"Profits have been going down steadily and deeply for the past year," Bradford read from his report. "The advent of Della Duck's disappearance in space has caused such a large disturbance that McDuck has been depleting his own Money Bin at a rate I have never seen before with him. He is no longer on speaking terms with the rest of his family. He has isolated himself completely and halted his usual adventuring escapades. His company comes closer to bankruptcy as his eyes keep looking towards an unreachable goal. A goal, may I remind you, he brought upon himself."
Black Heron yawned loudly. "Can't you tell me anything new, already? You've told me all this, like, three times already in the last week." She kicked her feet up on the table and planted them right in front of Bradford's papers. He stared at her flatly.
"It's important because I'm still his CFO, and I have to still manage his funds, make sure he doesn't lose all his ill begotten wealth in one shot so that FOWL doesn't go under alongside him."
Heron got out a nailfile and started to manicure her metal claws indiscriminately. "Uh huh. And remind me again why you don't, you know, just take that wealth and funnel it all at once under his nose? Not like he'll notice."
Bradford pinched his beak and sighed in frustration. "Every time... Because I'm still not finished with him. We still have our plans to execute in the far future. Why take all the money now and spend it when we can still string him up and create more profit for us?"
"And yet," Heron said. "Here you are. Complaining. Again. "
Bradford shook his head. "It's taxing! We have to keep cutting his funds not just for us to funnel through here, but because the man has gone simply insane with grief. Rockets and rockets beyond the fields, all to chase a pipe dream."
He sighed and rubbed his eyes in frustration. He remembered the moment he spoke to Della well. Scrooge wanted to keep the Spear a secret, but he was required to tell the Board about his plans to make the rocket since the project needed such a large sum of money at the time for it to be built. Scrooge's words were clear: it was meant to be a surprise, that it was a gift for Della before her eggs hatched, that it was meant to be one final adventure for her before she had to dedicate her time to her children. He had made the Board promise to not tell her or anyone else about the present.
But this was the chance he was hoping for stopping the man's world harming actions once and for all, show him his actions have consequences. Duckworth's "accident" didn't stop him then. He'd been old, they had told themselves at the time. He surely would've died from other circumstances.
But this, this, surely would've stopped him, no matter the outcome.
He had tried to look innocent when she came up to him and asked him why her uncle was acting suspiciously. Bradford had been a last resort for her, all things considered. It wasn't his fault she took the bait hook, line, and sinker. He knew she had a propensity of acting before thinking, but he also knew she was a fully grown, responsible adult, not to mention a new mother to three eggs who was capable of her own decisions. What did it matter that she knew about the rocket beforehand? The same results would've happened either way, he thought. Building an untested rocket for her at this stage in her life to fly in was already a disaster in the making. Even when he and the rest of the board protested against the idea, they weren't able to budge the old duck's wishes.
Bradford didn't know about the space storm. He didn't want her to die or get lost. All he desired was for Scrooge to realize the harm he was doing to his family for thinking only about his own selfish desires. At best, he thought the rocket would either fail and fall to the ground, or for Della to get lost on her way to the moon and to turn back to Earth safely.
He never expected the next worst thing to happen on the day she chose to take action on his words.
She was so young. A new mother. A whole life ahead of her, snatched away so quickly. But…it was necessary to do, he reasoned when he heard the news. It was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of the safety of the larger world. If only more people could understand where he was coming from, then they'd agree too, he said to himself.
He admitted that it was not a proud moment for him. Nevertheless, he couldn't let anyone stand in his way of control. She was just a casualty of that war between him and McDuck.
But this was not how he wanted him defeated. He wasn't finished with him yet. Not even close.
Bradford rubbed a hand down his face. "If we didn't stop him, it would surely have meant the company's suicide. For all my misgivings for how he created his wealth or my disinterest on how he spends it, I cannot just look the other way and see him waste it all so fervently."
"Bradford," Heron brought her legs down on the floor and leaned over the table. "You. Are. A. Villain. Who cares about his money? You're in charge of it all, just take whatever you need from it!"
He leaned towards her as well, slamming a fist down. "How many times do I have to tell you, I'm no villain! It's my job on the line here! My plans!"
