With an irritated expression, Henri Wang, sauntered into his drawing room, his immaculately tailored suit hugging his muscular runner’s calves. He needed to let out the clutter that was in his mind. He was agitated and it was affecting his work. He needed someone with a breadth of experience who had time to unravel the complexities of his issue which is why he had come to ask the advice of his mentor, Nadius Prime.

“Uncle Nadius?”

He was getting ready to start on a tirade when she realized that Nadius was not by himself. Nadius smiled as he greeted him and gestured at Thomas Liu who was swirling his whiskey around in a glass. Not his own whiskey, Liu was drinking out of Henry’s own supply and draining it splendidly. Liu was also a family friend, but not one who was confident in Henry’s abilities. Normally, Henry would have taken this as a cue to make a quick exit to the bathroom, but the old man was already stretched out in arm in probably mock excitement.

Henry spoke through his teeth as he reluctantly moved forwards. He straightened his jacket, “Uncle Thomas, what an unexpected surprise to run into you here of all places?”

Thomas Liu smiled back at him with venom and reddened eyes, “Since I was here for business, I thought I’d give the old Prime a good time. Did you see what I did there, it’s a rhyme. Oh no I did it again. I’m so spiffy. You know oh hey look at the time, I’d better get back or I’ll miss my flight back to--where am I going now?”

Nadius thumped him on the back with good humor, “You’re still such a hoot, old man.”

Henry pursed his lips as he took a seat and poured himself whiskey from the crystal decanter. He poured in the ice from the server nearby and took a sip. He hated running into board members, knowing they were the people who were wreaking the company he had come to build. Liu was an old crony of Wallace Wong, the head of the board now. He had considered marrying Liu’s daughter to wrestle away more shares so he could get more than the forty nine percent he held now. But the daughter was a spending nightmare who would have drained him in one shopping trip. Although Liu was a fine man, Henry was disinclined to have the slimeball for a father in law.

Prime chuckled and winked at Henry’s sour expression, “I’m glad you dropped by today. I know a handsome boy has all of those ladies after him.” As someone who had made a company himself from scratch, Nadius was very well schooled in the art of keeping rival factions at ease. It was one of the first rules of keeping good business.

Prime looked young even at his forty years. His hairline was straight and the color of his hair not whitened with the stress of many of his counterparts. He still had the virile strength of the rugby player he had been in his youth as he had kept up the exercise regimen he had began in college being on the national team. He would always remark it was due to having an active marriage with his wife and that keeping a missus happy meant a lot of thrusting. He would have a well meaning wink with his wife after who would blush. It had been the same gestures that he’d watched for twenty years, a ramport he had wanted to have with his own wife, if that was even a possibility for him.

Thomas Liu on the other hand was like an off put stew. His hair was a balding hole on his head with stray hairs and unsightly moles milling around the centerpoint. His tobacco stained teeth were always a reminder of why his first and third wife had left him. The second, to those who cared, died of pneumonia thankfully. Liu was known as a money grabber, he sunk his funds into any pot that would give him some returns, even if they were on the slight illegal side . . . especially if there was a dubious morality involved. Most of his money was inherited even though, he claimed it was not so. His eyes traveled around the suite as he assessed the valuables like a magpie.