Virginia, Pentagon A conference room deep underground.
Edgar was slowly wiping his gold-rimmed glasses with a pure cotton handkerchief.
Marge is sitting next to him, eating a piece of strawberry cake.
Jingle bells.
The unmarked black dedicated phone on the corner of the table rang again.
Edgar put on his glasses again and waited for five rings before answering.
"Good evening."
Edgar spoke first, with a hint of politeness in his tone.
"You broke your promise, Edgar."
What came from the other end of the phone was the old but gentle voice late last night.
But at this moment, the calmness like that of a kind old man was obviously mixed with a hint of coldness.
"I clearly promised to leave dozens of people alive. Do you know how much trouble you almost caused me by your own decision?"
Edgar leaned on the back of the chair, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
"I deeply regret this incident."
Edgar's voice didn't sound rippled at all,
"But you know, I am an extremely risk-averse person. I don't want the secret to be exposed. If those alive are allowed to bring the news back to Supernatural World, the chain reaction will be something Vought International is not willing to bear at the moment. For our long-term interests, the dead will always know how to keep secrets better than the living."
The receiver was silent for a few seconds.
When the old voice sounded again, there was finally a rare and obvious mood swing, which was the sullen anger after having violated authority.
"Edgar, you are playing with fire, you are destroying our decades-long tacit understanding of cooperation!"
The voice on the other end of the phone became shrill, like a poisonous snake finally showing its fangs.
"Do you really think Vought International can cover the sky with one hand? Are you not afraid that I will make all the secrets between us over the past decades public?"
Faced with this naked threat, Edgar didn't even lose half of his rhythm of tapping on the table.
"I don't understand you."
Edgar pretended to be confused.
"Don't play dumb with me!"
The voice sneered, with a sinister tone, and said through gritted teeth,
"For example, the real core raw materials of Compound V are actually the talented Wizards! Another example, your so-called mutation experiments..."
"Oh? How did you know?"
Edgar uttered an exclamation at the right time, interrupting the other party's words. However, this exclamation sounded false.
But just a second later, the surprise in his tone completely disappeared, followed by ridicule.
"But even if you knew it, what would you do?"
Edgar chuckled lightly, picked up the black coffee on the table and moistened his throat.
"Actually, Vought International had no intention of hiding it from you. Ever since the day you squeezed out your predecessor, took the highest position, and started officially cooperating with Vought International..."
Edgar's voice gradually became colder, like a sharp scalpel, cutting open the other party's hypocritical skin bit by bit:
"When you first secretly transported the corpses of those wandering Wizards to our port; when you used your power to forcibly erase the population files of those who disappeared in remote areas, and even faked their deaths as accidental... we already acquiesced that you had already guessed what we were doing with those people."
The only sound on the other end of the phone was heavy breathing, which was obviously the deepest pain point.
"Then what?"
Edgar continued to provoke without mercy,
"Are you going to expose me? Tell the world that you, a high-ranking and respected leader, are actually Vought International's largest supplier of raw materials? Are you willing to give up the power and position you have now to control the world? Are you ready to be torn into pieces by the angry people, or to rot in the dark Azkaban prison?"
Every rhetorical question is like a heavy hammer hitting the other party's most vulnerable vitality with precision.
Edgar knows the person on the other end of the phone too well.
He is an extremely egoist who is willing to sacrifice everything for power.
Exposure Vought International?
That is tantamount to asking the other party to put the gallows rope around his neck with his own hands.
"Edgar... you crazy man with no bottom line..."
The voice on the other end of the phone was trembling slightly with anger and fear.
"Crazy? No, I'm just a pure businessman."
Edgar The smile on his face slowly faded, and his deep eyes were full of coldness.
"The world says that unscrupulous capitalists like us are disgusting and are stained with the smell of copper and blood. But in my opinion, corrupt officials like you who hold a high position and talk about benevolence and morality, but secretly sell your compatriots like animals like animals for profit, are the most disgusting garbage in the world."
Edgar didn't even bother to hide the disdain in his tone:
"In comparison, even Joseph, who you branded as a traitor, is much stronger than you. He compromised with Vought International, at least to save his family; and you sold the whole world just to satisfy your greed and vanity that will never be filled."
"Joseph? He is the real coward. He cooperated with you just for the Muggle family, and the bloody killings he caused are no less than mine..."
The voice on the other end of the phone was much weaker, but still arguing weakly.
Edgar interrupted the voice impatiently:
"Don't forget, even all the information about Joseph was provided to me by you, including his weaknesses, daughter, granddaughter... and even the flight they took when they left United States."
"Why, do you think killing them is doing harm to the people?"
Edgar scoffed.
There was deathly silence in the receiver.
Edgar knows that he has already won this psychological game.
He slowly took the receiver away from his ear, and before hanging up, he issued an ultimatum in an understatement:
"So, put away your ridiculous threats, continue to be your superior leader, and enjoy your halo. As for those Fantastic Beasts materials, Vought International will continue to find ways to solve them. As long as you don't block my way, I guarantee that you will always be that great and respected figure."
Click.
Edgar has no scruples in cutting off this special line that involves countless dark secrets.
He drank the last sip of the cold coffee in the cup and threw the documents aside.
No matter how big the Stormfront is outside, as long as the most fatal weakness of these politicians is grasped, this giant ship Vought International will never yaw.
Marge sat quietly on the side and heard the entire conversation clearly.
It can also be said that Edgar did not want to avoid her at all.