Reversal

130 Negotiate

Waiting for 3 minutes, Christian saw the last person arrive.

'The most troublesome one arrived...' Looking at the woman smiling calmly, Christian thought.

Envy is a considerably beautiful woman.

Her skin is pale, honey-colored eyes, long black hair, a decent body with some D-cup breasts, and a beautiful ass, all accompanied by a height of 179 centimeters.

Unfortunately, on her smiling face Christian saw a dangerous snake. That's why she was the last person he sent for, knowing that with the woman, he will need time to understand her and know to what extent he has to worry.

"Envy, please sit down"

Nodding, the woman sat silently across from Christian, staring at him as she brought her knuckles to her cheek to rest her head.

"Envy, no doubt you are the most troublesome" Without going with lies, Christian spoke with a neutral expression.

"Don't you think it's rude to say it up front?" Undeterred, Envy replied.

"It would be ruder to speak to you with a smile when clearly in my mind I think something different"

"..."

Staring at each other for a few seconds, Christian finally asks "What do you want? Was it that important for you to be the leader of that team?"

"That woman was stupid, she didn't deserve to be the leader" With a neutral expression, Envy replied.

"And who deserved it? You?"

"I was the fittest" Envy nodded remorselessly.

"And being the fittest was justification enough to eliminate the competition?"

"..." Refusing to answer, Envy simply looked at Christian in silence for a few seconds, then said, "I don't know what kind of contacts you have to be a Sergeant with your young age, but I recommend you to get out of this place, because these people have no mercy, at best you end up dead"

"And at worst?" feeling amused by the threat, Christian asked.

Smiling slightly, Envy replied "You don't want to know"

Laughing lightly, Christian asked "Do you have family?"

"..." Losing her smile, Envy looked at Christian coldly.

"I don't want to threaten you, that's beneath me, if I have conflict with someone, I won't be involving people who have nothing to do with it"

"Then why do you ask?"

"I asked all the others this question, I want to know about you"

"I have no family, I'm an orphan"

"You're lying"

"Why would I lie?" Frowning, Envy replied.

"I don't know, you tell me"

"..."

"Envy, don't make this all so tense, if I wanted to know about your family to threaten you, I could have searched the army records, even if it's not there, I could have found out in a thousand different ways, I just want to know about you and that's it"

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because unlike you, I don't play hide-and-seek while waiting for what I want to happen. If I want something, I take it head on"

"..." Without losing her calm, Envy was silent for a few seconds, then spoke as if nothing "I have 3 sisters, I live with my parents"

"You're not the oldest, are you?"

"No, I'm the second oldest"

'Maybe... you feel the need to prove something? 'It's always said that the middle children are the most forgotten' Christian thought, then asked "Do you get along with all your sisters?"

"You could say so, yes"

'She's lying' Smiling inside his mind, Christian continued "What does your older sister do?"

"She's a doctor"

"Hoh, and she's doing well?"

"I guess, she opened her own clinic"

"And your younger sisters what do they do?"

"The younger one is still studying at school, while the other one is at university studying to be a lawyer"

"Your parents, what do they do?"

"My mother is a lawyer and my father is a teacher"

"I see... and you studied something?"

"No, I preferred the army"

'So you want to prove you're up to par.... you fit the nickname Envy'

"Do you plan to stay in the army all your life?"

"I don't know"

"I see... Envy, I'll tell you what I think of you to your face, would you mind hearing it?"

"Just talk" With a neutral look, Envy replied.

"I think you really resent your family, maybe they forgot you when your other sisters were born, you're jealous that they don't give you as much attention, and now you're urged to be the team leader to prove that you're capable, am I wrong?"

With a dark face, Envy whispered "Watch your words"

"But from your face I see it's true, even if you have good emotional intelligence and can hide your true thoughts, you don't have enough experience or training to hide them from me. Besides when they touch your weak point, you lose control instantly, maybe dealing with normal people is a simple thing for you, but you falter with people who really know about these things"

"..." Frowning slightly, Envy looked at Christian with narrowed eyes.

"Don't try to threaten me or pressure me, it won't do" Waving his hand lazily, Christian continued "But I don't really judge you, maybe I abhor the way you act a bit, but I think I understand you... this being so empathetic can be a pain in the ass"

"..."

"Envy, I'll make you a deal"

"What?"

"I'll get out of the army after a year, honestly I'm not interested in being in this position... I ask you to serve a year under my command, and I promise that when the year is over, you will have the rank of non-commissioned officer"

"..."

"Think about it, today you are a simple soldier, they were even about to expel you from the army for your actions. I am giving you the opportunity to stay here and at the same time, climb three ranks in one year"

"How can I know that you will keep up your end of the deal?"

"If you want to, I can sign a contract"

"And if you don't keep your word?"

"I'll give you 5 million dollars"

"We'll make the contract simple and sign it right now"

"Do you have any paper?"

"I'll get paper" Getting up from her seat, Envy narrowed her eyes at Christian for a few seconds and then walked out.

"What a troublesome woman" Sighing, Christian waited in silence.

After 10 minutes, Envy arrived with several pieces of paper in hand.

