakandans were stricken by visible tension.

"I am not sure that believing the words of a black market arms dealer's subordinate is the smartest thing to do, especially when holding a knife to his throat, Ms Frost.", the Queen finally spoke up, her expression seeming almost convincing in their sternness, but Emma was a master in spotting microexpressions and could see that she was nervous and tense.

“He would have told you anything to save his life.”, Ramonda added before continuing more intently, “I can assure you that the only Vibranium found in the last fifty years in Wakanda has been stolen by Ulysses Klaue, which is why finding him was of such importance to our people.”

Again, clear-cut denial. Truthfully, it seemed to be the best strategy given the circumstances, though it was of little help in the long run. Weaving truths into one's lies or lies into one's truths was often a much better path than absolutes since those often left little margin for error.

For that reason, Emma mentioned that she knew of the Vibranium ore but not its location, as well as the fact that she gave out bits of information that she knew about Klaue's past and Wakanda's secrets. Her words shifted the focus to Klaue and Wakanda while it was clearly her that was most likely in possession of the Vibranium from an outsider's standpoint.

But through mixing bits of truth into her lies, her guests were eager to direct the discussion away from Wakanda and its 'mountain of gold'.

In their haste though, they lost the patience to be precise with their words and analyze hers sufficiently and subconsciously became much more willing to accept her words as the truth. It was nothing but a psychological trick that played to their anxiety of concealing the truth about Wakanda, which became more effective the more anxious they were.

And given the subtle tension that shone through in their expressions and postures, as well as what she sensed in the ambient psionic energy, they were very anxious.

The next step was obviously to provide an escape hatch for them, to provide them relief from their anxiety, a role that fell onto her, which just signified who the dominant partner in this discussion was.

Her 'guests' hadn't even realized that she had not given a single direct answer to their questions, nor had she been forced to defend herself against any accusing inquiries. Instead, it was the Wakandan Queen who had felt the need to reply defensively with Emma having to even accuse her of something.

“Maybe.”, Emma replied with a tilt of her head, “Though you are welcome to perform your own interrogations on the man and find out if he is simply delusional or spoke the truth.”

"You have him in custody?", T'Challa questioned with a surprised frown.

“My men captured him after taking over Klaue's base and questioned him. They are still at the hideout, waiting for further instructions. I can give you the coordinates, so that you may send your own men and do your investigations, Your Highness.”, Emma offered deceptively.

She had indeed stationed some hired mercenaries at one of Klaue's bases in South Africa, though it wasn't the one at the Salvage Yard since that one had been destroyed by another independent team with a healthy amount of explosives at her orders.

And without Klaue leading his men after his rather gruesome death at the hands of Selene, those remaining in the other hideouts had been much easier to find with a bit of help from the Dark Priestess, and some well-executed memory manipulation easily produced Klaue's 'right-hand-man'.

Naturally, the four other bases that the recently deceased Klaue had once controlled in the region were well on their way to being taken over by local warlords or official military, with most of the men in charge dying during the assaults on the bases, unfortunately.

Alas, such was the risk of having a base in a country as disorderly as South Africa.

Quite frankly though, some might argue that all this had been more effort than it was probably worth it, considering that it was almost a certainty that the Wakandans would never hand over even a single gram of Vibranium to her for her help.

Still, that didn't matter since her goal since the beginning was to form an understanding with the Wakandan royalty during this meeting, on top of which she might be able to forge a business arrangement in the future. And for that purpose, it was of utmost importance to hide her possession of the stolen Vibranium without revealing any flaws.

That alone was worth all the resources invested in this cover-up.

After all, exchanging wealth for favors and influence was basically the essence of the Hellfire Club's modus operandi, and she was its White Queen.

As such, Emma didn't want to be paid with money for her help, she wanted to be owed a debt as that was a currency far more valuable than any generic wealth. All this was about long-term investments for which this meeting was setting the foundation, which was what made it so important.