"Who cares about your dumb plans or your job! You're his CFO, part of his own Board of Directors! Just take over the company already, kick him out because he's gone senile or whatever excuse you can make up, retire him to some random island, and enjoy all the gold you'll ever need in a lifetime!" She gave a big bark of a laugh. "Taking over the world should be easy then. Take the money to fund whatever you need, get the scroll, and then Scrooge will be defeated for good!"
She cackled totally now, but Bradford could only scowl in response. "Heron," he called out, trying to get her attention again. " Heron! "
She stopped and gave Bradford an icy glare. "Oh, what? Don't tell me that isn't easier than whatever you made up?"
"It's not as easy as you make it out!" Bradford shouted. "You can't just take over a global company that controls millions of jobs, that circulates its money around the world's banks, and keeps an entire city standing solely on its back with a snap of a finger. I can't just seize everything and take all or even some of the money for myself like some sort of thief. I'd rouse immediate suspicion, no matter what we tell the press. You have to understand once and for all, I'm not like you! I'm not here to enact straightforward and simple plans with immediate results like you."
Heron groaned in annoyance as Bradford got up from his chair, turned towards the wall and reached for the handle located on the ceiling. He lowered the board, revealing the pinned papers, plans, and pictures all connected by several strings of red yarn. Twenty years of work. His work.
Bradford got out a long school pointer and pointed at a picture of the Money Bin as well as a general picture of the stock market he printed off the internet. Heron rolled her eyes.
"Don't you see?" he continued with the same monotone tone of voice he used for his board meetings. "Overruling Scrooge himself would cause the market itself to shudder. Without his immediate control over the world's affairs, both mundane and fantastical, entire governments and societies could collapse. It would cause such incalculable damage, continuing on with the Master Plans would be rendered useless!"
He then pointed to a copied file labeled Project 87 pin on the board. "That's why we have to strike the way I say we have to. He has to give up all control to not just me, but all of FOWL. Magical, adventurous, financial, all of it so as to avoid further damage from his actions. Just look at what he's doing now and the damage I'm trying to control. Unlike most people, Heron, I have patience. Perseverance. Foresight." Heron rolled her eyes at that. "To just run away with my tail tucked between my legs without giving Scrooge my own personal means of defeating him, without showing him once and for all how the world actually works, is not what I want."
He smacked the pointer into his hand to add emphasis to his words. Unconsciously, he felt his own tail bristle at his own words. "I do not desire to kill him. I don't want any more fighting. I don't want any more people to die because of this. The moment will come when he knows when to give up to me, willingly. And, as much as I want to see him cower, we need him to fulfill the rest of our plans. Must I remind you of the Papyrus, Heron?"
"Oh Lord," Heron massaged her temples. "Please, just stop talking already. Why must you keep talking?"
Bradford hit the picture of Scrooge McDuck in the center of the board hard with the pointer's tip. Heron lowered her head and stared at Bradford with a bored expression.
"It's not as simple as 'offing him' and taking the world from under him. He may be weak now, but it won't be for long. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but he will be back to doing what he's done before: Adventuring.
"We are not simple villains. We are FOWL. We all want the same thing: power. We have recruited many to our cause for various reasons. Money. Control. Vengeance. Whatever brings each recruit here doesn't matter to me. As long as they're here and they cooperate, then I'll say whatever they want to hear for them to continue working with us.
"As such, our plans cannot be as simple as stealing or even just funneling money. To reach our goal of taking control of the world's systems, we need to hit Scrooge McDuck where it hurts the most. The world's governing force is as weak as the world's guardians are strong, and Scrooge knows who they are. The only pathway to control is to stop him from pursuing his adventures, alongside him recruiting other adventurers that bring the world further towards chaos. Isolating Scrooge from his family is only the first step. The next step-"
"Theeeen," his eyebrows shot up in surprise as he was interrupted by an impatient Heron. "The next step would be to create a little him to get the Papyrus that you used and allowed out of your grasp, and then have Scrooge sign his little itty bitty fun times away leaving no one else in your way to take over the world and he gets his just desserts, yeah I know I get that part."
Heron stood up, looking straight into Bradford's eyes. "The part I never get is this: where's the money? The larceny? Why do you even care about the chaos? The world can all go to ruin for all I care. Hello? What are we again? The Fiendish Organization for World Larceny?"
Bradford pointed the stick and its pointed finger into Heron's face, startling her.
