The Watch

What Was Yours, Is Now His

"He's here, Mr. Young. What do you want us to do?"

"Stall him for as long as you can. Make sure he knows every unwanted detail about a patent and about the legality of everything."

"How far out are you?"

"About thirty minutes away. I just finished speaking with his ex-wife. How much time does it take to explain every detail?"

"If I talk slowly, I can explain it all in an hour and a half. He has a short attention span when he's running out of time, Mr. Young. I don't know how long we can stall."

"I'll try to be there as fast as I can. Just don't let him sign anything."

"You got it, sir."

Jin and Namjoon looked at each other in fear. Marie had just left the premises in hopes of stalling Payne with nonsense. It wouldn't work even if he was worried about his company going under. He would rather get the patent signed than let Josué have all the glory. He was tired of being second to nothing when being compared to AI Robotics. It was time he stepped up and did what he could while he could.

"He's going to murder us," Jin groaned.

"Not if we kill him first," Namjoon mumbled. His phone rang blaring lyrics to a Country song Jin hated. "It's Josué again. I'll take it then join you and Jimin in the conference room."

"Alright. Don't take too long."

Namjoon walked off just as Jimin exited his office near the elevators. He was carrying a folder Jin guessed was the faux patent. Jimin handed it off to him with a nod.

"Do you think he'll believe them?" he asked.

"No. He's too smart to be fooled." Jin sighed. "Hey, I want you to do something for me. When Payne arrives, I want you to..."

"Ah, Mr. Payne, how are you this afternoon?" Jin asked, taking Julius's coat.

"I'm fine. Call me Julius." Julius looked around the lobby. "No one's here today?"

"Most of our clients came earlier this morning. Everyone on this floor is on their lunch break and other clients opted for a late meeting."

"Must be nice."

"Sometimes. It gets mighty quiet whenever the place is empty."

"Shall we get started then?"

Jin shot a look at Namjoon, who was now on a two-way call with Marie and Josué. He nodded and went into his office. They couldn't risk letting Julius hear anything they were talking about. The walls were thick, so it wouldn't be too risky having their meeting in the room next to Namjoon's.

"Mr. Kim!" Jimin called out. He nodded at Julius. "I have to retype the entire thing. Instead of hitting 'print', I hit 'delete'. There's another digital copy with Haynes, but he's in the capital."

"Of all days to do something stupid, you do it today?" Jin fumed, feigning his anger towards Jimin. "Hurry up. We don't have all day. Mr. Payne didn't come all the way here just to hear that you made a sorry mistake."

"Yes, sir. I'm so sorry about delaying everything. I'm sorry, Mr. Payne."

"No, no. You don't have to be sorry. Just do what your boss wants you to do." Julius pursed his lips. He couldn't believe that was happening right now. He had only wanted to sign the patent and head back to Nisha. He knew that Josué was here and if he found out about him signing the patent today, he'd come for him. It was only a matter of time before he caught up to him.