blone

Gluos sipped and appraised his coffee. “Okay let's go.” He marched out of the office as Assistant hurried beside, watching the game as they hurried through the hall. The meeting was already in progress when they entered. It was in a windowless oak panelled room in the President's quarters on the second floor of the palace. At the head of the table was President Russell. He leaned over grabbing a water jug in one hand. The other was on a stack of paper screens. He looked like he had been up all night. As did the Minister of Defence and the Internal Security Director. The second parliamentary speaker, was sitting beside Russell glassed in the stream.

“You’re late.” The IS Director had stopped speaking to the President and turned, looking at both Gluos and Assistant.

Gluos sat down at the end of the table, “you know I don’t care about your departmental politics”.

The Minister of Defense smiled and said,“hold on then, we’re not done”.

The President nodded toward the IS Director, who said,“we are going to reallocate resources from SubCon to City-”

The Minister of defence coughed and looked around the room, “We’re also looking to move assets outta the SubCon and reorient to the NorCon due to what's comin’ out of the Families up there.”

Gluos looked at the President and cut them off, “we should be worried more about the Worldenders.”

Assistant was observing the tables’ mute response, she spoke, “we only need to bribe 55 percent of Parliament, our AI has analysed the MP market, it'll cost 2 billion Blone Credits.” She looked at the speaker.

The President also looked at the speaker, who was now nodding.

IS Director appraised Assistant, “who are you and who gave you a cabinet position?”

Assistant sat up a little straighter. “I work for the XX Company on this Blone Project and I received,” she paused and closed her eyes then looked at the IS Director, “a position from our AI.”

The President was getting agitated, “I’m still waiting to hear what you’ve guys got about Handi.”

The Minister of Defense cut in, “I want to move several divisions closer to the city.” He paused watching the table's reaction. “If we do figure how to stop them in Parliament the Worldenders, they are gonna to be pissed.”

Glous guffawed and the table looked at him. “Why are both of the largest armed camps putting their operational assets in the capitol? Right before Throathammer?” He continued, smiling between Minister of Defense and the Director. “And why the sudden increase in secure comms traffic? Our AI has picked up some interesting patterns, we can share them with you Mr. President.”

The Minister of Defense coughed, and the Parliamentary Speaker spoke. “The treasury can’t afford to bribe them, we’re actually going to start a rolling default in about two weeks.”

The President looked at Gluos. “Your Company promised that money wouldn't be an issue, and now here we are, going to get voted out of office by a bunch of cultists because I can’t even pay my bribes.”

Gluos paused, rolled through AI recommendations. None looked good.

The IS Director said quietly, “so you’ve got nothing.”

The Minister of Defense leaned over the table and squinted at Gluos, “what about selling some of them echips?”

Gluos breathed harshly,“those are not ours to sell and the project is behind enough already.”

The President cut in, “what do you mean not ours? You want the fucking Worldenders in power? You want to work for fucking Handi Kharwandi?” He looked at Assistant. “The fuck is he talking about?”

Assistant closed her eyes then looked at the President. “The AI knows where we can get enough cash, it's all in the City, Gluos has a contact in Suwayto.”

“Of course Glous has associates in Suwayto,” said the IS Director as she smiled.

Glous had put his hand on his face for a moment then retracted it. “This is titillating.” He closed his eyes then said, “I need to talk to the air force, get a couple of stealth transports and loyal crews, also some trucks and security and you need to not ask any questions.” He looked at the speaker, “I’ll get the cash by end of business day, I need you to delay the vote until midnight.” The speaker nodded.

Russell leaned forward, “what exactly are you planning here?”

“It’ll be, uh, Contraesque. The less you know the better.” Glous pushed away from the table and got up. He saw confused faces assessing the stream. He turned and left, followed by Assistant. They walked to the elevator, it opened and whisked them deep below to the garage. They were both silent in the elevator. Assistant cleared her throat.