Chapter 151: Chapter 151
George’s throat moved.
For a moment, he could not answer.
The smoke outside was still thick. His assistant was crying quietly beside him. The driver had not moved from the wheel, and the dead security assistant was still lying against the front door.
George had been cornered before.
He had lost deals and seen men die.
But this was different. This was not a business loss or a warning sent through another man. Someone had reached his moving car. That person had burned his security line and called him with Rovan’s dead number.
For the first time in a long while, George understood that he was not controlling the room.
He had thought his fear would turn into anger once the first shock passed, but the fear stayed.
That was why his next words came out weaker than he wanted.
He forced his voice out.
"What do you want from me?"
Adam did not answer immediately.
George swallowed and continued, faster this time.
"I accept defeat," he said. "Whatever you say, I will do it. Just don’t kill me."
On the other side of the call, Adam was sitting inside his hostel room.
The copied phone was in his hand.
A satisfied smile came to his face.
George Malani had finally said the words Adam wanted to hear.
That did not mean Adam trusted him.
It only meant George had been pushed into the position where he could be used.
Adam had not attacked George to finish him.
If he wanted George dead, Leo would have done it on that road. But a dead George would only create noise. A living George, scared enough to obey, was far more useful.
"Good," Adam said. "Then listen carefully. Tonight, I will send you some instructions."
George closed his eyes for a second.
"I will follow them."
"For now," Adam continued, "I am sending you some funds."
George opened his eyes.
"Funds?"
"Your financial condition is not very good right now," Adam said. "Fix it enough that you can still stand. I do not need a broken tool."
George did not know what to say.
The person who had just crushed his security was now talking about helping him. That made no sense to him, but he did not dare question it.
He could only sit there in the damaged car and listen.
For a man like George, accepting help from the same person who had just frightened him was humiliating. But refusing it was worse. Refusing meant acting proud when he had just admitted defeat.
Before George could speak again, Adam cut the call.
The scene shifted to Aster Core’s side.
Kiri was with Davin in the temporary manufacturing unit.
The advertisement they had placed for machine operators and technical staff had already brought several weak candidates. Most of them had read about machines. Some had worked near small factory lines. None of them had shown real confidence around a chip manufacturing unit.
The man standing in front of them now looked different.
He was not dressed richly. His shirt was simple, and his file was old at the edges. But his eyes kept moving toward the machine behind Kiri, not with fear, but with interest.
That was the first thing Kiri liked.
Most candidates looked at the machine as if it was a problem waiting to embarrass them. This man looked at it like a difficult thing he still wanted to understand.
Kiri looked at the resume again.
"You saw our advertisement?" he asked.
"Yes," the man said. "I saw it two days ago."
Davin stood near the side with a notebook in his hand.
The man continued, "I think chip manufacturing should happen in our country. It is difficult, yes, but someone has to start."
Kiri looked up from the paper.
"Your resume says you have experience."
"I do," the man replied. "I worked abroad in a manufacturing unit. Not at the top level, but close enough to the machine side to understand the process."
That answer made Kiri pay more attention.
Davin also looked at him more carefully.
Many people lied in interviews. Kiri knew that. A person could write anything on paper. The real test was whether his eyes stayed steady when the machine stood in front of him.
Davin also understood that.
That was why he did not ask a salesman’s question. He stayed quiet and watched how the candidate’s hands moved and how his eyes followed the machine.
Kiri closed the file.
"Come with us," he said. "We want to see if you really understand."
They took him into the main machine room.
The moment the man saw the unit properly, his steps slowed.
He did not speak for a few seconds.
That silence told Kiri more than a fast answer would have. The man was not pretending that the machine was simple.
He was measuring it and respecting it.
Kiri pointed toward the side panel.
"Tell me what this part does."
The man moved closer, but he did not touch anything without permission.
"That is part of the control side," he said. "If this section is not aligned properly, the process can fail before the wafer even reaches the next stage."
Davin wrote it down.
Kiri pointed to another section.
"And this?"
"That side handles movement between steps," the man said. "It is not just transport. If the timing is wrong, you damage the batch."
Kiri asked two more questions.
The man answered both.
He did not answer like someone repeating a book. He answered like someone who had seen mistakes happen before and remembered why they mattered.
Once, he even corrected himself before Kiri could ask.
"No," he said, looking at the lower section again. "That part is not only for support. It also keeps vibration from ruining alignment."
Davin stopped writing for a second.
That was not a guess.
By the time they came out of the machine room, Davin’s eyes were bright.
Kiri was calmer, but even he looked satisfied.
"Congratulations," Kiri said. "You are our first member for the manufacturing unit."
The man’s face changed with relief.
Kiri did not stop thinking there.
They had found one man, but one man could become a weakness if the whole unit depended on him. If he left or failed later, the entire manufacturing plan would shake.
Kiri looked back toward the machine room.
For now, this man would not only be an operator.
He would be a teacher.
Kiri would make him train as many people as possible.
