America 1982-Chapter 159 - 58: Before Contact_4

"I guess the trick you taught me isn’t the same kind I just taught Susan in the meeting room," Tommy casually added a few ice cubes to his glass and lifted it to look at Delia.

Delia held her glass to her lips and smiled at Tommy, maintaining that smile for a few seconds before speaking in an admiring tone, "You want Susan Curtis to mislead them?"

"As you said, I have no privacy when it comes to Lotus. The chances of creating a divide are not high with me involved. No one is a fool. Mark doesn’t have the best mental fortitude, and Holly’s previous demeanor was proper, with quite the heavy mind. They’ll take note of that. Jason is truly a merry young man, with a tongue that lacks restraint. That mistake suits him best, but considering he’s my roommate, if they think we didn’t brief him on such a crucial issue, they won’t believe it’s our lawyer’s neglect but will be more suspicious. So, Susan is the best choice under the current circumstances." Tommy clinked his glass against Delia’s:

"An uneducated woman who’s been in the cheap flesh trade and hasn’t seen much of the world, even if coached by a lawyer, won’t change her speaking habits quickly. The opposing lawyers might place their bets on her. The unbelievable words coming from me wouldn’t carry weight, but coming from her, they might see it as a chance nearing victory. Most importantly, I’m betting those lawyers have never dealt with cheap prostitutes like Susan. They’ll have their prejudices but not know the kind of pressure she can withstand. For instance, intentionally misleading them during their persistent questioning."

"But now there’s a problem; our investigators haven’t pried open the mouths of Lotus employees yet. We know nothing about updates like Lotus 1-2-3, and your actions might backfire if the other side..." As Delia heard Tommy talk about work, her smile habitually faded, but when she saw that smug look on his face again, as if he were just waiting for her to finish so he could give her a lesson, she immediately realized:

"You want Susan to pretend to slip up, not only revealing that OSS was influenced by Lotus 1-2-3 during its development but also letting them guess and deduce that we already know Lotus Corporation’s software update plans and are preparing to submit evidence to the court that Lotus 1-2-3’s updates were impacted by OSS. You hope to throw back the problem they tossed our way entirely, gauging their resolve to settle or continue with the court case based on their reaction."

Tommy nodded, "Exactly."

"I’m guessing you need alcohol to sleep every night." Delia looked down at the liquid in her glass, posing a seemingly unrelated question, "I know college students like to drink for fun, but they should drink to feel happy, not to relieve fatigue."

Tommy shook his head, "No, I don’t drink to excess; I rely on Lunesta. I only get five hours of sleep each day, and I have to make sure each of those hours is deep sleep. I need that to be energetic for everything the next day. Compared to alcohol, sleep aids with less harm to the body are a better choice."

"Every time I’m in front of you, it seems I always end up feeling like I worked hard to help my employer, but didn’t actually provide any effective help," Delia sighed and with a regretful look, she said to Tommy, "Looks like I can only go coach Susan now."

Tommy turned away from Delia, avoiding her gaze as if he couldn’t be bothered to respond. However, a few seconds later, he turned back and said, "The coaching you’re talking about for Susan, that’s legit coaching, right? Not like the trick you pulled earlier to get me to come to the guest room?"

"What do you think of that kind of coaching? To express my regret for not being able to help you, I could coach you again, and you can keep using my money to tip the servers," Delia winked at Tommy and said: 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"When I sleep with those kids, sometimes I feel guilty, but with you, not at all."

"Of course, it’s not great. Both sides wanting a free ride and letting the other work hard, what kind of pleasure can there be in that, lady?" Tommy started laughing as he talked about what had just happened between them:

"I wanted you to move, you wanted me to move, and in the end, we had to flip a coin to decide who would make the move. Even for something like that, you wanted to take advantage, and I was the one who lost the toss. Guess if I have any fond memories of that."

Delia pretended to smack her lips in an exaggerated fashion, "That’s so heartless. I remember when you were pulling my hair, you didn’t say that, scumbag Tommy."

"At that time, I was disheveled, but I’m dressed now, lady. Mind the context when you speak," Tommy said earnestly:

"Please call me Wise Tommy."

...

Jim Manzi sat in front of the conference table, one arm pressed against the surface, his body angled towards Mitch, Jonathan, and several other Lotus Corporation department heads who were looking at him.

"I understand you’ve all been a bit uncomfortable lately, feeling like, although we’re the plaintiffs, it’s as if we did something wrong and became the culprits. People outside keep accusing us of being cruel and inhumane, as if the worst I’ve ever done was to skip class and play video games. Why? ...I’m sorry I can’t explain to you in detail what litigation is. You only need to understand that the black-and-white cases you see on TV are criminal cases. Beyond that, no lawsuit has good or bad, right or wrong; it’s just a match. We say Actor Corporation copied us, so we need to tell the judge how they copied, and likewise, they’ll try to prove they didn’t. Then there’s halftime, where everyone sits down for a nice chat and sees what evidence has been gathered," Jim ran a hand through his hair, speaking with some irritation: