Muggle Businessmen

Friday, 3 PM, on the top floor of a glass and steel office building.

There's a cleanly shaven slender man with silver hair on his temples sitting in a large leather chair behind a solid oak desk. There was a small stack of papers on his left and right-hand side, and one document, spanning over multiple pages, stapled together by a corner. There was a phone on the far-right of his desk.

He was halfway through the document when the phone rang.

He picked up the phone and said: "Hello. This is John Lintmann."

A male voice from the phone said: "Mr Lintmann, four new companies were established a few ago by one person. The total starting capital for three of them was over two million pounds. Three of them were established with one Charles Vywin as the sole owner. The thing that caught my attention was that they seem to be taking away the business from the companies that have reached an agreement with the group."

John perked up at that. He inquired: "What type of companies are they?"

The voice reported: "A mining company, a construction company and a logistics company. The last one was a cleaning company made in the name of one Ronald Cortshutt."

John seemed to think for a bit before asking: "What do you have on that Charles Vywin?"

"All we have on him is that he's from the United States and apparently earned the money as lottery winnings. He doesn't seem to own any property in England. The only known contact is the lawyer.", the voice reported.

"Look into that Charles Vywin. Put a tail on the lawyer if you have to.", John commanded.

He had been hoping all he'd have to do was going over the paperwork and giving a few signatures, but it turned out that some new guy just decided to fast-track it into the big leagues. Such people would make anyone feel uncomfortable.

He said to the phone: "Let me know if anything else turns up or if you can dig up some dirt on that Vywin person." He then pressed the disconnect button and started dialing a new number.

After a few rings, it was picked up.

"Hello, Mr Tygrett. This is John Lintmann speaking. I just got a call of one Charles Vywin making a big entrance with over two million pounds invested. I believe it's a good enough reason to call a meeting."

"I am aware.", came the voice from the other end. "The meeting is scheduled to start on Saturday at 6 PM."

John had known for a long time that he wasn't the only one with a man inside, now it even turned out that his man wasn't as efficient as some others.

"In that case, I apologize for disturbing you. Have a good afternoon.", John said and waited for the other party to respond, then ended the call.

He pushed another button on the phone. Once he heard it being picked up, he spoke: "Sandy, cancel anything I have on Saturday after 5 PM."

"But it's your wife's…"

"Cancel it. I'll make it up to her. In fact, order a bunch of whatever her favorite flowers are and have them delivered with a generic apology for me being busy on business. Just make sure it looks good."

"Understood, red lilies, with apology note for being absent on business."

"Exactly. That's what I pay you for. Once you're done, lock the front door and come over to my office. I think a bonus is in order for you."

John returned to working on the stack of papers until 4 PM. The tedium was alleviated by a very sexy secretary showing him that she was worth every penny of that bonus.

Once he was done, he went to look for Jack from accounting. Jack was a man with a bear-like stature, but he was a decent golf player and a good drinking buddy. The best part about Jack was that he could get premium quality Cuban cigars somehow.

John spent the early part of Saturday playing golf with Jack. He made the first hole in five strikes while Jack did it in just three. They got a draw of six strikes on the second hole.

On the third hole, they spent half an hour in a steep sand bunker. Jack managed to break two sand wedges in that time, the man had just too much raw strength.

John ended up getting his ball out on the twenty-first try. They had drunk two bottles of beer while trying to get their balls out of the sand. Jack had decided to give up on that hole. They had moved through the entire course by 5 PM, when John took his leave to shower, have a light meal and had the driver take him to the mansion of George Tygrett.

Half an hour later, he was on Tygrett's driveway. The thing was half a mile long, with tall hedges on both sides.

About 20 years ago, George had been the first to propose the group, and for a good reason, he was one of the few billionaires at the time, from old money too. Back then it had been just Tygrett, him and Carl. Over the years, they had invited more capable businessmen to join in, and those that didn't make the cut or refused had ended up going bankrupt or disappearing.

John kept going over his business reports, it was better to be over-prepared. One of the group had been kicked out for failing to report that he was struggling with debt after a bad investment. While that wouldn't affect the rest too much, it put the group into a heightened risk of exposure, since they all had dealings with the man.

It had taken months to scrub all the paper trails leading to them. After that, they had given a call to Ajax. He was the best at making people disappear or reappear, depending on the group's needs. Of course, those that he made disappear, weren't going to reappear anymore. Ajax was also very good at doing the same to information. He had made his entire fortune with his skills of handling people and information.

After a moment of cruising along the driveway, the car stopped behind tall cast iron gates that started opening. Soon after, the car came to a stop in a small parking lot where he saw five other cars already present, with the drivers smoking and having a talk amongst themselves.

