The Last Option
Chapter Three: The Crouching Tiger

As he entered his office Nathan saw that his cousin Louis Randall was sitting behind his desk, reclining in the chair and with his legs crossed on it. He paused for a few moments, watching him, but he only smiled at him.

"Cousin Nathan!" he said, lowering his legs and getting up from the chair, and walking slowly towards him. "You are late; did you forget that this morning was the meeting with the shareholders? Don't tell me that being the main and majority shareholder gives you the right to make others wait."

"Hi, Louis," Nathan walked past him and sat behind the desk. "I apologize for the delay, but Norma was feeling a little bad and I had to take her to the doctor."

"Ah! Yes? And what does she have? I have days that I don't see her. Is she better?"

"Yeah, I took her for a quick check-up and it was nothing. Something to do with hormones, apparently."

"I hope it's nothing serious, cousin, really," then Louis made a startled gesture, clapped his hands once, and once snapped the fingers of his right hand. "I know! Could it be that she's pregnant? It's about time you had children, cousin. You are very lonely."

Nathan looked at him between surprised and intrigued at the same time. Does his cousin know about their attempts to have children? How is it possible that he knows it if they have it under the utmost secrecy? He preferred to think that he knew nothing.

"I don't think so, cousin," he replied, trying not to show anything that would betray him. "Norma and I are not interested in being parents right now, although we would like to have them sometime."

"Well, but let it be soon, cousin. You need an heir to whom you can leave all this."

Louis looked around for a few seconds, and then turned around, heading for the door.

"The shareholders are in the boardroom," he told him. "We'll wait for you. There are some who are very impatient."

With that said, he left the office. Nathan was thoughtful by the words of his cousin for a moment. He looked in one of the drawers of his desk for a folder and took it out, checked the documents, found they were the ones he needed and got up, going to the door and leaving the office.

Southern Hilltop Gold's main offices were located in a modern six-story building, where each floor represented an operational or administrative section of the same, with the last floor being the most important, since there were the presidency and the main management offices.

The meeting room of the Administrative Council or Shareholders' Meeting was also located there, holding periodic meetings to evaluate and monitor the activities of the company and the progress in the stock markets. That day precisely Louis Randall had called a meeting of the Shareholders' Council to evaluate what for him was a slight but worrying drop in the price of the company's shares, as a result of some problems with one of the company's concessionaires in charge of extracting gold in one of the corporation's mines located in the State of Nevada. These problems mainly had to do with obtaining government permits from the concessionaire.

Of course, the rumors were unfounded and the permits were granted within the law. Nathan suspected that behind these alleged problems and rumors there was someone interested in harming the company, and he was already beginning to make his own inquiries, although he already had a possible culprit: his cousin Louis Randall, as much as it pains him to admit it, who he had long wanted to take his place at the head of the corporation.

Entering the meeting room, Nathan apologized to the rest of the shareholders and immediately took his place at the head of the large table in the center of the room. Louis was chatting with two of them in a corner and when he saw his cousin enter he immediately looked for his position. The others did the same.

"Gentlemen,” Nathan began, "I understand this meeting has been called to clear up rumors about problems facing one of the company's dealerships. That rumors-"

"Excuse me, cousin," Louis interrupted him, "but I think these are not just rumors, since the shares of the company have fallen slightly for that reason, which has aroused some concern in me for the future of this corporation, and I think many of those present here think the same as me."

"We all here know that the shares in the company always go up and down depending on the prices on the stock market, Louis", Nathan quickly came out to confront his cousin, "and I don't think that the slight drop yesterday was the product of anything else other than those quotes. Here I have in this folder certified copies of all the permits of the Maxwell-Raines Incorporated Company, which is up to date with them and which I myself was in charge of verifying with government entities. My secretary will send you copies of them, you also have all the freedom to verify them and verify all these rumors and alleged problems are unfounded, so there is no reason to doubt that our corporation is within the law in all senses."

With that said, Nathan looked at his cousin, who was smiling slightly and looking back at him with a "you've won me again" face. However, he didn't hide his intentions:

"Let's hope that's true, cousin, that the concessionaire is within the law as you have assured. I don't want to think that after being at the head of this company for so many years, you begin to trust in such a way you could neglect some important aspects, and make mistakes that affect us all."

"Experience gives security, Louis," Nathan replied, "and when you have as much as I do it's hard for you to be wrong. I assure you that."

"I hope so, cousin, I hope so."

The rest of the shareholders only saw each one when they spoke and without saying anything; they all knew about Louis's intentions to remove his cousin's leadership in the company, but they preferred to stay out of the fight, supporting Nathan when necessary, since Louis did not like most of them.

"And I also hope that with this report I'm giving you the rumors and comments about the concessionaires of this corporation will end. It's not healthy to try to confuse public opinion with gossip and unhealthy comments, taking a slight decline in stocks as a consequence of something that isn't true at all. Stocks are already on the rise today and will remain stable as ever."

"Very well," said one of the other shareholders, an energetic-looking man in his sixties named Robert Ickovitch, "I think everything has been cleared up, and I hope we don't waste time on matters like this from now on, just for futile reasons and on the basis of gossip and unfounded comments."

The comment was directed at Louis, as Robert, a close friend of Nathan's father, knew his intentions to gain control of the company.

"You don't have to make such a comment, Robert," Louis said, trying to assume an attacking posture in front of him, "it's just a concern that has arisen in some of us and that-"

"We are all very busy people," Robert interrupted him abruptly, rising from his seat, "and I, in particular, won't tolerate another call for a meeting like this, without meeting the requirements established to convene it. Good morning gentlemen!"

Robert went to the exit and left the meeting room, the others did the same, all saying goodbye to the two cousins, still sitting in their places.

"When our parents started this company they never made distinctions between them," Nathan said, "and they wouldn't have wanted there to be one between us now, Louis."

Louis Randall took a few minutes to speak, fiddling with his fingers and circling the table with his right index finger.

"You say it because it was always your father who was above mine in everything," he finally said, without taking his eyes off the imaginary circles he was drawing on the table, "and he got used to that. He never had the guts to claim his place at the head of the company."

"He was always by my father's side and helped him lift all this you see, Louis. They both made this company what it is today. It's true that my father, being the university graduate, was always in the lead, but without your father they wouldn't have gone as far as they did. It was an effort of both!"

Louis kept drawing circles, until he suddenly stopped and looked up, meeting Nathan's.

"Your father never gave mine a chance to direct all of this, not even when your father died, handing over control of everything to you, who had just graduated from college. My father died sad, always being the shadow of the important man, first of your father, and then yours."

"My uncle agreed to my taking over, Louis! He proposed me to the shareholders' meeting himself! You forgot it? He was always advising me until the last day of his life, and do you know what his last advice was? He told me not to waste your talent. Yes, Louis, that I wouldn't stop having you by my side, as I always have, and now you come to me with all that story of who was better than whom? Where do you get those ideas from? Since you also graduated, I have tried to have you by my side and I have always heard your opinions about the management of the company, and everything has turned out as we have planned, together! But lately I have noticed you very distant, cousin, and I no longer know what you want for the company."

Louis slowly got up from his chair and walked up to him, holding his gaze, stopped by his side, and without saying anything, patted his shoulder twice. Then he left the room. Nathan would have liked his cousin to speak to him more about everything that affected him and that now it had him in constant confrontation with him.