‘So you see Eldon’ Ethan continued. ‘The water molecules of the steam bonded with the radiation, and concentrated the dose. It killed Jimmy instantly. It never occurred to me that a little water would be an issue, or I wouldn’t have done it.’

Eldon looked at Ethan while he was thinking about what he had been told. ‘So he died instantly’?

‘That’s right’.

‘And what happened to the body?’

‘Threw it into one of the heat stacks and cremated it’.

‘Was Johann with you’? Eldon asked, looking over at Johann who preening himself and not paying much attention to the conversation. When he heard his name, he looked up and answered. ‘No’.

‘Those are heavily radiated areas,’ Ethan explained. ‘I had the special crew who work there to dispose of him’.

‘So neither one of you saw Jimmy get cremated’?

‘No, but it was my crew,’ Ethan replied.

Eldon continued looking at Ethan, almost examining him. ‘What’s happening with my reactors?’ he asked after a moment.

‘First one goes up Friday 6:00 AM.’

‘Good, and the next?’

‘A little over a month, and the final one, a week after that. They should be fully operational within 3 months’.

‘Good. We might have to hold back for a month or two before we use them, but I want all the alignments and testing out of the way as soon as possible. We’ll have to see where our ground war’s at, once they’ve been tested, and then go from there’.

‘Right,’ Ethan said, getting up to leave. ‘All pertinent information is on your feed. Let me know if you need clarification on anything’.

Eldon and Johann watched Ethan leave.

‘What do you think about him?’ Eldon asked.

‘Who Ethan?’ Johann looked at Eldon. ’He’s alright’.

‘How’s he helping you with your projects?’

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

‘He’s right there. Anything I need is done, no questions asked’.

‘Really?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘No questions asked,’ Eldon mused. ‘That’s not like Ethan. He’s not trying to push in on your business a little bit’?

‘No. Like I say, he’s right there. Whatever I want. He keeps on his side of the road’.

‘So, you’re getting equipment and supplies into Afghanistan okay?’

‘Oh yeah. It’s working just like you said. We went in with the army and construction equipment. Set up right where we wanted to build our bases, and started building. They don’t know what to do right now. So far they’re just watching us.

‘They are talking though. My sources tell me that Russia, China, and the Taliban are working up something together. Things are ready to blow up.

‘Now remember, just keep provoking them. Keep taking their assets inside Afghanistan, and push for the borders. Kick them right out of Afghanistan. We want to provoke them to start building up military equipment along their borders. We want as many of their military assets in one place as possible. Then when StarForce is ready, it’ll be easy pickings. Keep pushing them until they start moving equipment up to the borders. Terrorize the bastards’.

‘Right boss,’ Johann replied, ‘I’ll visit there personally to show them how to do it’.

When Johann left, Eldon took stock of where things were at. By creating hotspots with Taiwan and Ukraine, China and Russia were using a divide and conquer strategy. They had been consistently forcing the West into two different conflict zones. Afghanistan was right between the two countries. Staging the war there would expose both China’s and Russia’s rear flanks and force a military buildup along the borders. That’s where Eldon wanted everyone. China, Russia, and the Western world would all meet in one place, and StarForce could pick off the majority of the world’s conventional armament in a matter of minutes.

Eldon felt good about the way things were going with his war. Ethan bothered him. This execution. Something wasn’t right about it. Jimmy didn’t die right, even if the steam messed with the poison. Eldon had watched plenty of people die, and Jimmy’s death looked staged. Did radiation even get released into the chamber? It was curious there was nobody to examine. Maybe Jimmy was just fine?

Then there was the whole thing with him and Jimmy bringing Jimmy’s wives to the orgies. Eldon had a specific reason to host orgies for his men. He recorded and watched them from his security cameras. Not for sexual reasons, Eldon watched to see how his men reacted in a completely immoral situation. He actually learned everything he needed to know about each man, just by the way he conducted himself at the orgy. He learned their weaknesses and their insatiability, and it was these orgies that determined a person’s future. Sometimes if they lived or died.

The biggest thing Eldon looked for from the people who attended his orgies, was a conscience. A conscience did not serve Eldon, and he culled these people as quickly as possible. Now here was Ethan and Jimmy acting with a conscience. Worse than that, they were acting in collusion.

Eldon had them both carefully watched from that point on. He discovered Jimmy wasn’t killing the girls after the orgies as he had been ordered to do. He had them fostered out to homes all over Upper Manhattan. Possibly with members of the resistance. Was it possible Ethan and Jimmy were part of the resistance?

There was more causing Eldon to feel uneasy about Ethan. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something had changed in him. He was participating, but his heart wasn’t in it. That’s what it was. It was desire. Ethan had lost his unabated desire. In the past, Ethan had been ruthless in his unabated desire.

All these things going on around Ethan told Eldon he could not be trusted. That made him Eldon’s enemy.