chapter 62

"Pepper.. hey pepper slow down, would you?" Tony grumbled while walking a bit faster to catch Pepper Potts.

"We don't have time in our hands right now. Board of directors meeting is about to begin.", Pepper complained while getting in the car.

"Come on, do you think they can start the meeting without me? Heh, now that everyone is talking about Iron Man I am the biggest asset for the company. Our shares have skyrocketed to their peak because of my goodwill. They cannot ignore me.", Tony assured her while taking a bite from an apple that he picked up on the way.

"*sigh* When will you learn to accept your responsibilities? All you do is party around and I have to clean up the mess that you leave behind. Do you know how tough it is for me to devote my precious time to the company?", She took deep breaths in anger.

Tony leaned back from her momentum as he tried to pacify her to no avail.

"Okay okay let's go fine. Just back off a bit. You are suffocating me.", He hastily whispered.

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"Good morning, sir.", People greeted Tony as they walked toward the meeting hall.

"You need to be prepared, Tony. Stane had controlled the Board for a long time as the CEO of the company. You might be the son of the founder but the directors would try their very best to control your powers.", Pepper warned him and waited until he nodded back at her before she opened the door of the hall.

Inside the room were a bunch of people sitting on chairs around a long table. The room was decorated with expensive paintings and furniture. One side of the wall was made of bullet proof transparent glass that displayed an awe inspiring scenery of new york city.

"Good morning everyone." Pepper nodded at everyone as she led Tony to one of the seats reserved for him.

Everyone looked at them with a weird look in their eyes as they suspiciously glanced at each other.

"What happened? Why are you looking at us like that?", Tony asked, noticing the weird atmosphere in the room.

"It seems you haven't seen it yet.", One of them said with interest.

"Seen what?", Pepper asked.

"This", He picked up a remote and pressed a button. There was a hologram projector in the middle of the table they were sitting around. As soon as he pressed the button, the projector started playing live broadcast from an economical news channel.

{ "Who is this person? Until an hour ago, we knew nothing about him and suddenly we were told that at the moment he owns 27% equity shares of Stark industries as well as 7% of El enterprise shares.", The female reporter informed her viewers before addressing her co-host.

"What do you think, David?", she asked as she turned to him.

"Well, Rita. I am practically speechless right now. The world of stock market is currently watching this play out with wary eyes. It was not a long time ago when Mr. Tony Stark admitted to the claims that said that he is Iron man which rejuvenated the shares of his company at a speed never seen before" Rita kept nodding as he spoke.

"And today we learn about the identity of this mysterious young man that secretly bought shares of Stark industries while they were down with the help of many offshore shell companies before consolidating them together and announcing to the public this early morning." He narrated with a charming voice.

"How is he able to afford to buy them? Even though they were worth a lot less than now, they were still quite expensive to purchase. Where did he get the money for that?" Rita asked the question that many of their viewers had in mind.

"That's where the 7% shares of El enterprise came into play. As we all know, El enterprise is the leading giant in almost every field of industry in today's day and age. From health to infrastructure and auto-mobiles. Their products and services are best in a majority of the departments that they invest into. Their shares are known as evergreen shares in the industry, something that will not be affected by world affairs which makes their shares much more valuable than the shares of Stark Industries which mainly operate in selling arms business. Unless there is a war, there is no point in buying their shares at high value."

"Do you understand until now?", He asked her and she nodded.

"According to the sources, it is believed that this person owned 7% percent of El enterprise shares from the time when it had just started to grow under the leadership of Ms. Serena. At that time, She miraculously received aid in liquid funds from the middle east petroleum giants. At that time it made no sense on how she was able to gain funds from them. Now we know why. This young man somehow convinced them to provide funds to her and received the shares in exchange for that according to the memo released by El enterprise moments after it was revealed that he owns 7% shares in their company." David explained before turning to the screen.

"After the break, we will be asking our panelists how he was able to remain in the dark for so long. Is there some conspiracy involved that we are not aware of?" Rita said. }

The man then closed the projector.

Silence roamed the room for a while.

"Why are we only learning about this now??" Tony quietly asked.

"We were practically ambushed. He was really careful in hiding what was happening until the last moment. If you were here, you might have found out about it but sadly it happened when you were busy trying to survive from afghani terrorists.", A female Board member explained.

"This still does not make any sense. There are not enough shares in the public market for him to amass that percentage without anyone knowing. It would have raised the value of the shares if someone was willing to buy shares at such a large amount." Pepper shook her head in dismay.

"Of course it does not. You have Obadiah to blame for that. He owned the second largest percentage of shares after Tony and chose to sell them all to this person secretly for political support." A member explained.

"What do you mean?", Tony asked with a serious face.

"This man has some sort of serious leverage over rulers of many middle eastern countries. The Middle East has been a problem for our nation since decades. He brought the shares from Obadiah in exchange for providing him a presidential pardon from the white house. The president is quite satisfied with this man as he played a major part in signing the new peace treaty with Iran. They even surrendered the terrorist responsible for 9/11 attacks that were hiding in Iran at that time.", One of the secretary of a board member added.

"Where is he now?"

"He fled the country as soon as he was pardoned. But he is the least of your worries right now, Tony." Another member coldly said.

"You have a bigger problem in your hands. The man is not alone. El enterprise announced that they now own 11% of our equity shares flowing in the market. Combined, they have 38% of shares of the company. You only own 33%. They are legally capable of starting a hostile takeover. We all are in serious jeopardy right now.", He coldly remarked.

Not only Tony was in trouble, if a hostile takeover took place all the board members might have to resign which was why they were not hostile with Tony at the moment. The enemy of an enemy was a friend of yours.

"Okay. Give me a few seconds to process all of this.", Tony said sitting down on his seat with his head in his arms.

"Just when i thought about resting", He sighed, "Okay, did they already approach us with their demands?"

"Right on money. They already have.", One of the members nodded satisfied with him before passing a few papers to him.

"Thank god they did not choose for an all out economical war.", Pepper sighed in relief knowing that they could not afford to fight with them at this moment.

"So they are asking for 2 seats at the board for directors. They also demand that someone responsible step up as the CEO instead of Tony Stark.", Tony read the papers before glancing at Pepper.

"They are more benevolent than I thought they would be.", Pepper muttered after listening to their conditions.

"To the company, yes but to me, not so much. They practically blocked all the company's assets to me by imposing sanctions.", Tony grumbled and complained.

"I see it as a good thing. Now you won't be able to spend company's funds on things that garner your interest at some casino or auction. It would make my job a lot easier.", Pepper joyfully remarked.

"Whose side are you on?", Tony looked at her with a betrayed look and Pepper averted her eyes from him.

"How much do we know about him as of yet.", Tony turned to everyone while tasking Jarvis to investigate him via his phone.

"Not much. Stealth seems to be his prime talent but EI enterprise is hosting a dinner tonight to celebrate the success of their medicinal drugs released this year. You are invited too. With how everyone is talking about this man as of yet, that seems like the perfect place for him to make his official appearance as one of the top 500 richest persons on the planet.", The most senior director told him and Tony nodded.

"Prepare a dress for yourself, Pepper. It seems tonight we would be attending a party.", Tony curtly said before the meeting ended.