Chapter 99
Chapter 99. Go Ahead, Do Your Worst (2)
A pitch-dark room.
An uncomfortable chair.
Cool air.
The sole light source was an interrogation lamp hanging above the table.
An interrogation room straight out of a picture.
"Wait here for a moment."
Transferred to the Northern Branch of the Financial Supervisory Service, Jurgen was thrown into a cramped room without a single word of explanation.
But he had already grasped the situation.
There is a saying — medicines to the pharmacist, diagnosis to the doctor.
And the squeezing of businessmen to the Financial Supervisory Service.
This was not a joke with a hint of exaggeration — it was a rather realistic proverb.
The Financial Supervisory Service was, to use a comparison to Korea, an organisation that combined the National Tax Service and the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Add to that direct investigative and detention authority — one might say there was a drop of the prosecution mixed in as well.
In other words — it was a convenient sword for Clarisse to swing.
Y&P Trading Company had no adequate backing to blunt that blade, and crucially, it allowed the isolation of Jurgen — Y&P's key figure.
They would likely shake him down for whatever dust they could find, real or fabricated, in order to remove him.
Creak
An old iron door opened.
An investigator reeking of cigarette smoke entered, a document folder tucked under his arm.
One of the men who had hauled Jurgen in.
"Jurgen, co-representative of Y&P Trading Company — correct?"
"That's correct."
"Do you know where you are?"
"The interrogation room of the Financial Supervisory Service Northern Branch, is it not?"
The polite speech used outside, however perfunctory, dropped as a matter of course into a blunt, familiar address.
"Hah. A man who knows full well what's what and still has the nerve to act tough. Begging on both hands and knees wouldn't be enough to get you out of this. But I suppose being propped up by that Royal Warrant business has gone to your head."
"I would like to speak with my Lawyer."
"Think talking to a lawyer will change anything? Contact with legal counsel is not possible at this time for procedural reasons. Mr. Commoner businessman Jurgen, sir."
The investigator bared his teeth and sneered.
"Get a grip. You're in here right now on charges of malicious Tax Evasion and...... well, a positively filthy number of counts on top of that. Put them all together and you're looking at a solid forty years rotting away. Do you understand?"
Was the opening move a bad cop?
A temperament that looked thoroughly unpleasant — a face well-suited to the role.
"I'll keep it short. Just sign here and make things easy for yourself. Let's not make this painful for either of us, shall we?"
The investigator slouched in his chair and tossed the document folder onto the table.
"What is this?"
"It's a mouthful so listen carefully. The Special Criminal Mediation and Corporate Management Normalisation Agreement — a first-offence reduced sentencing package. Acknowledge your wrongdoings like a man, sign this, and it ends with a fine."
Jurgen skimmed through the contents.
A clause listing offences he had never committed, and agreeing to admit to all of them.
A clause declaring that he felt deep moral responsibility for the above, and would accordingly surrender his management rights — that is to say, his Y&P Stake — to the Chamber of Commerce.
It was so brazen he could not even muster a laugh.
It was plain as day who would snap up the stake once it hit the market.
"There would have to be a wrong committed in order to admit to one."
"Then you'll be making friends in a cell. Have a good long think about it. The analysis division is shaking down your accounting records right now as we speak. Let's see if you have the same tune when that comes back."
As though granting him time to think, the investigator left, leaving only the agreement sitting on the table.
"Quite the carte blanche operation."
Whether in the modern world or in Britannia.
Not everything flows according to rules and law.
At times, even a quasi-judicial body moves not for justice, but for the benefit of those in power.
But the investigator just now, and this agreement with its absurdly long title —
Both were rather sloppily done.
Jurgen would have been far more thorough.
Then again.
He couldn't be certain exactly which tier the order had come down from, but these were the distinguished gentlemen of the Supervisory Service.
Wringing the last breath out of a single commoner businessman — they probably considered it a light snack.
But.
"It won't be as straightforward as you think."
It would be harder than they expected.
***
About half a day later.
Investigator Campbell made his way to the Analysis Division.
The Analysis Division staff were already elbow-deep in the Y&P ledgers and documents that had been seized in the rapid search.
Thick glasses, unkempt hair, dark circles under the eyes.
