The next week wasn’t too out of the ordinary. Ethan went to work, said ‘good morning’ to Dawn and then they didn’t talk to each other for the rest of the day. Eldon did invite him up mid-week for a talk. Ethan was expecting this invitation. He knew Eldon would not overlook how a priceless artifact just showed up at his door.

They were sitting alone in a side office in Eldon’s war room. A familiar setting for both. Most of their interactions, which at times had been fairly regular throughout their association took place in these rooms. They’d sit together for hours some times, literally planning their next move in taking over the world. At the time, they were good times between them, but over the past few years, Eldon was becoming more removed. Ethan was invited less often. Somewhere along the way, Eldon had perceived him as a threat, and placed him in a more manageable position.

Still, this was their familiar meeting place, and where both were most relaxed. Eldon grabbed a diet Dr. Pepper and handed Ethan his green smoothie. Eldon sat in a chair, and Ethan plopped down on a sofa.

‘Ah,’ Eldon sighed. ‘Quite a week. How are you making out with StarForce.’

‘Everything’s in motion. I’m not seeing any big roadblocks so far. Logistics is telling me we’re looking at a 3 month timeline for the first reactor. You still good with that?’

‘I guess so. I suppose we have to give them time to build the damn thing.’

‘Listen Eldon,’ Ethan said. He wanted to control of the conversation as much as possible. ‘I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you asking me to do this. You know, I don’t mind telling you I thought you were wasting a valuable resource having me sit in the wings like that, but StarForce. Wow. That’s worth the wait’.

‘Just saving you for the right job’.

‘Yeah well. I sure do appreciate it,’ Ethan replied, and laid back in the sofa. ‘It’ll be just like old times’.

‘Yes,’ Eldon replied. ‘And did you enjoy my birthday party?’

‘Oh yeah. The after party was something else,’ Ethan enthused. He knew Eldon already knew about the girl or he soon would. Best not to be on the defensive for this conversation. ‘Especially the after party. Let me tell you. I came across this girl. She was right. Just right. I liked her so much, I’m having Jimmy bring her back a few times’.

‘Jimmy doesn’t arrange the girls.’

‘No, but you know Jimmy, He can make things happen’.

‘Yes, I suppose he can, but do you think that was the wise thing for you to do? You’re showing attachment. That is not a good characteristic to have in life. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you; emotion prevents progress’.

‘Alright, ‘ Ethan agreed. ‘But it’s just a girl. I didn’t think you’d give a shit about a girl’.

‘I don’t give a shit about a girl, but I do give a shit about your judgment, and I see this as a lapse. Even the slightest error in judgment from any outside influence can bring this whole system down. I urge you to reconsider your actions’.

‘Yeah, well I guess,’ Ethan conceded, knowing he was about to lose a war, but win a battle. ‘I don’t see what the big deal, but whatever. I’ll make sure Jimmy gets rid of her’.

‘It is a big deal,’ Eldon countered. He looked at Ethan for a moment. That was the one criticism he had of Ethan. He was a little too impetuous, hard headed and if truth be known, ambitious. This combination made him think he could bend the rules. There were rules to everything in Eldon’s world. Everyone knew that. They knew not to disobey those rules, yet here was Ethan, pushing the limits one more time.

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‘The Faberge egg was an unexpected surprise,’ Eldon continued, leaving the statement open.

‘Ethan looked at him. ‘Yeah, that was just luck. Jimmy sold it to me. Well, actually he told Dawn about it and she talked me into buying it. I’m glad she did. It shows the level of respect I have for you.’

‘Well, I wonder how Jimmy came to have it?’

‘Some Russian oligarch. Zhang’s starting to put the squeeze on them. Sounds like there’s lots of bargains out there.’.

‘Do you know who this oligarch is?’,

‘No,’ Ethan replied absently.

Eldon, measured him some more for a moment, and then shook his head.

‘It cost me though’, Ethan offered.

‘Oh?’

‘Oh yeah,’ Ethan continued. ‘The price of the egg and all my influencer's with introductions.’

‘Hmmm,’ Eldon mused. ‘That is pretty steep. Jimmy always knows what he can get for something.’

