The first onslaught

Nicole laughed easily and then smiled at him:"I have not a single clue how I could help you in this endeavor."

"Oh of course, but I know. You were born in Neapel right ? In Via Mianelli 21."

Nicole rose her eyebrow in surprise and answered a suspicious: "Yees?"

"You mother is Bianca Majano a woman of Neapel and your father had been a german manager with italian roots. They met during his vacation in italy. This means you are three quarter italian, what is obvious for everybody with a good perception, and a quarter german."

"How do you know all that?"

"I do good reaseach on people who I am going to trust serious tasks", then he continues:"How good is your network in Italy? Do you know lots of people there?"

"Indeed I had been quite well known for being a junior candidate for the Fratelli dÍtalia."

"And how is your relation to Mrs. Melani ?"

"I met her several times at party meetings in Rome and Milano. We got along quite well and she was very nice and strong person."

Nicole´s mind turned. He knew a lot about her political past. What if he had recruted her due to her past in Italy? She can´t even decide if this would be a good or a bad thing. But he had given her no finance tasks at all even though she had a master in this topic. There was much more going on then she anticipated.

Mr. Noxx went on talking:"Well thats a good thing, Mrs. Meloni is very useful and intelligent person. She will bring Italy to brighter times."

"Mr. Noxx, I am sorry, but I still have not understood how I can help you. I understand that my italian heritage is of use but how? What can I do for you?"

Mr. Noxx laid his hand on her arm. "I am telling you the mayor frame of the operation for you to understand the goal we are focussing on and in which context it will be situated."

"Yes, I see, please go on."

"Are you a religious person?"

"Religious person?"

"I mean do you practice the catholic faith?"

"No, my father did not allow my mother to put this papal catholicism on me. I was raised quite open minded and free. He wanted me to read and learn a lot until I decide what the truth it is about god."

"Thats good to hear, it may have made things difficult, even I think that you are very loyal and would have not dissapointed me anyways."

Nicole decided to not ask anymore but just look at him curiously. Mr. Noxx breathed in and said:"We are going to revive ancient roman religion. You will create the first and high temple of Venus in Frankfurt."

"The temple of Venus", she asked loud in surprise. "You want me to establish a temple of the goddess of lust?"

"Exactly, you are going to fill the spiritual and sexual void in our society. We are starting with the high temple here in Frankfurt. Once it is established you will go on and create more in Italy, France, Netherlands, Czechia, Sweden and so on. Funds are unlimited for this project. You will make it successful."

"I...I am surprised. Surprised and of course honored in such a way Mr. Noxx."

"You will be stripped of your daily business assignements, Lana will take care of them. You have one year. Next year on this day I want this temple to open it´s doors and a flood of people surrounding it and streaming into it. Mr. Leinenberger will assist you as much as you need help and if you have any strategic questions you may also come and ask me."

She stood up from her chair:"Thank you Mr. Noxx, I will immidiatly start this project."

Then she pushed her hand at her waist and looked at him with a keen face:"I think I have to work on myself now I am the founder of the cult of venus."

He laughed silently:"You embody her quite well, but you will need a woman to work as high priestess. Therefore I asked you about your connections. This will be a mayor task to find a suitable woman who yet believes in the goddess and in addition is able to embody the high priestess on terms of beauty, lust and authority. And she also has to be a virgin. Start with this search soon. Organizational stuff is easier to accomplish and takes less time then to find talents. Trust me."

Mr. Noxx also rised from his chair. "I expect your timelined project plan in two weeks. Make sure it contains the financial and human ressources needs. And remember Nicole - you do not build a luxury brothel. This gonna be a temple for the people to indulge in the divine feminity which is beauty, lust and caress. Mr. Leinenberg will organise it´s place in our structure. You can take the rest of the day off and think about all of this. Tomorrow you start your research. We will do whatever is necessary to establish this temple. Think big."

Nicole nodded in excitement and went three steps back looking at him:"You will not regret assigning me with this operation Mr. Noxx.", then turned around and walked with a fast pace to the door.

Marc went to his desk and took the envelope which nicole delivered to him. Inside was a list of companies which had been founded in the EU during the last week. It also described inside information from the ministry about shareholders in the back and the amount of equity used to start the business. He quickly scanned the list and stopped at a line quite down below. There was a note about the company New world investments which bought 30% of the shares of SBU. The SBU was a swiss bank consortium which had bought the swiss cash bank in an attempt to prevent its bancruptcy. The price had been ridiculously low but non the less it had damaged SBU stock market price too. SBU on it´s side hold a large security amount of shares of Mulando, the largest european online trader for fashion and articles of beauty and accessories. By their investment New world investments became the mayor decider behind the SBU. SBU stock market courses had stabilized and even turned to a new rise to former highs due to this large influx of equity. Marc took his tablet out of a drawer of his desk and typed in his password. After that he authorized himself also by fingerprint. He tabbed on an icon and a simple search bar opened. New world investments it was. He typed the name into the bar and tabbed search. After short while he got a screen with information. This Hongkong company was just founded 6 month ago with an insane equity of 700 million US Dollar. And its mayor shareholder was Shayla. Marc nodded and silently said:"Gotcha." Shayla was a large chinese online fashion trader. It produced its own brands by its tightly connected seweries. New items were thrown on the market daily. The quality was poor but the price extremely low and the brands quite on the trend. Shayla had reached a turnover of more then 10 Billions the last year. Mulando and other fashion traders had started a campaign against shayla, its bad working conditions, the poor quality of the items and the ruthless production conditions. Anyway young people bought more items from shayla via the internet then ever before. And now they have bought a large share of SBU which is the primary controler of Mulando. It was apparently to Marc that shayla was starting to take control over Mulando for maybe diffrent means. Marc had Shayla on his list for about 2 years now. It´s aggressive expansion course and large financial ressources made it obvious for him that they will become a problem sooner or later. "This not gonna happen that you take over european fashion market, Lin shao." Pushing in cheap brands from asia into the large Zalando network would destroy the european fashion brands and all kind of suppliers. It was absolutly necessary to prevent this to happen.

Marc had met Lin shao two times. Once when he hold a seminar for CEOs in HongKong. And the second time during the Milano fashion week. Like most chinese women he knew she was very polite and accurate. She smiled all the time and was very agreeable. She listened closly during his seminar and asked a lot of questions. She might be in her late thirties even she looked like mid twenties. She was totally unpredictable and normal people would never be able to judge her the right way. When she got asked about her business she humbly told she was doing kinds of clothes and fabrics. But she never mentioned that shed owned shayla by 100%. During the last years she had almost completly backwards integrated and owned or had a tight grip on all kind of suppliers. They worked exclusively for her and were all depended on her, if she did not own them anyways.

But even she had large financial ressources the investment in the SBU bank via the new world investments was a large amount. She could not take that lightly. Marc had witnessed her rise closly and now it was time to show her her borders.