Sitting down next to Christian, Envy put the papers on the table and set a pen aside.

"Ok, we'll make the contract simple" Taking the paper, Christian started to write while saying out loud "I, Christian Grey, agree to pay Samantha Carter, $5 million if she does not attain the rank of non-commissioned officer within one year, whereas Samantha, will carry out all orders set forth by me, without in any way hindering my leadership in the military"

"..." Looking at the writing, Envy remained silent.

"Are you okay with the wording? I was straightforward and it doesn't have any verbal traps"

"It's fine" Envy nodded, then taking the pen and signing it.

"It's my turn" Smiling slightly, Christian takes the pen and signs, then turns and asks "Happy?"

"No, we'll make more copies, you sign these papers too" Passing 10 sheets to Christian, Envy spoke seriously.

"As you wish" Shrugging his shoulders, Christian spent the next 15 minutes signing them, then sighed and said "Done"

"Two copies are yours, the others I'll keep" Leaving the papers to Christian, Envy said "I'll honor our deal, you only have one year"

"I don't need any more, now go tidy up your things, I'll go talk to the Major"

Nodding, Envy takes the papers and pen, then leaves silently.

Staring at the door for a few minutes, Christian finally smiles "For a lawyer's daughter, she doesn't know much about the legal stuff... those contracts aren't valid, she needs a witness and they are done with a notary, but it's okay.... I should get to that rank after a few successful missions"

Getting up, Christian stretches his muscles and sighs "It's going to be a tough year"

...

Wednesday, July 27, 2017.

"So you were in a meeting?" Christian asks, sitting down in the room where he had spoken to his team one on one.

"Yeah, we're having some issues with Twitch"

"But it's 07:30 in the morning, what's so important to need a meeting at this hour?"

"We have a competitor who is stealing our stars"

"..." Frowning, Christian asked "Mixer?"

"How do you know them?"

"Aunt Sara told me about him" Christian lied.

"*Sigh* Yeah, that's them, they took away 4 stars from us that had millions of followers"

"How long ago was it?"

"They signed the contract a few hours ago"

"What advantage does Mixer have?"

"We have a very high transmission delay, it's 15 seconds delay... plus people don't give a lot of money to content creators"

"..." Remembering all the previous events, Christian thought 'In the past Twitch beat Mixer, but because it was first and also Amazon was giving away subscriptions, that genre that people took more taste to donate to creators, something that became very normal in the future... it's something that was not very common before, we don't have that advantage... plus there's the problem of streaming lag, I can't help it improve and we've lost Emily'

"Mom, with the Starbucks app we're giving away a coffee every time you join, right?"

"Yes"

"What's the traffic we have on Twitch?"

"18 million users a day"

"And mixed?"

"20 million a month"

'We have a clear advantage... but that can be lost' Thinking for a few minutes, Christian said "Mom, get them to work on improving the lag issue, plus we'll make some monetary sacrifices"

Knowing that her child is never wrong about business, Eva asked "What are the sacrifices about?"

"Every person who has had a Discord account for more than a year will have a free subscription on Twitch for 2 months, but only with channels that have more than two months' worth of content and we will have to make sure they upload content to prevent them from using the subscription on empty accounts used to make money. This will only be a one-time promotion and they will have a period of one month to redeem it"

"..." Being silent for a few seconds, Eva finished muttering "That will make people disregard the stars that left, they will have free subscriptions and will be dedicated to Twitch without giving relevance to Mixed at least for a while... plus the content creators will earn a lot of money and it's unlikely they will leave... it's a lot of money lost, approximately 200 million dollars, but it would be worth it if everything goes well..."

"Besides we would create a habit among users, people will end up getting used to the subscription, after all, on the page the important thing is the audience, not the content creators... not to mention that it would give us an important growth period in Discord. More people would register just for the possibility that we will do the same again at some point. That calls for more advertising and along with that, more money" Christian added.

"Well, that's a good idea" Eva nodded, then sighed "We'd just have to sort out the transmission delay-"

"Mom?" Noticing that the woman cut her words short, Christian asked with concern "Are you okay?"

"My computer screen went black..."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Christian asked "Can't you see anything?"

"No... wait, now a smiling face appeared... I'll call the company's technician"

"No... wait a bit" Christian spoke with a frown "Tell me what else is going on?"

"He disappeared..."

"..." Still frowning, Christian asked "Is that the computer you use in your office?"

"Yes..."

'That computer must be secured by the company's IT guys... that smiling face... Emily maybe?' Thinking for a few seconds, Christian asked "Do you have any new folders on your computer?"

"Let me look..."

Silently, Christian waited for a minute until his mother spoke.

"Yes, I have a new folder on my desktop, I haven't seen it before..." Eva spoke with concern.

"Open it"

"Sure? It might have viruses..."

"They already got into your computer, just open it"

"Ok... ready... it has a lot of folders inside. I don't understand them"

"Do you have any notes or words?"

"It has a Notepad file in it"

"Open it and tell me what it says"

"Well... let's see... it just says 2.3 seconds delay, unpatented... accompanied with a heart"

Relaxing his face, Christian sighed with a smile on his face "The last problem has been solved"