A rather shabby lot in appearance...... but shabby as they looked, these were elites recognised by the Kingdom.
Thrown into a pile of thousands of documents, they could locate every last irregularity within a single day — hunting dogs through and through.
"Hey — found anything to work with?"
"Ah, we're still going through it. But, well......"
"What."
"What's this all about, coming out of nowhere? There were no particular directives until yesterday. This isn't a routine matter — it's an emergency arrest. You'd think there'd have been some word from above."
Campbell slapped his own forehead and draped a friendly arm around the Analysis Division staffer's shoulders.
"Ah, right. You haven't been posted here long, have you?"
"Pardon? Yes. That's right."
"Our green District Chief wants to make a name for himself, apparently. I thought his strings had all been cut, but it seems he's managed to attach himself to someone up top."
"What? So this is a targeted investigation?"
Campbell gave the newcomer a sharp smack on the back of the head.
"Don't use difficult words. It's not as if we go around arresting innocent people, now is it? Even with types like this — once you dig in, they've all got something going on behind the scenes. A salaried man has no business worrying about other people."
"Even so......"
While Campbell was delivering his lecture on the ways of the world to the newcomer, the Head of the Analysis Division came rushing over.
"Campbell, good timing you're here. That Y&P matter — there's something you need to see!"
"See? What did I tell you? Dig around and it all comes out. Justice prevails — that's what I'm saying."
Giving the newcomer a pat on the shoulder, Campbell was dragged off by the Analysis Division Head.
"What's all the fuss about? That much dirt? Well, I suppose the growth was abnormal. How does a neighbourhood hole-in-the-wall manage to snag a Royal Warrant in under two years."
The Analysis Division Head shook his head.
"See it with your own eyes."
"What's so remarkable that you're dragging it out like this? Embezzlement? Fraudulent accounting? Or did you find a slush fund?"
"No."
The Division Head showed him a brief report, looking utterly incredulous.
"There's nothing."
"What?"
"Truly nothing. Not a speck of dust."
Campbell went blank, then raised his voice.
"Preposterous!"
Running a business without a single grain of dust to show was impossible.
Even the most law-abiding businessperson would strain every nerve to reduce taxes within what the law permitted. Under ordinary circumstances the tax authorities wouldn't particularly take issue with it — but under a Financial Supervisory Service magnifying glass, it became a 'crime.'
"Look at this — it's the earnings ledger. Every last penny taken in, recorded down to the single pence."
"......"
"This is the expenditure ledger, and this is the supporting documentation for deductions submitted to the tax authorities the previous year. Well? Not a single gap to be found."
"...... No, how is this even......"
Just as the Analysis Division Head said.
Ledger manipulation, inflated advisory fees for business connections, padded research and development costs, overestimated depreciation, purchasing art as corporate expenses, payroll manipulation, and so on.
The tricks routinely employed by other businesses.
The multitude of accounting loopholes that left ample room for such manoeuvres — Y&P had not touched a single one.
"They simply made no effort to save on taxes. In fact, even amounts that could have been filed as non-taxable, they voluntarily declared and paid."
"Dig further? Are you sure you've looked properly?"
"It would be pointless. In all my years in public service I've never once come across a madman like this. This isn't a Tax Evasion investigation — it looks more like we owe them a Model Taxpayer commendation."
"......"
Campbell's expression turned sour, as though he had bitten into something foul.
"What now?"
"What do you mean what now? It's a direct order from the District Chief."
Not difficult.
A bit of an unpleasant aftertaste, but......
Fabricate a record of wrongdoing and quietly slot it in. Done.
"You want to plant it? I'm a bit uneasy about that. If he were some run-of-the-mill bad actor it'd be one thing — but he's too much of a model citizen."
"Proceed."
Campbell lit a cigarette and tried to smooth away the bitter taste in his mouth.
***
The lobby of a hotel in Golden Hill.
District Chief Donovan, half-reclining on a sofa and savouring a cigar, was wearing a perpetual grin.
Top of his class at the Royal Academy.
Worked as an administrator in the Treasury before being specially recruited into the Financial Supervisory Service.
Up until that point, Donovan had believed he was set for a glittering career in the capital Albion.
But his connections, coming from a Viscountcy family, were as thin as a dried-up stream.
