'Hmmm fiesty...' Lincoln thought to himself as Clarissa started up, his smirk not dwindling nor his cocked eyebrow '...fiesty yet sexy...' his thoughts carried on as he quickly took a second to admire her physique while she wailed on with her patriotic speech '...I might enjoy working with her yet'. He dropped his eyebrow but soon raised it again as she called for her datapad from her PA.
Unfolding his arms he placed his hands into pockets in his pants he then respectfully let he say her speech on ideas to save money but he maintained his focus directly upon her. He did however prelude his upcoming rebuttal with a small furrowing of his brow and an arching of his nostrils. A she neared the end he again slicked the hair above his right ear ready for his moment before returning the hand to sit upon the outside of his pocket. "You done?..." He called out remorselessly almost appearing to cut her off as the syllable rolled from her lips "...and where would you continue to find buyers for the inflated goods, orrr the employees to continue to work for us, orrr...." He then waved his arm in a half circle pointing to most of the department heads in front of him still murmuring between them about what she said "...the fellow leaders here to help make your dreams a reality." He pointed to her to emphasise the snarky end to the sentence before he brought both hands together in front of him in a fingers extended power pose. "The workers will leave and some may even sue our backsides for brutally unfair conditions. Especially those in Liberty....'cause that's what I'd do if I was them...." He paused for a second and listened to the murmurs "....and they'd probably win given the current precedents of court cases over there...." His self indulgent confidence started to rise again within him "....so your savings there are at best.....marginal." He looked around the room at the department heads before stopping on Clarissa. "...but I'd give you one thing...." He started to pace a little in the room, his ego needing room to breathe "...your savings from paycuts at this level would be close. A number of these guys are getting on a bit...." his blatant comment drawing a silence "...and they wouldn't have many other options here in Bretonia nor would they be wanting an early retirement...." He dragged out the last two words as he scanned the room with his egotistical smirk growing. Stopping on Clarissa he carried on "...so dock their pay. They'll still carry on their work as it really is a decent wage...but Ruth..." He stuck his hand out to his PA receiving quickly a larger data pad than Clarissa's; just another symbol in their ego war. "...thanks Toots..." He commented looking into her eyes and nodding a small thanks, the truthfulness of his comment remained unknown. He clicked a few things before looking back up "....we currently do not hold the technological absolute advantage on a number of our products such that we can monopolise the industry and eradicate small players due to exceedingly superior quality. Nor is there the galactic demand for other products to sustain a price rise of that much...." An ill concealed whisper to his left drew him to carry on "....Stuttgart's bubbling obsession with Gaian wildlife will blow over sooner than it started Rob! We can not count on that for long and..." He looked back to his data pad to reconfirm internally the numbers he was looking for "...so your price hike of ten percent from my projections wouldn't raise the profit line more than three quarters of a percent!" Clicking a few buttons on his datapad his projections joined the image of the Artemis and a Dunkirk upon the display. The murmurs continued as did a couple of dirty looks his way. But Lincoln's smirk grew again. His egotistical pose solidified and he looked to Clarissa. Her lips already parting with her defence on the way.
