Chapter 15: Cutting up traitors

To Obadiah, Tony's existence had become a thorn to his life.

As for Tony's intelligence, what did it matter? With money, couldn't Obadiah hire more capable scientists? If one wouldn't work out, hire two; if two wouldn't work out, hire twenty; if twenty wouldn't work out, hire two hundred.

That's the straightforward thinking of a businessman.

Most importantly, this company would now be under his control. Obadiah would no longer have to assist these two arrogant father and son.

Suddenly, at that moment, the office door burst open, and a group of men in black suits with sunglasses walked in.

Instantly, the senior executives of Stark Industries at the meeting were bewildered and stunned.

"Who are you? Why are you suddenly barging in?"

Obadiah stood up first, towering and imposing.

"You must be Obadiah. Please come with us. We are from the FBI. You are now suspected of colluding with Afghan warlords to betray US. You have also leaked interests and secrets of our country. Come with us for questioning."

The leader of the men in black said bluntly.

"W-what? What do you mean?" Obadiah was stunned. He hadn't expected the news to leak out.

In fact, in the American arms dealer circles, this was hardly a secret at all. After all, the Afghan war had cost two trillion dollars, undoubtedly a lucrative event for arms dealers.

Moreover, arms were consumables. The higher the demands would be the more they would sell. So, colluding with local Afghan warlords to increase consumption was not considered unusual in those circles.

Even the local troops in that warring country were helping with consumption.

Otherwise, how could the local warlords become stronger with every battle, and why couldn't they be wiped out?

But what Obadiah never expected was that this was obviously an underground matter, so how did it become public?

"What are you trying to do? I know your director. Let your director come and talk to me. You're not qualified to look down on me!" Obadiah exclaimed angrily.

Then he looked at Tony, hoping he would speak up for him. However, Tony remained calm and didn't make any move. It was then Obadiah felt something wrong.

"You've lost that privilege. You're now a traitor. Do you understand?!" The head FBI agent shouted sternly.

As Obadiah was about to be taken away, he suddenly reacted and looked towards Tony and roared, "Tony, it's you? How could you do this to me?!"

At this moment, Tony finally showed a slight change in expression as he smirked, "Uncle Obadiah, why not? At least I didn't plan to let you die in some terrorist attack, right?"

Upon hearing this, Obadiah's face lost all colors. He finally understood that Tony indeed knew about his conspiracy during this time.

No wonder Tony had refused to go to Afghanistan for the past two months. Obviously, he had learned something through certain channels.

He didn't know how Tony found out, but at this point, it was meaningless. He was about to become a prisoner.

"Tony! Tony! You can't treat me like this…! I assisted your father and then you. Without me, you wouldn't even safely assume the role of that chair!" Obadiah was grabbed by FBI agents, trying to struggle while playing the emotional card.

"Yes, my dear uncle, without you, I certainly couldn't have succeeded so smoothly. But I still don't understand why you would want to kill me?" Tony's eyes revealed an undeniable sense of discomfort and disappointment.

He had truly regarded the other as a father figure, filling the void left by his father's absence during his youth.

But now, what the other had done left a scar in Tony's heart.

During these two months, what he had secretly investigated was shocking. Obadiah not only embezzled money from the company behind his back—if it were just embezzlement, Tony wouldn't have cared much, at most he would have given him a stern warning.

But he had also quietly opened up routes to sell Stark Industries' weapons to the warlords in the Middle East, which Tony absolutely couldn't tolerate.

In his view, the weapons he created were meant to protect the people of this country, not to be sold to his enemies. Although they were both merchants of death, Tony still believed he had some conscience left. With his intelligence, he could have earned money cleanly—there was no need to dirty his hands.

But Obadiah's actions made Tony's pride and principles from over the years seem foolish.

Of course, what worried Tony the most was still the massive Iron Man armor he had seen in the video earlier. He feared that Obadiah had already started developing it, but upon investigation, it was confirmed that he hadn't.

This indicated that Obadiah's armor was likely obtained through some of Tony's own technology. Given their previous relationship, there was a chance he could gain access to it, or perhaps, Tony might inadvertently grant him certain permissions.

But regardless of how Obadiah obtained it in the original timeline, there was no chance of that now.

Tony did not have the mood to listen to Obadiah's sophistry. He let the FBI agents take him away, along with several shareholders who were close to Obadiah.

The charges they faced were not just limited to this matter; they also included tax evasion, smuggling, and a series of other issues, enough to keep them behind bars for a long time—assuming they didn't meet an untimely end there.

"Tony, you will regret this! Your autocratic and reckless behavior will ruin Stark Industries sooner or later. You will regret it!" Obadiah's roar echoed through the entire conference room, but he was already being dragged away.

Having done all this, Tony finally relaxed. He then said, "I appoint Pepper as the new CEO of the company. For anything from now on, you should all approach her. I have some matters to attend to today so I'll be leaving. Send me a brief of the meeting's outcomes."

With that, Tony left without looking back.

Pepper, still in shock, had received no prior information about such intense turmoil. Unbeknownst to her, Tony was already planning to cut off Obadiah. The outcome was Tony dealing a fatal blow to resolve Obadiah once and for all.

This outcome was naturally the best for her interest. If Obadiah had won, she, as Tony's confidant, would have faced the same fate probably. Sigh~! Her boss was truly unreliable.

Now with so many shareholders taken away, it was uncertain if they would return. The company would be descending into chaos, but Tony simply walked away, leaving her to clean up the mess.

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