Season 2 chapter 24
The Dust of the Past
Twenty minutes later, in the massive executive suite of the Antrious Hub, Malesh groaned.
He was lying on Kniya's leather couch. He slowly sat up, wincing as a sharp, pulsing pain radiated from his jaw. He reached out blindly until Kniya handed him his glasses.
"You are an absolute idiot, you know that?" Kniya laughed, tossing a bag of frozen peas at Malesh's face. "You cannot ask a woman who has been running a global monopoly on zero sleep if she deserves human rights. You're lucky she didn't throw you out the window."
Malesh pressed the frozen peas to his swelling jaw, wincing. "It was a theoretical question. Her physical response was entirely disproportionate."
"Whatever," Kniya chuckled, walking over to his desk and pouring a glass of cold water. "You can write a complaint to HR. Right now, we have bigger things to discuss. Arvonia is secured. Sulwadiya is pumping. But we need to look at the next phase."
Kniya leaned against his desk, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the Seistain skyline.
"Malesh, do you remember Mantouse Adeius?" Kniya asked, his voice dropping into a serious, calculating register. "Do you remember the 'reward' he gave us for clearing out that SUM terrorist base?"
Malesh paused, the cold peas resting against his face. He accessed his memory files. "Yes. We were nineteen years old. First day of college. We cleared Hulush, and he transferred the deeds to two uncharted islands in the Northern Sector."
"Exactly," Kniya grinned, turning back to face him. "We've been sitting on those deeds for six years. We focused on Kavilson Steel and the Sulwadiyan oil fields because it was domestic. It was safe. But we still own those two islands, Malesh. And you know exactly what is buried underneath them."
Malesh lowered the ice pack, his dark eyes narrowing. "One island contains a massive, pressurized petroleum reserve. The other... contains a pure vein of Fissluation."
"We are going to develop them," Kniya declared, slamming his hand on the desk. "All of it. We have the capital now from the Arvonian deals. We have the SuliBulli heavy machinery to excavate it. I want to build extraction rigs on the petroleum island, and I want to mine the Fissluation. We won't just control the Republic and Arvonia. We will control the absolute pinnacle of global energy."
Malesh stared at him, his analytical brain immediately flagging a dozen catastrophic warnings.
"Kniya, the petroleum is a logical expansion," Malesh stated, sitting up straight. "But why are you including the Fissluation island in this plan? Do you understand what that mineral actually is?"
"It's an energy mineral," Kniya shrugged dismissively. "The most valuable one on the planet. Mantouse told us it was worth a fortune."
"It is not just valuable, Kniya, it is apocalyptic," Malesh argued, his voice harsh. "Fissluation is highly unstable. It is highly radioactive. Do you remember the SUM vault? The Fissluation was kept in heavy lead-lined canisters for a reason. If we attempt to mine that vein using standard SuliBulli excavators, a single spark or pressure fracture could trigger a chain reaction. It could irradiate the entire Northern Sector. It could kill thousands of our workers."
Kniya crossed his arms, his arrogant smirk fading into a look of cold determination. "So we don't use standard excavators. We build specialized ones. We hire the best physicists in the Republic."
"It could be a suicide mission," Malesh warned. "We do not have the scientific infrastructure to safely contain raw Fissluation."
"Then we build the infrastructure!" Kniya yelled back, his ambition burning in his eyes. "Look at what we just did in Arvonia, Malesh! We bought a superpower! You took a shadow-contract for rare earth chemicals, didn't you? How is Fissluation any different? We don't back away from power just because it's dangerous. We tame it."
Malesh sat on the couch, rubbing his bruised jaw, staring at the manic fire in Kniya's eyes.
The Royal Shield
Malesh sat on the leather couch in Kniya's executive office, pressing the bag of frozen peas against his swelling jaw. The stinging pain from Filoska's supersonic kick was slowly subsiding, replaced by his usual cold, calculating logic.
"Are we going to include Filoska in this?" Malesh asked, his voice slightly muffled by the ice pack.
