MOLLI ARRIVED AT THE condo late that evening from her martial arts seminar.

“My buds were great to stick around here while I was with the grandmaster. I just asked them to leave, though. We’re switching off places, so they’re attending tomorrow’s seminar. I hope we can make do without our guardians at the door.”

Peter was finishing dinner in the kitchen. “We’ll survive. The fact that the PD is on the case has hopefully diminished the threat level.”

“Maybe so,” Ears responded from his upstairs bedroom, “but let’s not get over-confident.”

Molli whispered in Peter’s ear. “The boy has the ears of an elephant.”

“I heard that!” Ears shouted as he trotted downstairs to the kitchen. “Guys, we’re queued-up for OmniBev to play out in two days on our usual Wednesday time slot. Plus, I just finished working out the kinks from Jennifer’s interview this morning.”

“Kinks? Did Peter’s young obsession botch her interview?”

Peter was slightly annoyed. “She did fine,” he grumbled, covering his mouth.

Ears sensed Molli’s sensitivity to this subject and didn’t want to embellish. “It went okay.”

“What did you think of the interview, Peter?” Molli taunted.

“She’s a nice girl, um, woman. Clean interview. Non-toxic.”

“Meaning?” Molli wondered.

“It was non-controversial,” Ears reassured her. “Exactly in-line with our plan to soften the messaging on defenses to the alien threat. This was much more tech-oriented around augmentation and what her peers were doing.”

“I don’t recall mentioning the obelisk in any threatening context,” Peter added.

“Okay, I’m sure I’ll have comments after Ears finishes the edits.” She pulled up a chair. “Can we talk about what’s next? I’m energized after my workout today, and I want to plan out this week.”

Ears grabbed a bottle of almond milk from the refrigerator and sat with them. “Two more are lined up, per our accelerated plan, and possibly a third.”

“Please tell us, amigo.”

“Wednesday morning is the Bard.”

“The Bard. Love that name,” Peter chuckled. “Can you help me again on his story?”

“He’s the nano-robot, synthlife guy. And what a wonderful array of tech to cover, based on our brief conversation.”

“Great, thanks. Who else?”

“Oort Cloud, though that name has nothing to do with the ring of comets in our solar system. There is an interesting cross-reference, if you think about it, to a bunch of comets and asteroids bumping into each other and fragmenting and recombining.”

“Not sure I get the connection, my friend,” Molli confided. “Who is he again?”

“A surgeon well-known in Boston circles who fixes the unfixable, especially the mess of off-target outcasts that black market geedee tech is creating.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve seen a number of feeds on the issue,” she noted. “Sounds like it’s a growing problem. Another good one, though, where we’re not focusing on the obelisk.”

“My point entirely. This guy is one of the best in Boston. He’s my surgeon, if you must know, and he’s helped with some of my issues.”

“Issues?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, I don’t speak of it much but my clipper tech has caused problems. None of this genetic stuff is perfect, even with high-grade geedee.”

Molli grabbed his hand. “Ears, I never hear you complain.”

“We all carry our little burdens. Glad I don’t complain like some others at the table,” he teased, motioning his head towards Peter.

“Hey, I’m usually the last guy to gripe. I might occasionally mention a hangnail or something, but that’s about it.

“Or how your sneakers rub your knobby toes, or your sore butt from bike riding, or your sinus problems, or how your back hurts, or your hair,” Molli joked.

“Enough!” Peter smirked. “I grew up with doting parents. What can I say? They let me complain, so I complained. It’s their fault, not mine.”

Ears and Molli smiled at each other, then someone knocked at the door.

“It’s 9 p.m., and my buds left their guard. Dare we answer it?”

“Peter, can you connect to my front door monitors?” Ears requested.

Peter logged-in. They saw a single man, six feet tall and dressed in a dark suit and tie. He held up a badge and waved it in front of the three camera feeds.

“FBI,” he insisted. “I want to speak with you all for a moment.”

Ears grabbed Peter’s laptop and panned the cameras along the external walkway but saw nobody else.

“Ask him to turn around,” Molli whispered.

