From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 358

Chapter 358: The New Order

The meeting between Max and Tim Heart had gone on longer than either of them expected.

The conversation had swept across every corner of the Fortis Group , from payroll structures to department redundancies , and Max hadn’t shied away from laying out his thoughts.

"Right now, this place is bloated," Max said frankly, leaning back in the sleek chair opposite Tim’s massive mahogany desk. "You’re paying too many people to do too little. It’s not just the auxiliary departments. Even your core teams , the guards themselves , are oversaturated.

"If you want the Fortis name to stand for ’the best of the best,’ then you need to trim the numbers and sharpen the focus. Keep only the strongest. Build their reputation. Make it so that when someone hears the name Fortis, they know it means excellence , not excess."

Tim had expected harsh words, but they still made him wince.

"And the support staff?" he asked carefully, pen hovering over his notebook.

"I’m not saying cut them entirely," Max replied. "They can still operate, just... smarter. More cross-functionality. Less waste. I can bring in new channels to generate clientele so they aren’t scrambling just to justify their salaries."

Tim nodded slowly, jotting notes.

"Also," Max continued, "the benefits packages are far too generous. If people want luxuries like Darno’s private penthouse suite, it should come out of their pay, not the company’s pocket. Comfort shouldn’t come before performance."

That one hit Tim like a punch to the ribs. He had braced himself for big changes , and these were certainly that , but a part of him had still hoped the new owners might choose to preserve what little morale the staff had left.

Because the reality was, everyone at Fortis knew deep down they were on the brink of collapse.

It wasn’t public knowledge , it couldn’t be , but internally, people whispered. They knew jobs were on the line.

And normally when a new owner swooped in, it meant brutal cuts. Tim had told himself to expect that. He had even rehearsed his arguments about why some of the departments still had value.

So what surprised him most wasn’t the cuts Max proposed... but the things he didn’t want to cut.

The drone department.

The advanced armor research labs.

The experimental weapons division.

These were the bleeding heart of Fortis , and also what had bled them dry financially.

Tim had assumed those would be the first things to go. Instead, Max said nothing about dismantling them.

Tim nearly asked why... but stopped himself. Maybe when this young man reported back to the rest of the Billion Bloodline Group, they would choose to cut it then. Maybe this reprieve was only temporary.

Even so, a small part of him hoped , prayed , that these fundamentals might be spared.

Because in Tim’s eyes, they weren’t just luxuries. They were what made Fortis unique.

What Tim didn’t know was that Max had very different reasons.

Max saw potential.

He saw utility.

If he ever needed to absorb another gang or muscle in on a new territory, drones and surveillance systems could be invaluable.

The armor was another obvious asset. Chrono’s weapon had been devastating , and that had been only one. There could be more out there.

If future conflicts brought more dangerous opponents, Max wanted his people equipped to handle it.

He wasn’t trying to make Fortis profitable in the traditional sense.

He just wanted it not to bleed money , to hold neutral while secretly strengthening every other part of his empire.

"I honestly think everything you’ve proposed is fair," Tim admitted at last, leaning back in his chair with a long exhale.

The older man looked drained, but also... lighter somehow, like he had been holding his breath for days and could finally breathe again.

"And the fact that you are willing to still pay me a wage despite the circumstances... it’s more than I could ask for," he continued. "I’ll be happy to keep running the day-to-day operations , with your guidance, of course."

He hesitated, then asked in a softer tone:

If rival gangs were watching them , and Max knew they were , they would struggle to make sense of what the Billion Bloodline actually was.

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