Adnan Ibrahim Attahir stood in the middle of the boardroom looking maddeningly handsome and his aura making the other occupants of the room squirm in their seats. Most of them sat there nonplussed, looking eerily sentient to his presence in the room. While the others sat on their seats like a ticking bomb is about to detonate with a wrong move of theirs.

His eyes sharp and assessing, his suit made to perfection for the man wears nothing other than flawless handmade. He just walked into the boardroom an hour late for the meeting due to his flight, he is not one to be late for anything business related. He flew from Nigeria the minute he heard about the confounding yet eye catching deal.

As he stood there emanating this ambience of a dangerous businessman, the Japanese folks and a few Americans stare at him with open wonder. The room was as silent as a sepulcher, except for the delicate ticking of a clock somewhere. That's the reaction he always gets from people because even though they've heard about him and seen his picture here and there, seeing him in person is far different from hearing about him from questionable sources.

The man exude danger that is susceptible to a lifetime harm and precariousness that leaves you wondering what is different about him that no other human being has. He is just intact like every other healthy person, then why this aura around him? The peril and danger he emanates everywhere? Clouding the room and making them feel emaciated in their own country?

Is that why they call him Draco? Because he most definitely looks coldhearted like Athenian lawmaker. A reptile genus known as flying dragon or flying lizard.

Just that he's got two legs and arms instead of claws and fire spitting from his mouth. Not that he won't be able to do as much harm as any dragon, if they were real. He is blessed with what every businessman wants, covets and envy. And he is just thirty four years old, by far the youngest billionaire and oil magnate they've met in their lives because oil business is just not for everyone.

But he plays with it like a bairn would a ball.

Through a combination of hard work, luck, and a necessary ruthlessness, Adnan Ibrahim Attahir had established one of the largest and fastest-growing oil companies in the world. Now that oil was becoming affordable for the masses all over the world, the AIA refinery in Russia and Mexico could scarcely keep up with the demand.

Adnan looks superb in formal attire, expensive one-button suit. A man like a blade...sleek and hard, his gaze sharp with intelligence. Even in a room full of accomplished and powerful men, he stood out as the nonpareil he is.

With a gait fit for a King, he sauntered to the other empty head chair and sat down slowly his eyes ever so vigilant. That's how his walnut eyes always are...ingenious, discerning and extremely calculative, nothing escapes his knowledge except if it is yet to happen. Like right now, one of the men sitting there just nudged his friend so he could record the entire conversation but he won't have that. He doesn't work with disloyal people.

With a cool smile sent to the two men, he said. "I'd advise you not to go through with that plan of yours."

The two geriatrics look stunned, ashamed and embarrassed at being caught even though it was just a move he made with his leg discreetly. Adnan knew all about business hoax, stratagems and ruses, they try that all the time and it is getting old. They should bring up something more exciting than recording a deal so they could turn the tables at the end of the long run. He doesn't work like that. He won't have his partners betraying him, not ever.

The men look American so it's safe to say he won't be working with them for a long time.

"I'm so sorry, Sir. We just thought that was how you work. I apologize." One of the men hastily apologized bowing his head down in shame but the other friend only sat there like nothing is happening.

And he hates when people don't acknowledge that they are wrong.

"It's fine. No deal for the Americans though. You may leave us now." He dismissed with a flick of his wrist and yaw his attention to the amazed Japanese men and a woman sitting to his right.

He doesn't have the right to send them away like that, the entire deal and project is not his but the Japanese's. They are the ones that can dismiss or permit anyone into the board room but he went ahead and did what they wouldn't. They are in dire need of an investor, they need to polish their words now. He is all they've got anyway.

One of the men that looks around mid fifties cleared his throat as he watched the three American men sauntered out of the room. All of them looking disgruntled. They shouldn't have messed with him. He is more dangerous than anyone they've ever dealt with and them thinking they can outwit the most cleverest man they've ever encountered is absurd and ludicrous. Everyone wants this deal with the oil magnate, their chance is now slimmer than few minutes ago so they are going to try their best to persuade him.

"...we have found out through our oil-industry analyst that there might be some crude oil at the eastern part of Tokyo where a few villagers are currently occupying. You see, our company is going through unstable days and we cannot compensate the families there if we decide to probe further. We want to have this deal with you and since we found out about the place, we want seventy eight percent. If there is oil there that is." The Japanese explained in his thick accent and his English extremely bad.

Adnan knows and understands many languages because of his line of business but he's never worked with Japanese people before so he might as well get started with it. It won't be that hard because he knows how to speak Chinese itself, the most wacko language to grace the earth in his books. It's like he is singing a national anthem of some unknown and unidentified island that is not found in any map.