“Sir, do you mind if we ask you to remove the jacket and turn around?” Ears asked through the door speaker.

“Sure, if it will get you to open the door.” He conceded, and they saw no evidence of weapons.

Molli took charge. “He’s obviously been watching us. I’ll stay behind the door with my foot wedged. You two do a baby step outside and greet him politely, shake hands, then I’ll follow. People are most disoriented in the first seconds of an introduction. I’ll be watching his hands and scanning the perimeter since I can’t believe he’d come alone. Feds never do.”

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They walked to the door together. From behind the door, Molli heard the man introduce himself as an FBI agent and ask where Molli was. She poked her head around the front of the door, hanging onto the doorknob.

“You can understand why I’m particularly sensitive to strangers,” she confirmed before he could introduce himself.

“Understood.”

“He has that Federal look,” Molli thought. “Latino, short black hair, great shape, strong build, and can take care of himself.”

“Can we please see your badge and card? No disrespect intended,” she requested, putting her hand outward without shaking his.

He was still holding his jacket in his left hand, a sign he was hiding nothing. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his credentials.

“Special agent Ramirez, Molli. Pablo Ramirez. From D.C. You could call your friend, but the local team in Boston doesn’t know I’m here. Special assignment today. And yes, my partner is there in the car.” He pointed to a standard black sedan in the lot. “I need less than fifteen minutes with you.”

Molli looked straight into his eyes. She had been trained to make an immediate connection with anyone she met who might present a threat. Staring the opponent down was just another way to project one’s strength and prowess.

“Uh-huh. Badge and card appear legit, but then who knows? Here to assist or arrest?” she queried.

“If it was to arrest you, my partners would be here with a cadre of others in the wings. Can we move this conversation inside? It might be better for both of us.”

In his typical friendly manner, Peter put his arm across the agent’s back. “Sure, no problem.”

Peter then forced the door open despite Molli’s partial grip on the knob. The agent entered first, and Molli cast a displeased glance at Peter as he followed the agent inside.

“Mind if we sit?” Ramirez asked.

“I’ll stand,” Molli insisted.

“We are aware of the kidnapping and particulars, Molli, so your caution is appropriate. If you don’t mind, I’ll sit. Again, it won’t take long.”

Peter and Ears grabbed chairs, and the agent sat on the couch.

“You may not be accustomed to dealing with the FBI, beyond your latest troubles. We understand what has happened in that regard, including the continuous threats to your property and related to your podcast.”

“We’ve seen issues pick up as we added fans, but we expected that,” Ears confided.

“Be prepared for direct talk from me. Short but sweet. I come from our HQ. As you might imagine, we are assessing risk factors associated with the after-effects of the obelisk’s discovery. I assume you are tied into the news, and you’ve witnessed the rise in social unrest.”

“That’s not totally obelisk-related, is it?” Molli questioned. “Some of this has to be from the evolving varint and non-varint conflicts that are occurring naturally.”

“They are exacerbating and intertwined factors, Molli. We are dealing with a volatile combination of issues. Honestly, our federal resources are stretched thin, just like the local authorities. Stating it more succinctly, people are freaked and bad things happen when emotions are high. Bad things.”

“Then why are you here?”

“You spoke to your friends at the Cambridge PD. We know what they said to you because we told them what to say.”

“What’s new then? We took the information in, we understand, and we’re moderating.”

“Let’s talk about that, and I’ll give you some context. The country is in turmoil. It’s not insurmountable, but not a cakewalk, either. Then there are other countries not as stable where ‘insurmountable’ is far preferable than what they’re experiencing. In other words, things are getting very, very ugly around the world.”

He paused for a moment and placed an index finger up to let him finish.

“This damn obelisk is destructive and destabilizing. People are feeling off-kilter, abandoned by their belief systems, their faith in a supreme being, or whatever glued them together socially. Any of you ever play the old pinball machines?”

They all raised their hands.

“If you push the machine around too much, it tilts. When that happens, everything freezes and the game ends. We don’t want the game to end here. What I’m asking, what we’re asking, is that you help us keep the machine from rocking so much. Help us avoid the tilt.”

