Business Tango | Gabriel

[Madeline Wayne]

"The name is Lannister, Miss Wayne, Lan-nis-ter."

"I got it. Please, make sure the smaller conference room on this floor is available… I don’t have much capacity to walk further than the elevator."

"Had a rough night Miss Wayne?"

"Always…"

Nodding to her right hand woman, Madeline smiled slightly. It was hard enough dealing with the nights that were beating her down, but it would have been so much better if the context and story behind it all was right. Instead of tabloids spreading rumors about partying all across eastern Asia for the past week, it would have been nice to have some of her more heroic work acknowledged. Of course, that wasn’t possible, right? It was never going to be possible. The feigned persona of a party girl and mild man-eater was actually pretty difficult to keep up with. It was hard to see how her father had kept it up all those years and even now. Regardless, Madeline was indeed tired and she had experienced a rough night. Like Bane rough, except it was an imposter. He went down after a while, but being tossed into alley walls and street lamps was pretty damn painful. And a lot more painful than most party or man-eating activities.

The heiress emptied the last of the coffee pot into her ‘Wayne Enterprises’ mug and flipped open the file that her associate had so graciously slipped under her arm. For someone who proclaimed that she wasn’t all that interested in business or engaged in what her father’s company was doing, Maddie certainly was into some of the technology and jargon that was floating around. And, of course, the money. Though the company did a lot with the United States government or military services, the part that mostly intrigued Madeline was the work done in the private sector and whom Wayne Enterprises was working with. This time around? The other contractor was Kord Industries. To be honest, Madeline hadn’t heard much about that company since Ted Kord had moved on, and that was back when she was… ten?

Regardless, it was always nice to work with other companies, see where she could possibly invest in them later, and develop contacts that the Board had perhaps lost or never bothered to establish. Even though she was known as a party girl to society, a Bat to some, and a spitting image of her father to others, Madeline had managed to establish a reputation as a connector and negotiator in the business world. Despite her age, she liked to see things go through without the normal crap that went down. Seriously. One clause in an agreement isn’t enough to let go of a major contract with the Army. It’s more something you discuss until both sides can agree. Thus, she was determined to get this particular agreement between Wayne Enterprises and Kord Industries tied with an inescapable knot. (Yes, there is such a thing.)

Shutting the file with one hand and taking up the mug in the other, Maddie wandered down the hallway from her office to the small conference room she had requested. Just standing by the coffee pot had made her forget that her entire body was hurting in almost every manner possible. After walking at a slower pace and even stopping to assure herself that it wasn’t that bad, Maddie finally arrived. Janice, the name of her associate, was waiting right outside of the room as Maddie approached. The heiress flashed a smile to get Janice to lighten up on her facial expression just a bit and walked past her into the room.

"Miss Wayne. Mr. Lannister should be coming up the elevator right now. Just sit. You look awkward standing up or walking."

"Thanks."

Maddie continue into the room, scoffing a bit at the comment made by Janice and took a seat with her back to the window. It was time to get this show on the road.

[Gabriel]

Getting hold of the correct credentials had been easier than the young man had expected, a simple swap with the chaffuer, a drugged coffee and all the information he'd needed was at his fingertips, even the briefcase combination had been easily bypassed with a knife. Now with a case of his own full of Kord industry documents, proposals for Wayne Enterprises and the ID cards to match he was confident his ruse would last for a good few hours before anything was discovered to be a miss.

The hardest part had been getting through the gate in the drivers seat of the rental car rather than in the passengers and it had taken a lot to keep calm as the card had asked for his ID with the intention of going through the rigours of a background check. Only the timely intervention of a female voice asking for Mr Lannister to be rushed through when he finally arrives prevented from his disguise from falling apart. He really would need to brush up on his computer skills and find someway to gain access to Kords systems one day.

Now stood in the elevator to the conference floor, Mr 'Lannister' rolled his shoulders and loosened his neck, glad that the sharp italian suit hid the bruises that traveled the length his his spine and down one side. Aparently being thrown through steel doors and other solid objects wasn't what the human body was designed for, and in the end it hadn't been worth the pain it had caused, people had been hurt, property had been destroyed and the villian had somehow escaped. It had not been a good night. But things were looking up.

The doors pinged open and Mr Lannister walked quietly down the corridor, briefcase swinging slowly, checking off the doors for the room he had been directed to. Stopping outside the correct one he adjusted his tie, smoothed down his suit and knocked quietly before turning the handle and pushing the door open, smiling as his eyes settled on the young Madeline Wayne, heiress to one of if not the most well known technology company in the world next to Stark Industries.

