Chapter 35: Failing to Tame the Dragon. 15th September 2021.

Pierre Beaumont was watching the news reports in his Swiss mansion and he sighed. Eileen Lu had turned out to be impossible to control. This was a bit disappointing for Pierre but not the end of the world. His original plan had been to release the virus, make a fortune from shorting the markets and then blaming China for what had happened. This had been a success, and Pierre was now the richest man on the planet. The failure to control China via Eileen Lu was only a minor setback.

Pierre's servant Jean entered Pierre's lounge room:

- Monsieur Beaumont. James Winter from the CIA is here to meet you.

Pierre sighed. Bloody James coming unannounced again. At least this time he didn't sneak in with a gun! Pierre:

- Okay, please tell him to meet me here!

Jean left the room. Pierre put on his monocle. It was time to pay back James for threatening him four months earlier. Pierre grabbed a pistol and he hid behind the door when James entered the room. Pierre got out and aimed the pistol at James. Pierre:

- Looks like I am the one holding the gun this time.

James smirked back:

- Hmm. A Beretta 92D weighs 900 grams when it's empty. Your pistol weighs 900 grams. Why are you aiming an empty pistol at me?

Pierre put down the pistol on a table and sighed:

- Why are you here, James?

James:

- Eileen Lu is proving to be uncooperative. She urged the US to withdraw our forces within the end of the month.

Pierre:

- So, Eileen Lu is proving to be more capable than we gave her credit. That's nothing to worry about. You win some and you lose some.

James:

- Don't be so casual about this. We cannot let China disappear from our sphere of influence!

Pierre:

- I beg to differ. For the bank, there is no reason to soothe your ego by appointing puppet presidents. All that matters is the money and influence we can yield from a country.

James:

- Well, I want you to send Vladimir to kill her.

Pierre:

- But I won't. Why don't you go yourself?

Pierre smirked. He knew that while James could go to China and carry out the assassination, he didn't share Vladimir's insane disregard for his own life.

James:

- I can't. If a US agent gets caught on that mission, it would risk nuclear war.

Pierre:

- Yes, and we wouldn't want that.

- Goodbye, James. I hope that our paths won't cross for a while.

James shook his head and slammed the door as he left.

After James had left, Vladimir entered the room from the other side of the building:

- He didn't seem happy. What did he want?

Pierre:

- He wanted me to send you to kill Eileen Lu.

Vladimir:

- What? After all the trouble that I had when I dragged her out of China four months ago! What is wrong with him?

Pierre:

- It's the clueless American way. They do this all the time. First, they fund ISIS and then they spend four years bombing ISIS. Three months ago, they installed Eileen Lu as their puppet president, and now they want a new one. Pathetic!

Vladimir:

- So, what is your new evil scheme then?

Pierre:

- Summon Theodore Ahmadi. We will use media to terrify people about the Hei Bai virus. We will use this fear to sell the harmful cure at a grossly inflated price! Muahaha

Vladimir:

- Yes, Pierre. I will summon him at once.

Vladimir left and Pierre got seated in a leather armchair and he smiled to himself. Pierre always found new ingenious ways of hoarding money, and it filled the void within him!