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 the invitation. He knew Eldon would not overlook how a priceless artifact so easily showed up at his door.

They were sitting alone in the lounge area inside Eldon’s war room. Most of their interactions, which at times had been fairly regular, took place here. They’d sit together for hours sometimes, planning conquest. Back then, they shared a special camaraderie. They both knew they lived during a time when it was possible to conquer the entire world, and they both wanted to do it. Now that they were closer to their goal, Eldon had backed away from Ethan. Eldon already knew, if anyone would challenge his supreme leadership, it would be Ethan.

Eldon grabbed a diet Dr. Pepper and handed Ethan a green smoothie. ‘Ah,’ he sighed, as he always did when allowing himself a moment to relax. ‘Quite a week. How are you making out with StarForce?’

‘Well, I’m still putting my brand on things, but everything’s in motion. No snags, and I’m not seeing any major roadblocks so far. We’re still looking at a 3 month timeline for the first reactor. You still good with that?’

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

‘I’ll get things rolling along on a tighter timeline after that,’ Ethan said.

‘I have every confidence in you,’ Eldon replied. ‘So did you enjoy my birthday party’?

Before the meeting, Ethan decided he would have to tell Eldon about the girl he had Jimmy keep alive. Eldon had a way of finding these kinds of things out on his own, and if he did, he’d be looking at Ethan and Jimmy a lot closer than he was now. That would be trouble.

‘Oh yeah. The party was something else,’ Ethan enthused. ‘Especially the after party. Let me tell you, I don’t know who’s finding those girls, but wow! I ended up with one that was perfect. Ticked all the boxes. I liked her so much, I got Jimmy to make it so I can see her again once in a while’.

‘How could Jimmy possibly arrange something like that?’ Eldon asked, instantly suspicious Ethan’s and Jimmy’s friendship was closer than it should be. No one was supposed to know what the other person did in Eldon’s organization, particularly when it was getting rid of people. ‘Does Jimmy have something to do with the girls?’

‘Who knows?’ Ethan replied, absently. ‘You just go to Jimmy when you need something. You know Jimmy. Anything for a price’.

‘Yes, he is quite the entrepreneur. Do you think this was a 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 will be your downfall’.

‘Yeah, but it’s just a girl‘ Ethan countered. ‘It’s nothing to get worked up about’.

‘It is something. I see this as a serious lapse in your judgment. An unexpected outside influence can bring this whole organization down to its knees. How many times have I told you, you must control everything. No loose ends. I urge you to reconsider your actions’.

‘Yeah, well I guess,’ Ethan conceded, recognizing Eldon had decided his behavior to be due to a lack of judgment, and not something that might threaten him. ‘I don’t see what the big deal is, but whatever. I’ll tell Jimmy to forget about it’.

Eldon could tell Ethan still didn’t see his logic. Ethan always thought he knew better than anyone else. It made him think he could bend the rules. In Eldon’s world, there were rules. Everyone knew them. They knew not to disobey those rules, yet here was Ethan, pushing the limits once again.

‘The Faberge egg was an unexpected surprise,’ Eldon continued, moving past his disappointment in Ethan’s lack of judgment.

‘Yeah, that was Jimmy again’.

‘Jimmy again. What can the man not do? I wonder how Jimmy came to have it?’

‘Sounds like Zhang’s starting to put the squeeze on the Russians, and the oligarch’s are having a fire sale. Jimmy’s buying up everything he can get his hands on’.

‘Do you know who sold Jimmy the egg?’,

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘No,’ Ethan replied absently. ‘It cost me though’.

‘Oh?’

‘Oh yeah,’ Ethan continued. ‘Fifteen percent above what he paid, and a networking package for StarForce, but we’ve been using his stuff already, so no big deal.’

‘Still pretty steep,’ Eldon mused. ‘I bet that fifteen percent set you back’?

‘A little. You know,’ Ethan smiled. ‘When he told me it was an egg, I thought he was talking about one of those sex toys. You know, a gag gift. You stick them up your ass and they vibrate. Did you know these?’ Ethan paused for the right moment. ‘I can still get you one if you want?’

Eldon looked at Ethan. And this is how he gets away with his less than polished ways,’ he thought. ‘Acting like a fool so no one will notice’.

He laughed. ‘No, I have my own supplier. Thanks though’.

Jimmy was next to get called up to visit Eldon. When he arrived, he walked over to a workstation and started pressing buttons. Unlike with Ethan, Eldon gave him full reign of the war room.

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

‘It’s coming along. Zhang’s tech’s are on point. They’re moving quickly, but Zhang’s such a control freak, he’s slowing things down, and creating openings for us to slide into his system. It’s still a formidable system though’.

‘Yeah, well where does that leave us’?

‘Well, you know, I’m inside it, but dude, this takes time. AI is completely different from coding software. It’s very organic in its nature. It takes a lot of gentle prompting to get it to do what you want, especially undetected’.

‘Well, we need to be inside and in control of his system once I get those reactors up. I don’t need the threat of Zhang hanging over my head’.

‘I know. You’ll have it.’ Jimmy replied, still looking at the monitor and typing commands. ‘How long do I have anyway?’ he asked casually.

Here’s a little known fact. No one could get under Eldon’s skin and get away with it, but Jimmy.

‘For cripes sake’s Jimmy. You have one year. How many times have I told you that? One year to get this computer talking to Zhang’s.

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

‘Yeah, well make sure it is. Timing is important. I don’t want this AI to start thinking on its own, before we strike. What else is going on out there?’

‘Oh nothing much. Zhang’s laser focused on fucking you up. He’s pretty predictable when it comes to you. I’m keeping my eye on him though. He’s running into a lot of bad debt with all those emerging economies he’s been propping up. They can’t repay their loans. He’s taken over their sea ports and infrastructure, and he still wants more. People are starving, and government’s are starting to push back. Nothing’s about to break out just yet, but he might have a handful of revolutions to deal with if he doesn’t back off. That could serve as a good distraction for us’.

‘Yes, I’ve heard. Is that how you got the egg?’

Jimmy looked at Eldon, affecting surprise, ‘Yeah. That’s right. Zhang’s putting the squeeze 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’ve been sending that directly to you. Have you received it’?

‘I have thank-you. We might be able to do something with it,’ Eldon answered, and then turned directly towards Jimmy, which was his way of saying the meeting was over. ‘Well, 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 hold onto one of the girls from your birthday party. 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. You know how he is, especially now that you’ve given him StarForce. Rather than go through the fight, I did it. I figured if you didn’t approve, I could change it later. And by the way, I could have run StarForce with a laptop and one finger.

‘I know you could Jimmy, but I can’t have you running the entire operation. What would I do then? About the girl,’ Eldon added. ‘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, 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, Dawn. 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 Ethan,’ he 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 Li’.