Amelia's face popped up the moment the call was accepted.
She had on a neutral look, making it impossible to read anything from her face.
Heck, if Ethan hadn't listened in on their meeting, he would've thought she was here to reject his terms outright.
But he did.
Leaning forward, with the chibi avatar mirroring his actions, he put on a mock surprised look and said,
"That was fast," Ethan said, "I thought it'd take you a while to convince the board."
His words might seem like simple curiosity but Amelia knew better.
'Damn it' she mentally cursed.
Ethan's words might sound simple, but they basically informed her that he was aware exactly how desperate they were for the remaining 15 vulnerabilities.
Even with that, Amelia didn't flinch. Not even a twitch.
But Ethan could see it, the slightest twitch of her eyes and the subtle, almost unnoticeable, tension in her shoulders. That was all he needed to confirm it: she knew he knew.
"I'm good at making compelling arguments," Amelia replied calmly, her voice remained professional. "Now, let's not waste each other's time, shall we?"
Ethan smiled, the chibi avatar mirroring his expression, "agreed. So, let's talk numbers."
"I've presented your demands to the board," Amelia started, "given the severity of the situation, we've prepared a counter offer."
"Is that so?" The chibi avatar leaned forward, as if curious to hear the counter offer they had come up with.
"We are willing to offer you 4 million dollars for the remaining 15 vulnerabilities," Amelia offered in a calm, professional tone.
Although he expected it, Ethan couldn't help but burst out in laughter. Not the amused kind either.
"Four million?" Ethan repeated, leaning back in his chair "Ms. Rhodes, I believe you know exactly what threats the vulnerabilities I hold pose to your systems."
He paused for a short while before continuing, "even my original $5.7 million ask was a grossly undervalued ask."
"It's what the board believes is reasonable," Amelia replied, her face neutral as ever "especially considering you're an unknown entity with nothing that'll convince them to place trust in you."
"Is that so?" The chibi avatar's blue eyes turned completely cold as he added, "you know, just out of curiosity, I did a quick research on what the black market was willing to for these."
This successfully got a visible reaction out of Amelia as a frown graced her face, but Ethan wasn't done yet.
A ding sounded on her laptop as a file was uploaded to it.
"What's this Mr. OmniTech?" She asked.
"Just open it," Chibi Ethan said with a grin on its face.
Since this was a laptop not connected to any of their systems, there was no was for Ethan to hack them through it...or so she thought.
Without hesitation, she opened it and instantly froze when she read the first few lines of the document.
The document contained black market price research specifically on vulnerabilities. The prices of backdoors for smaller companies were not that impressive but for a tech giant like Google?
Even the smallest backdoor was priced high and OmniTech had fifteen of them. Enough to make him hundreds of millions.
Amelia frowned seeing the market analysis before asking, "is this a threat?"
"As I said before, Ms. Rhodes, I only wish to establish a relationship with Google," he answered, "regardless, I'm not desperate enough to allow you to take advantage of me."
Ethan's objective was clear, he wanted to establish that he would not allow himself to be leveraged or taken advantage of, especially at this early stage in their potential partnership.
Now, that $1.7 million difference didn't seem like that much especially considering that Sentinel did most...no, all of the work.
But if he caved now and just agreed, that'll forever cement his standing in their potential partnership.
Changing it then would be a lot harder than denying it their counter offer and risk losing their partnership at this stage.
Amelia let out a resigned sigh before looking directly into the eyes of the chibi avatar, "send me your bank details and we'll deliver your payments before the day ends."
"Great," the chibi avatar gave her a wide smile, "I'll send the 15 zero days after the payment is confirmed."
Amelia nodded. For some reason, she wasn't worried that OmniTech would just vanish with their money without completing his part of the deal.
And even she had no idea why.
Ethan proceeded to send her the details of an offshore account he had opened before hand.
There was no way he would send details of his personal bank account, not after going through so much effort to stay anonymous.
Although there were undeniably safer ways, maybe like crypto but it was 2010 and the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was barely past its launch phase.
Amelia received the payment details and was a little disappointed, although, now that she thought about it, there was no way OmniTech would send her his personal details after staying anonymous all through their contacts.
She tapped a key, confirming the payment instructions, but instead of ending the call, she stared at the chibi avatar.
"…You know," she said slowly, folding her hands in front of her, "like you said, couldn't you have made a lot more by selling these in the black market?"
Ethan tilted his head slightly. "Tempting, but I'm not a fan of prison jumpsuits."
Amelia gave a small, genuine chuckle for the first time during the call.
"Well, Mr. OmniTech," she said, "what if I told you there's another option—one where you can have all the resources you need, unlimited access to real-time systems, and full protection from the legal headaches…?"
"A job offer?" The chibi avatar had on a surprised look.
"Yes, I'm offering you a future, here at Google" she confirmed, with a calm voice "We promise you benefits that I promise wouldn't be offered to you anywhere else."
Ethan remained silent for a beat.
Then leaned forward, resting his chin on one hand, expression curious.
"And what, you'd just hire a faceless entity with no background, no resume, a—"
"—and no identity?" she cut in. "It wouldn't be the first time we've hired a stranger."
She wasn't lying.
Google cared about skill, not just some certifications on a paper, that's why they were one of the fastest growing companies in the world right now.
"I'm not saying you need to come in for interviews. We can start with a contract role. you work remotely and your identity remains safe for as long as you feel like."
Ethan considered her words. It wasn't a bad offer. In fact, under different circumstances, it might've even been ideal. But right now?
He had his own empire to build.
"I'm flattered, Ms. Rhodes," he finally said. "But I didn't go through the trouble of staying anonymous just to put myself on someone else's payroll."
"I see," she said, with a disappointed sigh.
Ethan continued, "But don't be too disappointed, Ms. Rhodes. I may not be joining your team... but that doesn't mean we can't work together."
A new file suddenly began uploading itself to Amelia's system.
"This," Ethan said as the file loaded, "is Sentinel."