Cal held his phone in his hand, looking at Questro’s contact number. He would call soon, but his fingers and his heart were telling it wasn’t time yet. His thoughts were scattered from the conversation he had just finished. I accomplished what I intended: he’ll be part of the Governance and my debt is paid. Cal had played to his strengths in his confrontation with Julius Paine, emphasizing his own weakness beyond what most people would have accepted. He had dazzled and distracted and gotten the yes, like he had for his business so many times before. But damned if it was easy. I just set a man against the Chinese government. That can’t end well.

Shaking his head clear, Cal took two deep breaths and called Questro.

The husband and wife appeared on his monitor and quickly agreed to the 8 PM meeting. They looked somewhat disheveled in the hotel room that he was still paying for; the call ended quickly enough, leaving Callisto alone in his room, again.

He didn’t know what to do. He was one of the most powerful men and the planet, and, despite the real insecurity he had exaggerated to get Julius Paine to take his money, there just weren’t that many people that could match his combination of brains, money, and influence. Most of his interactions were incredibly… what was the word… downhill. He wasn’t used to being the one in the weaker position. It was unnerving, and he was not used to being unnerved.

There was only one thing to do. Plan. From the conversation that they had already had and everything that he knew about the man, Cal was pretty sure that Julius Thomas Socrates Paine – what a ridiculous name—was going to make a beeline for orbit. That was fine by him; it was in the plan for VI as well. Maybe the lucky guy would save him some time.

Everything that he knew about the man suggested that competitiveness was deep in his nature. He would be unable to resist the challenge of the Governance, and that would give Cal a few months of planning time. I proved that I can out-code the man once, when I broke and re-encrypted his platform. I’ll do it again if I have to.

****

When their chopper-taxi landed on the roof of the VI building, the pilot had surprised Questro by pointing he and his wife to a stairwell that he had never used before. A glance at his wife confirmed that she had never used it either. As they descended, he wondered what Cal had up his sleeve. They both knew his love of plotting was exceeded only by his love of competition.

The first thing that he noticed when they got to the top of the stairs was the beautiful light streaming up the stairwell from the center of the room below. As they went further into the building, the light grew, as did the resemblance to the cascades of light surrounding the building. Cal was showing off and they hadn’t even seen him yet.

The next surprise was seeing not Callisto, but Lauria Linodel, the Companion who had assisted them during Paine’s treatment, rise from a couch and bid them welcome, soon accompanied by a door opening into the kitchen revealing Julius and something that smelled like poultry simmering in ambrosia.

Annagail began with her typical decorum, “This is quite a surprise. I never suspected that Cal had built another suite above his own, and he’s lent it to you no less.”

“He has a lot of surprises, I’ve noticed.” Julius began, “Earlier today he made me a gift of several tens of billion dollars like it was, well, nothing.”

“That’s because to the industrialists of tomorrow, that’s you and I, that is precisely what a hundred billion dollars is. If we are going to be the first trillionaires, we best learn to act like it.” Cal swept up a stairwell and entered with a broad bow and a jauntily dashed hat. “It is you, my dears,” he began, gently lifting Annagail’s hand to his lips before he continued, “that I have to thank for ushering our friend Julius back into society. Thank you, deeply.”

Questro would never cease being impressed that, somehow, Annagail always knew what to say. “Most of the work had been done before we got there. The person who you should really be thanking is also in the room though.”

Somehow Callisto managed to put gallantry into every step that it took to get to Lauria. When he lifted Lauria’s hand to his lips, Annagail thought, I doubt that the gesture could have contained any more grace if he had a halo around his fucking head. What is he up to?

“Thank you my lady, for returning this jewel of mankind to us, his grateful employees.”

“So I’m a jewel of mankind am I.” Julius scoffed. “It wasn’t so long ago that I looked in the mirror and saw the skeletons in my closet right there on the silver.” He laughed with good grace as he said it. “Enough schmooze you , you are no more my employees than the ‘stream is mine. It’s mankind’s now...” Q saw Paine’s mood drop for just a moment before he continued, “...as China has been so obtuse as to prove.”

Now there is a new piece of data, Q thought with glee. His interest piqued, Q inquired. “I thought no information was getting out of the People’s Republic nowadays. They’ve gone so far as to require all network providers to prove that they have no international cables going anywhere but North Korea.”

