“Yeah, well, I’m a big name here in the US.” He paused and postured, leaning closer to the camera.

Someone sniggered.

“What?” Eugene said defensively, scanning the faces in front of him. “That’s funny to someone?”

Mueez pointed to himself. “Yes, me. You are aware that the United States of America no longer exists. Your fame died with it.”

Eugene stiffened at the tone and looked to Huck. “What is this?” Huck raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say a word. The visitor motioned to the faces watching him on the monitors. “Some kind of joke? I thought I was going to meet the people in charge. This little set-up is ruling the world?”

Huck leaned back in his chair and let out a slow sigh. “You asked, Mr. Brikham, and I delivered. You have an audience with the Board, but I cannot promise you more than that. You currently have their attention, too, and I would suggest you keep it...you won’t have it for long.”

Only Scott truly understood the reality of that threat.

Three vials. One for each of them.

Scott looked away from the visitors and found a small mark on the wall on which to fix his attention.

“Yeah, okay, well,” Eugene stammered. “Look, Huck and I have been in communication for years. There were promises made, okay? This place? I built this.” Eugene motioned to the ceiling, the walls. His wife nodded, her lips still drawn together. The teenager hadn’t moved a muscle. He stared at the screen without a hint of interest.

From the corner of his eye, Scott saw Claude sit up a bit straighter and lean his body forward. Clasping his hands together, Claude rested them upon the table and watched the trio with interest.

“Which part?” Claude asked.

“What?” Eugene asked, balking at the question, turning his attention from the screen to Claude, and back again.

“Which part did you build?”

“Not like, built it with my hands...I meant...my money built this place. It was financed by me and my company. Every penny—”

Huck shook his head. “Not every penny.”

“I was promised things.” Eugene looked wildly from each face in the room to each face on the screen. “I want what me and my family were owed.”

His wife leaned forward. Scott’s eyes rose from his spot on the wall and he watched her in person. She raised a finger and pointed at Huck, the bangles on her wrist clanging inharmoniously. “I should be able to eat in the Sky Room when I want to.” Her voice was lower than Scott had imagined it would be. “And I want a bigger place. And you’re out of your mind if I have to be regulated to that five-minute shower rule. The people who helped supply the finances, the means, we deserve things. It’s our right. I’m not some lowlife...tell them, Eugene, tell them what we were promised. Luxury. And this? This underground shithole...”

Huck cleared his throat, “Well, that took a turn. Let’s just settle down.”

“Is he telling me to watch my language now? Jesus Christ.” The wife crossed her arms and looked over at her husband with a perfected coldness.

Her husband patted her arm to placate her and turned his attention back to the group. “This entire enterprise is a far cry from what I was promised. How hard is it to give us a better apartment? Reward the people. You know?”

David, Roman’s Elektos partner in Australia, waited until he was certain it was okay to interject, and then he launched. “Reward you? Are you out of your mind, mate? Isn’t your inclusion here reward enough? And besides, the new world only works if you view yourself as part of a team. And I’m sure you remember how that old adage goes...”

The teenager Charles scoffed. He tugged his shirt down over his hands and let them fall on the table with a bang.

“By all means,” Huck said, “let’s allow all the Brikhams a voice.” Then he settled backward in his chair and waited. “Go ahead, young man. You think you have something valuable to add? We’re all waiting.”

“My son doesn’t answer to anybody except his father and me,” the woman snapped and she put her hand on her son’s head and wrapped her fingers in his messy hair. He scooched out from under her love-pat and shot his mother a dismissive look.

“I can talk, Mom,” Charles said, and he stretched his arms upward, his hands popping out. “This isn’t how it was supposed to be,” the kid complained. “This isn’t what he,” Charles nodded toward Huck, “promised us.”

“I’m hearing this a lot...this idea that you didn’t receive what you expected. So, I must ask. What did he promise you, young man?” Morowa asked.

The kid rolled his eyes and leaned forward. He looked at Morowa on the screen and shrugged. “You know. Like my mom said.”

If the accusations bothered Huck, he didn’t seemed disturbed. He eyed the family with nonchalance and picked at the edges of his fingernails.

“You’ll have to be more specific if we are expected to understand,” Morowa continued. “To the best of my knowledge, your family was promised safety. And nothing more.”

“Safety?” Eugene slapped his hand against the table. Scott jumped, unsettled. “I could have, with a fraction of the money I gave the Elektos Corporation, built myself a bunker in the middle of the godforsaken desert for just myself and my family. Could have bought myself my own safety from this nutjob.” He thumbed his finger at Huck.

“A fairytale,” Huck said under his breath.

“Excuse me?” Eugene looked up from the screen, his nostrils flaring. “I didn’t need you. You needed me. You think you can play me for a fool? What’s done is done, and I know that. But I deserve my share. If you can’t provide my family what we’re due here, then when we go to the Islands, we expect to see what we’re owed. Tenfold.”

“I did need you, Mr. Brikham. You and your billions of dollars, which you saved through various legal loopholes and good old fashioned tax evasion. I needed your money then because money still mattered. But it doesn’t matter now. You were guaranteed life. Nothing more. Had you denied me, we would have stonewalled your every effort to save yourself.”

The wife muttered the word “monster” underneath her breath. Huck ignored it.

“You want to maintain a shred of the old world...but none of that exists. Now you’re in my home. And you’ll do as I say.”

“My money was worth something to you. You took it happily. And now you’re going to discard me like a cheap whore?”

Scott noticed Claude cringe, and they both looked to the wife, who kept nodding, nodding, nodding. The room felt hot and sticky; Scott wished he could open a window, let in some air. But there was no air, only the illusion of air.

“We’re not going down like this,” the man hesitated. “We’ve been talking to the others...those whose entire lives were spent cultivating the cash that built these places. We want our share. We want decision-making power. Your Elektos Board shouldn’t be by appointment. We want elections.”

The Board members whispered and their hushed voices played on the boardroom speakers. Eugene raised his head and looked at Huck triumphantly. He had struck a nerve.

“You think you say it and...poof...it will happen? That the Board will nod their heads and relinquish their role here?” Huck shook his head and laughed. “You’re delusional. This is my chosen cabinet.”

“I have a voice and I was taught how to use it,” Eugene answered. “I’m not the only one who feels like our role has been relegated to blind follower, instead of the leaders we deserve to be. We are owed. We will take our payment...now. Or else we will rally the others to stand against you and your shameful Board.”

That pronouncement stopped Huck’s laughter and he trained his eyes on the man.

Charles looked across the table at Scott and shifted as if noticing his presence for the first time. He elbowed his mother and leaned over to whisper in her ear; she stared at Scott and then pulled her head away.