Chapter 29

Having made my choice, I could only watch as the Tala situation slowly developed. On Sunday we all went out to see some of the sights I hadn’t gotten to in Manila and the surrounding area, and Tala, while not outwardly flirty, had dressed more revealingly than usual and made an effort to stay close to me and touch my arms as much as she could excuse.

The other three went along with it as I’d asked them, insisting that we just let Luz keep her promise to Tala and that would be that. I was unsure Tala would keep to it myself, but I was sure that if she didn’t, it would take a while for her to act outside the set boundaries if I enforced them myself.

I didn’t need to in this instance, and through the course of the day the girls stopped cringing at the consequences of their actions and started having fun. It just took them a while to realize that I could, if reluctantly, handle it. So long as they didn’t make it worse again.

And so it went over the week as well. On Monday, we had another meeting about the Supplier Open Challenge, as marketing had decided to call it. It was mostly a rubber stamp sort of thing. Roberts was still put off. Johanson was getting the site ready and Mendoza was set to meet with representatives and politicians to sell them on it.

On Thursday, I met with Mendoza and found out that the reception to the plan had gone over better than expected. By him, anyway. It had gone exactly as planned on that account. Mrs. Gallardo had connections. Among the things I’d asked for help with was greasing the wheels with the necessary national officials. Hopefully there would be no need for her to do the second thing I asked for.

Luzon Chemical was not happy, to say the least, but given the way we presented it, they couldn’t raise a fuss without looking anti-competitive and corrupt. Our three other competitors—Cebu Synthesis Solutions, Archipelago Reagents, and Dela Cruz Industrial—were over the moon. These three were the only ones that passed muster and might be able to supply enough for our needs in the short term as they scale for a permanent contract.

Representatives for the four companies would be present during the competition week, and I was planning on probing all of them for answers. Especially whoever Luzon Chemical sent. If they were being cheated, they might know something useful.

I was also meeting with a selection of important personages on the side, to shore up my current political deficiencies. I didn’t expect most of these to have much immediate effect, but one in particular, a journalist named Gallo, might prove to be my ace in the hole, depending on how things went.

Other than that, I kept Tala working on internal audits, while Paz was focusing on studying the chemical processes used to treat silicon when making microchips.

There honestly wasn’t enough time to prepare. We’d be going in half-cocked to what I was sure was going to be a hell of a clusterfuck. Hopefully I was just paranoid and everything went fine. Private security would continue to shadow Paz and Mayu, and my detectives would continue to look into the finances of the most likely suspects.

So far, nothing too unexpected was found. Roberts had some suspicious deposits, but nothing to really nail him with. I eventually decided to have them look into the other chiefs as well, just to make sure.

Tala, meanwhile, continued acting professionally in the office throughout the week. I was most afraid that she would slip and do something she really shouldn’t, but other than keeping her appearance tidier and a few blushes whenever we accidentally touched, nothing changed.