#i need to upload the last couple of story posts to wp... ugggggh

[streetlites]

“… In other news, protesters gathered outside of New Dawn Pharmaceuticals’ headquarters in Detroit, Michigan and in the UNAS capital of Consensus, to rally against the use of OE in children after the death of 8-year-old Rebecca Bright Saturday afternoon. Rebecca began to present biotic abilities earlier this month and was prescribed the controversial suppressant by her pediatrician. New Dawn spokesperson, Ralph Lundgren, issued a statement this morning stating…”

“Cancel news feed,” Yulian commanded from his spot at the dining table and the house fell back into its quiet, sleepy Sunday morning state.

I took a moment to pass over the security logs, my nails tapping at the small glass panel affixed to my wrist.  Vera had left the house before we arrived and had checked in at the range – she’d been spending a lot of time at my office working or practicing at the range ever since she’d revoked Gene’s son’s house access. I nodded in satisfaction – not because I didn’t like the boy, but because I didn’t feel like their future paths aligned. Now that the two of them had broken up, she’d spend more time focusing on college or with working directly with The Brotherhood when she moved to San Myshuno.

I scrolled further, Abram was still out on the Future Leader’s retreat in Consensus and his flight wouldn’t be in until later tonight. And Aleksei? Arrived at the compound at 11:30PM last night ‘with guest’. I could feel my eyes rolling – I had told the boys how I felt about not naming their ‘guests’ at the gate. I sent a surveillance request to the guard house and tapped my foot impatiently while I waited on a response as the coffee pot gurgled at the end of its brewing process.

“Call Tomas LaChance,” Yulian’s voice sounded again. “No, no, cancel. Not Thomas Laitance, you stupid thing. Call Tomas LaChance,” he repeated, heavily stressing his broker’s first name.

My wrist beeped as I poured the coffee into my cup. I put the carafe back on the warmer and swiped to get a look at my son’s ‘guest’ and was annoyed to see the tint on his windshield prevented me from getting a good look at her face – whoever she was, I was relieved to see that it was not Geneva White.

“Tomas? Yes, good morning – glad to have caught you. Listen, I want you to buy as many shares of New Dawn Pharmaceuticals you can get your hands on Monday afternoon.” I turn to watch my husband as he stares blankly, idly picking on a croissant as he listens to the man on the other line. “Yes, I heard the news. Mmm-hmm, very sure.” He nods, even though there’s no video feed, “Monday afternoon. Let me know if you need more funds sent to my account. No – not through Volkov Enterprises, through my personal account. Yes, thank you, Tomas. You, too.”

I watch as he taps his wrist. It’s strange the cues you learn when people are disconnected from their comm devices – how their faces seem to reanimate as they bring their attention on the world around them, a sharp focus to their eyes – some people these days seemed to just stay attached to their comms, always staring off into the distance. “Are you sure that’s wise? I saw Senator Obrigada calling for a review on suppressants.”

“Of course, love. New Dawn holds the patent, there’s no generics available.”

“You’re not worried about a ban?”

Yulian sips his coffee, “No. Some biotic will lose their shit in public a few months from now and everyone will demand that biotics should be on suppressants again. It’s easy money.”

I nod, “Makes sense.” I hear a door opening upstairs and place my coffee cup on the table, fully expecting to get a good look at my son and his sleepover friend.

“Right. But I’d like the price to be driven down pretty low. Do you think you could convince your contact at SBS to push for a sob-piece on the little girl? I mean, really drive it home? School pictures, aspirations, that sort of thing?”

“I’m sure they’re probably already working on it, but I can pass her more information. I can see what I can do to make them drop it tonight and keep on it until –“ I stop at the sight of my son. I can see Yulian’s head swivel towards the pair in my peripheral and he lets out a low whistle.

“Good morning, mother. Father,” Alex says, lacking any sort of embarrassment to being seen escorting a girl from his room this early in the morning. Yulian is wearing a shit-eating grin, it stinks of something that he set into motion. “This is –“

“Yasmin Feng,” I finish. I know goddamn well who the fuck she is. “Good morning, Yasmin.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Volkov,” she says, her voice is sugary sweet. That’s her appeal, her method of getting information – sweet and innocent looking, no one thinks twice about telling her things they wouldn’t tell others.

“I wasn’t aware you and Aleksei knew each other.”

“Well,” Alex starts.

“We didn’t, ma’am. Vera introduced us to one another,” Yasmin finishes and I can feel my heartbeat slow to a crawl. I bring my gaze and look over my son carefully. Apparently, he had taken his break-up with Geneva harder than I had thought.

“Yeah, we went out last night and really hit it off,” Alex explains.

“I can see that,” Yulian quips, but I don’t see the humor in it.

“Does Aleksei know about your upcoming trip?”

“He does, I told him about it.”

“Yeah, mom. It’s cool. We’ve decided that we’re just going to hang out until she leaves. Which works out because Abram and I will be leaving to go to Willow Creek, you know? Nothing major.” I narrow my eyes at my son ‘All of your children are about to leave the house and you’ll have to coordinate security over long distances – no big deal, mom!’ The idiot. Yasmin smiles brightly up at my son as he half-hugs her.

“Well, don’t let us keep you,” my husband says, still grinning like a fool. “Go on and have fun, we’ll see you later.” We watch the two of them disappear down the hall leading to the garage and, presumably out of earshot, before he clears his throat. “You didn’t seem particularly happy about seeing her with Alex.”

“I’m not. I expressly told Vera I was planning on introducing her to Abram.”

“Well, I’m sorry. I asked Vera to hook him up with someone.”

“Vera could have set him up with anyone. Yasmin would have been a great match for Abram, her father is the Chinese ambassador to the UNAS and her mother used to work on the Systems Alliance council. But, more importantly, I wanted Yasmin to keep Abram in line.” And if Vera stepped in and put Yasmin with Aleksei, I sighed. It was a sign that my son was having issues with his future obligations.

Yulian looks up at me with annoyance, “What do you mean, ‘in line’? I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to meddle.”

“And I haven’t been meddling,” I snap, “Look how great that’s been going! I expect Abram to try to distance himself from us the moment he graduates. You know how he’s always gone on about becoming a politician,” Yulian scoffs and I shrug my shoulders. “Which is fine with me if it’s appearances only, but I expect him to help us pass things when we need it. Yasmin knows how to control people, knows how to speak to them. She’d point him in whatever direction I want him to go.”

“Well, she could always do that later,” my husband replies, not understanding why I was unhappy.

“She can’t – because if Vera set her up with Alex, it means that she thinks that Alex is the one that we should focus on keeping on track.”

Yulian takes a moment to consider my words, probably thinking back to the time when he also didn’t want to take the reins of the Volkov family. “Oh, fuck. Do you think that’ll work with Alex?”

“So now you’re okay with my ‘meddling’?” I ask sarcastically. My husband smiles apologetically. “I don’t know if that’ll work with Alex – I think he’ll head it because he’s obligated to either way. Vera might just be sending us a message discreetly.”

Yulian sighs, “I know he’ll do it out of obligation, but I don’t want my son to be miserable his entire life. How can we make him want this?”

“Get your grandfather to talk to him. I’ll try and see if there’s anything I can link him up with in Willow Creek that’ll catch him.”