How did it go Viktor?

'Look here, one of your main quests requires you to create your own business empire and have wealth like no other has.

As much as my handle on the market has earned you a pretty penny, don't forget I sourced your wealth together using 2 billion dollars I found that were evident of laundered money made from drug sales.'

His words sounded harsh and straight forward, but Esmond understood Carter wasn't mincing his words so he would continue to move about and not laze at home instead, leaving the tasks for later.

Carter had already started making ships, aircrafts, submarines, and plenty of other items the army would require while waiting for the uranium to arrive at the designated address in the United States.

Esmond would be making his way over to the United States after his trip in Ukraine came to an end, with his future schedule busy meeting one of the people connected with the Chernobyl Power Plant confinement project for reactor number 4.

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Currently, the project needed a great deal of funds, so Esmond was going to meet with a particular group that was supposed to organise the funding.

So far, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were the ones who would finance the project, but Esmond wanted to get in before them and take the project before the market crash, if not, straight after and play on the markets problems to get the other party to walk away.

Even though Esmond would get the uranium from his trip to the United States shortly, there were plenty of materials around the entire city of Pripyat that could be recycled by his up-and-coming business.

He wouldn't go ahead and completely break down the power station until he could completely confine the whole area and then bring the drones in to do their work.

It was a long-term project that would take some years, unless Esmond wanted people questioning him why a project that was supposed to take 3 years was finished in under a week.

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"Fine… just get off my back Carter… jeez…"

Esmond needed a break from the nonstop action and corporate life he'd been living, moving all over the place without rest.

He could easily go and rest within the space wherever he stopped and stayed the night, however he felt it to be unnecessary for now as he would always stay in expensive and highly desired hotel suites, but he was quickly getting over the novelty of it.

"*Sigh* All of this… is just fucking annoying…

Carter, how are the fighter jets?"

Esmond wanted to get his mind off his next meeting, as he was meeting Viktor Kosenko, the Ukrainian in charge of the program to find a business willing to build the new containment building.

However, he wanted to rest and spend time at home before university classes started, that his parents refused to let him drop out of, and he wanted to kick start some work on his plans for Adelaide.

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'The drones have completed 2 so far…' as several days had passed since Esmond tried his Golden Knowledge ability on the film Stealth.

'However, during test flights I have found some issues with system responsiveness and controls, so I've also crashed both fighter jets…'

There wasn't anything to be mad or annoyed about, as Esmond understood it wasn't as simple as copy and paste for Carter to instruct the drones to create a working fighter jet on the first try.

The same would happen with the ships and other vehicles and items being made, so it was imperative everything was heavily tested before being handed over to Phantom, who would take over from there.

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"Keep up the work, at most, have one ready for me to inspect and examine when I return."

He had his own thoughts about the fighter jet in his mind, having the same knowledge about the fighter jet that Carter did, however Carter had his A.I. programming and processing to help him understand the schematics better.

Just from an overview of the designs and what was used to create the jets, Esmond had some ideas he wanted to try when he got back home to improve the jets.

One thing that needed to be done was the biotech microchips which worked excellent with electric propulsion engines.

While the engine type for the fighter jets might be an overkill, Esmond believed they would be rarely seen or out in battlefield until much later.

Most like his war with the greater military powers of the world would see several squadrons of his electric propulsion engine powered jets, but it heavily depended on the pilots flying them.

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Viktor was at home, waiting for the arrival of a client who was supposed to arrive at Kiev soon by train.

He'd sent some of his men to collect the client, as his staff were told the individual would only remain for the meeting before heading to the airport.

With little information about his client and what they were about, Viktor prepared himself for a serious discussion, however when he received the call from his men who went to collect Esmond that he was a child, Viktors mood flipped.

Instead of showing a graceful and cooperative side to the client, Viktor planned to bully the client and learn as much about who they were before reporting to his superiors.

Lately his office was inundated with calls from businesses looking to fight for the Chernobyl contract which had him under a great deal of stress with some of the funding they had sourced was being pulled out with adding problems in the market.

"Sir, the car has arrived…"

"Fine…

Bring him to my study."

Viktor left his outdoor lounge and moved upstairs to his office which made him feel like a King within his throne room addressing his subjects.

But seeing Esmond enter, carrying a presence that screamed superiority and excellence that shit all over Viktors attempts to show power and dominance.

Knowing he failed to show some strength before the meeting began, having broken eye contact first with Esmond, Viktor started the discussion between the two.