He had been posted not to the coveted central position he had dreamed of, but to the role of District Chief at the northern tip.
To call it a Demotion was a stretch — the post of District Chief was a senior position with full responsibility for the relevant branch — but that was irrelevant to Donovan.
At the end of the day, was it not the 'outskirts' rather than the 'centre'?
But those complaints were now a thing of the past.
"At last, my moment has come......
Just yesterday, Donovan had reached the turning point of his life.
Rosemore had made contact.
If he would see to the proper suppression of one trading company, they would become a reliable patron.
It was presumably some internal family dispute, but he had no need to know the details.
Not a difficult matter.
He had already been briefed on documentation covering how to proceed.
An old man of plump build and an affable appearance stepped into the lobby.
"My, my — whatever brings the busy and distinguished District Chief all the way out here?"
"Baron Keystone, a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Donovan."
"I heard you'd been newly posted here — I do apologise for not coming to pay my respects sooner."
"Think nothing of it. Please, have a seat."
The two shook hands and sat down.
What District Chief Donovan needed to do was this: keep Y&P Trading Company legally ensnared, while persuading their most important partner Baron Keystone to deliver the final blow.
Not a particularly difficult task.
The one holding the hilt of the sword was himself, after all.
The law of the Kingdom was supreme — what could some fusty regional strongman possibly do in defiance of a District Chief of Britannia's Financial Supervisory Service?
"As I understand it, it is Keystone Company that supplies chicken to Y&P's CCC and handles Cola production on their behalf — is that correct?"
"That is correct...... but may I ask what this is about, so suddenly?"
"I'll be direct. Halt the supply. Halt the production."
"I beg your pardon — I would need some explanation. What in the world do you mean by that?"
"It won't be a bad thing for your side either."
District Chief Donovan gave a brief summary of the current situation.
That Y&P's representative, a man called Jurgen, was currently being detained on charges of Tax Evasion.
That this scheme had been designed by the Rosemore side.
And that a proposal had been extended to Baron Keystone as well.
"The Y&P stake will soon be put on the market. It doesn't matter who picks it up — but wouldn't it make for a fine picture if Lord Keystone were the one to take it?"
"Hmm."
"All I'm asking is that you fan the flames a little in the meantime. When that commoner Jurgen is squeezed hard enough, he'll hand over the stake without a fuss."
"In short...... you're saying I should abandon Y&P and align with Lady Clarisse's side — is that it?"
"To be precise — it's not that you abandon Y&P, but that your side absorbs it."
There was no reason for Baron Keystone to refuse.
He could trade up to a far larger vessel, and if things went well he would gain enough of a stake to attempt a merger with Y&P.
It amounted to handing over the goose that laid golden eggs — whole.
"......That young lady really. What an ill-fated lot she has."
Baron Keystone clicked his tongue and leaned back against the sofa.
"District Chief, I am sorry, but that proposal is not something I can accept."
"What's that?"
The swift refusal, and the subtly lightened tone of address — Donovan's eyes narrowed into triangles.
"I have spent my whole life building up my family business. No matter how much effort I put in, I always hit a wall. Have you ever felt the sensation of clinging to something that simply will not work?"
"......"
"But lately I feel as though I've shed about twenty years. Every morning when I open my eyes, I wake up with a start — wondering what remarkable thing Y&P, what remarkable thing that Jurgen fellow, will do next."
"And so?"
"In the short term, absorbing Y&P might make sense. But a Y&P without Jurgen — that holds no interest for me."
Donovan laughed through his nose.
"Now listen — I'm being perfectly civil about this......"
He had already been displeased that the meeting place had been set at a Golden Hill hotel.
Rather than summoning him here, should he not have come sprinting to Nortaris himself?
And yet here he was, flat-out refusing at the very first instant, even when a sweet gift was being offered.
"Old man. Do you have any grasp of the situation you're in?"
District Chief Donovan slammed the table.
A performed outburst.
"Does this sound like a proposal to you? The way you're wriggling around, it looks like you've had quite a lucrative arrangement going with Y&P. Shall I go ahead and shake down Keystone Company next? Shall I? I can rake you right down to the floor if I put my mind to it!"
Before Donovan, who was spraying spittle as he made his threats, Baron Keystone......
"Heh heh, look at this bastard."
Simply smiled.