Everything happened too fast for Jolene to keep up. The negotiations took a turn, then suddenly Mr. Asher–certainly no relation to Brad, right?–pressed a button on the desk and an alarm started blaring. He said something about needing security to escort some unsavory individuals from the premises. A door at the other end of the room opened, a group of humanoid machines pouring out of the entrance. Each lifted an arm, upon which was mounted a gun of some kind–Jolene hoped to not find out what caliber.

Rami spoke first, saying, “This seems a little excessive, don’t you think?”

Mr. Asher replied, “This is the easy way. You take the security escort out of here while the autonomous security bots still consider you a mild threat, or things escalate and I have the autonomous sanitation bots come in to clean up the mess. Either way, the risk to me is minimal.”

At this moment Brad dashed from the other side of the room, tackling Mr. Asher–so there’s that answer to that question–to the ground. Shortly after, the security bots were already on Brad, pulling him off of his target, kicking, screaming, and cursing up a storm.

Mr. Asher–Mikhail–rubbed his cheek where Brad had managed to get a few punches in, saying, “You need to keep your dogs on a much shorter leash, Mr. al Faris. But I’m willing to let this one slide due to nerves. I work in private security, so I understand, but if it happens again I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“Cut the bullshit,” Brad said defiantly. “Why are you here, Dad?”

Mikhail began to respond, “Were you not listening to the entire spiel? Wait…’Dad’?” His composure wavered just a smidge. “No…it couldn’t be…”

“You’re damn right it is,” Brad spat back, removing his mask and helmet.

The security bots leveled their guns in Brad’s direction, but Mikhail waved them off frantically. Brad continued, “Does Mom know what you’re up to here? Does she know about the people that have already died trying to uncover what you’re doing here?”

“I…well…you know the saying about omelets and eggs, son.”

“Oh my God,” Brad sighed in exasperation. “You really are going to try to use that bullshit excuse?” He leveled his own gun in his father’s direction. “Have you always been doing stuff like this? What about my brothers?”

Jolene quickly looked at the others for a sign–any sign–of what to do. Nobody else moved, including the security bots. Apparently Mikhail’s threat override was still in effect.

Mikhail straightened his jacket and stood up. “If it makes you feel any better, no. No, they don’t know anything. And I mean to keep it that way, especially since what I’m doing here benefits them directly and indirectly.”

“How?” Brad demanded angrily. “They’re out of the house. You guys are empty nesters. The two of you already make tons of money. Just retire and live the good life with what time you have left!”

“Oh, son, I know I told your boss here that I’m just doing it for money, but you’re here, so I feel like I can say that it’s about more than just money. Sure, I’m getting more money than I’ll ever know what to do with when this whole thing is over, but it goes so much further than that. If you had any idea of the things that could be done with what we’ve already discovered here, if you could only see a fraction of the vision I have. Diseases could be cured.”

“And that makes its use in mind control okay, somehow?”

“Miracles often do have unfortunate by-products, son. You know that. Though I’m surprised you know about that particular by-product.”

“I don’t believe I’m hearing this.”

“And I suppose you’d feel better if I just tried to deny everything? You know I don’t do gaslighting.”

Jolene finally broke in, “He knows about the mind control because of me!”

A thick silence descended over the room.

Maybe I should have hung onto that card.

–

Oh gods above, it can’t get any worse, Rami thought to himself. He’d considered aborting the whole damn project when the name Mikhail Asher came up. He’d done the research on all three of these kids, but he’d taken a gamble on the kids keeping their composure. So far, it appeared as if he’d lost.

The question is, do I cut my losses and run?

No, of course not. They were only in this situation because of him, after all.

He finally spoke up, “All right, all right, tensions are high. Let’s try to simmer down a bit.”

Everyone glared at Rami.

“What I mean is let’s not do anything we might regret. Clearly we’re all closer to the same page than we let on. We’ve all got secrets that, somehow, the opposite side already knows about. Now, I know the temptation would be to wipe us from the board completely, but perhaps one more secret will dissuade you from that temptation. All the information I already have on your organization is set to be broadcast should anything befall me. I mean full broadcast to news outlets, the police, the military, you name it, they’re getting this information. Now, I’m not so naïve as to believe you don’t have contingency plans for just such an occasion. Your organization probably has its hands in more pockets than just local police, but can it keep up with this information being broadcast to everyone?”

After an extremely thick silence hung in the air, Mr. Asher finally spoke up. “So what are you proposing?”

“I propose everyone lower their weapons and you show us precisely what you’ve discovered. I want to see the specimen.”