Ethan heard a phone ringing behind him. A smartly dressed young woman came up and set a cell phone on the table. He knew her name was Dawn. He knew she was his personal assistant. He knew what he was looking at was a cell phone from days gone by. Immediately he was grateful. He was receiving a backstory.

‘It’s Eldon’, she said.

Well, that didn’t take long. Ethan grimaced, but took the phone. ‘Eldon, what’s up?’ he said.

‘Not much. Just one day closer to taking over the world.’

‘Cool. What can I do for you?’

‘I was wondering if you can come up later? I want to talk to you about something’.

‘Yeah, sure. I can do that. What time?’

‘Eight o’clock’, Whitehead answered and hung up.

Ethan set down the phone and looked around. He was in a very spacious room. It was a dining room, to be sure, although rather sparsely decorated, and a little bit sterile for his tastes. Closer to the windows, there were chairs and couches, and the room transitioned into more of a lounge area, perhaps for after dinner drinks or to socialize with friends. The furniture was equally as sterile as the rest of the room. The lighting too was sparse. All lamps and lanterns. Nothing that would light up the room.

Away from the windows, at the other end of the room, Dawn sat behind a little work station. She was next to the main doorway leading out of the room. For some reason, Ethan felt reassured having Dawn between him and the rest of the world. She looked very competent, but showed little interest in Ethan. She was very comfortable with him wandering around, just as long as he didn’t interrupt her.

Instinctively Ethan knew his home was part of a greater complex. He was living in a fortification of sorts and Eldon was living there too. The backstory filled in. ‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ he thought. I’m living in the ‘One World Trade Center’!

Not only that, he was living in a very privileged part of the Center. He was in the 3 floors just below Eldon’s top 11. No wonder he could see the entire skyline from his window.

‘Hey, I have a lap pool in my gym,’ Ethan noticed, as the entire residence showed itself in his mind's eye. ’Nice.’

Backstory continued being fed to Ethan. Whitehead had taken an interest in the Tower since the day they started building it. He very quickly began lobbying for control of it by becoming a major shareholder of bonds issued by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the Tower. He bought up enough to give him some influence and access to leading figures within the Port Authority. He never attempted to interfere with policy. He focused on developing a cronyism relationship within the Authority. This included fancy diners, access to luxurious vacation homes, gifts and sometimes money. It wasn’t long before Whitehead had the leadership at the Port Authority believing him to be a very good fellow, and quite open to his idea of ownership.

There was public opposition to Eldon taking up residence in the Tower, but he used what he called his percentage to overcome that. His ‘percentage’, were the most vocal, belligerent, and active 2% of the nation’s population you could find. They supported him blindly in everything he did, and would rally for him at a moment's notice.

Eldon’s percentage was big and visible enough to create doubt in the public’s mind regarding the rightness or wrongness of him owning the property that represented America’s freedom. Under Whitehead’s directive, they began campaigning for the One World Trade Center to be renamed ‘The Freedom Tower’ as was originally proposed.

It began as a patriotic movement. Thousands of memes flooded the internet with images of the One World Trade Center, flags waving, and Eldon looking stoically into a prosperous future, not just for himself, but for the United States as well. Every meme was accompanied with the slogan, ‘Fight for Freedom’.

Soon protests broke out demanding the One World Trade Center be renamed the Freedom Tower. The protests were covered extensively by the media, inflating the magnitude of the movement. The message was the world must know unequivocally where freedom reigned, and the Freedom Tower would be its beacon.

It was then the idea appeared, Whitehead should inhabit the One World Trade Center. No one more than him was the defender of freedom. Why shouldn’t he live in the Tower freedom built? This prompted a review of the ownership status by the Port Authority. The outcome of the review, completely supported by the Authority, was Eldon Whitehead should be offered ownership of the One World Trade Center for the symbolic sum of one dollar, and a salute from the people of America. Cost to build; $3.9 Billion. Cost to Whitehead mainly in Graft and financing protests; less than $20 Million. ‘Now he was king of the castle, and ‘Freedom’ was its name.

Ethan noticed Dawn getting up and packing up her gear. He wandered over.

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‘Well, I’m going home,’ she said. It was about 7:30 PM. Don’t forget it’s Eldon’s birthday tomorrow’. She noticed a look of confusion on Ethan’s face. ‘Don’t worry you bought him something very special’.

‘What is it?’

‘A Faberge Egg, and not just any Faberge Egg. This is the last of the ‘Imperial’ Eggs he needs to complete the total collection of 46. He’s going to like your gift very much.’

‘You do this sort of thing a lot for me, don’t you?’ Ethan asked; more background trickling in.

