Howard, of course, got what he wanted with commanding the newly recruited Illuminati. I'm glad he didn't have me take his place this time; even after more than a year and a half here, I really wouldn't have known what to do. Instead, I'm sitting here in this small room in the main Bavarian headquarters, commanded into silence and relative motionlessness (a very rare thing) as Howard runs his own mini-inquisition on the new Illuminati. He actually said it: we're just along for the ride for this one. Oh well, at least the chair's comfy.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to be fair, and I am going to let you all ask me questions before I get started with you. Go ahead; unless it's really stupid, I won't kill you for it." It wasn't meant to be funny, because Howard wasn't joking.

"Is it true that the first levels just sit back and use us to do their secretarial work while they sit back and eat us up, using us like specially-educated servants? Because if it is, I'm outta here, kill me if you want but I'm not going to get used.", an older man asked. Howard has the power of the implants; if he really wanted to, you'd get used anyway.

"You won't get used for them. Just me.", Howard replied.

"And so you just sit up on high giving out orders while the rest of us do all the tasks that the world needs to keep going."

"Exactly, although I actually usually never give specific orders at all. Yes, I know I have a lot more free time than any of you will ever hope to have, and that my unique abilities don't exactly get used all the time for the best interests of everyone. I admit that, it wasn't designed for fairness, none of this was. Some of you lower levels have taken to thinking that I run the world. No, I don't. Firsts and seconds run the world. It's just my job to see that everyone works together for our cause, and if you remember, I'm always on call for that. I really am the public servant, the biggest assassin in here, the guy you dial up when someone has seriously wronged you."

"So wait a minute.", a young man asked. "They just said, 'Okay, we need someone to get between us when we've got problems with each other because we don't want to have to handle it ourselves?'"

"Right again. They thought it over and they figured they did need someone to do the job, someone with no biases and nothing that would stop him from doing his job. We created every position in here for a reason. Several of you have commented on the efficiency you've never seen in your normal jobs." Howard did research before he came here. "We have our own way of getting rid of waste. We have our own customs. We are still our own society, and we will always be." And sooner or later, they'll be everyone else's society, too.

"All right, Dominator, so you're the guy to call whenever anyone starts blowing the lid on Plot A or Secret Plan B.", a twenty-something woman asked, her breasts pushing on her sweater. You're cute, lady, but you're not Howard's type.

"Actually, if anyone does that, I invite you to kill him yourself if it's faster and the risk's low. This'll be hard to believe, but there hasn't been an Illuminated leak in over forty years." They were shocked, as I had been when I first learned that. "Yeah, I know, six thousand people. That's because we only accept people who can keep secrets. All of you, whether you know it or not, have been tested on your loyalty and ability to keep a secret."

"You hired her, didn't you?", said a rather large thirty-year-old with a mustache and a bit of a beard.

I was half-expecting to hear Howard say 'That's a secret!' or somesuch. "You can figure that out by yourself. Any recruitment information is accessible to you on the database and it does include such details.", he said instead.

"Speaking of databases, if we're all supposed to be able to keep secrets, then why are there things that aren't accessible to us?", a middle-aged woman asked.

"Because they don't want anyone knowing about it because they might become entranced with the idea and try to take it, because they don't believe in risking anything for any reason, because they don't want anyone opposing what they do, and also because they like to feel powerful when they make something super top secret." They all chuckled at that. Again, Howard's forthright honesty wins him respect in a world of backstabbing.

"Did they create you in a factory?", another woman asked.

"You have good insight.", Howard replied, not splitting hairs.

"I figured. They're not making any more of you, are they?" I would have chuckled if I wasn't commanded to be silent. That would be weird. One of Howard, and more than one of me? I couldn't even fathom it, really.

"Not me in particular, but other engineereds, full and partial, both the complete creations of the facility and the modified children of the other Illuminati. So don't be surprised if you get outperformed by an eight year old from time to time." Or constantly, for that matter.

"Speaking of which.. Howard, how old are you?", was another question from the pudgy thirty-year-old.

"Eleven and a half.", I said, watching his face light up with curiosity and incredulity.

"You don't look it."

"Of course not. When your projected maximum height is 7'2", people tend to think you're older."

"Balls..", someone said in the back.

"No, those are normal size." They laughed at that. "All right, serious stuff time. For now I'm going to stick to the basics. Show of hands, who here got in of their own merit?" If both of anyone's hands stayed down at that one, Howard would have blown their owner's head off. "Who here has completely subordinated all other loyalties to the Illuminati?" Another no-brainer. Nobody hesitated, nobody looked nervous. "Who here is at the behest of another Illuminatus whom you know by name?" That was a real question- three people's hands shot up, and everyone else's didn't, and both groups were surprised at each other. Howard wasn't, of course, and started asking the individuals from left to right.

"How do you know the person who introduced you to the Illuminati?", Howard asked a bespectacled 35-year-old. Still wearing glasses? You and the Operator of Northberg need to have a talk, bub..

"George came to me after the tests, and said he'd pointed the recruiters at me, and he'd set up my resources so that I could help him with his part of the world. He said he needed a master's help, not a servant's.", the man replied.

"He set up all your resources? So, really, whose resources are they?"

"Mine.", he replied, with the only right answer.

The twenty-something woman with the perky breasts was next. "How do you know the person who introduced you to the Illuminati?"

"I don't, really. I don't work with him at all. Or anything else.", she added, before anyone started wondering. "He just came to me after the testing, smiled, and said he saw me in the normal world and knew I'd make a good Mistress." The term is correct, but I don't think I've ever heard it before in the Illuminati.

The next man was about sixty or so and visibly scared; hey, your life's almost over already. It would really make an impression if Howard killed one of them here, wouldn't it? Or maybe he'd go the master route and tell one of us to do it instead. "How do you know the person who introduced you to the Illuminati?"

"He's an old friend of mine." As if a guy like him could have any other kind of friend. (Well, okay, he can have whatever kind of friend he wants now, but I'd rather not think about that.) "He said he was watching me and that he thought I was ready for it, having changed over the years, so he had me selected for testing."

"So how many questions did he help you with?", Howard asked. Another no-brainer.

"What? None! He didn't tell me jack!" He sounded truthful to my perceptive ears, at least.

"And do you work in a department near his?"

"Not even close. He's in global radio, I make parts for Northberg Medical Facility. Got a bunch of Enforcers to do it with, too." Howard smiled at him and his nervousness dropped by an order of magnitude.

"Okay. Now I'm going to find out what everyone else is doing here." He then went around the room asking people to describe exactly what they did in the organization, and he got solid, if complicated, answers. Then he asked why they accepted the invitations- again, he got a lot of various, but well-reasoned answers. This was because they understood the seriousness of what they were asked. This isn't like some normal go-around where it's a bunch of weenies introducing themselves. Every Illuminatus must have a hard, easily-accessible answer to these questions, even if it requires some technical explanation or several paragraphs- or they're likely to end up on the wrong end of an engineered punch. "Good. You're all still alive, so you all pass.", Howard declared, and we followed them out. They started to talk to each other after we left, but that was part of the point, as well- to get them into the community.