I switched on a radio as we speed up “So you were part of the death squads send to kill those who were suing the ex American president by the current American president how do you justify that?” “We all know that we caused global warming thats fine just wear a body suit. But they had proof that several American Presidents had taken bribes to allow super fracking. Those companies caused the plagues that decimated most of the southern states. We just did not have the credits to clean up afterwards. I am proud of what I did but when I realised they were butting up a super fracking oil well in my home town enough was enough. The Texans and people from the southern states had it coming not me and mine. Now if you excuse me I have to go and kill Max and then I have to go kill a few environmentalists ”

I looked at the towers and what looked like missile emplacements and bunkers surrounding the maze or lair of the supervillains. Candy looked at the massive bunkers and spoke out “There mostly fake its not as bad as it seems.” A giant laser beam flashed from a bunker and was followed my missiles. Massive bunkers opened up and from inside them huge rail guns began to fire into the sky.

Candy looked at me “That's just them showing off ” One of the gun emplacements exploded and then the remaining missile turrets fired before they swiftly retracted. Candy turned pale and sped the golf cart we were in began to speed up. We rocketed up to a bunker which was opening up slowly. Candy looked into the sky cursing. “Can you see anything?” I shrugged “I am not going to look they might have something like your ability to sense when there being looked at” Candy looked like she wanted to puke. The door opened a little and Candy floored the golf cart. A massive gun turret kept a eye on us from inside the bunker as the door shut behind us and another opened in front of us.

I arrived to see a banner and a lot of screaming people. Candy looked at the banner “Welcome home founder” and then at me. I looked at the people surrounding me and then at the hologram of Hank. “Hank did you let a bunch of people stay in the secret hideout I was having built?” Hank nodded “It was just going to waste.” “There is still a bed right?” “Well there adding one now.”

I looked at the thin little girl who had a wreath of flowers and pulled out a bank card. “Hank there going to have to take out zero interest loans but I was told there is four million and fifty credits on this. Right your all being given a zero percent interest loan by me to the tune of one million credits. That's a million credit loan between all of you Hank will be the one who decides who gets a loan and for what. Also I will be pumping a million credits into general structural work. That's one million credits for you and one million credits to improve my property. Your all paying rent by the way.”

Hank nodded “Sorry but the American, Indian, and south American governments have all at one time pulled out leaving people to die.” I looked at the pitiful people “Any computer technicians among them? ” Hank nodded “Yeah I will send you a complete inventory of your property.”

A young kid passed me a older tablet and I looked at his worn clothing. His clothes were patched and several sizes to big for him. I pulled up the tablet and found there were 91 people living in my main storage facility. I scrolled down I owned the two robots that had mugged me earlier as well as part of a space ship.

Hank grinned “Yeah we keep track your kind of wealthy. Now that your back I can sell you part of a nanite farm for a couple of hundred thousand credits. For fifty thousand credits you can have a space fighter or four or five medium size war robots the Americans left them years ago but we have upgraded them since.”

I went into the local online notice board and found I could hire a quantum scientist for ten credits a day. Engineers were one hundred credits. I guessed when you had a lot of old machines keeping you alive you needed them to work right.

I was brought to what was basically a giant square in the ground. There were a few rows of what looked like tomato and lettuce being grown next to a mat where children were thought to read. The children were mostly topless. I looked at the row after row of smaller containers that people were living in and realized I had a lot more than 91 people living in what was for me a hiding hole.

Everyone had weights on them. I looked around and quickly found the local doctor a female Chinese woman named Lin who explained that china was the only place still sending out aid to those less fortunate. I looked at a kid learning mandrin and cursed internally. I looked at the Lin the nurse slash doctor “What are the main vitamins the locals are missing?”

Lin shook her head “We have plenty of vitamins but we are lacking gravity. The weights help but we need a actual gravity generator especially for the children.” it was fairly easy to see I could easily lose all my credits if I put to much into the people living in what was suppose to be my secret hideout. But lets face it I would be stuck here for a few years. It would not do to piss to many desperate people off. Plus the children just looked alarmingly thin.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Lin had a rough list of everyone who called my place home all 829 of them. There were a lot of children on the list and a couple of red marks on the list. I read the list and felt a sliver of cold on my back. It looked like most of the original inhabitants of my new base had been send because there was no room for them elsewhere. It looked like Hank had made a lot of choices as there were listing for people who had been removed for theft.

Removed for theft meant being given to a nanite tester and if you survived in one piece you were considered mostly free. If you damaged or stole something truly valuable then you were given to the testers and then if you survived you were put in a collar and given the worst jobs. In theory for most of the cases you could repay your debt in under thirty years if you did not need to eat or sleep. Or you could volunteer for another round of testing.

