Chapter 98: The Billionaire’s Other Business

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The Billionaire’s Other Business

Chapter 98: The Billionaire’s Other Business

Adrian woke the following morning to a view he had almost forgotten existed.

London stretched beyond the bedroom windows, grey beneath a thin layer of morning mist. The city was already moving, but from Calder House the noise reached him only as a distant hum.

His phone sat untouched on the bedside table.

For once, he didn’t reach for it immediately.

He had promised Sophia he would practise.

Five days without business.

That meant he had to start somewhere.

He got out of bed, showered, dressed and went downstairs.

Breakfast had already been prepared.

Adrian stopped when he saw the table.

"What’s all this?"

The house manager looked up from the far end of the dining room.

"Breakfast, sir."

"I can see that."

There were eggs, fresh fruit, bread, coffee, pastries and a small selection of things Adrian couldn’t immediately identify.

"You’ve been doing this every morning?"

"Yes."

Adrian looked at the table.

"I’ve been eating at the factory."

"I know."

He sat down.

"Who changed that?"

"No one. You simply never noticed."

Adrian smiled.

That was becoming an uncomfortable pattern.

He had accumulated enough wealth to have an entire household operating around him, yet he still behaved like a man who had to remember whether there was bread in the kitchen.

He poured himself coffee.

Then his phone rang.

He looked at it.

Daniel.

Adrian stared at the screen.

Five days.

He answered.

"What happened?"

Daniel laughed.

"Good morning to you too."

"What happened?"

"Nothing bad."

"Then why are you calling?"

"Because Robert wants approval for the next capital allocation."

Adrian leaned back.

"What allocation?"

"The consumer technology division."

Adrian’s expression changed.

That was different.

"Tell him I’m coming in."

"I thought you were taking the morning off."

"I am."

Daniel was silent.

"That doesn’t sound like taking the morning off."

"I’m not going to the factory."

"Where are you going?"

"Sterling Capital."

Daniel laughed.

"That’s not exactly a holiday."

"No."

Adrian ended the call.

He looked at his breakfast.

Then at the untouched phone.

He had failed the first test.

But there was a difference between working because something was urgent and working because something interested him.

The consumer technology division interested him.

Sterling Capital occupied several floors in a Mayfair building Adrian had acquired months earlier.

He had barely visited.

That changed when he walked through the entrance that morning.

The reception area was understated but expensive. Dark stone, soft lighting, carefully selected furniture and no unnecessary displays of wealth.

Robert was waiting for him upstairs.

"You said you wanted to look at the consumer technology plan."

"I do."

Robert handed him a folder.

"We’ve been building the structure quietly."

Adrian opened it.

At the top was a simple heading.

STERLING CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES

Underneath were four proposed areas.

Mobile devices.

Consumer computing.

Connected home technology.

Personal energy systems.

Adrian looked up.

"Who came up with this?"

"The strategy team."

"Why these four?"

"Because they can share technology."

Adrian continued reading.

The initial capital allocation was ￡180 million.

He stopped.

"That’s small."

Robert smiled.

"I knew you’d say that."

"Then why did you put it there?"

"Because I wanted you to see the difference between starting a company and trying to buy an industry."

Adrian leaned back.

"Explain."

"If you want to build a phone company, you can spend billions before you sell your first serious product."

"Yes."

"Or you can build the core team first."

Adrian nodded.

"What are we actually building?"

"Nothing yet."

"Then why are we calling it a division?"

"Because we have people."

"Who?"

Robert slid another document across the desk.

A name appeared at the top.

Ethan Cole — Chief Executive Candidate

Adrian read the profile.

Forty-three.

Former senior executive at a major European consumer electronics company.

Previously involved in launching several mobile products and overseeing international manufacturing partnerships.

Adrian looked up.

"Why isn’t he working for someone else?"

"He was."

"Past tense?"

"He left six months ago."

"Why?"

Robert smiled.

"That’s what your next meeting is for."

Adrian closed the file.

"Arrange it."

"When?"

"Today."

Robert looked at him.

"I thought you were taking the morning off."

"I changed my mind."

"Of course you did."

Ethan Cole arrived at noon.

He was dressed simply, carrying no laptop bag and no entourage.

He shook Adrian’s hand and sat opposite him.

"Mr Sterling."

"Adrian."

"I’ve heard a lot about you."

