Chapter 5020

"Hello, Lady." Thomas Wayne stood up, shook hands with Pepper, and then said, "Want to talk about jumping ship?"

Pepper shook her head instead and said, "Regarding the matter of Luthor Group investing in the Revival Alliance, what do you think?"

Hearing this topic, Thomas's face darkened. He sat back down and then gestured for Pepper to sit as well. He glanced at Shiler; seeing he had no intention of sitting, he didn't press the matter, but returned to the topic at hand, saying, "This is bad news, but Wayne Group has no reason whatsoever to stop it."

"We can all see Luthor's intentions aren't pure. Handing such an important department as the Strategic Assurance Bureau over to him will certainly cause trouble down the line. But right now, the reception activities for multiverse visitors are imminent, and I also can't demand the Revival Alliance firmly refuse their investment. That's unrealistic. Unless..."

"Unless Stark Group changes its mind." Pepper said, "But with just me lobbying, the effect won't be great. Tony will definitely trip me up too."

"You mean the two of us join forces?" Thomas looked at her and said, "But because we originally came from two different universes, the shareholder overlap between Wayne Group and Stark Group is very low. The influence I can exert on them is very limited."

"The fact Tony publicly announced he's a mental patient has affected Stark Group's operations, and this will impact employee confidence." Pepper frowned slightly. She hadn't expected Thomas to not quite get it either, looking not very professional, so she had to break it down piece by piece. "Middle management is the foundation of an enterprise. The collapse of many large enterprises begins with the collapse of middle management."

"Low-level employees are mostly forced by livelihood. High-level employees are bound too deeply to the group. Only middle management has enough leeway to wait and see and choose, and it's relatively easier for them to jump ship. Why not take this opportunity to poach Stark Group's middle management?"

Thomas's expression changed: "You yourself said middle management is the foundation of an enterprise. You want to destroy Stark Group?"

"Of course not. Otherwise I could just pull a few small tricks and Stark Group would start an avalanche." Pepper said, "Right now Stark Group only has some problems; it's not necessarily unsalvageable. So shareholders will choose to wait and see, temporarily not questioning Tony's decision to divest from the Revival Alliance. But if the group faces a risk of collapse, they won't be able to remain bystanders any longer."

"I understand. You want me to give Stark Group a shot, make it look hurt worse, so it'll naturally go to the hospital."

"Exactly." Pepper said, "It's not that Tony's making too big a fuss, but that he's not making a big enough fuss. The transformation plan only hurts those close to him. Most shareholders are unaffected, so they don't think to stop him. But if Stark Group faces a real danger of capsizing, more people will stand on my side to stop him."

"Before I wasn't willing to do this because it would definitely bring huge damage to Stark Group. I'm afraid it wouldn't catch its breath for years. But now it seems, when a decision must be made, delay brings disaster. I should have done this long ago."

"This is dangerous." Thomas said, "Aren't you afraid Stark Group really won't recover from a single blow?"

"Letting him put the transformation plan into practice won't yield much better results." Pepper said very calmly. "Besides, this would also affect the Revival Alliance's reception activities and give Luthor an opening. It's a complete three-way loss. Better to seize this chance, let the gecko shed its tail, and still have a sliver of hope."

Thomas looked at Pepper with no lack of admiration. In the current situation, being able to make such a decisive decision was no easy feat. Pepper had done everything she could, and there really was no better way.

Pepper took out a list from her handbag and said, "This is a headhunter list. It contains the bottom prices and requirements many employees with intent to jump ship gave to headhunters. You need to hurry."

Thomas took it and glanced over it roughly. Stark Group indeed had abundant talent, while Wayne Group's poor operating condition was precisely because after Bruce took over, personnel management wasn't outstanding enough. With a list like this, Wayne Group could gain a lot of fresh blood.

"Many thanks, Madam. I owe you a favor." Thomas said.

He knew in his heart that Pepper actually could have just moved her lips and left the poaching to him. Controlling labor costs has never been that simple, not to mention poaching always costs more money.

With this headhunter list, they could better grasp the other side's psychological expectations, the certainty of closing deals would be much greater, and they could save more on labor costs. After all, hiring headhunters to investigate costs money too.

Pepper turned and left the office. Shiler followed behind her. The two got in the car again. Pepper paused a moment, then said, "To the hospital."

Shiler appeared to be pondering the intent behind Pepper's move, but in reality he wasn't thinking anything at all. However, Pepper bringing him in clearly meant she wanted someone to discuss it with, so he spoke up again in the car:

"Do you think this move will succeed?"

Shiler slowly came back to himself and said, "I don't know."

He truly didn't know, because he hadn't thought about it at all. The situation had already become somewhat complicated by this point. Any move of Pepper's pulled one hair and moved the whole body. Who benefited, who was harmed — all needed careful thought.

