Answers

1. the old man is my boss' peer
2. technically the old man should be the team decision maker. But everyone here knows big boss has the final say and the old man often says in meetings that he "woudl defer that to XXX meeting to decide", i.e. big boss' decision.

He can use what I did, i.e. not abiding his team meeting's decision as a reason to attack me for delaying timeline (they are desparate to look for someone to blame) and then my boss for interfering with his job.