✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Warfare [Transformers]✔

28

Half an hour before they were told that they would soon be landing, James had taken two guns out of a case, given one of them to Brady and the ammunition to go with it. In case of the case, their uncle had said and had tied to his weapon, still another knife around. For which case of the cases, she did not need to ask at all, because this, she knew since some days.

It was us or them.

It took about two hours to get from the landing site to KSI Beijing, where they were told by a staff member that Mister Joyce and Miss Yueming would be arriving quite soon. They should wait quietly in the office, where the woman took the three of them. Thank you very much, Brady thought while sitting down on a chair next to James, who was looking out of the window. Now it was time to wait.

Quite soon' became several hours. Where, where had they landed, please? On the other side of China? And there was no question of a head start here. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

"Joyce. I can't tell you how pleased I am to deliver this to you," Attinger greeted Joyce, who was just coming through the door and James opened for him a black bag on the floor to present its contents, "Number one, your alien wish list. It's yours, or better. Ours. I'd like to see my shares then. Five million shares of your company. Together we will end human warfare and build a fully automated U.S. Army. Just think of all the Americans we'll save. When can we start mass production?"

"You know, maybe we should hold off on that for a little while," Joyce had taken far too long to answer, causing James and Brady to look at each other for a moment and then look to the KSI founder because they both had the same assumption running through their minds, "I have some new data here that I'd like to get to first....."

"You're not backing out, are you?" interrupted Attinger, well aware of the inventor.

"No, I'm not backing out. I want.... want the seeds. I'm not saying I don't want it," Joyce pressed on, causing Brady to narrow her eyes slightly and slowly look to her uncle to see if he was hearing the same thing she was, "I'm just saying I don't know if I want the seed right now."

"I'm sorry," Brady interjected because she had obviously misheard, standing up and pressing her index finger to the tabletop, "Please what? Are you kidding us? Who else threatened us yesterday, over this fucking thing? Wasn't it you? And now you're coming at us like this? We went to China because of YOU. BECAUSE OF YOU."

"Good men have died trying to secure this thing for us," in that way Attinger didn't need to try, because, beyond that point, they were four long past it, "For you."

"I know what you did for it," oh really, what a sad thing it would have been if a man like Joyce, didn't know, because with Brady, it hadn't taken her long to realize that a lot of it was very borderline, "Lots of illegal shit."

"And now all of a sudden, you're getting a conscience?" asked Brady, chuckling, because it was, so too late for that, "Pretty late for that, right? As if it wasn't clear from the beginning that this, wasn't going to work illegally. Deal's a deal."

"I can bust you too Mister Black Ops," eager to hear what else Joyce had to say, James put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands in front of his mouth, "So don't threaten me. Ever since I was a little boy, I've always dreamed of making the world a better place."

"Funny. I had the same dream but then you made many billions of dollars at some point. So tell me what's missing from my dream. Tell me, what's missing from my childhood dream?" with that Attinger pushed the inventor against the wall, which the inventor had not expected, "I have always served my country faithfully. In decades of unprecedented prosperity and you are my golden parachute. And that means you're going to jump the hell out of this plane with me."

For Joyce, the anger came at just the right time, or things would have gotten pretty messy for him. An emergency at the factory, the KSI founder called it, so he'd have to get Attinger, James and Brady out. The seed now had Joyce, but the latter said, before the Farhstuhl doors closed, that 'it' now had what it wanted.

"Now what?" asked Brady in a biting tone, looking to her boss, "When this is done and we're back, I want a bonus payment from you."

For the last few days, this was the least she could do.

─⌖❖⌖─

Outside, in front of the factory, all the workers KSI had were already streaming toward the exit. They all just wanted to leave the factory premises and that as soon as possible before it was too late.

"So where's he running now?" asked Brady as Attinger ran to a completely different car, even though it was the wrong moment for a detour.

"Get in.", James shook his head with a groan, because there was nothing to say about Attinger's behavior.

One thing Brady didn't need to be told twice. She immediately opened the passenger door, hurriedly got in and fastened her seat belt when James had long since driven off. Not far from the exit stood Attinger, whom they collected and drove after Joyce, who had the seed with him.