"Most of it is probably exaggerated."

Ethan smiled.

"Probably."

Adrian studied him for a moment.

"You know why you’re here?"

"Because you want to build a technology company."

"Not exactly."

Ethan waited.

"I want to build products people actually want."

"That’s the same thing."

"No."

Adrian leaned forward.

"A company can survive without making products people love. It can survive through contracts, subsidies, acquisitions or market position."

"And you don’t want that."

"I want something people choose."

Ethan nodded.

"Then why start with phones?"

"Because everyone carries one."

"That’s not enough."

"I know."

"Then what’s the advantage?"

Adrian smiled.

"That’s what I’m hiring you to discover."

Ethan laughed.

"At least you’re honest."

"I don’t know enough about consumer electronics."

"Most billionaires wouldn’t admit that."

"Most billionaires aren’t building the company I’m building."

Ethan looked at the documents in front of him.

"What are you offering?"

"Authority."

"Over?"

"The entire consumer technology division."

Ethan’s expression became more serious.

"How much capital?"

"Enough."

"That’s not a number."

"Two hundred million pounds for the first stage."

"First stage?"

"Team, laboratories, industrial design, software, prototypes and manufacturing partnerships."

"And if we need more?"

"Make the case."

"And if I disagree with you?"

"Tell me."

"What if you still disagree?"

"Then we’ll argue."

Ethan smiled.

"And who wins?"

"The better argument."

"You’re serious."

"Completely."

Ethan sat back.

"What do you want from me?"

Adrian answered without hesitation.

"Build me a company that can stand beside the best consumer technology companies in the world."

Ethan looked at him for several seconds.

"How much time?"

"I don’t have a deadline."

"That’s unusual."

"I’d rather have a good product than a rushed one."

"How much freedom?"

"Almost complete."

"Almost?"

"I still own the company."

Ethan laughed.

"Fair."

He picked up the proposal.

"I’ll take it."

Adrian smiled.

"Good."

"On one condition."

"What?"

"I choose the team."

"Obviously."

"And the first product."

Adrian nodded.

"You have twelve months to show me something people would actually want to buy."

Ethan stood.

"That’s a deadline."

"No."

Adrian smiled.

"That’s motivation."

After Ethan left, Robert remained in the room.

"You hired him quickly."

"He knew what he was talking about."

"That was enough?"

"No."

Adrian looked at the proposal.

"He also wasn’t impressed by the money."

Robert smiled.

"That matters to you."

"It does."

"Why?"

"Because someone who only sees the money will eventually stop seeing the product."

Robert nodded.

Adrian closed the file.

"Set up the company."

"Name?"

Adrian thought for a moment.

"Sterling Consumer Technologies for now."

"No final brand?"

"Not yet."

Robert made a note.

"Headquarters?"

"London."

"Research?"

"Cambridge."

"Manufacturing?"

"Wherever makes sense."

Robert looked up.

"China?"

"Maybe."

"Europe?"

"Maybe."

"Nigeria?"

Adrian smiled.

"Eventually, definitely."

Robert nodded.

That answer had become familiar.

Not a vague promise.

A direction.

By early afternoon, Adrian was back in the city.

This time, however, he wasn’t heading to another office.

A black Range Rover was waiting outside the building.

Adrian got in.

The driver looked at him through the mirror.

"Home, sir?"

Adrian thought about it.

"No."

"Where to?"

"Mayfair."

The car moved through traffic.

He had no meeting scheduled.

No presentation.

No factory inspection.

For once, he wanted to see the city without having a reason to be somewhere.

He walked into a luxury watch boutique and spent nearly an hour looking at watches he had previously considered absurdly expensive.

The salesperson recognised him but didn’t make a fuss.

Adrian eventually chose one.

The price was enough to buy a small house in some parts of London.

He paid without thinking twice.

When he stepped outside, he looked at the box in his hand.

It felt strange.

Not because of the price.

Because he had never imagined himself buying something like this simply because he liked it.

He smiled.

Perhaps this was part of the billionaire life Sophia kept telling him he was supposed to experience.

Not buying everything.

Being able to buy something beautiful without calculating whether he could afford it.

He put the box in the car.

Then his phone rang.

This time it was Miriam.

Adrian answered.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you calling?"

"I wanted to tell you something before someone else does."

"Go on."

"The cooling redesign worked better than expected."