"Definitely," Kniya replied, pouring himself a glass of water at the mahogany minibar. "She is the Vice President of the company."
"We are absolutely not going to include her in the shadow-operations," Malesh stated firmly, lowering the peas to glare at Kniya. "She could be an agent of the Royal Family. Why don't you understand this? I wasn't acting as a misogynist out there for no fucking reason. It was a targeted psychological stress test to see where her loyalties lie when her authority is questioned."
Kniya paused, the glass halfway to his mouth. A slow, dark smirk spread across his face. He took a sip, set the glass down, and leaned back against the counter.
"You think you're the only one running calculations, Malesh?" Kniya chuckled, shaking his head. "You are taking tension for no reason. I already have a plan for her."
Malesh narrowed his eyes. "You know she has ties to the aristocracy?"
"Of course I know," Kniya scoffed, walking back to his desk. "Why do you think I made her the Vice President of this company for absolutely no fucking reason at all? Do you really think I am that kind of an idiot? An idiot who wouldn't give a fuck about a member of the Royal Family joining my empire?"
Kniya leaned over the desk, his eyes gleaming with a ruthless intelligence. "I know exactly what the consequences are. Keep your friends rich, and keep your aristocratic spies buried in paperwork. I know what I am doing right now. You will soon get to know about it, Malesh. She is a shield."
Digging Our Own Graves
Malesh stared at him for a long moment, processing the strategic value of keeping a Royal hostage in the C-suite. Finally, he gave a slow nod.
"Okay," Malesh conceded. "I am agreeing with your point that you are going to do something about Filoska. But I am absolutely not able to agree upon one thing, and that is the extraction of the Fissluation."
Kniya rolled his eyes, dropping into his high-backed leather chair. "Bro, we already talked about this—"
"Listen to me," Malesh interrupted, his voice turning deadly serious. "When Mantouse gave us those deeds, we divided the assets. I own the Petroleum islands, and you own the Fissluation islands. If you want, we can both start our agencies and build rigs on the Petroleum dirt. But you cannot touch the Fissluation. It would be a real disaster for us."
"Why?" Kniya challenged, kicking his boots up onto the desk. "Because it's unstable?"
"Because of the DI Government," Malesh stated. "The government is literally super strict about radioactive minerals. If they ever got to know about this thing—that two independent twenty-five-year-olds are hoarding a mountain of Fissluation—they will literally ensure our company goes totally bankrupt. The government would do anything to nationalize that island for absolutely zero cost. They will cut our legs out from under us."
"I can buy the government," Kniya argued confidently. "I just bought the Commerce Department. Do you have any other reason besides the politicians?"
Malesh slammed his hand down on the armrest of the couch.
"Listen, you MF," Malesh hissed, his robotic calm finally breaking. "I am trying to tell you the scientific reality! There is no technology for this! You are telling me we can generate energy with Fissluation, but with the current 1430s implementation of industrial technology, we don't have the mechanics to harness it safely! All the research that shows massive energy yields from this mineral is purely fictional. It is unproven in real experiments because the global presence of this mineral is so low!"
Malesh stood up, pointing a finger at Kniya. "If we go out there and show the world that this highly volatile mineral is present in huge amounts on your island, we are literally digging our own graves. We will blow ourselves up before the government even gets a chance to hang us."
Kniya stared at Malesh. The raw, unfiltered panic in his partner's voice was rare. Malesh didn't get scared of people, but he respected the math of a radioactive explosion.
Kniya let out a long, frustrated sigh. He ran a hand through his hair.
"Okay, okay, okay," Kniya relented, holding his hands up in surrender. "You made your point. So, what I am trying to do right now is a compromise. We can do one thing: we can inspect the island. At least that much. Not extracting, not bringing in the heavy drills. But we should at least put our boots on the dirt and inspect what we actually own."
Malesh took a deep breath, his heart rate slowly returning to normal. "Inspection only. No excavation."
"Deal," Kniya said.