Sorin had a huge grin on his face as he strutted through the Atrium. And why shouldn’t he? Bckmailing Gabriel and the act with Shei’s seeds had forced them to vote his way. His pn was w far better than even he had hoped. He had thought the cil would at least balk at the four seats, f him to use one of those trump cards, but they had folded like wet tissue paper.

  Damien opposed him but the man was such a blunt moron that Sorin wasn’t worried about what he might do.

  The fact was, there was nothing the Head of Security could do unless he chose to break his own ws to do it. Soohat wouldn’t matter. He had already vinancy to vote for the Emergency Orders Act. She had beeant at first but eventually agreed when he promised to procure votes from the other three. Not that it mattered, with her on his side he had the majority.

  Of course, when it came time to vote, Damien, Shei, and Gabriel had voted against the w, but with Nancy’s vote, he got it passed.

  Having them so quickly turn their backs on him was annoying, but using bckmail or acts to get them in line again wasn’t going to work a sed time unless he was willing to follow through with his first threat. As tempting as that was, he had already gotten his way so he could reserve those for a ter time. With this new cil mandate in pce, he wouldn’t o worry about the previous uch longer.

  Thanks to a previous ruling that was in pce before he joihe cil, they could only vote on one mandate per session and any additional mandates required an emergency session which had to be agreed upon by the majority of the cil. Sorin and his people deed the emergency session, stating a ck of an actual emergency.

  The look on Damien’s face when he was told no riceless and Sorin wished he had a recorder so he could py the stupified expression ba repeat.

  Getting the Emergency Orders Act passed was only the first step in his pn to take trol of Eden’s End. sidering hoathetie seemed, he was sure he could vihe man that stig around after the ge in leadership was the right thing to do. He didn’t he man to plete his ambitions, but he would be dumb to dist the bes that Kane’s work had brought so far.

  With the first step in his pn done, Sorin used some of his tacts to tie Damien up with some security issues so he could force through the cil mah a majority. He once again vinancy that there was an important matter that o be voted on, but the woman was getting upset with so much additional time spent on cil busihat he suspected she would turn him down if he kept it up for too long.

  Thankfully, he wouldn’t he woman’s support much longer. Over the few days, he ensured one of the other cilors was absent as the votes went through. Each mandate further shifted power from the individual to a sensus, then to aed leader. He hadn’t even bothered with the pretense of needing Nancy for the final vote that solidified his power as the cil Chairman position whiow held sole voting power by virtue of majority decision at the time of voting. And he had mahis all pletely legally and by the ws that the cil had established.

  Now that Sorin was fident in his people’s trol over the cil, he moved on to phase two. He o solidate power, not just within the cil but over the entire facility. It was also the most dangerous step of his pns.

  Being the new cil Chairman gave him the legitimacy he needed. He used that power to speak to people and spread fear through the rumor he had heard about Kane in the guise of . Whether that rumor was true or not didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was if people believed it to be true. He he people on his side and what better way to do that than to give them a target to fear and hate?

  The other people in his movement were also spreading the word, starting with the families. It was time to let them know about the monster in their midst.

  There ossibility this tactic would alienate Kane, but Sorin deemed it the most expediehod to drive the majority of drifters to his point of view and that was what currently mattered. If he mao retain Kane’s services after that fact, that was just a bonus.

  He let the poisoned words settle in for a few days before he made his way to the security room. He knew Damien was off dealing with some issue, so this was the perfect time to pay a visit.

  “cilor Sorin, I- I don’t think you’re allowed to be here,” one of the guards spoke uainly.

  Sorin smiled brightly, remembering the lessons taught by his grandfather about how to manipute the masses. He wished the old man was still around, his grandfather had been a rather important figure in the political arena ba the STO before something happehat caused him to abandon his identity and flee into the anonymity of the drifter unity.

  Gramps had never spoken of what happened, and Sorin holy didn’t care. If it wasn’t for the old man, their family wouldn’t have crawled their way back up to a promi position.

  He remembered the man’s words well. “Farming might not seem like much,” his grandfather would say, “but look around. Food is a resource that everyone needs. If you trol that, you trol people. This won’t always be the case, though. If you ever get a ce to bee something greater, don’t waste it. Find the ohing you use to trol the masses, and never let go.”

  They were words he lived by to this day.

  Unfortunately, there hadn’t been many opportunities over the years to use this to his advantage. His grandfather had firmly established their family as one of the top farming families, but only by a small margin instead of shooting them head and shoulders above everyone else with his knowledge. The old man had dohis on purpose, stating that standing out too much brought envy.

  While Sorin had admired his grandfather, he had never really uood those words until he was forced to watch as that damnable woman Shei nearly doubled her harvest, easily outperf his farm by a wide margin.

  That was when he uood his grandfather's wisdom, and also whearted pnning.

  “Actually, it’s cil Chairman now. I’m just here to make sure everyone is being treated fairly and that the rumors aren’t causing any issues,” he replied to the guard.

  The pair of men looked unfortable. That was exactly what Sorin wanted.

  “Is it true?” the uard asked. “Is Kane an alien?”

  Sorin had been waiting for the question and mao school his fato a mask of . “I don’t know, d. If the rumors are true, there’s no telling what the thing might do if we act rashly. We are drifters, that might not mean much to outsiders, but it meaick together. If you know any other drifters among the guard who are ed by these rumors, have them e speak with me or my people. Unlike your boss, we still hold unity sacred.”

