Sorin had a huge grin on his face as he strutted through the Atrium. And why shouldn’t he? Blackmailing Gabriella and the accident with Sheila’s seeds hadn’t worked out exactly as he had planned, but this was even better. Instead of having to worry about his cohorts having equal power, he now held all the power, or he would once he got rid of the other councilors. Technically, he only needed to get rid of two.

  Nancy would vote his way just to ensure a peaceful resolution. That left Damien, Gabriella, and Sheila to deal with.

  Sheila might seem like an obvious choice to get rid of, but that was a shortsighted approach. While he despised the woman, she had important skills. That meant getting rid of Gabriella.

  Going after the Head of Medical might seem like a bad idea, but Sorin knew the woman had no actual medical training. That meant her loss wouldn’t hurt their community too badly. She was also too closely tied to Damien, and Damien had to go.

  Now that Sorin was confident in his Council position, it was time to move on to phase two. He needed to consolidate power, not just within the council but over the entire facility. It was also the most dangerous step in his plans.

  Being the new Council Chairman gave him the legitimacy he needed. He used that power to speak to people and spread fear, all through the guise of concern. It was time to ramp that fear up and use the rumor about Kane being an alien. Whether that rumor was true or not didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was if people believed it to be true. He needed the 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 would be spreading that information as well, starting with the families, since they had the most to lose. It was time to let them know about the monster in their midst.

  There was a possibility this tactic would alienate Kane, but Sorin deemed it the most expedient method to drive the majority of drifters to his point of view, and that was what currently mattered. If he managed to retain Kane’s services after he took power, 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.

  “Councilor Sorin, I–I don’t think you’re allowed to be here,” one of the guards said uncertainly.

  Sorin smiled brightly, remembering the lessons taught by his grandfather about how to manipulate the masses. He wished the old man were still around, his grandfather had been a rather important figure in the political arena back in the STO. Something had happened that caused his grandfather to abandon his identity and flee into the anonymity of the drifter community.

  Gramps had never spoken of what happened, and Sorin honestly didn’t care. If it wasn’t for the old man, their family wouldn’t have crawled their way to the position he holds today.

  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 can control that, you can control people. This won’t always be the case, though. If you ever get a chance to become something greater, don’t waste it. Find the one thing you can use to control 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 that knowledge 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, which he could have easily done with the knowledge he had. The old man had done that on purpose, stating that standing out too much brought envy and that you couldn’t afford envy unless you had the power to go with it.

  While Sorin had admired his grandfather, he had never really understood those words until he was forced to watch as that damnable woman Sheila nearly doubled her harvest, easily outperforming his farm by a wide margin. For the first time, he envied someone else.

  That was when he understood his grandfather’s wisdom, and also when he started planning.

  “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 uncomfortable. That was exactly what Sorin wanted.

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

  Sorin had been waiting for the question and managed to school his face into a mask of concern. “I don’t know, lad. If the rumors are true, there’s no telling what the thing might do if we act rashly. We are drifters, which might not mean much to outsiders, but it means we stick together. If you know any other drifters among the guard who are concerned by these rumors, have them come speak with me or my people. Unlike your boss, we still hold community sacred.”

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

  ***

  Alexander was in the middle of something when his tablet beeped an alert. He knew it couldn’t be an alert for Yulia, because she was sitting ten feet away. He picked up the device and groaned internally. Someone had tripped the sensors on the weapon storage racks where the light-augment suits and heavy weapons were stored.

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

  The girl paused her work and nodded.

  Alexander led her through the secret tunnel to the Qcomm relay room.

  “Whoa!” the girl said as her eyes landed on the large black square in the center of the room.

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

  Ever since Alexander had been alerted to the Council issues, he had taken steps to 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 continue her work on.

  “Pretty cool, right?” he asked.

  Yulia nodded and looked like she wanted to go over and inspect the device, but Alexander stopped her.

  “No touching, ok?” She reluctantly nodded, and he made his avatar smile. “I need to 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 pointed to the terminal off to the side.

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

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

  “Is there another kidnapper here?”

  She didn’t sound worried; she sounded angry.

  Alexander knelt down next to 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 needed to go and head off the situation before it got out of hand. “I need to leave now. Dog, keep her safe.”

  The robot barked in confirmation, 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 control of at least part of the security force, otherwise he would have alerted Alexander to a situation that required heavy armament. Alexander may have felt a bit paranoid when he added the overrides to the weapons, but now he was thankful that he had. He quickly accessed the facility’s speaker system and sent out the subsonic frequency that would disable the explosives.

  He hadn’t built in similar overrides to the converted miniguns and light-augment gear, though, and he really wished he had.

  As he neared the security area, he didn’t hear any sounds of gunfire or fighting, but he did hear a whole lot of yelling back and forth.

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

  One person he did recognize 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 rounded the corner. People quickly lowered them when they realized it was him.

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

  “Some of the guards have taken control of the security room and barricaded it off. As for Damien, we can’t contact him,” Travers replied quickly.

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

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

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

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

  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 can handle this.” Without waiting for a response, Alexander pushed the barricade aside and strode down the hallway to the security office.

  He was all for letting Sorin implicate himself, but a military coup was too far. It was now time to end the farce.

  The group of four guards saw him coming and even raised their heavy weapons at him.

  “S–Stop, alien!” one of the men managed to get out.

  Alexander ignored the stuttering fool and continued toward the security room at a steady pace.

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

  Alexander was more surprised that his defensive field didn’t kick in 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 inert, or did it not activate because Alexander knew the weapon wasn’t a threat?

  The latter 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 grenades, then up at the surprised guards. “I guess we can add attempted murder to the charges. You can either put down the weapons and hope for leniency, or you can face my wrath.” He was hoping his reputation would be enough to make them see reason. If not, well, he wasn’t a stranger to violence anymore.

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

  “Smart decision,” Alexander said as he walked over and crushed the weapons into inoperability. Then he disabled the light-augment gear that the four men were wearing before shoving them to the ground, none too gently. “If you’re not sitting right here when I get back, I know each of your faces, and I will find you. If I have to come looking for you, any chance that you might live to regret this idiocy will have been squandered. Are we clear?”

  The four men nodded frantically.

  Alexander nodded once in return before turning to the security room door and kicking it open. The shriek of tearing metal drowned out the shouts of surprise from the people inside.

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