And so began the 3 years Ethan would live in his quest. In just a few weeks, his life had already completely changed. He had changed. He was a different person than the one who entered the quest.

At first, the three received no direct opposition from Eldon. They went along their active, purposeful way without interruption. Jimmy’s AI was doing a better job than Ethan at running the reactor project, and he just had to audit it. Most of their time was spent coming up with ways to delay Eldon’s reactors from getting into space, at least not right now. They came up with all kinds of distractions, but they knew it would have to be something big if they were to avoid Eldon’s scrutiny regarding the delay.

The had Zhang go directly to war with Whitehead. It very quickly became apparent to Eldon that Zhang was targeting him in a trade war to say the least. He wasn’t even going after anyone else, just Eldon. Factories Eldon built in China and other BRICS nations were being expropriated. Tariffs were applied on Eldon’s products. Zhang was slowing him down, and excluded from the greatest growth economies in the world.

Prior to this Eldon considered Zhang a minor impediment to his goals. He considered Zhang powerful and cunning, but unwitting to Eldon’s vision. Zhang would be an easy conquest when the time was right. Now all of a sudden it was personal, and Eldon grew to hate the man. He became obsessed with Zhang during this period, and it took his focus away from Ethan, Jimmy and Dawn. When common parts required for the reactors became inaccessible because of Zhang’s tariffs, Eldon never thought to blame Ethan for the delay. When his computers were hacked and parts of his reactors were built to faulty specs, Eldon didn’t blame Ethan. Everything was Zhang. He blamed Zhang for everything. It had become personal, and it was getting into Eldon’s way.

Eldon and his reactors were effectively neutralized for a couple of years. Still, Eldon presented an outward calm, and he continued to have lavish parties, and throw orgies for his boys afterwards. He did not attend them himself. This created an ethical issue for Ethan he was not entirely able to overcome. His primary concern was how not to rape another woman or girl. It was a big issue. Ethan refused to engage in Eldon’s orgies, yet he was expected to attend and participate. Eldon held these orgies to affirm the top echelon of his organization were sufficiently lacking the moral compass so they would do the things Eldon needed them to do.

‘Will you come with me Dawn?’ He asked.

‘Dawn looked at him incredulously. ‘No.’

‘But I can’t have sex with innocent people. Eldon will hear about it if I’m just standing around all the time. What am I going to do?’

‘Well, you’re certainly not going to be having sex with me, I can assure you’.

The prospect of Dawn attending an orgy aroused Jimmy’s sexual interest. ‘You know Dawn,’ he said. ‘Since I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you, socially with a man, or woman. Maybe if you got your oil changed once in awhile, you’d start holding up your end of this project a little bit better’.

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‘Well, if I do, it won’t be with either of you two idiots’.

Normally, she would have gotten away with that, but Jimmy noticed her beginning to blush. ‘Maybe you should just start dressing hornier around here’.

‘What are you talking about?’ Dawn asked, starting some red from anger. Still, Jimmy’s words were touching a soft spot.

‘You know. It’d get your estrogen flowing having us guys looking at you all the time. We’d even make untoward advances. Now do you see how that would perk you up a bit? You’d be at the top of your game, fighting us off all the time. Seriously,’ he added. ‘I’ve imagined you in some pretty hot outfits, and trust me, you do not disappoint.’

‘You disgusting pig,’ Dawn yelled, now really mad and jumping to her feet as if she were about to go over and punch out Jimmy.

Jimmy’s eyes lit up, and he saw he had gone too far. ‘I’m kidding,’ he said, placing himself in a defensive, fetal position within his massive massage chair. ‘I didn’t mean it’.

Dawn stared at him for the minute, between wanting to kick the crap out of him, and saying the hell with it. She wasn’t used to being teased, and didn’t like it.

Finally, she did say the hell with it, and sat back down, at which time Jimmy said, ‘Unless of course, you want me to think of you in those hot outfits,’ which started the whole thing over again.

‘Settle down you two,’ Ethan intervened. ‘Jimmy shut up. I have to figure this out. I can’t go to these orgies. There’s no way’.

‘Well, I suppose I can lend you one of my wives,’ Jimmy offered. ‘But only the one I’m most pissed off with. I’ll take away a little Jimmy loving and she how she likes that.’

‘Lend one of your wives? You disgusting pig,’ Dawn interjected. ‘Like you own them. Asshole!’

‘Okay. Okay.’ Ethan said holding up his hands. ‘What do you mean, one of your wives?’

‘Well, I have five of them, which you guys would know if you ever showed the slightest interest in my life. I suppose you can become part of our group at the orgies.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Ethan asked.

‘I have five wives. I married them in China where I made polygamy a law to increase population. I brought them with me when I escaped’.

‘And what? You’re swingers or something?’

‘No, but I sneak them into the orgies with me. We just jump in the middle of everything and do our own thing. That way at least I’m not directly contributing to the abuse of the women. I suppose because these orgies are something we have to do, it would be better if you took one of my wives’.

‘And you wouldn’t mind?’

‘I might have when I was younger, but do you have any idea how hard it is to sexually satisfy five women on an ongoing basis? Now they’re just aging into their horny years, and old Jimmy’s reaching for the Viagra, if you know what I mean. It might be a good thing if you showed up.’

‘Dawn’s right,’ Ethan replied. ‘You can’t make this decision for your wives. We’ll have to see if they’re open to it’.

It turned out they were very open to the idea. Maybe a little to quickly to suit Jimmy. Regardless, his wives were eager to sacrifice themselves for the greater cause. Some even started campaigns to be the one Jimmy would be most pissed off with at the time of the orgy.

It wasn’t the prefect solution, but the problem was overcome.