  The guards nodded and Soriurhe gesture before leaving. The rumors and fear would spread, and soon it would be time to move on to phase three, seg the facility.

  ***

  Alexander was in the middle of something when his tablet beeped a. He k couldn’t be a for Yulia, because she was sitting te away. He picked up the devid groaned internally. Someone had tripped the sensors on the on ste racks where the light-augment suits and heavy ons were stored.

  “Yulia, it’s time for a bit of a break. Would you like to see somethi?”

  The girl paused her work and nodded.

  Alexander led her through the secret tuo the Q rey room.

  “Whoa!” the girl said as her eyes nded on the rge bck square in the ter of the room.

  There were other items in the room now as well, although, they looked out of pext to the ominous armored cube.

  Ever since Alexander had beeed to the cil issues, he had takeo outfit the room like one of the bunkers.

  There was a mattress on the floor, food enough for a month, water, a small bathroom, and a terminal that Yulia could tinue her work on.

  “Pretty coht?” he asked.

  Yulia nodded and looked like she wao go over and ihe device, but Alexaopped her.

  “No toug, ok?” she relutly nodded and he made his avatar smile. “I o go run an errand real quick, you and Dog hang out here until I get back. If you get bored, I loaded your study work on that terminal over there.” He poio the terminal off to the side.

  The girl wasn’t stupid though. She looked at the food and water piled up along the wall. “How long will you be gone?” she asked with .

  “A few hours at most,” he said with assurance.

  “Is there another kidnapper here?”

  She didn’t sound worried, she sounded angry.

  Alexander kneeled dowo her. “No, nothing like that, dear. I just want to ensure you’re safe. It's just a few drifters who think they know better than they do. I’m going to go speak to them and sort this out.”

  “Is it anyone I know?” she asked worriedly.

  He chuckled lightly. The girl wasn’t worried about herself, but she was worried about others. “No, dear. All of your friends and their families will be fine.” He hoped those words were true, he would hate to be proven a liar if they got hurt.

  Three more alerts pinged on his tablet, letting him know he o go and head off this situation before it got out of hand. “I o leave now. Dog, keep her safe.”

  The robot barked in firmation and Alexander shared a quick hug with the girl before sealing her into the room and hurrying toward the security area.

  He knew Damien must have lost trol of at least part of the security force, otherwise he would have alerted Alexao a situation that required heavy armament. Alexander may have felt a bit paranoid when he added the overrides to the ons, but now he was thankful that he had. He quickly accessed the facility’s speaker system a out the subsonic frequency that would disable the explosives.

  He hadn’t built in simir overrides to the verted miniguns and light-augmehough and he really wished he had.

  As he he security area, he didn’t hear any sounds of gunfire hting, but he did hear a whole lot of yelling bad forth.

  Alexander arrived at a blockade. He didn’t see Damien ahough.

  One person he did reize was Travers, the man who had once been a Team Leader for the Hawks. He had heard the man had taken a position in the guard but he was surprised to see him here.

  Pulse rifles were pointed Alexander’s way as he rouhe er. People quickly lowered them when they realized it was him though.

  “What’s going on, and where is Damien?”Alexander asked.

  “Some of the guards have taken trol of the security room and barricaded it off. As for Damien, we ’t tact him,” Travers stated.

  Alexander really wished he had a nose so he could pinch it in exasperation in this situation. “How many guards are inside and do they have any demands?”

  “Unclear on the numbers, but they keep yelling that they are not w for an alien. Any idea what that’s about?”

  “Seriously,” Alexander groaned. “I fill you iake a team and find Damien, I’ll deal with the guard situation.”

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” Travers asked. “They have grenade unchers and heavy ons.”

  It would be pretty stupid if the treasonous guards started firing grenades in the security room, but even if they did, Alexander would be fine.

  “Go, I hahis,” Without waiting for a reply, Alexander pushed the barricade aside and strode down the hallway to the security office.

  He was all for letting Sorin implicate himself, but this had gooo far and it was now time to end this farce.

  The group of fuards saw him ing and even raised their heavy ons at him.

  “S- Stop, alien!” one of the men mao get out.

  Alexander ighe stuttering fool and tioward the security room at a steady pace.

  The same guard must have panicked because he pulled the trigger on the grenade uncher.

  Alexander was more surprised that his defensive field didn’t ki than he was by one of them trying to shoot him. Did his body have some sort of sensor to know that the grenades were i or did it not activate because Alexander khe on wasn’t a threat?

  The tter seemed more likely. The three grenades smashed against his torso with enough force to shift him ever so slightly. Everyone froze.

  Alexander looked down at the deformed grehen up at the surprised guards. “I guess we add attempted murder to the charges. You either put down the ons and hope for leniency, or you face my wrath.” He was hoping his reputation would be enough to make them see reason. If not, well, he wasn’t a strao violenymore.

  All of the guards set their ons down and threw their hands in the air before bag off to the side.

  “Smart decision,” Alexander said as he walked over and crushed the ons into inoperability. Then he disabled the light-augmehat the four men were wearing before shoving them to the ground oo gently. “If you’re not sitting right here when I get back, I know each of your faces, I will find you. And any ce that you might live tret this idiocy will have been squandered. Are we clear?”

  The four men nodded frantically.

  Alexander nodded on return before turning to the security room door and kig it open. The shriek of tearial drowned out the shouts of surprise from the people inside.