“And they have required all satellite connections to be run through the Communist Party. You are quite correct, Questro. But you are not among typical gatherers of information. Would you like to do the honor Mr. Paine?” Cal raised his voice for the last bit. He seemed to be running out of steam with the hyper-chivalrous bit he had been working.

Julius popped his head out of the kitchen and looked at Callisto square in the face. “The honor should be yours; it is your company that made the discovery. As it was your discovery, it should be yours to tell. Although you should get Grace to display the evidence on her new projector.”

That caused a stop in the performance that Cal had been putting on. Questro tagged that as important in his mental storage. “Yeah Cal, do tell this new intel about China, and I want to see the improvements that you’ve made to Grace.” Q could never resist poking at Cal when they were together. As I see it, the man has enough people stroking his damn ego.

“As do I Q, as do I.” Cal replied, head tilting with an unasked question. “Grace, will you be so kind as to display on your new projector a demonstrative file from Mr. Li’s stolen Chinese engineering documents.”

“Certainly Mr. Venturi.” Grace’s smooth voice had impressed Questro from the first time he heard it, but now it seemed somehow more human.

To both Cal and Questro’s astonishment, the shimmering light streaming from the center of the circular room condensed into a flat-seeming display screen with a Communist sickle and a strangely familiar format. Soon, the designs for a triangular looking aircraft began flashing across the screen, zooming in on the mounting for what could be any number of weapons.

“Cal informed me of the big picture before any of our guests arrived. The shape and specifications of the craft tell us that this ship is intended for sub-orbital combat.” Looking over his shoulder, Questro saw that Julius had shaved since the last time he had seen him. It made his face look very young, and very grim. It was also unmistakably the face of Julius Thomas Socrates Paine-- the founder of the Valuestream and one of Q’s personal heroes. Paine’s arms were crossed over his chest, and given that he hadn’t put on much weight, it was easy to spot the corded muscles there. He must be clenching his fists. What is this?

The display zoomed towards a small detail in the corner of the file. It was a simple avatar that was instantly recognizable to all in the room. The sun rising over the curve of the Earth. The numbers displayed over what would be the surface of the Earth indicated that the project had been edited by over 50 people, the most recent edit taking place under a month previously.

“The Communist Party in China is using the Valuestream to build weapons. It was something that I knew was bound to happen. I just hoped that by the time it did, the world would already be in a position to stop it without my help.”

No one wanted to break the silence that fell when Julius returned to the kitchen. The four of them sat together without a word and fell to investigating each other’s faces for signs of sanity. Even Cal’s façade of certainty was looking a little ramshackle. The light surrounding the 3D display was shimmering madly, casting shadows across the faces exposed.

Lauria broke the silence, “I don’t know what he is planning, but you two at least understand how deep his aversion to violence goes. There is no way that he is planning a physical conflict.”

Annagail spoke in response, “I think you are right, but that doesn’t make me any less worried. With the resources available to the people in this room, he could make a splash that sweeps our civilization into the seas of time. Think about what Cal and Julius have already done in the last 10 years.”

Callisto chimed in, “The US government is in no position to act, they owe more money to the Chinese than anyone. The UN designed to act against a member state with veto power.” He looked from face to face, all trace of joking gone. “This is a job that only we can do.”

Questro cleared his throat before Cal could go any further. “You are talking about undermining the government of the most populous nation on Earth. Attempting to destabilize the most powerful mind control agency the world has ever seen.” He exhaled deeply, closing his eyes. “And you are doing it in room of sympathizers. None of us would be where we are today if it weren’t for freedom of information and that stupid genius.” He said, pointing at the kitchen.

Cal and Annagail nodded agreement. Lauria finally spoke up. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing here. What do I have to do with fucking conquering China. I’m no fucking Mongol and no one else done it… what” she looked around the room questioningly, “ever. My history is a little rusty, I’m a fucking nurse for god’s sake. Grace, has anyone else ever conquered China?!”

“My knowledge of history would suggest that several Central Asian tribes have conquered and unified the territory of what is now modern China, but no outside forces have ever succeeded in conquering the whole territory.” Grace responded.

“No outside forces! That’s us.” She had been building herself up. “Us. Goddamnit all to hell. I said: us. Well, what’s next, I guess I’m a part of this suicide mission as well.”

“I was hoping you all would agree with him.” Grace intoned. “By the way, dinner is ready, Cal can show you where the table is.”