He stretched out his hand towards her as the briefcase slid onto the conference table,

"Miss Wayne, its an honour to finally meet you in person, i'm a great fan of your fathers and i'm impressed by the work you've done around Gotham"

While he himself had almost nothing to do with the running of Kord Industries he did like to keep uptodate with what was being done and avenues of thought that were running through the company and when this merger with Wayne Enterprises had come up in his searching it was too good an oppotunity to miss. He would play his part as long as was required,

"As you know compared to such giants as yourselves or Stark Industries, Kord cannot hope to match you for production capabilities but make no mistake our research and development team is second to none. As our brief correspondence has hinted towards is a merger between our two compaines on the exsisting contract we hold with the US military. We have the data and the prototypes ready but what we lack is the manufacturing capabilities to meet the demands of the contract. Now our board of directors, rather than see us loose the contract and projected income completely, have a proposal that would benefit both our companies. Now i'm sure there are questions from both sides and hopefully with this meeting we can flesh out the details and put something on paper that brings both companies closer for years to come."

[Madeline Wayne]

And here Madeline was expecting to exchange pleasantries and chat about the history of Kord Industries for at least a moment. At least so she could get a read on this guy and see how she’d handle their route of business. Maddie was surprised that this guy had even reached across the table to shake her hand because he had gotten right to the point. He went on and on about the team up between the two companies and even threw something about a merger. When exactly had there been something like that mentioned? Were Janice and the rest of the Board up to more than Madeline had been aware of? Last time her father had control of Kord Industries, or at least owned more than fifty percent of the shares, it was taken from him by Jason Todd. And only God knew what that guy had done with it afterwards. Clearly other people had taken control, like Mr. Lannister. However, it was still odd that the Board would be interested in picking it up again. One failure seemed like enough and Maddie wasn’t interested in having a Todd pop back up and ruining the normal stream of life.

Well, perhaps normal wasn’t the right word.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Mr. Lannister."

When the man across the table mentioned her father’s and her own work around Gotham, she couldn’t help but nod and smile just a bit. It was funny how people would be talking about the water systems to running water to the Narrows or the foundations set up for those less fortunate or the Wayne structures that housed apartments and so on. And somehow Madeline’s mind would drift to the little escapades her father used to take in order to help fight some newcomer psychopaths. And then wander even further to adventures she had on the daily basis. Sure, running water in the Narrows was interesting, but stopping a hallucinogenic drug from travelling further than a “chemical house” in the same place was much more captivating. Even if practically no one would ever connect her to the second event.

Pulling her hand back after offering a firm handshake, Madeline took a seat and listened to all of the points and propositions that the man had laid down on the table. Her eyes wandered to his briefcase. As much as she was starting to enjoy the negotiation and go-see aspect of the business world, there were some times where things just started off monotonous and started to lose her attention immediately. Maybe the repeated hits to the head and the concussion Edmund mentioned were giving a momentary lapse in attention span. Regardless, Madeline took in as much of what Mr. Lannister threw out there in terms of business jargon and mergers and working together. It seemed like this contract was going to be the beginning of a potential long term business relationship that transformed into a buy out or whatever. Or, that was what she had caught.

"So, you and I are supposed to get things straight for this contract? Or at least the larger ideals, so things can be worked out on a more finely examined level? Like setting the groundwork? Got it. …Oh, and be careful throwing around the name Stark around here too freely, some people get a bit antsy."

If Madeline had to sit through another one of Janice’s explanations for why she despised Stark Industries as much as she did, there would be potential for her to break her "one-rule" as a member of the Bat Family. Seriously.

The heiress smiled a little at her own joke and leaned back in a conference room chair. Questions, huh? Glancing down at the folder lying on the table, Madeline moved the black, laminated item onto her lap and looked over the contents. Even though it was lacking the usual inquires page, a few of the highlighted sentences and bolded paragraphs provoked a couple questions. "What was their time frame going to be" was certainly one. Wayne Enterprises’ department that dealt with contracts typically liked to be done with edits and everything a week before the due date to have a little “leverage time”. The number of people that Kord was going to dedicate to the contract writing was another. The guys down in that contract department liked a lot of specifics in order to make space and so on. The list started to snowball when Maddie finally spoke up.

"Okay. How much time are we looking at for this thing? The due date is a good eight weeks from now, but we should plan for delays. Are we working this thing in person or is this going to be like a conference call everyday to compare notes? Also, I’m sorry, but I’m still caught up on the merger thing. Who brought that idea on board? I thought a contract-business partnership was going to come out of this, but nothing invasive like a merger."[/color]

Well, there was being invasive and there was the fact that mergers could be a hassle legally. Maddie, although she acknowledged that the current Gotham City district attorney was a fan of the Bat Family, couldn’t stand lawyers for long periods of time.[/font]