Vance reflected on the danger that he found himself in, and began to come up with a plan. The only secure path involved him having control (or at least strong influence) over something Ben cared about too much to jeopardize. If he held the strings, and played it just right, Vance could be certain that Ben wouldn't double-cross him. Considering their background and situation in life, there weren't a ton of options available; there just wasn't that much that either of them had to lose. However, one of Ben's few easy-to-exploit characteristics was his absolute love for his twin sister Jez. The two didn't have a lot in common, but they were close nevertheless. Vance was reasonably certain that if he could get Jez onto his side, the two of them together could keep Ben in line.

There was an issue with this, though, in that Vance and Jez had never really gotten along. It wasn't anything like animosity, just indifference. She was often there when he and Ben had played together, and of course, they saw each other as they went through their daily routines, but she and Vance had never managed to form anything like a real friendship. It was one of the few things that had always made Ben a little uncomfortable; every time the three of them were together it felt like there was a tension of some kind, and as time had gone on, Jez had simply removed herself more and more from their interactions. Perhaps it was time, Vance decided, to remedy this situation and bring Jez into the fold in one way or another. However, there was always the risk that given too much information and freedom, she and Ben could team up and make life even harder for Vance - this would need to be handled extremely carefully, so that she was on Vance's side first and foremost.

The clearest approach, in Vance's mind, was the romantic one. While he didn't have any real experience with girls, he was aware of the truth behind tales cautioning against the "love-blind fool" and had seen plenty of people do inexplicably illogical things for people they cared about. Adding to the complexity somewhat was that Jez was a loner, and didn't seem to have much interest in romantic relationships either. Still, he had to try something, and if this failed, Vance was certain that he could come up with an alternate plan.

After some careful - nearly hilariously scientific - observation, Vance decided to try some flirting. It was about as successful as any young man's first attempts at attracting someone are, anywhere in the world. That is to say, it was a complete disaster, and an embarrassment as well. Luckily for Vance, there were two savings graces with which he was favored - first, that Jez had no better-equipped suitors, and second, that she found to her own surprise that she was charmed by Vance's efforts (misguided as they may have been). Without much of a social group of her own, Jez had become used to not getting much attention, so even Vance's poor attempts to butter her up were received with a certain amount of forbearance, patience, and interest.

Eventually, Jez took matters into her own hands and simply told Vance plainly and clearly that he could with his ham-fisted attempts at flattery. She told him to just relax; she liked him, too. Frankly Vance was surprised, as he had become so frustrated with the entire endeavor that he was already conceptualizing a "Plan B," certain that he was going to fail at getting Jez to fall for him. These preparations were not entirely in vain, as extraordinary effort and dumb luck were the only ways that his pre-teen awkwardness and Jez's own relational ineptitude were overcome, any number of times. The simple fact was that the entire first year of their relationship, whatever it was (and it seemed to change daily, if not more often), was an increasingly improbable series of events. Still, Vance powered through and devoted as much time and attention to it as he could allow.

This selfish approach actually served to be one of the biggest success factors in their budding relationship. Every fight was analyzed, every hurt feeling discussed, and as it was still Vance's best bet for mitigating the biggest risk he had in his grand scheme, he prioritized making Jez fall for him. That investment of time and attention paid off again and again. Vance also kept close tabs on what worked, and what didn't, adjusting his style as necessary for maximum emotional impact. He found that Jez didn't respond well to his compliments if they were out of the blue, but had a completely different reaction if they came up in the course of a wider conversation. He could spend a little bit of money on a trinket (or maybe just pretend to spend the money, as it wasn't like Jez would know the difference) or a small gift, and that would do wonders.

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Of course, he had to space such things out so that they didn't lose their effectiveness, but having her favorite treat, or a special clip for her hair, or other such small token, was often handy. Vance kept a few around at all times, and when he noticed a particularly bad day, or a fight, or even just that Jez was emotionally vulnerable to manipulation, he could produce one at a moment's notice and make it seem like he had just been thinking about her. Jez never questioned the coincidences, and had no incentive to do so. Although she was by no means ugly, Jez was a bit plain, often sick, and in the midst of the awkward, gangly phase that early adolescence brings to virtually everyone. Knowing this, Vance also looked for ways to compliment her appearance in meaningful, authentic ways. He took care to praise her achievements, to let her vent about her problems, and in general simply made her feel better about herself whenever possible.

A powerful formula when correctly applied to a romantic partner of any age, Vance's analytical mind and ruthless ambition had come together to turn him into a nearly-ideal suitor. It wasn't as quick, or as easy, as Vance had hoped, but Jez was smitten, and Ben was ecstatic about it. His best friend and his sister making each other happy? It was too perfect. Neither Ben nor Vance had spoken much about what they were doing after school, although Jez had her own suspicions that there was a good reason for that, and she willfully chose ignorance. Someday that situation would need to be addressed, but that problem wasn't exactly demanding attention, so Vance mentally catalogued it and just moved on. Besides, the entire scenario fo a burgeoning criminal network masterminded and operated by a small set of pre-teens was so unlikely that Jez probably wouldn't have believed it even if they had told her.

That criminal network itself was doing well, even better than Vance had initially hoped. Some lines would do better than others, and he had to be nimble enough to move or shut down certain activities when pressure got too high and the number of close calls (or even apprehensions of low-level members) got too high, but the entire operation was just decentralized enough to be responsive, and centralized enough to be coordinated. Vance always seemed one step ahead, and well-protected. The money was good, and within as few as five more years, Vance expected that he would be able to make his escape from Khartok for good, and be set for as long as needed to be. With a date starting to come together, Vance had the luxury of continuing to learn and experiment, preparing the non-financial aspects of his life to come.

Studying was critical. He wasn't sure where he would end up or what he'd want to do, but knowledge could only help. As such, Vance learned everything he could. He found notes and books on all kinds of science and engineering, and even medicine, and worked himself to exhaustion every night. His mother more or less left him alone, although she commented occasionally that Richard had never needed to spend much time in school, and heavily implied that maybe she had been wrong about Vance being smart, if it took so much for him to succeed. She wasn't actually cruel or dangerous to him any more, she was more just...there. Petty, and irritating, but their relationship had continued to change over time and was closer now to that of a landlord and tenant than a mother and son, and both of them seemed content to keep it that way for the time being. As such Vance was left to his own devices and kept himself extremely busy between school, Jez, his business, and his studying.

Although he felt that he had Ben well in-hand at this point, and there was little for Ben to get upset about considering how well everything was going, Vance still considered it important to continue to build his relationship with Jez. Skill in personal manipulation was, like knowledge, something he knew he would never regret increasing. As time went on, Vance slowly began to test the limits of his influence with Jez, and of her influence on Ben. For instance, he would set a date with her, and then threaten to break it because he needed to take care of something that Ben didn't get done - and then watch and see her reaction. He would start a small fight about something stupid with Ben and then figure out the best time and way to vent to Jez that would get her to take his side, and even confront her brother without his asking. Vance continued to make adjustments to his style and methods as these experiments played out, and his confidence grew.

The next phase in his plan had always been to take some of the retained earnings and invest in a bigger enterprise. Vance debated internally how critical this part of his plan really was; given the success that he had started to enjoy, was he getting too greedy if he over-reached? On the other hand, he could make enough money so that when his new life began, he'd be in the lap of luxury and never have to work again. Eventually Vance decided that as long as he was careful and didn't touch his personal stash, there wasn't enough risk to justify not trying to go bigger, faster. He began to hunt for the next opportunity.