“That’s what I was getting to, officer,” Molli explained. “We agreed, right, Peter?” She glared at him to finish the thought since it was his podcast.

“You mean on mitigating some of this?”

Molli shook her head.

“Agent Ramirez,” Peter began, “we decided to mix it up, to avoid focusing exclusively on the obelisk and potential solutions. We are combining some of that with discussions in other areas of science and tech. Think more around the human-interest components versus edgy tech talk. We’re climbing fast in listener counts, so something is working right with our format change.”

“Just a caution for you, then I’ll leave you to your evening. We see what you’re doing – that’s our job. And we haven’t bugged your condo, Ears, but we’re watching where you go and what you do. If the local or national situation gets more out of hand, we may make a stronger plea for you to help us avoid stirring the pot.”

He stood up from the couch, and each of them followed his lead. “In the last four weeks, you grew from four thousand active listeners, am I right Ears?”

Ears confirmed, “Yes sir.”

“It’s quickly ramping to twenty million by the Agency’s last count. This is happening so fast that you don’t understand the degree of clout you hold. Your voice has influence it never held previously, and across a much wider swath of society. Others are in contact with you?”

“If you mean the news outlets and major media, we can’t wrap our heads around those inquiries right now. What’s worked thus far is to put our heads down and get the interviews done,” Peter admitted.

“I’ve been watching the feeds more than these two,” Ears grinned. “We’re being mentioned in many places, and there’s a terrible picture of Peter in most of these feeds. But as Molli said, we’re trying to be good journalists and expose what people are feeling.”

The agent nodded disapprovingly. “With the radicalized mechs, the Agency is not focusing on what they’re feeling, but what they’re doing and planning. And the new offshoots of energized individuals with similar mindsets? Very unpredictable. Their social media sites glue them together. They establish corrupting loyalties and narratives and agendas. Then they go execute on those agendas. With today’s more disturbing varint factions, that makes for a very dangerous situation.”

Peter added, “Before you go, please be aware, we should be in concert with what you’re requesting. Calming things. For example, we had a chipper named Jennifer in here today.”

“I know,” he imparted.

Peter took a deep breath. “There was no real discussion about the obelisk. We have others like her in queue as well, balancing-out the messages and avoiding speculatives.”

“Good. Best if we don’t have to come back here since our hands are full. We need help from you folks who can influence the emotions of our citizens toward a more positive direction. I’m not talking propaganda, but you can help by limiting fear factor narratives or speculative journalism.”

“Point taken,” Molli confirmed as she followed him to the door.

“Appreciate the conversation. Oh, and relative to those copious new additions in your respective bank accounts. We took notice of that, too, as you might have deduced. Be sure to give your favorite uncle his appropriate share, and you might need a good accountant to help on the tax implications.”

Molli closed the door and wiped her brow. “Geez! I was afraid he’d shut the pod down!”

“They couldn’t do that. It’s a first amendment right,” Peter insisted.

“You guys need to cross over to the varint side. I consume ten times what you do in terms of news feeds, though still less than what our chipper friend Jennifer does. I’m seeing media crackdowns in every country. The autocratic and religion-dominant countries are doing as you might expect. They’re acting as if the obelisk never happened despite their underground news providing the factual feeds. It’s only in the democracies where the news remains open on the topic. I can’t say people aren’t alarmed globally, because they are, but one could deduce that what Stu said is believable.”

“Meaning?” Peter asked.

“Meaning that the entire obelisk story was created with the explicit intent to create havoc, fear, and uncertainty. Like he said, and I paraphrase, ‘emotion is the tool to control the emotional.’”

“Okay,” Molli advised, “enough excitement for one day, kids. Let’s sit on this tonight. However, I’m not sensing the visit from our good-looking Latino agent should affect our strategy. We’re mixing it up enough, in my opinion. Besides, he had no ring on his finger, and it’s fine with me if he visits again,” Molli joked.

“Molli,” Peter stressed, “when he shows up again, it will be with cardboard boxes to carry our equipment away, or with handcuffs to take us away.”

“Hmm,” she smiled, raising her eyebrows. “Agent Ramirez putting me in handcuffs? Kinky."