It wasn't just Tyler, Zack, and the executives and staff across various corporate departments who were entirely swamped; naturally, Nick, the actual controlling force of the enterprise, was running on absolute fumes.
Not only did he have to oversee and supervise the operational execution of multiple high-stakes infrastructure projects simultaneously, but he also had to personally embed himself in and take direct accountability for several critical strategic initiatives.
For example, he personally stepped into the high-friction bidding process for the offline territorial distribution partners.
This wasn't because he harbored any underlying fear that Zack lacked the professional ability to execute the meetings, but because the entire brick-and-mortar dealer network was going to serve as a crucial structural pillar in their aggressive expansion into physical retail channels, so he needed to be personally involved in the contract structuring to truly feel at ease.
Furthermore, this corporate bidding project involved incredibly sensitive parameters related to regional profit distribution, which historically tends to breed operational vulnerabilities like corporate kickbacks and internal corruption, making it practically impossible for him to truly relax without absolute personal supervision over the room.
In addition to the retail strategy, Tyler constantly required deep executive consultations regarding the active acquisition of various manufacturing facilities, as even the most distressed industrial plants on their radar represented capital allocation projects valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Although Tyler had matured significantly as an operations executive over the past fiscal year, he still experienced a baseline level of professional anxiety when facing such massive corporate buyouts and required Nick's seasoned counsel before signing off on the closing paperwork.
For Nick, these rapid industrial acquisitions were essentially laying the foundation for a fully vertical supply chain dedicated to their physical hardware manufacturing.
Therefore, which specific assets to acquire, which regions to prioritize, and how to legally structure the buyouts all required Nick's personal decision-making and continuous strategic oversight.
He desperately wanted to delegate broader executive authority across the board, but there were simply too few people on the corporate roster who could truly stand on their own in high-friction environments and earn his unyielding trust.
So, for the time being, he had to shoulder these heavy operational responsibilities entirely himself.
Only after the internal leadership circle he had faith in fully matured under fire could he gradually hand over these critical enterprise tasks to them.
"Mr. Nicholas, the Escalade is parked out front," Ryan said, walking calmly into the executive suite and addressing him.
Hearing his voice, Nick, who was deeply buried under a stack of legal documents, gave a brief nod and said, "Take a seat for a second, Ryan. I have two more compliance filings left to sign, and I'll finish them right away."
Ryan nodded silently, walking with a light, measured step across the room, and sat down on the leather sofa.
He didn't usually hang around Nick's corporate office; he only appeared in the executive wing when they were actively traveling for off-site corporate business.
The rest of the time, he preferred training, running drills, and resting with the tight-knit group of retired Tier-1 veterans in the Security Department, and the expansive company gym had quickly become the favorite tactical hangout spot for this specific group of operators.
Calling Calloway into the office via the intercom, Nick handed his executive assistant the processed corporate documents, let out a long stretch, and finally stood up from his desk.
"Let's hit the road."
Ryan immediately put away his phone, gave him a crisp nod, and quickly followed him out to the private elevator bay.
Today, they were heading down to the military Flight Test Center, located over seventy miles away from the main corporate headquarters.
The classified 'Intelligent Voice Assistance System,' which their internal software team had spent months jointly developing alongside the Air Force Equipment Research Laboratory and the Aerospace Systems Corporation, had finally achieved preliminary engineering success and completed its related comprehensive ground simulation testing.
Today, this military-grade neural network system would finally undergo actual, live-flight testing inside the cockpit.
As the primary technical director in charge of the joint R&D project, Nick was contractually obligated to be present on the tarmac.
Furthermore, the defense wires rumored that senior leadership delegations from the Pentagon's Flight Test Directorate, Aerospace Systems Corp, and the Federal Aviation Administration would also be on-site to observe the live-flight telemetry.
Since there were critical, high-margin follow-up integration contracts to be negotiated based on today's output, Nick, as the CEO of the core software contractor, naturally could not afford to be absent from the VIP observation bunker.
"The company's Security Department is undergoing a massive corporate expansion. How would you like to step up as the Deputy Director of Security?" Nick asked, letting out a tired yawn while sinking into the back seat of the SUV, addressing Ryan, who was entirely focused on navigating the highway traffic in front of him.
As the enterprise continued to expand its corporate footprint, especially with the recent multi-state acquisition of several heavy manufacturing plants, the corresponding corporate security protocols needed to scale up proportionally.
Naturally, the internal Security Department, responsible for physical asset protection and intellectual property defense, was included in this massive scaling phase.
Ryan glanced at him briefly through the rearview mirror, then gently shook his head with a quiet smile and said, "I like being behind the wheel, boss."
"You can still drive plenty if you step up as the Deputy Director, and with the executive compensation package, you'll easily be able to buy your own Porsche for the weekend—how great is that? The base salary is significantly higher, and the daily corporate overhead is much easier to manage," Nick said with an encouraging smile.
Ryan didn't reply immediately. Instead, he locked eyes with Nick through the mirror and said quietly, "You trying to push me out, Nick?"
