Dumping The Ice King His Mini-Tyrant novel Chapter 501

Harrison felt a tremor run through him at Selene’s words. Was she… actually looking out for him?

It hadn’t occurred to him—after all, they were already divorced—yet here she was, standing her ground for his sake.

He couldn’t help but recall the way she’d smashed the signal receiver with an iron rod just moments ago. The gentle, composed woman he remembered from their marriage now seemed fiercely alive, the image in his mind forever altered.

As Harrison’s thoughts started to drift, Annalise Johnston’s voice jerked him back to the present. She was arguing with Selene, her tone brittle and sharp.

“All of this—I did it for QuanTech Innovations! You’re the one who slashed the project timeline from a year to three months. How are we supposed to integrate the smart systems with the sensors in such a short time? You’ve sabotaged the entire self-driving freight truck trial and embarrassed QuanTech Innovations in front of everyone. How can you call yourself a CEO?”

Selene’s reply was cold as ice. “Failure on the testing ground isn’t the problem. But if you keep covering things up and manipulating every trial, what happens when hundreds of self-driving trucks hit the road and something goes wrong? Who takes the blame then?”

Annalise’s face turned rigid, cold as stone. “That’s only happening because you forced such an unrealistic deadline!”

Selene shot back, “No, it’s because you’re too slow! If you stuck to the proper pace, we’d have the trucks operational in three months. But you’re running the company on Scandinavian hours—rolling in at ten, gone by three, two-hour lunches, lounging on the terrace with coffee and pastries, your laptop out while you sunbathe and call it ‘afternoon tea.’ I hand you a twenty-page report, and you can’t finish it in a day.”

Annalise was momentarily floored. She pursed her lips and protested, “What, do you want me to work myself to death, stuck in some endless overtime cycle? QuanTech Innovations is part of The Lockridge International Group. As an American employee, I follow U.S. work standards. What’s wrong with that?”

Selene’s voice was unflinching. “MorganiaAureate Capital pours $1.7 billion a year into a pack of freeloaders who haven’t produced a thing in years. The old guard is fading, living off the glory days from three decades ago.

When you were with Goldcrest Technologies, did your team ever produce anything worthwhile? The research funds you requested were spent on luxury golf club memberships.

Annalise, slacking off at work is not an excuse for incompetence!”

When it came time for the real test, you faked the data and used overpriced sensors to mask the flaws, passing every trial on paper!”

She looked directly at Harrison. “Vaughn Enterprises isn’t any better. The production EV data never matches your earlier test numbers. And when accidents happen, you just drown it all in PR spin. How many lives has Vaughn Enterprises erased from the record? But now that QuanTech Innovations is part of this intelligent engineering project, I refuse to gamble with the lives of people on the street!”

A city official finally spoke up, his voice tight with disapproval. “Ms. Lockridge, how did your employees end up like this?”

Around the room, the faces of other leaders were equally grim.

One leaned over and whispered to Harrison, “The Lockridge Group is a multinational—data manipulation and PR games, that’s their specialty. Just don’t let Vaughn Enterprises pick up those bad habits. Sure, capital’s rise is bloody, but in our country, we don’t tolerate this. Better to move a little slower than to risk people’s lives for profit.”