‘Okay. This is significant, isn’t it?’ Ethan asked.

‘I do believe so,’ Jimmy answered. ‘Someone’s on to me.’

‘On to you, or Zhang’s AI?’

‘Me. It’s accesseing my system.’

‘Hmph!’ Ethan grunted. ‘Eldon’s called a special meeting, and someone’s hacked into our AI. Where does that leave us?’

‘At war,’ Dawn replied.

‘I guess so,’ Ethan answered. ‘Eldon’s on the move, which we by the way, didn’t even see coming. I think we go to Eldon’s meeting to find out as much as we can about what’s coming, and when we meet again, develop a war strategy.

‘Because of this hack into your system Jimmy, we should expect Eldon knows more about us than we’ve given him credit for. Anything can happen anytime. We are at war, and we could suffer losses. I think we should prepare ourselves for that as well’.

Jimmy and Dawn looked at each other. They were moving into a much more dangerous time. ‘Agreed,’ they replied.

The meeting was filled with representatives of all the power structures found in the Western World. Leaders of nations, captains of industry and representatives of banks attended. It was a big turnout for such a diverse and powerful group. Almost 200 people attended, and no-one knew why they were there. The meeting was held in the great hall on Eldon’s conference floor, where lights shone down on a stage. When Eldon entered the hall and walked up to the podium, everyone fell silent and drew closer to him.

‘Usually, I like to meet with you folks as my friends,’ he began, to applause ‘But today, I greet you as comrades in arms. We all knew this moment was coming. Our world is under attack. Zhang is expanding, isolating our markets, and cutting us out, and it’s time for us to take our stand!’

The people clapped lightly.

‘That’s only you, Zhang’s ganging up on, isn’t it Eldon?’ Questioned a skeptic.

‘Right now I’m feeling it most, that’s true. It’s the oldest trick in the book. Divide and conquer, but think how things will go for you if I fall.

‘He’s destabilizing our dollar,’ Eldon continued. ‘The Yuan is the only currency being used in the BRICS nations. It’s quickly becoming the world reserve currency. That takes a lot of power away from all of us.

‘You must see Zhang’s creating an entire market around ours. You do see that don’t you. All of the BRICS nations trading amongst themselves, and not really interested if we trade with them or not. We can participate in their market if we pay in Yuan, and abide by their rules, which usually includes sharing our proprietary secrets. How long can that go on?

‘We’re getting cut out of a market where China and India alone have 3 billion people. We stand to lose all of that’.

The crowd was full of nodding heads, and murmurs of agreement. They knew Eldon was right. Zhang was making a play for everything and had to be stopped.

‘Those are our markets!’ Eldon shouted. ‘Our status has never been challenged like it is today, and if we don’t act now and decisively, all of us will lose everything!’ Eldon emphasized his statement by slapping the palm of his hand on the podium and raising his chin, producing an expression of determined defiance.

The murmurs grew louder. ‘But that would mean going to war?’ Someone shouted. ‘You know as well as the rest of us our hands are tied. We must follow parliamentary procedure. Zhang hasn’t actually committed an offense against anyone. How would we get a war through parliament?’

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‘Look around this room,’ Eldon responded. ‘We are not parliamentarians!’ he said, pounding his fist against the podium. ‘We are not a democracy!’ his fist pounded down again. ‘We are conquerors!’ came down the fist a final time. ‘We use the market economy in our conquest, and when the market economy is under threat, we go to war!’ Eldon shouted, his fist now pumping in the air with the same fervor as was on his face.

The Crowd, reminded of their place, exploded with the same fervor.

‘Tomorrow, we go to war,’ Eldon shouted over them, now leaning towards them as far as he could from behind the podium. What do you say comrades? Let us march forth and taste the blood of our enemy’!

Eldon’s words were momentarily greeted with silence. Everyone nodded in agreement. Their faces were dark with the righteousness of entitlement. Then as if reacting on cue, they exploded into cheers.

After a couple of minutes, Eldon held up his hands to bring the crowd to order. ‘To those of you who don’t know him, I’d like to present to you Johann Schneider. Johann is the owner of the private military company, Black Swatch. They’re located here in America, but have alliances with all of our militarizes. They’ve been working together for years, and hold the same values. He’ll be happy to coordinate anything you need done. Some of you might need a coup to regain power. He will get that done for you.

‘We have a plan my friends, my comrades, and it’s going to work!’

A slow clap started through the room. ‘Eldon. Eldon, Eldon,’ a chant grew with their clapping. Faster and faster. ‘Eldon. Eldon. Eldon’.

Eldon had achieved what he wanted. He was going to war and he was the leader.

Once he achieved what he wanted, Eldon left the room. but the Crowd remained fixed, continuing their applause. Ethan stuck around, clapping and chanting with the rest of them. When they finally ended their applause and started to mingle, Ethan stayed and mingled too. He wanted to show he was completely all in.

While he was in conversation with the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, one of Eldon’s men approached him. ‘Eldon wants to see you’.

When Ethan arrived at Eldon’s war room, he saw Johann Schneider was already there. Ethan knew him, but never liked the man. He was a gun for hire without a conscience. In fact, he liked to hurt people. It was Eldon who really owned and ran Black Swatch, but he gave Schneider just enough freedom to think he did, and he was dumb enough to believe it. Ethan was surprised to see him. His close presence to Eldon was an indication of just how dangerous things were getting.

‘You two are going to handle things on the ground,’ Eldon bluntly announced. ‘Ethan, you’re logistics. Johann, you’ll take care of implementation’.

Johann drew in a deep breath, looking like he expected nothing less.

‘Dumb Fuck,’ Ethan thought, looking over at Johann with disdain. No need to take his measure. You could read a bozo like him from a mile away.

Eldon was looking at Ethan. He caught Ethan’s look and it pleased him. He’d expect no less from a thoroughbred like Ethan. ‘Johann’s the right man for this job,’ he announced. ‘We’re going to tear this world apart and no-one leaves a bigger wake than Johann’.

‘Well, I can’t argue with you there,’ Ethan agreed, but not with respect. ‘Just like the old days, right Johann?’

Too arrogant to notice the chill in Ethan’s voice, Johann turned up his permanent snarl and nodded.

‘Alright. So where do we go from here, Eldon?’ Ethan asked.

‘Well first of all, get those reactors into space right now. No more delays. No more regulations. No more protesters. Nothing. They go up right now. What’s your timeline?

‘Everything needed is now being fabricated in the country. The first one can go up this month.’

‘Good.’ Johann, silence anyone who gets in the way. Any means necessary.’

‘Right boss’.

‘Alright. Let’s get started’.

‘Ethan and Johann turned to leave’.

‘Oh and Ethan,’ Eldon said.

‘Yeah?’

‘It’s come to my attention Jimmy has been bringing his wives to my orgies. I guess you already know about that though, don’t you?’

Ethan felt like freezing in place, but he didn’t. ‘Yeah. I noticed.’ he answered, not offering any more.

Like everything Eldon did, he did with a purpose. The orgies produced an environment which required absolute lack of moral bearing. Eldon knew people with a conscience created problems. Any deviation from full participation told him there was a threat to his authority.

‘Good. I don’t want explanations. The fact is he’s broken the rules one too many times. I would like you to be the one to kill him’.