Pepper seemed to also see that Shiler didn't want to think about this problem, so she stopped talking too. After a silence, she suddenly spoke again: "Change course to Stark Group."

The car turned around. No one asked her why she was doing this. Silence fell inside the car for a time, until the driver slammed on the brakes. Bang! The entire windshield was shattered, fragments spraying into the back seat. Shiler almost instinctively shoved Pepper down under the seat and drew his handgun.

A car crashed head-on into theirs. The front seats had a prepared firing device that killed the driver instantly upon impact and simultaneously completely shattered the windshield. Immediately after came two bangs — two shots.

Shiler used the front seat as cover to peek out. The other side were clearly professional killers. If not for his quick reaction, everyone in the car would be dead by now.

He didn't even have time to sigh. He fired two shots directly at the other car's glass, but only punched two holes, failing to completely shatter it. The people in the other car's back seat had already gotten out.

In this situation, not getting out meant hoping to shoot dead the ones getting out of the car. But the other side clearly had more than one person, were fully equipped, and likely wore bulletproof vests. With them exiting from both sides, it was impossible to kill them all. Once they closed on the vehicle, the people inside would be dead for certain.

So Shiler made the most correct choice. He dragged Pepper out from one side. Before the other side's people had finished getting out, they had already relocated to the rear of the car. Of course, the process of getting out inevitably exposed them to the enemy shooters' line of sight. Shiler took a bullet in the shoulder.

After the two relocated behind the car, Pepper looked at his bleeding shoulder and cried out, "You've been shot!"

Shiler made a silencing gesture at her. He looked left and right. The enemy had chosen a good position. There was no cover on either side of the street, making relocation very difficult. Rushing into the nearest shop, both would surely be hit. Shiler might be okay, but Pepper definitely wouldn't survive.

The emergency distress button had been pressed long ago. Seeing Natasha's movements should be fast, but no matter how fast, it couldn't be faster than the killers walking over.

Sure enough, death-god-like footsteps sounded. Shiler poked his head out from the car's rear and gave them a shot. Just from that dull thud, one could tell the killers were fully armed. Their bulletproof vests were probably top-grade.

Shiler had no choice. He fished out that "Diana's Blessing" from another holster. He turned to Pepper and said, "Cover your ears."

But actually at this distance covering ears or not made no difference at all. The moment Shiler fired, there was only a boom. Half the street's pavement was blown up. Bulletproof vests can stop bullets, but not bombardment. The killers on one side of the car were directly blown away, falling to the ground, alive or dead unknown.

Pepper was completely stunned. Though she had covered her ears, blood still started flowing from inside them, and her whole head went dizzy. The upside was the killers on the other side froze.

The reason Shiler didn't fire at the front was to leave a live witness. If one shot blew them all to death, there'd be no proof.

Those killers clearly had never seen such a scene. After freezing a moment, they had no choice but to choose. They also ran to the rear of their own car to hide, simultaneously peeking out to see what weapon had caused such a commotion.

Having temporarily pinned down the killers, Shiler let out a breath. Suddenly, he saw a flash of light. He instinctively dodged to the side, but there was no sound of a sniper rifle shot. Shiler looked in that direction. A figure hurriedly ran away.

From the other's posture, one could tell they probably weren't a sniper. If not a sniper scope's glint, could it be a camera lens?

Pepper hadn't seen this flash, but she also suddenly realized, and said, "Someone wants to pump the stock."

Under such tense circumstances, this one sentence made Shiler understand why a suspected reporter appeared here. It was more plain and understandable than any long-winded explanation. Simply put, Stark had already become a mental patient. If Pepper had another accident, Stark Group's stock price would be completely finished.

Shiler lowered his head to look at the gun in his hand. "Diana's Blessing" absolutely could not be used again. Even if he could take it, Pepper couldn't. He switched back to his own Glock.

That huge boom just now, besides temporarily driving back the killers, had another important effect. Their current position wasn't far from Wayne Group, and today was the weekend. The university was on break too.

Sure enough, a red-and-blue figure appeared in the sky above Forward York City. Spider-Man jumped down. Seeing this scene, he froze a moment. The killers hiding behind the car discovered Spider-Man had come but didn't run. Instead they directly raised guns and fired.

Spider-Man nimbly dodged, then flipped behind the car. He punched down one killer raising a gun, then went after the others.

Shiler did not relax his vigilance, because the crisis was not yet resolved. Right now Forward York City had superheroes by the handful. Their corresponding supervillains were also very easy to find. Hiring only this kind of ordinary professional killers was unreasonable.

Sure enough, the next second, a vortex-like thing appeared beside the car, directly sucking both people and car inside together.