Chapter 301 Busy Days and Monkey Wrenches
"We're in the final steps of sealing a deal with South African Airways, Air India, and Alitalia airlines. And as you expected, they didn't make it too difficult for us since they're in very difficult financial situations, making the negotiation process smoother," the aircraft acquisition manager of Icarus Airlines reported.
"And when are our first orders of new planes going to start arriving?" Robert asked after nodding his head to show that he had heard the report.
"Since we bought the planes that were about to have their orders cancelled due to lack of demand, we'll start receiving them in six months, but the A380s should start arriving by the end of the year. However, those will be coming in one large batch," the acquisition manager answered.
"The ones we buy from those airlines should be enough for domestic use and a few intercontinental flights, since the domestic market is being dominated by Hermes' rail network. So our only use for them will be flights from Eden to Esparia. For other international flights we should start planning earlier for when the new planes start arriving."
They continued talking about the jet acquisitions without any fatigue on their faces. On the contrary, they seemed to be enjoying the work, as they were both young for the positions they found themselves in, so they gave it their all.
"How's the Malaysia Airlines situation?" Robert asked. Malaysia Airlines had been in a downward spiral ever since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 had gone missing over the South China Sea.
"We're in communication with them, but they're still holding on in the hopes that their plane is found and they can put an end to the downward spiral. So right now, we're in a holding pattern and waiting to see how the situation develops."
As for Robert's former wife, she was enjoying her life after she had received most of his things. And having found her very handsome dream lover, she was infatuated with the man to the point that she had already forgotten her former husband, who could be said to have been funding her current lavish lifestyle thanks to the divorce settlement. She was spending extravagant amounts to make sure the man wouldn't think about leaving her, not knowing that she was about to take quite a hit and learn her lesson. That was what Robert had requested of Aron as his revenge on her, taking her to the highest peak she can go before dropping her to the very bottom.
As they say, the higher you are, the farther you fall.
...
Among all of the newly minted presidents, the one who'd already had his revenge completed, Jai Chakrabarti, was inside the universal simulation going through the curriculum planned for the schools that were about to finish construction with an expression of disbelief.
It would be difficult as hell, but if it was taught exactly according to the lesson plans, monsters of knowledge were going to result.
He was interrupted by a phone call, something that could happen despite him being in the universal simulation.
"Hello, mister minister," he answered in a cheery tone as he was teleported into a time bubble that matched the real world.
"Hello, I'm calling you personally to inform you that your request to cooperate with the government to build schools of all levels has been approved by the president. We'll reach out to you and let you know where you can build your new schools soon. If the land you want isn't owned by the government, we can help you with the acquisition process,"? the minister of education said. He seemed quite excited by the news as well.
"Thank you for your help," Jai responded with a smile on his face and happiness in his voice.
"But I'd like to ask what you plan on doing with the ten pieces of land in unpopulated locations?" the minister of education asked.
"We're going to be building universities and technical schools in those locations. Each of them will specialize in teaching a specific field to the highest level, so we need places we can build the universities as well as college towns around them to make it convenient for the students," Jai answered.
"Although I'm thankful for the investments you're making in the country, I don't see the planned universities receiving the amount of students necessary to do their size justice." The minister of education was a good-natured person, and a member of Alexander's party, so he would naturally bring up any issues he thought might arise, especially those regarding overspending of funds.
"You don't have to worry about that. They'll all be full in just a few years after opening, and before the next elections arrive. That much, I promise you." Jai decided not to go into more detail, since he was sure that there wouldn't be enough time to explain everything. "Also, I'll be emailing your office the curriculum we've got planned for students at all levels of our schools, so please take a look and let me know what you think about them."
"No problem—I'll give it a read and let you know."
...
As for Ryan, he was enjoying life and spending time with his wife, who was thrilled to be accepted into what he jokingly called "Nova U", following her dream of becoming a museum curator and learning in a virtual university as she underwent her own genetic enhancement process. He had specifically asked for her to be enhanced as a way of paying part of her love and care back to her. Aron had immediately agreed, as Ryan had no vengeance to take and just wanted to spend the best time of his life with her.
Plus, Aron couldn't help but admire him a little bit for his devotion to his wife. Being in the honeymoon period of his own first relationship, with Rina, anything regarding love would naturally be highly looked upon by him.
Ryan was reading the sales report for Pneuma and Biogen. It had been two weeks since their release, and that time was enough for all the expenses they had borne by storing, shipping, and paying tariffs on them had already been recouped, with more than seventy percent of the gross sales remaining as profit.
"Although the profits are about equal between both products, Biogen should pass Pneuma in a month or so," he said to the void in his room.
[That depends on whether Pneuma gets approved in Russia, the EU, and the US before then. If they approve it, sales will continue being about equal for a few more months before Biogen ends up becoming the eventual winner.]
"Still, until we release a new medicine, weight loss will be our biggest earner," he replied. His vision was still correct, after all.
[You're right,] his assistant responded.
...
Despite Aron and Nova's policy of not interfering with anything, things were going very well for the burgeoning business empire. Rather, things were going perhaps too well, and thanks to that, Nova was in full simulation mode trying to predict what could come and throw a monkey wrench into their peaceful lives. She knew that somewhere, there was bound to be something that would be giving them a headache, and she wanted to know what it was so she could head it off at the pass, as it were.
And she was putting her computing power toward discovering just where that monkey wrench was likely to be coming from.
