AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 25
“Go get one box at a time, for the six associates,” I instructed Aida.
She hopped up and came back carrying in a single box of paper, but it was extra large, with ten reams of 1000 pages each.
“We go thru a lot of paper,” she said, then pointed at another person in the picture, and gave me their name. I activated the skill, and then we repeated the process five more times.
I helped her stack the boxes in a corner of her office where she added a big note, ‘Case research, do not touch.’
“Ok, this is awesome, I don’t know where I’ll find the time for it, I’m your lawyer, bought and paid for.”
“Great. Now how much about my skills do you want to know?”
“I don’t want to know anything. In the future, if I’ve got a problem, I’ll tell you about it, and you tell me if you can help me.”
“Likewise, If I’ve got a problem, I’ll tell you about it, and you can tell me if you can help.”
She put out her hand, and we shook on it.
“Now that we are in business, I need you to tell me all about your trip to Saudi Arabia, what happened, and everything that Mr Marcham told you before he jumped off a building.”
“So he’s dead?”
“Yes, very dead. The people who hired him are in very big trouble, but either aren’t American, or are out of the country at the moment. The FBI has warrants out, including international warrants, but no easy access to an arrest.”
So I told her the same basic story I had told Marcham, and all the stuff he had told me. She asked that I wait for a few minutes, while she did some research.
“He was lying to you,” she declared.
“What do you mean?”
She turned the computer screen to face me. There on the screen was that smug little bastard, Mr Handsy.
That’s Ali Saad, fourth son of one of the minor princes. This was him last week at a party in Jeddah.
“He told me that the princes had disposed of him, and wished to make amends by giving contracts to the company.”
“It makes a lot more sense if the company was attempting to blackmail or buy a favor from Ali Saad’s daddy by making you, and the situation disappear.”
“That does sound more like the TransNat I’ve heard rumors about. What about my old boss?”
“No idea, but if he lied about this, then everything is probably a lie.” she said.
“I should have suggested he tell me more before he killed himself.”
She looked at me, like she wanted to ask, but decided not knowing was better.
I looked at the clock, and it was nearly eight.
“You work all night?” I asked her.
“Sometimes. My apartment is nearby. Where are you spending the night?”
“I’ve got a vacation rental at the coast.”
“How long?”
“I booked for a week, starting today.”
“Mind if I come join you this weekend?”
“If I’m around, sure, if not, I’ll send you the lock box code. Feel free to stay, just be out by noon on Sunday.”
“I’m sure I’ll have a ton of questions for you, what are the things you think I’ll need to do for you?” she asked.
“In addition to the lawsuit, I’m going to need a company to buy land and mineral rights around the world. One of my abilities is to look at a map and know where mineral resources are, how much, and what depth.”
“That’s potentially billions of dollars. Would you mine, or just prove the find and then sell?”
“Probably prove and then sell.”
“Less cash, but easier to do. So kind of a global prospecting firm. Headquartered anywhere specific?”
“Whatever will cost me the least in taxes. I have no burning desire to keep living in this country, I’ve spent enough time in places around the world to know people are people everywhere, and that wealth, not governments, will buy all the protection and safety you need.”
“I know this city has turned into something terrible in the last twenty years. The rest of the country is pretty much having the same problem I think.”
“Another thing, Marcham said TransNat would keep paying me my normal wage, including my routine earned overtime. I haven’t checked to see if that’s true, do you have a laptop I could borrow?”
She stepped out of the room, and came back with a dark red microsoft surface laptop, “It’s like six years old, you can have it if you want it.”
“I accept,” I told her, spending points to upgrade it to a newer version. When I was done I had a pinkish 13.5 inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 5.
I downloaded google chrome, and logged into my bank account, where I discovered there had been no automatic payments for three weeks. I showed her, but she was more interested in what I had done to the laptop.
“It only works on stuff I own, if it’s a device I can upgrade it to a newer version.”
“Here, I’m giving you my phone,” she said, handing me her iPhone.
“Thank you for the gift,” I said, winking at her. Then I upgraded it three times, and handed it back to her.
“Thank you for the gift,” she said, “This is an iPhone 14 Pro!”
“I don’t know what that means, I prefer Google phones.”
“It’s still got all my contacts and everything in it too!”
“Yeah, I like that feature of the upgrade ability. The OS upgrades, but it keeps all your data.”
“That’s a very cool ability. Thank you very much!”
“You could’ve just bought a new one with the cash cards I gave you.”
“Not as much fun as watching you frown at it, and make it change to a newer version.”
“I was frowning?” I asked.
She smiled, and nodded, then made a scrunched up face, and laughed.
I just smiled back at her. The various dials around her head showed that she was becoming a good friend.
“I’d love to buy an island somewhere to live on, and run my business empire from. Doesn’t have to be big, but would be helpful if it was mostly rock I think.”
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