Billionaire in Kingsman with a Marvel System

After buying the watch, William sat in the Patek Philippe boutique, sipping coffee as he called the Aston Martin dealership. He instructed them to tow the damaged car back and sell it as a second-hand vehicle, while also delivering a new DB7 of the same model. Less than 20 minutes later, the manager of the Patek Philippe boutique walked over to William with a middle-aged man. After some pleasantries, the Aston Martin dealership manager processed the payment on the POS machine, and William exchanged a few polite words. Both managers, all smiles and eager to please, escorted William to his new car. William thanked them briefly before getting into the car and driving away.

Upon arriving at the Four Seasons Hotel, William was greeted by a butler and two maids waiting for him as he stepped out of the car. Once inside the presidential suite, William dismissed the staff and lay down on the sofa, mentally visualizing the schematics for the Mark 2 suit. He then instructed Sunday to record each part he described, piece by piece.

From 4 PM until 10 PM, William spent six hours describing less than 300 parts, his mouth dry from the effort. Realizing that he had only covered a fraction of the total components, William felt a bit discouraged. Deciding to give his voice a break, he drank some tea, ordered a late-night snack, and slept soundly until the next morning.

After breakfast the next day, Sunday reported to William: "Sir, Mr. Craig's plane has just landed at the Singapore airport. Do you want to start monitoring him now?"

"No need. Let me know when Patrice shows up. In the meantime, have Gareth come to the hotel; he's probably too anxious to sleep. Has Silva's mistress, Sévérine, arrived in Singapore?"

"Understood, sir. Task noted. Ms. Sévérine is already in Singapore, but her bodyguard is always with her, so the Expendables haven't had a chance to make contact."

William sipped his coffee as he walked onto the suite's balcony, gazing out at Hyde Park in the distance. Thinking about the thousands of parts still left to describe, he sighed. "Did you send yesterday's parts to the manufacturing plants?"

"Yes, sir. The 300 parts were sent to 71 different factories across six countries. Per your instructions, we only used standard-grade aerospace materials, so everything should be shipped back to the castle within seven days."

"Alright, then let's continue."

The morning passed in much the same way. After lunch, William took a nap but was rudely awakened by Sunday. "Sir, it's 8:46 PM in Singapore. Mr. Craig has just started tailing Patrice. The Expendables' Christmas and Gunner are following them from a distance with a Blackfang drone. Per your orders, I've already called Gareth Mallory. He's on his way and should arrive at the hotel in 17 minutes."

"Got it," William mumbled sleepily before drifting off again.

About 20 minutes later, William was awakened by a knock at the door. Just as he was about to get angry, Sunday's voice came through. "Sir, Mr. Mallory is waiting outside your bedroom."

Sighing, William reluctantly got up, put on his robe, and opened the bedroom door. He shoved a grumbling Gareth aside. "Sunday, put the images up on the TV."

Flopping onto the sofa, William waved at the butler standing nearby. "Pour two glasses of whiskey, one for me and one for this grumpy guy."

"Certainly, Mr. Devonshire."

Taking his glass, William waved the butler out and gave Gareth, who was still fuming, a pointed look. "Sit down. You'll see the live feed soon enough. I had you come here so you could see it with your own eyes—so you won't be calling me all night, keeping me awake."

Before Gareth could respond, Sunday's mechanical voice echoed from the living room TV. "Sir, the images are being processed. Connection will be established in 10 seconds."

Gareth stared at the TV in amazement, then turned to William, sprawled on the sofa. "Is this your AI system? It can even hack into TV broadcasts?"

"Idiot," William scoffed, giving Gareth a strange look. "Do you have vision problems? Didn't you see the satellite relay system on the TV cabinet?"

"You still haven't told me if it can hack into networks," Gareth said, surprisingly unfazed by William's insult, and fixated on his question.

"Of course not, but what are you planning? Just so you know, hacking into networks is illegal." William took a sip of whiskey and, with a mischievous glint in his eye, added, "Sunday's main server still has plenty of unused processing power. If you could provide a few supercomputers, I might be able to develop an even more advanced AI."

"No thanks," Gareth replied with a chuckle. "If you want to use government resources for free, you need to show us some benefits. I can't report to my superiors with empty promises unless you let our people join in on your AI research."

"Sure," William yawned. "You can buy it for £100 billion."

"Hah, £100 billion for second-rate goods? From what I know of you, if you're willing to sell it, it's definitely not the best. We might as well invest that money into our own research."

"Then shut up if you can't afford it," William muttered to himself, realizing that getting money out of Gareth wouldn't be easy.

Since he couldn't scam any money, William lost interest in dealing with Gareth. "You go ahead and watch. I'm going back to sleep."

After taking a few steps, William turned and added, "Oh, and if you want to keep watching, be quiet. If you wake me up again, I'll throw you out."

William slept until 3 PM. As soon as he got up, Sunday reported, "Sir, half an hour ago, Christmas and Gunner secretly made contact with Ms. Sévérine, but she requested to meet with you to confirm Barney's claims before she'll tell us where Silva is."

"Heh, $10 million and a new identity just to sell out her man. Should I say she's smart or heartless?"

William had been planning to contact Sévérine for a while but was cautious about alarming Silva, which could tip him off. That's why he had been waiting for the right moment. After having Sunday closely monitor Sévérine for a few days, she had reported that Sévérine had mumbled in her sleep about wanting to kill Silva. This confirmed William's suspicion that Sévérine had long harbored thoughts of betrayal. He decided to take advantage of her trip to Singapore to make contact.

If Sévérine didn't cooperate, William had ways to make her talk, but that would carry some risks for him and be rather cruel to her. William, still only an intermediate-level mage, found using certain dark magic risky, so this was the best approach. Christmas had offered $1 million, and Sévérine had agreed without even negotiating for more.

"Has Gareth left?"

"No, sir."

"Good, then let's chat and see if we can get this $1 million reimbursed. Tell Christmas to get an account number from Sévérine. Transfer $500,000 as a deposit. I don't need her to tell me where Silva is, but she must lead Craig to find him."

If the goal was only to capture Silva, William might have met with Sévérine for the sake of those millions. But William's objective was more than just capturing Silva—he needed Silva to continue with his plan to eliminate M.

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