Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 279

Inside, it was nothing like the world outside, all classic wood and brick. Here, it was lavishly decorated, from the
red carpet to the plush seats to the crystals hanging down from the ceiling, reflecting what light there was from
around, making the room that much brighter. In the middle of the room was a table, and on the table was food,
piled on top of each other. The man sitting behind the table looked up. He saw Victor, and promptly invited
him to sit down.
“Hello, Victor, nice to see you again,” said the man.
“And to you too, I suppose,” he replied. “Why are you here then? Don’t tell me you are the one who
summoned me, unless you’re the last surviving person from headquarters to tell me of the downfall of our
company.”
“Why, I’m deeply pained, brother dear, to have you view me as such a monster. If you recall correctly, I did try
to keep you in England, but no, you had to argue with our sponsors,” the man replied quickly, as he now stood
up, moving away from the shadows, where the crystals failed to illuminate.
The man had a rough chin, as if it had not been shaved for a few months. Typical, Victor thought. He is still
worried about his face. Just as when he was a child then. “Don’t call me brother. You got me sent here, I could
have stayed in England, I could have just quit the company and took my money. But no. You had to come in
and suggest that I be the manager of this port. I even had to lie to my wife and daughter on why we moved here!
The whole town was talking about how one of the top members of the East India Trading Company was
demoted to doing such work, not to mention that during the passage, my wife…my wife fell overboard and--”
“Either ways,” his brother said, cutting his speech and pushing him back towards his seat, “I’ve come here not to
discuss such squabbles. You would be compensated by the company for your loss, but not as of this moment.
Today, I have asked you here to see what you have done about the message that should have arrived the day
before.”
“Fine,” Victor grunted, sitting back down, previously unaware that he had stood up and was practically yelling
and spitting in his brother’s face. “I have asked a couple of local merchants about how we will exclusively sell the
product to them. They have accepted the roles they will play in this scheme, and with the company backing us
from both the underworld and actively going against the Chinese Government rule, we may soon succeed on
monopolizing on this trade.”
“Good job, brother mine. You know, the sponsors have reconsidered, and they said, based on how well you do
here, you could come back and take back your previous position…” his brother started.
“Well then. Tell them we may only have a couple months to know how well this scheme will end,” Victor said,
standing up. He turned around, knocked on the door, and was escorted out by Captain Walters.
“Say, Captain Walters… I do not mean to offend you but… are you by any chance a female?” Victor asked, in
an inquiring tone.
*Gasp * “How… did you know? No one on this ship knows… Please sir-” she suddenly fell to the ground,
losing her composure “- don’t tell anyone about this, they must not know, I must keep this job, sir!” she said,
looking up with teary eyes.