"And every time I have to explain it, you never get it. The chaos of the world causes the financial world to go into a tizzy. Funds, savings, stocks are lost, loans and mortgages are destroyed, people lose their homes and even their lives. In short, money is lost. With the unforeseen chaos of the world's natural phenomenon untouched and controlled without adventurers bringing them to a civilized society, we are all the more richer. Isn't that what you want in the end? World control and money?"
Heron smiled and sat back down slowly. "I always do like it when you say those delicious words."
Bradford stiffly nodded, and pointed to various, older headquarters they had opened before '87. "This is why we're doing this. We had tried other methods of world domination and control, all leading to naught and little funding besides for my meager salary and your exploits. Hell, even your Gummiberry Juice could've brought us some results if it weren't so asinine."
"Still a good idea," Heron added under breath.
"Like I said, asinine, especially in terms of our final goals," Bradford reached for the handle of the board and snapped the board back up into the ceiling, watching from the corner of his eye Heron seething.
"This is why we're doing this. This is why we created this plan. We used the Stone of What Was from the archives, brought together the feather and egg, and we allow the child to develop as any other. We then plant it for 22, then we'll have all our pieces set for the future."
Heron crossed her arms. "And then what, smart guy? We still don't know how we get from that point to the Papyrus."
Bradford placed the pointer on the desk and sat down again, opening his papers. "It'll come to us as we come closer to the moment we most need the Papyrus. The child must be raised under Scrooge's eye, under his influence, or else this won't work. He or she will need to be both Scrooge's biological and ideological successor. Then we'll bring our pieces together and put our final plans into place. All visages of adventure must be destroyed: the Missing Mysteries discovered by Isabella Finch - wherever the rest may be hiding, any magical objects found, and the adventurers and guardians known by Scrooge. Anyone and anything that may cause havoc to the world. All must be extinguished if he doesn't cooperate."
Bradford leaned closer into his papers to get a better look at what he wrote until he felt a faint tap on his bald head. He quickly glanced up to Heron, who was straddling over the table on her stomach, a flirtatious boot circling in the air. A teasing smile graced her beak.
"And how exactly are we going to get rid of all that junk?" she asked in a soft, playful voice.
Bradford felt a bead of sweat come down his forehead as he nervously stared into Heron's half-lidded eyes.
"I…don't know yet."
Heron groaned loudly and shoved all the papers off the table, shouting, "Then what's the point in all this planning if we have nothing?!"
Bradford gasped, watching all his organized work get mixed up, crinkled, and dirtied by the dusty floor. "Why you-," he started, then he went on all fours and started collecting the papers together. He heard Heron laugh mockingly above him as she hopped off the table. Bradford kept the growls he wanted to let out under his breath.
"Listen, Director Buzzard ," Heron scathingly said, looking down at him from across the meeting room. "I'm here because we're partners in this, and I want the slice of the world pie when this all works out. Getting the Papyrus from cloning Scrooge may have been my idea, but the rest of this better work, Bradford. Whatever plans you have for my part in this, you better hope it works. Because if it doesn't , then I'd have seen all my years working here as a waste. And I don't exactly like having my time wasted," she glared at him harshly. He returned the look.
Bradford picked up the last paper without looking away from her, and said in a low voice, "It'll work. I'd move heaven or hell to make this work. However, if I don't receive my due respect and equal partnership from you soon, then you'll only get the taste of the river outside once I kick you into it."
Heron smirked. "I'd like to see you try before I drown you in it before you can even lift your little claws." She chuckled. "Very well then. We can work out the terms later. Goodnight then, dear director," she blew a kiss his way, then left through the door, loudly shutting it and causing Bradford to grimace.
Bradford sighed as he placed the papers on his desk and started to reorganize them, dusting them off carefully. He was not one for light promises. He will make this work, but he knew this plan would be nothing without Heron's cooperation. Taking care of the baby itself, even though that'd be months away from now and only for a brief time, would need an entire itinerary of planning and organizing itself.
No matter. He'll get her full respect for this project within due time. He always got her to cooperate by the end.
But there was one lie, one piece he never told her throughout these years: the real reason for his need for control. It was never solely about the money. That was only ever an afterthought.
He desired true, total control. Of the world, of his environment, of the people around him. Control meant safety, and safety brought happiness and dulled the pain just a bit more for him. One day he'll achieve his promises when everything associated with that pain will be gone. Then, he hopes, he can live without feeling it again, being reminded of it, for the rest of his days.