"Alright, Bob, take a breather. This might take a while.", he said to the driver.

John then climbed up the tall stairs, in through the door, took a left and went up another set of stairs, to the first-floor meeting room.

George, Ajax, Carl, Howard and Earl were already sitting in the meeting room, sipping on cocktails.

"Have a seat, John.", George spoke.

John did exactly that and a mojito with extra mint was soon delivered to him by what could be either George's mistress or maid, maybe both. She was just too young to be his wife.

Ten or so minutes later, all the seats in the room were taken. George was sitting at the head of the table, with five people on one side and four on the other.

Arthur, Richard, Kenneth and Herbert had made it just in time.

"Give me the highlights of your business, John.", George said.

John may have been among the founders, but he still got occasional quizzes like that. The group's rules were made for following, after all.

"I've made two hundred and fourty-three thousand in profits since the last meeting. I've managed to cinch a deal with the Italians on exports. I'm currently working on expanding in Venezuela and Canada."

"I'm happy to hear you're doing well. The rest of you, try to not step on the man's toes too much.", George said with a chuckle.

"Now we go to the reason we've gathered here. As you all know, a man named Charles Vywin has come out of godforsaken nowhere and decided it was a good idea to set up a few businesses up in our country without consulting anyone that knows better.

So far, he's set up three confirmed companies: Vywin mountain works, Vywin logistics and Vywin construction.

The man certainly likes his own last name on everything more than is healthy.

Today, everyone can put up an idea on how to deal with him and it goes to voting. Let's get started."

"I think we should just wait a few months and see what he'll do in that time, then we can tell if he's going to be a hindrance or help to our efforts.", a man with half a head of salt and pepper brown hair spoke.

"I disagree with Earl. I think we should send feelers out to him immediately and invite him for a lunch to get an idea about his goals.", a man with thick-rimmed glasses and a bushy mustache spoke up next.

"I'm with Earl.", said a man with a nose that was crooked to the right, judging by his body shape, most likely an old boxing injury.

"I'm with Herbert.", a man with a bald spot on the back of his head and hair combed over it spoke.

"He seems way too suspicious. We should just put a bullet in him and take over his assets.", a man with a slightly gaunt face and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth said. He hadn't stopped smoking ever since he had entered the room.

"Calm down, Kenneth. Those times are over, we should try a more peaceful approach first.", George reprimanded.

"I agree with Earl as well", said a man with red hair and a mighty curly beard that reached down to his chest.

"I'm with Herbert", said a man with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was giving the stinkeye to the one who had spoken before him.

"What about you, Ajax?", George asked.

"Don't get me involved, I'm here to observe and clean up if you go overboard.", said a man that wore sunglasses, and a turtleneck that was currently covering his face up to his nose, the other half being covered by his wild hair that looked dead, like a toupee.

"Looks like it's up to you to break the tie, John.", George then said.

Jon was now in front of a dilemma. While George had told the rest to not step on his toes too much, that too much wasn't actually specified, so they could still give him hard time while not making his expansion a complete failure.

Earl was mostly into oil, so he wouldn't have the connections to hinder him too much, except maybe in logistics. Meanwhile, Herbert liked to make investments here and there, if he felt for some reason that the enterprise would be successful. His investments were one of the things that had driven their opponents into bankruptcy.

The trouble with Herbert was that John didn't like his exact approach too much. It would expose the group too much if done incorrectly and he ended up refusing the offer.

John came to a decision and spoke: "While Herbert's idea has merit for a few reasons, Earl's approach is more immediately applicable. I think we should not approach Mr Vywin directly for the time being, but instead the lawyer that set everything up. That lawyer should be well connected to him if he entrusted them with the setting up of his companies."

"I object.", Herbert spoke. "That lawyer is a woman, and a young one at that. There's no way in hell she's capable of keeping up with what our man would be discussing with her."

"I didn't know that.", John said. "This certainly flips the board, so to speak. "In that case, we should just tail the lawyer and find Mr Vywin like that."

"Ever the diplomat, John.", Ajax commented. "Too bad I didn't get a contract with your name on it today.", he finished.

John had never liked Ajax's sense of humor. The man had singled him out for the second time in the past three meetings.

"Alright, that takes care of this matter. I also have an announcement to make. A Boeing 737 flying out of New York Airport on the 25th of July. Keep your people off it. It's the reschedule of the one that was originally scheduled in May and failed."

Ajax said: "You know my number if this one goes to the dogs."

"That's all. You're dismissed until the next regular meeting, unless something comes up.", George said, taking out a cigarette.

Kenneth took out a lighter and offered him fire.

They all started making their way out of the meeting room.