Chapter 8: Subtle Comparison

'Crash' Frederick, Mark's cousin and rival, smashed his wine cup on the wall as he read the reports provided by his spies under Mark. 

He glared at the beautiful lady who had come to deliver the report to him.

"Why are you just telling me this?" He gritted out. "Why didn't you include the information of the person who sold him the programme? Didn't you think it would be important to get me such crucial data?" He added feeling his fury burn through his blood. He had once again been bested by his younger cousin.

"Young master Frederick, we had no way of knowing about the arrangement as it was not discussed with the board of directors. We were only informed about their team's plan of making the chips and we sent it to you as soon as we heard about it," Tina, the beautiful petite lady explained.

"What do you mean that it was not discussed with the board of directors? How was he able to fund the project without the financial approval of the financial department?" Frederick questioned. 

"The project was sponsored from his savings and after it was proven successful the finance department paid him back. We tried getting in touch with you immediately after it was discovered but you were unavailable and given that the programme he bought was ready-made and easy to use we had no way of stalling for you," Tina explained helplessly.

She is the lowest ranked member amongst the spies Frederick planted beside Mark as she is just a sales representative, she only follows orders from higher-ups and has no way of knowing how the decision-making goes between the higher-ups, but when cases like this happens, she is the one that is always pushed to the forefront to face Frederick's fury.

"What stage are they on now?" Frederick asked after calming his nerves and anger a bit. Mark has always been pushing him to the edge since they were kids. 

Everyone had always praised Mark for his intelligence and foresight, while they told him to learn from his younger cousin. Even then, no matter how he tried using the normal means or the underhanded means, he could never seem to beat Mark. The younger man always finds ways to spring back up after every huge fall. 

"The program has been used in the new phone project that Alpha is working on and it's in the last phase of production. After they were boycotted with the chip and property, President Mark decided to put his focus on phone production. The programme just happened to come right in time," Tina explained. 

"Do we have anyone on his programming team?" Frederick questioned as he read the reports once again.

'There is no way he could beat this in a short amount of time,' he thought to himself. 'But we can stall him until we have something that we can use to beat him.'

"His team was personally selected by him and there are none of our men in his team."

"Tell Ian to find a way and have someone from our side on his team, I want the programme mailed to me before the product is sold to the market, if it can't be mailed out, find a way to stall them, whatever means necessary stall them until after I get the real estate project," Frederick instructed.

'I can't allow him to be in the limelight once again!'

"Yes sir," Tina replied and prepared to leave.

"One more thing, find out who the programmer is and get me their contact!" 

"We will, Sir."

Frederick reclined into his chair with an ugly frown, he massaged his nose bridge in frustration as he thought about his recent failed project and how unsatisfied with him their grandfather had been. 

"Who would have thought trying to sabotage his works would lead him to another achievement," he groaned.

***

"Congratulations on your new project son," Michael Watson, Mark's father, beamed excitedly as he cheered Mark. 

Ethan and Frederick's faces turned sore at the mention of Mark's project and they silently glared at the father-and-son duo. 

Ethan is Michael's older brother and the former president of the Alpha company, but according to tradition, once the younger generation of heirs come of age, the older ones would step down to allow the younger ones to grow.

Naturally, Frederick was supposed to take over from his father as the next president of Alpha Tech, but due to Mark's intelligence and innovations, he was sent to manage another business while the Alpha company, which is the biggest sector of Watson's group, was given to Mark.

Grandpa Watson had called a celebration dinner to commemorate the release of the new project immediately after it was announced to the public, which is why they all gathered at the Watson family villa and while the ladies were busy with fossils the men were discussing business.

"Yeah, I don't think I've congratulated nephew Mark for his new achievement and because of your dedication, Alpha Tech company has reached another height this year," Ethan praised with a practise fake smile. 

Frederick scoffed silently while stuffing his mouth with more food so he wouldn't have to say the congratulatory message.

"You flatter me, Uncle Ethan, I didn't do it alone and honestly if the firewall wasn't broken into, I wouldn't have been able to attain such achievement so soon," Mark replied politely but the father and son duo didn't miss the ridicule behind his words. 

"I heard you employed an external person to help with the new programme, I'm surprised you would seek a foreign market after preaching against it for so long," Frederick probed, trying to get the identity of the programmer.

Mark was also aware of his aim and decided to humour him, "It is indeed unreasonable of me, but I was too eager to get my new project running that I didn't think about my formal words, but the success has shown I didn't make a mistake in my decision to employ from the foreign market." Frederick sneered and cursed in his heart as he noticed Mark's smug smile. 

"Did you at least recruit that programmer to work in Alpha tech?" Grandpa Watson chipped in, his gaze focused on Mark. 

"I tried to but they wouldn't budge," Mark replied and the old man frowned.

"Was the salary and bonuses you offered not enough? Why didn't you add more? Where are they currently working? We can offer double the pay they are getting," The old man questioned. 

"Our meeting was brief that day and they preferred their identity hidden as the payment was done through the hacker's website, so there was no way I could do a background check on them," Mark explained.

"You could have had them followed," Ethan suggested. 

"That's an invasion of privacy and if they find out, it would reduce our chances of working with them in the future. Besides, you should know that someone of that level could not be offended easily," Micheal countered. 

"It's good you didn't have them followed, it shows that you respect their choices." Grandpa Watson nods in approval. "However, on your next meeting, do whatever it takes to bring them to join Watson, someone like them should only work for us."

"Yes Grandpa, I will work towards it," Mark replied with a bow.

"Good! Good! You always make me proud!" Grandpa Watson laughed before turning to Frederick with a serious expression. 

"Chairman Nelson told me you were the one in charge of acquiring the Red Land real estate project, how is it going?" He asked as he gestured for the maids to bring him tea.

"We only have one competitor left at the moment and they are the state representative, the final decision about who will get the project will be made during the fundraising gala next week," Frederick reported calmly. 

He had been putting all his resources and attention into acquiring the real estate project so that he could make up for the losses he had made these last months. He couldn't afford to lose not after Mark's groundbreaking achievement this time, losing again would not only annoy their grandfather but those boards of directors would never let him off too. 

They were all aware that the old man was quietly watching their performance so he could choose his successor, which is why they were all on edge and doing their best. 

"I heard the project is worth hundreds of millions, so make sure you don't lose it to the state. You can discuss it with your cousin and see where you could make some improvement," Grandpa Watson advised and Frederick clenched his fist in annoyance.

There it was again, the subtle comparison he had always hated, he presented to drink and silent glare at Mark with malice.

'You can remain smug for now but let's see how long you will remain smug when your project comes crashing down!'