"Ahh hello Mr Manston, my name is Viktor Kosenko, part of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exlcusion Zone Management…"

"Hello, it's nice to meet you, my name is Esmond Manston, founder and CEO of ARC, Recycling and Materials recovery…"

Having introduced themselves, Viktor genstured for Esmond to sit down while asking his maid to pour both of them some vodka, which Esmond was about to refuse, but Carter reminded him, 'Business culture 101, not every country works like western nations.

Better yet, you were chased after your meeting in Nigeria, so DRINK BITCH!'

Smirking, Esmond drank the shot in one go, ready for the burn from the alcohol to affect his throat, however being a Primordial Human, the strength of the vodka didn't affect Esmond as he thought it would.

Speaking Ukrainian, he asked the maid for another pouring, which took Viktor by surprise, but a smile crept up on his face as he watched Esmond slam another shot.

And then his third…

"Tasty…"

Viktor struggled to process how the kid slammed three vodka shots of some of his common vodka that was especially harsh, and he could speak the mother tongue clearly.

He typically drank it because it would make him drunk much easier than some of the finer vodka which would costs quite a fair bit, even with his hefty salary.

Therefore, he didn't think much of it serving Esmond, thinking he would pass out or being to struggle and let slip some information, but the Esmond before him now was straight as an arrow, steady and unmoveable.

"Ah… I think its best we continue with business if you don't mind…"

Esmond tried to be polite and smile at Viktor, annoyed the meeting was going ahead, so he spoke up after noticing Viktor was a little dazed out.

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"I don't mind your proposal, but the problem remains of transporting the materials from Pripyat as our be imposed with taxes and costs going through either Russia or Belarus.

Even bringing in some of the materials you'll require for the dome and the changing of the staff, so they don't exceed the maximum radiation limit for the year, or worse… their lifetime…"

"Ha!"

Esmond thought Viktor had a dark sense of humour, making a joke about radiation death, however he was sorely mistaken after noticing Viktors mood change for the worst.

Thankfully Viktor excused Esmonds behaviour and continued the business talks, albeit at a greater pace, the two were able to reach a basic agreement which was left to the Ukrainian government to approve.

…

..

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"How did it go Viktor?"

"Hmm… It could have gone much better, Ivan, but… we've come to an agreement which requires little work from us, other than ensuring the exclusion zone stands."

Of course, there was much more discussed between Viktor and Esmond, however he wasn't going to easily tell everything to his superior over the phone.

"Fine, get ready and make your way to the office… we need to sit down and have a talk"

Ivan Kozak was someone in the intelligence agency of Ukraine and was alerted about Esmonds arrival and travel through the train to meet Viktor.

It wasn't anything worrying or to be concerned about from their observation of Esmond, but Ivan still felt unsure about the kid, wondering why he would travel so freely and openly without a team of guards.

Having cut the call with Viktor, Ivan was sending his agents and staff to find everything about Esmond Manston before they continued with the business discussions pertaining to Pripyat.

'Might cause some problems with the higher-ups, but this kid just doesn't feel right…'

…

..

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While Ivan and his agents moved fast to figure out their new target among the millions that were already monitored, Esmond was already in the air and on his way to the United States.

He was going over to collect the uranium at first but with the new quest from the system, Esmond had Carter organise some meetings with lower end businesses and some government officials within particular states with waste problems.

Right now, in America, there were a great deal of private companies that own and operated the landfills, though the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act meant they needed to recycle and organise the waste that entered the landfills.

Based on the standards the Act stated, there were programs created to manage the waste of all kinds and install better protections against the waste harming the environment, but not all these private businesses worked completely according to the act.

Instead, if they could find loopholes, they took it and utilized it as best as they could to help reduce costs and increase revenue.

So, Esmond had decided to get involved in the United States market and take over some landfills if he could.

From there, he planned to increase his influence and slowly take over more landfills, pushing aside the other competing businesses.

In the end they were millenniums behind him in knowledge and technology that he would be using at his landfills to process the waste to create resources that could be used again without any waste being combusted to generate electricity which wasn't climate friendly at all.

That was another issuing bothering Esmond, climate control.

A great deal of human expansion leads to a great deal of harm that is done to the environment.

There was a time in another lifetime of Esmonds, where the empire had started to affect space with the contamination left behind by their spaceship engines.

During those time, a great number of ordinary citizens were wiped out from diseases and viruses came about because of the space contamination which was near impossible to accomplish.

Esmond during those days tried to figure out some way to clean up the contamination, unfortunately he ended up catching a deadly disease that killed him before he could see if his work was successful.

However, remembering the images of those dying everyday hour because nothing could be done to the contamination haunted Esmond to this day and lifetime that he planned to make sure his people would never ever go through something like that.