63 Chapter 63:

"Good morning Samantha, I hope you are doing well."

"Yes, thank you, I simply wished to inform you that a deal was made with the Russians in regards to the Coalition."

"Good."

"They informed me that if you have any problems at school they would offer their support they said you would know who to call."

"Yes don't worry."

"Ok, goodbye."

"Bye."

Ace put down the phone, thinking over things, it had been five days since he had gone back to school, and he had finally gotten the phone call he was looking forward to. This had been dealt with, which was good since it meant that a major part of the Tower's income had been fixed in one swipe. Ace loosened his joints, after repeating the workout for a few days, had to say that it had worked. His joints ached even a few hours after the workouts, even with his enhanced body, he was probably pushing it too far, but he was seeing results fast. His overall joint flexibility was pretty good, but after repeating this for a week, it had noticeably improved. It focused on the shoulders and wrists mainly, but the hips were also a big part of that.

He could feel that they had become more lumber, and once he tried to go on the bars, he felt lighter, and his rotation range was increased by quite a bit, he could do routines that were hard on joints much better now, and only feel a small pain after. He was extremely happy, and for today, he was planning to stream and then he would see if he could do something fun.

He booted up his computer, and when he was about to load the game, an alert popped up on his PC. He clicked on it, it was supposedly a message, so he was interested as to what this could be. Once he opened it, he frowned his brows, it simply was a set of coordinates to a warehouse in the outer parts of the city. He inputted them into his phone, and used the Map Viewer to see the surrounding area. It seemed pretty simple, there was not much apart from the warehouses, but paranoia kicked in again.

He called his grandmother, but she did not pick up, therefore, he left a message with Veronica, she would read it fast and give him an answer even earlier. Then, he informed his security guards that he had been invited to a meet, they would go with him to make sure he was well. He was not stupid enough to go to some abandoned area on his lonesome, regardless of how 'cool' it would look.

After that, he tried to see if he could get any satellite imagery of that warehouse specifically, but for whatever reason, they were non-existent, that was the first suspicious thing, if he had more time, he would have told Bong and the others, but they wanted for him to come as soon as possible. After he had made as many preparations as he could, he took the car and had his chauffeur drive him there. A squad of his security guards were there, and what seemed like the man in charge informed him that the surroundings were clear.

Ace walked to the front door of the warehouse, his security guards following a few metres behind. A light went off next to the door, and a cracked voice came out: "Only he comes. Do not worry, we assure his security."

Ace looked at his guards and nodded, it should be ok now, it did not look like a trap, only suspicious as hell.

Ace went inside, it was a small corridor, and then they went diagonally, two metres and they went through another doorway. As they walked, Ace got more suspicious, this was not so much a warehouse as an easily-defensible compound. This was textbook defensive location stuff, at least from what he had read online. Not everyone would be able to build this under the eyes of pretty much everyone. They then went into an elevator, and at that point, Ace knew something was not right. You cannot just build some underground bunker, it doesn't matter who you are. Ace made a list in his mind of people that could and would build a bunker like this and as it got smaller and smaller, Ace knew this was not a normal housecall.

Unless his grandmother, number 1 on the list, wanted to meet him in such a weird manner, there were only a few other people or organisations that would be able to do this, and as the elevator opened to a big room, with the front wall covered by a standard with the American flag and an eagle, Ace knew that he was meeting with THE people.

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"Good morning, I am Mr Hengley, the Secretary Of Defense, and we would like to ask you some questions.", the man seemed kind, an amicable smile on his face, but Ace knew better, these guys had stepped over many corpses to get where they were, and they had not only done that but also hidden it from 330 million citizens. As soon as Ace realized where he was, his guard was up. His whole face now seemed dead, no emotion showing anywhere. His mind raced through various lessons he had been taught through the years, both from movies and TV shows to his grandmother.

"I am aware, although I am curious as to why such an esteemed character such as yourself would want to meet with a 14-year-old kid." The game had started, and Ace had to at least draw, which would give him some breathing room, where he could hopefully call his grandmother and get this sorted.

"You see, your grandmother is a very busy lady, but from what I understand, she trusts your word, a lot. Therefore, we decided that the best way to do this was to contact you."

"Well, thank you for not kidnapping me.", here, he references pretty much every single movie, where a guy gets kidnapped by the government because they want to 'talk' with him.

The man smiled, not yet in a threatening way, he still thought he had control of the situation. "Of course, I wish for no bad blood between us. As for why we wished to meet you, I am sure you are aware. Your mother is building a Tower, as I am sure you are aware. We, the United States Of America, wish to offer her a proposition.", he motioned with his hand, as if to demonstrate the grandeur of his offer. Ace nodded, and the man took this as a sign to continue, "Well, I am sure you have seen the blueprints...", this was a clear prod for information, to see how much his grandmother trusted him, Ace showed no emotion, and the man let out a small laugh."We have done some calculations, and we have realised that the Tower is perfect for a little project we are working on."

'F*uck, what the hell did I get into? First every mob in the world, and now the government?', Ace let out a mental sigh, waiting for the man to go on, not showing even a hint of excitement on his face. The man was beginning to get frustrated, the corners of his eyes were getting bloodshot, and his mouth was quivering slightly, he was attempting to keep that frustration in check and not explode. Ace commended him for what was probably a futile effort, he would crack before this was over.

"We have theorised that the Tower's diameter and circumference would be large enough to bolster one of our projects.", the man waited to see if Ace caught on, he had done so a while ago, but he gave no signs of it, the quivering got worse. "We wish to use the Tower as a launching pad for spacecraft."

Ace gave no reactions regardless, but inside, he had been freaking out for over half a minute, 'God d*ammit, first, the mob wants to make money, but now, it will be part of the space race? Sh*t grandma, what the hell are you doing. The size of the Tower was not chosen by luck, it maximised strength and space, but it seemed that his grandmother had also considered other parts of future profit-making deals, and if she was playing part in the next space race, this was not going to be a small profit.

The man had no more to say, and was waiting for a reaction, but he got none, and when that happened, he finally cracked, "You understand what this means, kid? Do you think we will be the only ones? The others, however, will not be as nice, the Russians will torture you if needed. You understand that, kid?"

At this, Ace let out a small smile, one only the secretary could catch, then, he stood up from his chair and said "We are done here.", and left the room.

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Normally, Ace would be worried, but at this point, it was useless. Most countries, or at least the ones were the government was considered 'dangerous', would not do anything. This was because the mob of the respective country controlled too much power, and they would never allow anyone to harm their future profit. Everyone was going to get a cut of the cake, however, his grandmother would be the one deciding how big one's cut was.

This meant that countries such as Russia, where the mob was the government, [A/N: Plz this is a fiction do not come to my house and kill me.] would not attempt anything. This made Ace feel relatively safe, however, there was one flaw in the plan, the USA. There was nothing they could do about the building themselves, it was on a private island, but they would be able to control the airspace, and they would probably never sell it to anyone, not when it gave them so much power. This meant, that their main focus should now be to purge the Government's influence from their island.

His grandmother knew that, but this meeting would likely speed up the process. Things were moving quickly, and they had to stay ahead of the wave.