The Traps of Black Swan

Elder Harmon didn't know who the young man was. If there was Dylan, he would have filled him up. So he glanced at the secretaries. A young lady, Emma, went forwards and gave a brief introduction. "Chairman Harmon, He is Martin Parker. Mr. Parker's youngest son."

The Parker family has domestic and international airlines. Mr. Parker was the third-largest shareholder of Harmon Industries. It wasn't the first time they tried to covet the CEO position. Instead of building another company or expanding their airlines, they were eyeing some top companies to acquire. They had a lot of money to waste.

Leon always handled their sneaky activity. This time, Martin didn't look like he was being sneaky. He was confident that he could solve the whole issue with the money. Leon wasn't sure who he should curse, Aarvi or the Parker family or Martin.

Elder Harmon's eyes slightly widened but he held his composition, hiding his nervousness. He had noticed that Mr. Parker was absent from the meeting but didn't expect they were waiting to seize the company.

Martin Parker, the most eligible bachelor but he hardly stays in the country. Born and grew up in a different country, his education and lifestyle weren't only different, but posh. If some admire his expensive suit, others would think he was showing off, being overly polished. Well, Martin didn't care.

He was slightly pissed off for skipping his vacation and flying to Mocon overnight, just to show his face and take down the company.

His eyes landed on the old man but paused. Somebody else caught his attention and his gaze shifted. He saw a person at the opposite end of the table, relaxing on the swivel chair with a hat on the face. Considering the build, 'A lady?'

Everyone followed his line of sight. Before they could wake that person up, they heard a man's voice, "We are sorry to be late for the meeting." It was a man next to Martin. The latter had to peel his eyes away from the delicate, curled rose petal-like earlobe under the black hat.

He stretched his long legs and walked towards Elder Harmon, ignoring the middle-aged man who was grinning unnecessarily, just because he served him in a small work.

He extended his hand at Elder Harmon, His voice was toned when he greeted, "Chairman Harmon, Martin Parker here."

Elder Harmon looked at the handsome face of the man. Not every good-looking face has a good personality. Elder Harmon wanted to see how scheming this man could be.

He nodded in response to the greeting, "We have just concluded the meeting, Mr. Martin." He started the fact.

Martin didn't leave the old man's hand. He cued Elder Harmon to have a seat. He only left his hand when Elder Harmon was comfortable on the chair. Turning around, his eyes brushed on Leon before facing all the confused shareholders.

His deep, and curt voice resounded in the hall, "Please take your seats. I won't take a long time." Against his words, he sounded authoritative and unyielding.

As though puppets controlled, everyone sat down and Martin's eyes again fell at the other end of the table. People might think the person was lazy and dozed off in a meeting but Martin knew it wasn't the case. He was curious to see the face behind the hat but kept his curiosity to himself. He thought to check when he will conclude the meeting.

Little did he know, the same person was going to shut the doors of his dreams.

"Pardon me for being late. Could somebody brief me how the meeting was concluded?" He appeared like he wasn't going to take no as a response.

The middle-aged man hurriedly stood up and briefed everything in less than a minute. "Thank you, mister." Martin didn't bat an eyelid.

He flicked his fingers and his assistants quickly went on either side and started placing a file in front of everyone. Martin took a file and personally handed it to Chairman Harmon. His father had stressed him twice to treat the old man cordially. He could only be this warm to the old man.

Once the files were given, he cued everyone to read and he spoke. "The Cornbell project. The most anticipated project of the company. A few good words would never erase the awful administration and decision-making team." He taunted Leon, "Even if Mr. Cornbell was hiding it, the team just needed to do was ask around the factory. Of course, they failed to do so." He stated the fact.

The shareholders read the file which had the brief of the Cornbell project. It also had reports on the amount of investment from Harmon Industries and the transfer funds details. With it, what caught their attention was Cornbell's account details. The amount was withdrawn immediately after payment in three funds. The shareholders could guess, President Cornbell meticulously hid his location after drawing all the money.

Martin paused to let them understand it. He slowly walked around the shareholders with his attention on the lady with the black hat.

"So how are you expecting the same team to deal with the person who is well hidden somewhere with all the money?" Martin questioned the shareholders.

When he got closer to the lady, his hand itched to lift the hat but the person next to that lady shot daggers at him. It was a silent warning to Martin to step away. It didn't irritate Martin. He was intrigued and wished to see the lady before leaving the meeting hall.

The shareholders slowly started to incline to the opinions of Martin. They were like dumb sheep. If one takes a lead and if they would get money, they would follow them blindly.

Leon spoke when Martin was making his way towards the head of the table, "Defeat is when you never give it a try." He countered through his teeth understanding where Martin was coming from.

The shareholder attention shifted from Martin to Leon. The attention was again grabbed by Martin's matter-of-fact tone but he ignored Leon completely, "If the company loans out, we will fall into debts." He moved his fingers queuing the shareholders to flip the page, "Those are the list of the companies who are ready to acquire Harmon Industries."

He stood steps away from Elder Harmon facing everyone, "I am very sure that's not what you all want. That's not what Chairman Harmon would like."

Then his eyes slowly fell on Leon who was gritting his teeth, "I am impressed that President Harmon is determined to deal with the impossible."

The shareholders were confused if Martin was against Leon or not. Just them, Martin cued them to flip to the last part of the file.

"We should give one month to President Harmon. At the same time, have you thought what if President Harmon fails?" He said word for word reminding them of the future.

Unpredictable is life. One should have control and nearly perfect estimation in the business field.

The shareholders again started to panic. Leon wanted to retort but Martin wasn't exactly opposing him, so he was forced to be quiet.

Martin reached his conclusion, "So, my suggestion is if President Harmon fails, he should resign."

Leon gnashed his teeth while others gasped looking at each other. They knew Leon would never let it happen.

"I will fill in every penny of the investment without debt and take his position, unanimously." He wouldn't ask anybody's opinion and care about any disagreement after a month.

Spending some billions was nothing to the Parker family as he could take the highest position. Then they were planning to buy a lot more shares to become leading shareholders and remove Elder Harmon from the chairmanship. Then they will rebrand Harmon to Parker.

Elder Harmon wanted to take control of the situation but he had no idea what was Aarvi's plan. She asked him to be cool and play along without tension.. When he heard her, he felt it was easy but now, he couldn't help but fret over the company.