Lin pointed at the list of the original squatters. “Mostly hookers and a couple of butlers and a few boyfriends and girlfriends. When the problems began the rich left there staff behind. Most of them worked as cheap labourers but the undesirables set up shop here. Then those that did not get jobs tried turning to stealing, prostitution and crime. The problem is there is nothing to steal. There were issues with the hookers under cutting each others prices and then there were pregnancies. Finally when it looked like there was going to be a food problem anyone with a criminal record got tossed out a airlock.But since then the food issue has been solved mostly”

I looked around at the population and realised most of the people here were female. A lot of them were pregnant. A horrible thought entered my mind and looking at Lin I realised it was true. The lack of gravity and conditions had lead to a high infant mortality rate. The children running around were the lucky ones.

I looked at the children and at Lin “The problem is that if we put in a gravity field the number of children surviving child birth will sky rocket. Your already at breaking point right?” Seeing Lin face I decided to give out orders “Have Hank settle the issue I will be getting drunk.”

Lin nodded and gave me a letter.

Hi friend Max,

I just wanted to let you know I sold some of your secret information to the Chinese. I also told them you would be willing to help. Its better than a fist up the ass yes? I will be sending scientist my daughter and a few friends.

The Grand Supreme leader of the world

Hans

Lin bowed “I am sorry but I should bring you to meet the trainers they wanted a word” If I could have I would have punched Hans and Hank. Hans must have bribed Hank with something pretty big. I followed Lin and we came to a giant table in the inside of what looked like a old grain silo. Or maybe it had been a water tank. A old Chinese woman and four muscular female body guards meet me.

The old woman bowed “I am called the trainer. I am here because my student told me if she faced you down she would die. I am uncertain how you achieved this I am hoping you will be enlighten me. My government selected a thousand girls and only fifty survived the nanite injections. Every day she trains for 12 to 14 hours. We have invested billions in getting her the finest nanites and ensuring her health.

So why did her danger sense tell her you were a threat. You are admittedly a decent nanite controller but you have no other ability that should cause the most powerful person in the world to panic.” I looked at the old woman and decided if I tried to con her off I might end up dead. Visions of millions of credits floated into my head but common sense prevailed.

“It is the mnemonic I use. Its simpler than the ones used to alter your Aces nanites. The nanites in Ace will have been produced by many people. Mine are produced by one person and altered by one person me. No one know why but this makes them harder to hack. The level of programming that goes into the nanites you use makes them venerable to my control. So what you need is a passive skill that blocks remote nanite control.”

The trainer nodded “Hans told us you could do this. I wonder why he thinks so?” “I helped produce the earlier nanites used in the production of the super soldiers. I produced a nanite line to add the skill to newborns. It was not used as it was to costly.” I watched the Trainer look me over “What else did you work on?”

I pulled out a memery stick and passed it to the Trainer who looked it over on her hand held computer she took a deep breath. “You developed a second wonder besides the nanite control it seems. You hid your research from the Fourth Reich then?” I nodded “Increased intelligence is not something I would be happy giving them” The Trainer chucked “I am talking about your research into energy transfer and storage.”

I cursed internally “That research can only increase a level A supers strength and speed. It has no other uses. ” The Trainer grinned “Only a increase in strength and speed Only do you have more valuable military research ? Your notes on developing a cure for cholera is useful. As is your research on stopping the giant killer wasps. But what I am truly interested in is this wonderful research on increasing Super Speed and strength.”

I nodded and began to pull out hidden data storage devices. I pulled up the diagrams on the research and explained them to the Trainer. The Trainer nodded “Hans research is a little more advanced than yours in most areas. But I needed to be certain he was not how do you say it telling me a untruth. A lie that's what I wanted to say”

The Trainer laughed “You know he has a black girlfriend. Like you he was forced to hide secrets. But you seem much better at keeping your secrets than Hans. Our supers with the skills to look into your mind the telepaths can not seem to enter your mind. Neither can the dream walkers enter your dreams and the empathic supers seem to go crazy around you. Why is that?”

I shrugged “Best guess its some function of how I trained my mind” “Unfortunately I agree otherwise I could have my technicians dig it out of your corpse. But I digress in exchange for a working space program Hans has agreed to pass over your research. Your part of the deal ”

I had no choice but to agree to start researching increasing the strength of supers. I decided I would steal as much equipment as I could and keep researching intelligence as much as I could. Given how happy the trainer was I was betting I could steal quite a bit.