China is more diverse while Japan tends to be more homogenized.

He leaned forward, both his hands in front of him on the burnishing oak mahogany desk. "Why didn't you investigate further before calling me down here? I'm not a fan of ponderous business."

The only woman in the room decided to take up this time around looking more confident than the men in the room. She looks to be around her early thirties but you never with them. She might be hitting forties but still looks young and not a day later than thirty three. She's wearing on a wine colored blazer atop her white button up shirt, her red lipstick on mark and eyes, that of a businesswoman's. She fears nothing as long as it is business.

Her name should be Chiyo Daisuke, the woman that contacted him.

So with a bold smile, she answered, her voice flowing mellifluously. "Like Mr. Aki had just said, the company is going through unstable days and we hope with your cooperation, we'll be able to stand back on our feet. This project is a huge one for all of us here. We are both going to benefit from it."

Adnan leaned back on the soot swivel chair, his right hand to his jaw and forefinger touching the tip of his peach parched lips. He gave her a contemplative look. "How so? Not by giving me twenty two percent, I hope?"

Her smile became pinched and dimmed a bit but she is not a quitter. "No, Sir. Having the twenty two percent of crude oil imported to any country of your choice is a great deal."

"Why me? And not the other oil companies around here?" Adnan asked the question he's been meaning to inquire about since his assistant told him about it.

There are multitudes of Japanese oil tycoons all around, they should've suggested this to any of them and no one in his right state of mind will turn them down. But they don't trust one another it seems. The other company might claim the certain region with good lawyers.

"We want you to invest with us because you are the best we've got. There is no other person that knows how to cynically work with oil like you do and that is not news to us or anyone. And with you as a shareholder, we'll have more companies willing to invest here with us. That is what we are routing for." She explained, her eyes blazing with passion as though she's read things through alone for many nights.

Adnan is not at all impressed, but as always, he didn't show her any emotion. "Very well. Twenty two percent won't work with me though. Reconsider that or the deal is off."

The four other occupants of the room pivoted to look at one another in confusion. Twenty two percent is a huge share from their part but he wants more than that? He knew they are giving out their own oil tanker, suppliers and this is their project not his!

The woman rehashed the situation for a few minutes before she gulped. "How about thirty? That's the last we can offer you, Sir."

Adnan stood up and buttoned his suit, they followed en masse. He gave her a mocking and taunting smile that made chills spread down her entire being with a frisson in an unpleasant way. He really should get his eyes checked and everything about him. The man is downright scary when he wants to be and always looks intimidating. He deserves that moniker given to him, it suits just perfect. Draco.

"I would've accepted that twenty two if you've tried harder but thirty it is." He stepped away from the jet black chair. "You're a bad negotiator, work on that or the company will keep going through unstable days." And with that he strode out of the boardroom with his assistant closely behind him.

"Should I investigate further on this project, Sir?" Alim asked his boss from behind, his eyes on the tablet in both his hands ready to get the work done.

He's worked with Adnan for three years already and to say he loves his job would be an understatement but he does not like his boss much. Adnan Ibrahim Attahir is not someone you will like no matter how softhearted you are but he is his role model when it comes to business. The man is extremely passionate about what he does and is not afraid to get his hands dirty for whatever he wants while still maintaining a clean record.

There is no doubt he is adored and feared at the same time. You can never just pick the first without the last, or the last only. He doesn't care whom he matches along the way, as long as he gets what he wants, everything and everyone be damned. The mass don't adore him much but he is the only person that gets them multiple viewers with a juicy gossip about him or a little glimpse of his life which is why they are always begging for a sip. The man is extremely private to the point where no one knows he is married, not even Alim.

But even with his boss's rudeness here and there and nonchalance about other people's feelings, Alim loves his job a lot. Keeping the pay aside, he is learning plethora of things related to business from him more than he did from his professors at college. And besides, he gets to travel all around the world for meetings such as this without his money—

Adnan's clipped tone brought him back to reality. "I'll need copies of their topographical maps and geological surveys as soon as possible."

"Noted, Sir." And he's already got to work. Maybe that is why he is still around his boss, he loathed tardiness no matter the situation.

"And book us a good hotel. If they try slipping off, chirp my name in." Adnan added not sounding even the least bit smug about his name being chirped and then getting a hotel instantly. It's just something he's got no choice but to do it that way.

He wants the best hotel they've got around here after leaving his million dollar bed just to come here.

They'll be flying to Russia to go check one of his refineries there that's giving a slight headache on in the new words he's learned today for failing people, unstable days. So he is going to go there to fire more than just two employees this time around. He might as well start hiring new ones as soon as possible. But first, they should be dealt with accordingly. And that is his favorite part about it all.