Cain was back at EmberWake HQ, he was far away from the normal clamour of office hours, at the outer park.
Getting 3 million square feet of finely fertile land just for leasure seems like a waste and wouldn't even be legal if it wasn't shown as necessary farmland for agricultural research.
But all it did was serve as a private picnic spot for the high ranking employees.
Cain was walking by a small pond,his mind was in turmoil. After years of witnessing the inner workings of EmberWake, it was clear that he couldn't annex EmberWake in it's entirety.
'The higher echelons of EmberWake stayed out of spotlight most of the times, Late Chairman Ben, my adoptive grandfather only was known to the world when he took his authoritative place in the corporation, but it was the EmberWake foundation that was more important than the corporation itself.'
***
After the fall of the old world order, after the war between continental superpowers, the war of misguided agendas, many of the world leaders were rabelled against.
The countries without any nukes had no choice but to either side with an axis power or simply provide resources or manpower. It was only after 8 years of drawn out war over land, air and water that the nukes were used like fireworks.
First, nukes were used to target millitary bases, important resource points, water resource points, navy armada, port towns etc.
Many of the nukes were destroyed while they were airborne, some got their electronics disabled, while some detonated midair causing EMP to still do damage to the electronics equipment in a wide area, worst of the damage was done from those few that still hit it's target dispite all advanced defensive measures and worst still were the warheads that broke apart and dispersed nuclear material over a wide range of area, contaminating air, water and soil.
The best way to win a war was to capture the enemy nation without destroying it's working force, without destroying it's natural resources, maybe that was why the nukes, at first weren't targeted at the regions with most population but that soon changed at the last part of the war, millions of people died, civillians, people who never wished for the war to happen perished without even having done anything to demand such a fate.
The war stopped not because the superpowers ran out of nukes, nor because one side was defeated but because both sides face inner turmoil, normal civillians weren't staying silent anymore, nobody wanted to see the end of a war that seemed all destroying. Because this war seemed to only end when there was nothing left to fight for.
The civilians in both sides erupted in rebellion as if in coordination, the war had to be stopped momentarily. It was only when refugee were shot by millitary personale at a refugee camp somewhere on the west corner of the world that everything again returned to chaos.
It was not a chaos like war, but instead a chaos of insubordination. Nobody knew who gave orders to shoot those refugees, but the higherups weren't too concerned about that, seemingly only obsessed with their war, many lower ranking commanding officers of the west soon rebelled against the higher ups, nobody wanted to take orders from people that had seemingly gone mad. One of the Generals who was still favoured by his men decided to end the war on his own accord.
The brave genral decided to negotiate with the enemy, he offered himself as an prisoner promising the support of his men if the enemy forces invaded the west not to wage war but help the civillians and rebelling army forces to overturn the higher ups.
But the higher-ups of the enemy axis themselves seem to have gone mad. They called the general crazy, mocked him, called him a traitor to his country for promising the enemy help, in invading his own country. But after all the mockery, the emperor of the biggest country smiled and offered the foreign general assurance that they will surely capture their leaders, just so they can torture them and make them beg for death, then all the people of west will be enslaved, so they could know the honour of serving a superior race.
The Emperor and his Generals laughed, seemingly thrilled thinking about the atrocities they would get to commit.
But at that moment the guards present brandished their guns, not at the foreign general but at their own higherups, some of the Generals beside the Emperor came close to him and brandished their own weopons, the whole room fell silent. It seemed that the people of the Emperor themselves grew intolerant to their emperor's madness, nobody wanted a war caused by madness.
After the rebellion against the mad rulers ended on the both sides. Peace talks began, and many of the higherups of the old regime were arrested, some executed, some declared insane, it was as if the people with power were all infected by some unknown plague, turning them hungry for war without a seemingly valid reason. As if war is ever valid.
After the official end of the war between continental superpowers, many new countries emerged in the former regime of the mad Emperor of the middle continent.
The biggest nation in the world was soon split apart, some parts chose to join neighbouring small countries, some neighbouring states of the former empire chose to join together to make new countries, Dzonal was one of them.
EmberWake foundation was established then by many wealthy families coming together to help the people of the newly found country Dzonal. People who were suffering the depression caused by war, people who faced sudden poverty.
The name EmberWake suggests something that has risen from ashes anew. With a crest of the pheonix, it became the symbol of hope to the people.
***
'Many of the foundeing moguls of EmberWake were those who were in the weopon manufacturing industry, they were the ones who profited the most from war. This fact isn't often mentioned in today's history books, nor anybody seems intrested to know the history of the now distanced period of dreadful war. '
Cain kept thinking about many such 'random' chapters of history as he was walking toward the main building of EmberWake HQ.
He entered the building from a secluded side of the park. The park was open to the employees but not every part of it.
Cain was walking to a elevator to go to the 4th floor of the building, the elevator was still a few metres away when the elevator doors opened.
From the open doors of the elevator walked out a huge man, almost 7 feet tall. It was like the statue of an Olympian God came to life and was now walking towards Cain. The muscles visible from the man's forearms and through the 3 open buttons of the chest area of shirt, seemed to be made of stone.
Cain felt terrified of the man, which was not something that happend to Cain often. It was as if Cain was strangled. The air around the huge man itself seemed to be ready to attack Cain at any moment.
The man kept walking at a steady pace, with both his hands in the pockets of his jeans. But Cain didn't move, he stepped aside and gave space, Cain's whole body was giving signals of approaching danger. The man walked past Cain, not even sparing Cain a glance, as if the man was the zenith of this world.
Only after the man walked past ten steps from Cain, did Cain start to move towards the elevator, but at his second step, a calm but domineering voice came from behind Cain, only one word. "You."
Cain turned back and found that the man was hunching over him, the man's face a few inches away from him, the man's golden eyes seemingly peering into Cain's soul. The man's face was devoid of any emotion, his hands still in the pockets of his Jeans, a few strands of long dark brown hair falling on Cain's face.
The man said in a commanding voice: "loose
The mask."
Cain didn't make the man wait and removed his silver mask from his face, seeing the half harrowing face of Cain, the man seemed amused and said: "Intresting, loose the mask for good, you look better without it." Saying so, the man turned around and left.
This time Cain waited a whole minute and seeing that the man was near the exit, he finally turned around and walked to the elevator, after pressing the button for the fourth floor, Cain put on his mask and said: "another man to make disappear."