The Divine Dissimulation [Complete]

Chapter 8 CEO Meeting with Jake Goldstein

Jake Goldstein was furious. He had requested an explanation from his grandfather Abraham Goldstein why all the production had been stopped earlier during the day. Abraham had nonchalantly told him that he was welcome to swing by his penthouse if he wanted to talk.

As Jake arrived at the elevator, there was a notice saying that the elevator was turned off to save power, but Jake was more than welcome to walk up. As Jake's office was located 20 levels below Abraham's penthouse, it was a lot of stairs to climb. Jake Goldstein was 190 years old and he resembled his grandfather in having almost relentless energy, especially when angered. Huffing and puffing he finally reached the top level of Goldstein Tower.  Abraham Goldstein was sitting in the spa with one of his assistants and flanked by several of his bodyguards.

Abraham Goldstein greeted his grandson arrogantly:

-          Greetings grandson, you don’t look to well, did you have a nice walk.

After a while, Jake Goldstein finally caught his breath.

-          You bastard! You made me WALK 20 levels!

Abraham Goldstein

-          Yes, exercise is good for you, and besides, I reckoned we needed to save power to get our production up.

Jake Goldstein:

-          Ha-ha very funny

-          Now tell me why on earth you turned off production for half an hour?

-          Do you even realise how expensive that is?

Abraham Goldstein:

-          Is this trivia time? Very well.

-          I turned off the power to the production because I needed extra power for my secret research project.

-          It cost us 1.2 million Terran Credits per minute to turn off production, so I would say around 36 million for the half an hour.

Jake Goldstein:

-          WHAT is our secret research project, Shouldn’t I the CEO know what is costing us all this money? We are losing money for the first time in company history.

Abraham Goldstein:

-          Dear Grandson, you are the CEO because you are my oldest living descendant and I can't be bothered with day-to-day operations anymore.

-          Our secret research program has made a significant breakthrough, and I will showcase it at the annual general meeting next week.

-          I am turning on the elevator for you to save your legs.

-          Guards show Jake to the elevator, please.

After Jake had left the penthouse level, Abraham told his female assistant and security guards to leave him alone. He preferred to be alone so he could think deeply without unnecessary distractions. Abraham had felt compelled to give Jake a display as he hated when people questioned him.

Abraham disliked most of his descendants and extended family members. And there were a lot of them! As Abraham had lived for 250 years, he had ten generations below him. As the Goldstein's were the wealthiest family in the world, they all qualified to have a lot of children, and all these generations, had spouses. In total the living members of Abraham's extended family accounted to 300 individuals and sadly the only one's Abraham had liked was his wife and his children, and they had all died of age and sickness.