‘Yes I do,’ she replied, and left.

‘Hmph!’, Ethan snorted. ‘I wonder if she likes me’?

A servant dressed formally as a doorman greeted Ethan when he arrived at Eldon’s. ‘He’s in the war room’, he said, less formally as Ethan was a regular.

‘Where else?’ Ethan joked. ‘Am I right?’

‘You got that right’.

The doorman escorted Ethan to the entrance of the war room and announced him. Upon a wave from Eldon, he walked through a scanner, and was grunted at by two armed guards.

The room was almost an entire floor of the Freedom Tower. Anything you would expect in a military setting, you found here. Monitors tracking satellite’s. Monitors of satellites tracking nations. A PR and Propaganda section. A strategic development section. Anything you needed to win a war was in there, but more and more because of AI, Eldon was often the only person in the room. Now it was pretty much just Eldon, his AI, and a few coders during the day. He had much more control over everything than he ever had before.

Ethan walked up to him. ‘So,’ he said casually, as way of saying hi, but not disturbing things too much.

‘So, just let me finish up with this and we can have a talk’.

‘Sounds good,’ Ethan replied, and started to wander around.

‘Stay beside me Ethan.’

‘Oh right,’ Ethan replied. There was no looking around the war room, even for him.

Eldon finished what he was doing, and led Ethan into the break room.

He grabbed a Diet Dr. Pepper and fell into a sofa with a slight groan. He seldom gave himself time to relax, but his body appreciated it when he did. ‘I want you to oversee StarForce,’ he said, while handing Ethan a green smoothie he liked. Neither of them drank alcohol.

‘StarForce?’ Ethan exclaimed. That was his most favorite thing in the world, but the background said it was all Eldon. ‘Eldon, If I wanted to get my chain yanked, I’d find someone a hell of a lot better looking than you to do it’.

‘I’m serious. I have to remove myself a bit from this one. Otherwise it will blow up in my face’.

‘Well what do you want me to do?’

‘Finish it. You’re capable. I trained you just for this kind of project,’ he said, then he looked Ethan in the eyes and became serious. ‘I’m going to tell you something now, that I’ve told no-one. StarForce is a lot bigger than anyone thinks it is. Technically, it is contracted to the government as a satellite service. They get surveillance, communications, and a few militarization capabilities through the asteroid deflection technology. That’s what everyone thinks it is, but that’s only half of it. The other half is built or being built, and waiting here on the ground to be launched. When it’s all up, we’ll have a completely weaponized system. We will in fact control the world. We’re just waiting on a few nuclear reactors, and we’ll be ready to go’.

Ethan knew this was not a joke. History had shown Eldon had a fully operational StarForce which could take down anyone or anything, anywhere on earth. For some reason hearing it from Eldon’s lips gave it more meaning.

‘Actual world domination,’ Ethan exclaimed.

‘That’s right. Our plans are coming to fruition’.

‘Damn!’.

‘And it’s already a lot more sophisticated than you or anyone else might think,’ Eldon continued. ‘Have you ever wondered why I would expose myself to the rest of the world by living at the top of New York’s highest skyscraper?’

‘No.’

Whitehead kind of frowned at that. ‘Because it shows the public I fear nothing, but the truth is, I already have in place enough surveillance and firepower to protect this building from any form of earthly or aerial assault. You’re welcome by the way.’

Ethan took Eldon’s remark as an opportunity to suck up to him a little. ‘I think we all take for granted just how much you’re looking out for us.’ he said, bringing a smile to Eldon’s face. ‘So what’s involved’?

‘Well, I need to get the reactors up there. You just have to make sure everything goes as planned. Pretty much everything is done. Whitehead Technologies is finishing up with the reactors and delivery systems, and the launches have been cleared by government. You just have to coordinate the launches, and be the face of things. Stomp on any opposition if you have to. You know what to do.’

‘Sounds simple enough,’ Ethan replied. ‘I’ll get it done for you, Eldon.’

‘You’ve been a loyal friend to me Ethan,’ Eldon said.

‘Nothing compared to what you’ve done for me. I wouldn’t be here without you.’

Whitehead smiled again, and slapped Ethan on the knee. Are you coming to my birthday party tomorrow?’ he asked, getting up.

‘Wouldn’t miss it’.

‘Did you get me something good?’

‘Oh yeah. I think it’s something you stick up your ass.’ That’s what it sounded like to Ethan. He only knew about two kinds of eggs. The one’s you ate and the vibrating one’s you stuck up your ass.

Whitehead smiled. ‘Well, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. Now bugger off. I have work to do’.