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Listening to Harris, his Asia specialist, lay it out, Ashcombe nodded slowly.
"So the Hidden Dragon pilot succeeded. Otherwise the Republic wouldn't be moving with this much noise."
Beside him, Harris said nothing. The advancement of what would become their single greatest competitor was not good news for Maha Energy, and there was nothing to add that would make it better.
After a moment's thought, Ashcombe looked up and gave the secretary at his side an instruction.
"On a global basis, reach out to every energy firm with assets above one hundred billion. Communicate Maha's position to all of them. The message reduces to a single point. New Future is to be confined within the borders of the Republic of Valoria. We do not permit its reach to extend even half an inch past that line."
---
The Central Executive Council, the political heart of the Republic, was lit and working through the night, as it always was, with countless officials laboring at all hours.
On the fourth floor, in Marcus Holloway's office, Nathan Graves was delivering his report to the Chief Councilor.
Twenty minutes in, between Graves's account and the documents in his own hand, the full beginning-to-end shape of the conversion-hub incident had finally assembled itself before Holloway.
"Aaron Shaw and Daniel Brandt were taken into our custody within two hours of the incident," Graves said. "As for the remaining personnel, knowing or otherwise, we've brought them in to the regional police headquarters for questioning. Everyone connected to the matter has been barred from leaving the city. The moment any of them sets one foot past the Ashford boundary, we move on the arrest immediately."
Holloway nodded.
"Good. That's the correct approach. A great many people in this case are innocent. We let no guilty party walk, but we do not harm a single honest one either. And Sterling Energy?"
At the Chief Councilor's inquiry, Graves did not delay.
"Sterling's entire senior leadership is under close surveillance at present. Rouse included. Before this, we hadn't completed our investigation and had no firm evidence, so we didn't dare move prematurely. Sterling Energy has no shortage of rivals. If that incident had turned out to be a frame-up by some interested party, I was concerned the government would have been used as the weapon. As things stand now, with evidence in hand, the arrests can be made at any moment you give the word."
Holloway was quiet for a while, then shook his head.
"There's no urgency in this precise moment. Moving on Rouse now would send Sterling Energy's stock into freefall. And once Sterling falls, there's still a real energy gap across the country to account for. Let the Hidden Dragon program complete its second-phase rollout and let the disruption shrink to a minimum. Then it won't be too late to deal with the vermin."
Graves nodded. The man across from him had to reason from the whole board. His view of any problem was always more complete than Graves's own.
His report finished, Graves stood to leave. As he did, his gaze swept across the desk and snagged on a document lying there. A few bold characters stood out across the top.
Proposal to Confer the Title of Academician upon Ethan Mercer.
Graves was, frankly, startled. The Chief Councilor had floated the idea before, but no one had expected the senior leadership to move on it this fast. Counting the months on his fingers, the next regular Academician selection cycle was still the better part of a year out. And for the sake of that gap, the man in front of him was unwilling to wait. He intended to make an exception this summer and grant the kid an individual Academician title outside the normal cycle.
It seemed the conversion-hub incident had earned the kid a substantial number of impression points among the Republic's senior leadership.
Holloway had spent too many years in government for Graves's small reaction to escape him.
"If you want to read it, take it. Several of us on the council have already discussed the matter. All that's left is the public announcement. And since you're the one familiar with the boy, you should be the one to tell him."
Instruction received, Graves slipped the document into his briefcase and withdrew from the office.
---
Meanwhile, in Underground Laboratory One, Ethan, after half a month of unbroken work, was genuinely exhausted.
But looking at the five completed Transformer chassis arrayed in front of him, a real swell of accomplishment rose in his chest.
Where there was good news, of course, there was bad. His gaze drifted to Megatron, whose construction had not yet reached the halfway mark, and his feelings curdled into something between affection and exasperation.
To be fair, it was not that Ethan failed to grasp the principle that the best things were worth waiting for.
But this was excessive. In the half month he'd been working, five complete Transformers had been built start to finish. And Megatron, the single unit, hadn't cleared fifty percent.
If, when it was finally finished, Megatron turned out to lack the raw power Ethan was imagining, then with his current short fuse, it would not be entirely out of character for him to march up to the System's market and tear the place apart.
He suppressed the restlessness. Megatron was not today's main event.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. Inject the single-use Sparks into the completed chassis, one each."
"No problem, sir."
Receiving the command, J.A.R.V.I.S. guided one of the laboratory's large articulated arms to carefully lift the single-use Sparks that Ethan had already laid out in advance. Then, under Ethan's expectant gaze, the arm injected them in sequence into the five completed chassis.
Each injection came with a burst of brilliant light, and as the light flared, the Spark in the manipulator's grip dimmed, until it crumbled into a fine powder and drifted to the floor.
And as the light faded, Ethan could have sworn, illusion or not, that for a moment he heard five extraordinarily heavy heartbeats.
In the next instant, every chassis in front of him underwent an impossibly intricate transformation at once.
After roughly ten seconds, the newborn machines finished adapting to their first transformation. Then they surveyed everything around them with open curiosity. And when their gazes settled on the small creature standing at their feet, a single understanding took root in all five minds simultaneously.
This small being before us is our Creator.
We are to give ourselves, completely, to the one who stands before us.
With the concept seeded by the System, the newborn Transformers did not hesitate for an instant. All five dropped to one knee before Ethan.
"Ratchet."
"Ironhide."
"Jazz."
"Barricade."
"Bonecrusher."
"We pay our highest respects to the Master."
The immense voices of the five Transformers rolled through the underground laboratory and hung there a long while before fading.
In that moment, Ethan was thrilled.
Counting the still-unfinished Megatron, he now commanded a total of eight Transformer warriors of formidable combat capability. Measured against this world, anywhere on it, that was enough to constitute a force no one could afford to overlook.
Add the powered armor already in his possession, and it was no exaggeration to say that if Ethan wanted to, he could start a small war in any corner of the planet.