Adrian smiled.

"How much?"

"Pressure loss is down nine percent."

"That’s good."

"It gets better."

"I’m listening."

"The new route frees enough space around the drive unit that we can improve access for maintenance."

Adrian laughed.

"So the problem solved another problem."

"Yes."

"Good."

Miriam hesitated.

"There’s one more thing."

"Of course."

"The first drive-unit installation is scheduled for tomorrow."

Adrian looked out through the car window.

"Tomorrow."

"Yes."

"Good."

He ended the call.

For a few seconds he simply sat there.

The consumer technology company had a CEO.

A ￡200 million initial budget had been approved.

The first product strategy was beginning.

He had just bought a watch that cost more than his old annual salary.

And tomorrow, Prototype 01 would receive its first drive unit.

Adrian smiled.

The life he had once imagined from the outside was beginning to become ordinary.

That was perhaps the strangest part.

That evening, Sophia called.

"How was your day?"

Adrian hesitated.

"Interesting."

"Did you work?"

"A little."

"How little?"

"Enough to start another company."

There was silence.

Then Sophia laughed.

"You really are hopeless."

"I hired someone else to run it."

"That doesn’t make it better."

"It makes it efficient."

"You’re doing it again."

Adrian smiled.

"Fine."

She continued.

"Did you buy anything?"

He looked at the watch box sitting on the table.

"Maybe."

"What?"

"A watch."

"How expensive?"

"Very."

"How very?"

Adrian told her.

There was a long silence.

"Adrian."

"What?"

"You’re supposed to be learning how to relax, not learning how to become a stereotype."

He laughed.

"I liked it."

"Then that’s different."

She paused.

"Are you free tomorrow evening?"

"I think so."

"Good."

"Why?"

"I’ll tell you."

"You’re becoming mysterious."

"I learned from you."

"I don’t like where this is going."

She laughed.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

The call ended.

Adrian looked at the watch again.

Then he looked at the clock.

For once, he wasn’t thinking about how much the watch cost.

He was thinking about whether Sophia had something planned.

At Sterling Industrial Works, the first drive unit was waiting.

The engineers had spent the evening preparing the mounting system.

The housing was ready.

The cooling route had been approved.

The battery enclosure had passed another inspection.

Tomorrow, for the first time, one of Sterling’s electromagnetic drive units would be physically connected to the vehicle platform.

It wasn’t going to move.

Not yet.

But it would be there.

Adrian stood in the workshop for several minutes before leaving.

He looked at the unfinished vehicle.

Then at the phone in his pocket.

Two different futures were developing at the same time.

One was being built on a factory floor.

The other was waiting inside a product laboratory that didn’t yet exist.

And Adrian wanted both.

Not because he needed more money.

He already had enough money to live several lifetimes.

He wanted businesses.

Brands.

Factories.

Products.

Things that people could use and remember.

Things that could exist without the System paying for every step.

The System could give him capital.

It couldn’t build a company for him.

That part was still his.

At 11:59 p.m., the System appeared.

[Daily Check-In Available.]

Adrian tapped the notification.

[Day 98 Check-In Complete.]

[Reward: ￡25,000,000 Liquid Capital.]

The money transferred.

Adrian closed the notification.

He didn’t calculate his total.

He didn’t need to.

Tomorrow, another company would begin taking shape.

Another product would move closer to reality.

And, for the first time, Adrian was beginning to understand something about being wealthy.

The money wasn’t the lifestyle.

It was the freedom behind the lifestyle.

He could have breakfast prepared without thinking about it.

He could buy a watch because he liked it.

He could hire one of Europe’s most experienced consumer executives and give him ￡200 million to build something new.

He could travel to Portugal for five days without worrying about whether the business would collapse while he was gone.

He could build factories.

He could fund ideas that would have been impossible for him only a year earlier.

That was the billionaire life Adrian wanted.

Not simply expensive cars and expensive houses.

Freedom.

Choice.

Scale.

And the ability to wake up one morning and decide that the next thing he wanted to build didn’t exist yet.

Then build it.

Adrian looked at the watch on his wrist.

For once, he smiled at the time instead of worrying about it.

Tomorrow, the first drive unit would go into Prototype 01.

And somewhere in London, a new consumer technology company would begin looking for its first product.

The empire was getting bigger.

Not because Adrian was buying everything.

Because he was finally learning how to build.