"What kind of talk is that? Why wouldn't I want you on my detail? If I truly didn't want you around the corporate suite, I'd just hand you a severance package and fire you. Why on earth would I offer you a promotion to Deputy Director?" Nick chuckled in genuine exasperation.
Hearing his words, Ryan shook his head firmly and replied, "I still want to stay directly on your personal detail. I'm completely used to the rhythm of your schedule, and I'm honestly afraid I wouldn't do well sitting behind a corporate desk somewhere else in the building."
"You haven't even taken the executive slot yet, so how do you know you won't excel at it?"
Ryan shook his head again but remained completely silent, focusing his undivided attention back on navigating the heavy SUV down the highway.
Nick felt a bit helpless about his driver's unyielding loyalty, then simply waved his hand dismissively. "Fine, fine. I try to pull you up the corporate ladder, and you just blow right past it. Keep being a driver until you're too old to hold a steering wheel."
"Haha, then you'll have to wait quite a few decades for that, boss," Ryan grinned widely.
Seeing his amused reaction, Nick retorted with a mock-grumpy tone, "Just drive properly. I can easily afford to wait out your contract."
"You got it!"
After driving for over an hour down the restricted access roads, Nick finally arrived at the secure perimeter of the military Flight Test Center.
When he reached the secure command building, guided through the security checkpoints by armed MPs, General Randy was already waiting for him in the main briefing lobby.
Seeing the familiar uniform, Nick quickly stepped forward to greet him: "General Randy , I sincerely apologize if I kept you waiting."
"Haha."
Randy gripped his hand in a firm, military handshake, pointed a finger to the wall clock hanging nearby, and laughed heartily, "Look at the dial, kid—it's still a full twenty minutes before our agreed 10:30 briefing. You're early, not late."
"Nicholas, I swear I've been hearing absolutely nothing but staggering economic news about your firm lately on CNBC. Good kid, how long has it even been since we signed our R&D MOU, and you've already turned the tech sector completely upside down—that's incredible!" Randy said warmly, clamping a heavy hand over his shoulder.
"You flatter me, Director. We've just been causing a bit of a localized market stir lately," Nick said, feeling a little embarrassed by the praise.
Indeed, due to the relentless series of massive corporate actions they had taken post-Thanksgiving, mainstream media discussions surrounding his company and his personal life had been completely non-stop across every digital network. Hearing a two-star general bring it up now in a military facility made him feel a bit awkward.
"Hey, don't downplay it, son. You've caused a massive stir in the markets, but it's all phenomenal news for domestic technology innovation. Looking at it from our defense perspective, we'd prefer your team to make these massive industrial waves more often," Randy teased him playfully as they walked.
Nick's face flushed slightly upon hearing the general's remarks, and he awkwardly replied, "Director, please stop teasing me. See, the exact second I received your secure message on the wire, I rushed right over without a second thought."
"Heh heh, come on, let's talk as we head out to the observation deck," Randy said, guiding him down the reinforced corridor. He continued as they moved through the secure doors: "Everyone on the defense board knows you've been entirely swamped with the holiday consumer rush, so everyone completely understands the pressure. Don't sweat it. Good heavens, clearing over 12 billion dollars in gross revenue in a single twenty-four-hour window—that single metric completely surpasses the annual earnings of multiple legacy defense giants! You're a certified tech tycoon now, kid, so you can't be stingy with our engineering budgets like you were during the startup days."
"How could I be? When have I ever been stingy with your research teams?" Nick asked with a knowing smile.
"Not stingy? Who was the brilliant young engineer haggling over every single decimal point when we negotiated the intellectual property rights for the drone cluster array control technology back in the lab?" Randy pointed a playful finger at him, laughing and scolding him with genuine affection.
"Uh, well, things are completely different now with the passage of time, General. If I possessed the massive financial reserves back then that I command today, I would have handed your drone division that entire technology stack completely for free," Nick explained with an amused, awkward smile.
"Haha, you talk a smooth game, kid." Randy burst into a hearty laugh, then shifted his gaze sideways, inquiring curiously, "So, what's the deal with the latest street chatter? I hear through the grapevines that you're launching a massive capital deployment into heavy domestic manufacturing."
"You heard about that contract pipeline too? Man, word travels fast in this town," Nick said, sounding genuinely surprised.
Logically speaking, their industrial facility acquisitions hadn't been widely reported in the mainstream financial press yet, so very few people outside their board should know the depth of the plan. Moreover, Randy's classified military environment was relatively isolated from Wall Street gossip, and his defense R&D tasks were notoriously heavy, so he shouldn't have had a spare second to pay attention to consumer hardware news.
"Director Steve over at the Federal Aviation Administration actually just dropped it into conversation during our morning briefing," Randy noted, pushing open the heavy doors to the flight line. "Besides, the exact second a corporation starts throwing billions of dollars around the industrial heartland, it's physically impossible for there to be zero ripple effect across the agencies."