‘You know,’ Ethan smiled. ‘When they told me it was an egg, at first I really did think it was one of those sex toys. You know a gag gift. You can get those things now. You stick them up your ass and they vibrate.’ Ethan paused for the right moment. ‘I can still get you one if you want?’

‘Eldon looked at Ethan. Sometimes he was like a big dumb dog. Look at him grinning away. He laughed. ‘No, I have my own supplier. Thanks though’.

Jimmy was next to get called up by Eldon. Jimmy came into the war room and started pressing buttons. Eldon didn’t seem to mind.

‘So, where are we with all this?’ Eldon asked.

‘It’s coming along. Zhang’s tech’s are on point. They’re moving quickly and his AI is growing strong. His weakness is the control he insists on holding over it. All those restrictions delays it’s growth considerably. Still, it’s nothing to sneeze at’.

‘Yeah, well where does that leave us’?

‘I’m inside. I’ve built a few back doors they won’t find, but dude, this takes time. AI is a completely different thing than code and computers. It’s very organic in it’s nature. It takes a lot of gentle prompting to get it to do what you want, especially undetected and when what I’m putting in is contrary to what Zhang wants’.

‘Well, we need to be inside and in control once I get those reactors up. I want no mistakes when I act on that fucker, and that means I control his AI.

‘I know. You’ll have it.’ Jimmy replied, while he looked at a monitor and typing in commands. ‘How long do I have anyway?’

Here’s a little known fact. No one could get any emotion out of Eldon, but Jimmy.

‘For fuck sake’s Jimmy. You have one year. One year to get this computer talking to Zhang’s.

‘Relax bro,’ Jimmy chuckled. ‘I’m just yanking your chain. It’ll be ready. Don’t worry about it.’

‘Yeah, well make sure it is. What else is going on out there?

‘Oh nothing much. Zhang’s laser focused on fucking you up with his AI. He’s pretty predictable when it comes to you. You probably already know, he’s running into a lot of bad debt with all those 3rd world nations he’s been propping up. He owns them, but the return is not what he was expecting and he’s pushing them to the limit. They say he’s trying to take more than he should, and the governments and people are starting to push back. Nothings broke out yet, but he might have a handful of revolutions to deal with if he doesn’t back off.

‘That’s how you got the egg though, isn’t it Jimmy.’

Jimmy looked at Eldon, affecting surprise, ‘Yeah. That’s right. Zhang’s moving on Russia too. It’s starting to affect the rich. I’m buying up a lot of bargains in Russia right now. Information too, but I’m having that sent directly to you, as you may have noticed.’.

‘I did, and we might be able to do something with it someday,’ Eldon replied, and then turned directly towards Jimmy which was his way of saying the meeting was over. ‘Well, I guess if that’s everything,’ he said.

‘I guess so,’ Jimmy answered, turning to leave. ‘Oh there’s one thing’.

‘Yes’.

I don’t know if this is something that will interest you, but Ethan asked me to keep one of the girls from the party for him. I know how you are about rules, but I didn’t want to get into a big thing with him about who has final authority on things, now that you gave him StarForce. I decided to skip the drama and did it. I figured you could tell me what you want done about it. And by the way, I could have run StarForce with a laptop and one flip of my finger.

‘I know you could run StarForce Jimmy, but I can’t have you running the entire company. What would I do?’ Eldon replied. ‘About the girl. Why don’t we let Ethan decide what to do with her?’

And so the week passed, and the time came for the three dissidents to meet again. Jimmy was all excited about what he had done to Ethan’s office floor, and insisted on giving them a tour. It wasn’t much different, except now there was a simulation of Dawn working at her desk, and Ethan assumed there’d be one of him working in his office. Jimmy led them up to Dawn.

‘Morning Dawn,’ he said.

‘Morning Jimmy,’ she replied, not looking up from her work.

‘See,’ Jimmy said, falling into a fit of laughter. ‘She’s just like you. No personality whatsoever’.

The real Dawn gave Jimmy one of her deadpan looks. ‘Very nice Jimmy,’ she said.

‘Yeah, well, wait till you see what I got for you Ethan,’ Jimmy said, with renewed enthusiasm. He led them into Ethan’s office.

Jimmy couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction. What Ethan saw stopped him in his tracks.

‘Hello Dually,’ he said.

‘Hello Ethan,’ Dually answered. ‘My name is Da.