The Emperor's Dragon II

Prepare for the Future

Shunin sat quietly across the table as JBQC's representative fidgeted. They were unaccountably nervous and he couldn't work out why. JBQC was his client, they kept him on retainer! So they shouldn't be nervous around him. That was for whoever he was up against. Unless...

He sighed. "What have you done?" he asked pointedly. Nervous people were usually guilty people, especially when talking to a lawyer. Since he was paid to defend them, they shouldn't be nervous around him unless they figured they didn't have much of a case. Or had done something very bad.

That was one of the reasons he was here. JBQC had a legal department. They had lawyers who worked for them but they mostly focused on corporate law. Contracts and the like. He was kept on retainer for when they wanted to get vicious. Not that he minded that. Looking at contracts, day after day would bore him. He much preferred the excitement of court.

"Nothing, yet," the man replied.

Shunin raised one eyebrow. It told them to get on with it and tell him.

"There's been a patent violation," came the follow up.

That made no sense. If there was a patent violation then something had happened. "We thought it was against us," the man continued. "But it turns out to be against our parent company," he explained.

That was interesting. Shunin wasn't aware that JBQC had a parent company but then he didn't closely follow business news that much. But it didn't explain why he was here. The man looked uncomfortable. "Our parent company doesn't maintain the resources JBQC does, and there was a standing order from our old owner, who reiterated it at time of sale to our parent company, that we at JBQC, were to take care of the parent company's owners."

Shunin digested the sentence for a few moments but it still made no sense. He knew who JBQC's old owner was and that was not the type of instruction he'd give. On the other hand, Shunin didn't think he'd sell JBQC either so there had to be something else going on here. "Who is the parent company?" he asked pointedly.

"Mi Enterprises," the representative answered immediately.

The lawyer had never heard of them and he waved one hand to ask for further explanation.

"It is a small private company, jointly owned by JBQC's former owner's son and his business partner."

Now things made a bit more sense. Not complete sense but more. It made JBQC suddenly having a parent company make complete sense. No doubt Watanabe would be able to explain everything and had probably at least partially written the sale contract. There were rules about gifting things to your children but Watanabe knew how to get around those rules and more importantly, how to minimise any payments required by those rules.

"So why am I here?" Shunin asked.

"As Mi Enterprises does not retain legal services, JBQC was hoping you would take the case."

Oh, that's what they were concerned about. Shunin put his elbows on the table and closed his eyes as he rested his chin on his hands. The man could sweat for a bit on his answer while he pretended to think. He would be taking the case. It would be stupid for him not to. JBQC retained him and while the parent company's owners may not have a lot to do with JBQC, they were the owners, which meant he worked for them, through retainer anyway. That was without even considering how stupid it would be to go against the former owner. If he'd made his instructions so clear that this representative knew, then he had been very firm and... He was one of the legal alliance's prime customers so he would be serviced well.

Shunin smiled as he opened his eyes. "Of course I will take the case," he said expansively. "Mi Enterprises may not retain me but they do retain JBQC," he explained, playing with the words, "and I would not be doing my duty if I let them down."