Free The Complete Karma Trilogy by Jude Fawley

was sitting in a room with a lot of balding, middle-aged Japanese men. They appeared intelligent overall, just a little overfed. Matthew himself was a very slender individual, in his early thirties, who still had plenty of youth at his disposal. Sitting next to him were his bodyguards, although he had to leave the rest of his retinue back in the hallway, since they wouldn’t all fit into the room.
    The atmosphere was very tense. It was obvious that every single one of them hated Matthew’s existence, with an inspiring passion. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought. The man who was currently speaking was turning more and more purple with every word he spoke. Matthew thought that he was the CFO of the company, but, because he didn’t know the structure of Japanese businesses very well, and because the term the man was introduced with had no obvious English equivalent, he didn’t really know. That was something for his bureaucrats to worry about, so he didn’t concern himself with the details. Matthew knew that the man at the very end of the table was his only concern, and he focused all of his energy on performing physiognomy from across the table, so he would be ready when the moment came.
    The purple man was saying, “... outright insult to the legacy of this company. Thirty years we’ve operated with complete autonomy and complete success, and I can’t help but feel that the two go hand in hand. What’s to guarantee the future success of the company, and the fates of every person that works for it, after that autonomy is lost? We have thousands of employees, who deserve better than their fate to be gambled on by rash changes in company procedure. If this change is even to be considered, it should be implemented slowly and with a lot of forethought, or it will be nothing but disastrous. It is with decades of experience that I make these statements. I believe they reflect the general opinion of the room?”
    Several of the men nodded.
    Matthew broke from his reverie of staring at the CEO’s face, since he felt it was a moment at which he should respond, before any of the other men chose to extend the rant with their own views on the matter. He said, “Unfortunately, these rash changes that concern you will have to be made now, instead of in the near or distant future. You must realize that the clear vagueness of the time frame you propose is unacceptable for a man in my position, do you not? But to address those concerns, I feel you’re being a little overly sentimental about your autonomy, and that the changes will not have as large an impact as you seem to believe. You’re probably giving yourself too much credit, imagining that your leadership has such a large impact on the course of this company. A ship with a new helm is hardly a new ship—if it was seaworthy before, so will it continue to be. In the meantime, I’m a fairly accomplished navigator, so if you would all take a few deep breaths, I propose we move on with the matter?”
    With every sentence, a wave of disruption was sent across the room. Matthew smiled involuntarily at every period. They were all very serious men, he realized. Very self-confident, very attached, very difficult to displace. He could feel it already.
    “Unacceptable,” one of the men said.
    “Well, the terms are not yours to make,” Matthew responded.
    Several of the men jolted to their feet, surprisingly fast for their weight. Matthew stayed calmly seated. His guards stood up, and slowly removed the Pens from their breast pockets. He could feel a small amount of adrenaline being secreted into his arteries, but he let it float around uselessly.
    “Under what authority is this happening?” another man asked. “No one has answered that question yet, and it’s a very glaring omission.”
    The CEO at the end of the table, the man Matthew watched intently, cleared his throat. The attention of the room was unanimously given to him. Deep wrinkles formed in his forehead, as