BZZZZERT!

It's a shame the buzzer uses the intercom, isn't it?

Paul was bored and playing on the computer; I was just laying in bed, basically daydreaming, as I got up to answer it. I hope this doesn't involve killing anyone. It's not that I don't want to kill people, it's that I don't feel like going anywhere today.

Or answer any viewscreen calls, but Howard didn't want to take it. Naked, I proceeded with my usual Howard imitation. It was the Day Operator, and he had a calm look on his face. "Hello, Howard. Now that it's months after you've thoroughly quashed the stupidity plan, I feel that I have to bring you some news.. actually, it's history, but it is news to you."

"Operator, you know what happens to people who keep things from me.", I replied, having perfected Howard's casually threatening tone. Strange that I'd have to use this on the Day Operator. He's one of Howard's most trusted, insofar as Howard trusts anyone. Sarah looked at me as if I was going to order an assassination. Bloodthirsty as always.

"Yes, but this is a plot you'll actually like."

"Spill it all.", I replied.

"Well, Howard, the cause was a mixture of things. The first was a .. conversation I happened to overhear, back when you were still the Inheritor. It turns out that someone you're probably not too familiar with, Walter Kramovitch, had something of a grudge against your predecessor, and wanted you removed from power before you got in." Walter who? "You didn't know this, of course, since I instructed him to never even get close to letting you on. Yes, I approached him." Huh? How's this supposed to work, again? Walter would never want to include in his plans anyone in favor of the then-Inheritor, and the Day Operator, for obvious reasons..

"But you're the guy who was in charge of creating me!", I replied.

"Not even a setback. In fact, it made things easier. He couldn't believe his luck. I had him believe that your predecessor forced me to do the whole project." That bridge sure cost a lot of money, eh Walter? "And then when you killed the old Night Operator, who I could have probably manipulated a bit, I took a replacement who I knew agreed with me to the core." Being able to choose the people to be, presumably, your equals is a boon.

The question remains. "So why?"

"Well, you see, I told Walter that he'd need lots of followers to take you on, and that numbers were the key, and so I had him spawn all those sheeple you so hated in the organization. I actually had him spawn sheeple who would spawn more sheeple."

"WHAT?!" Okay, let me get this straight. He was key to creating the engineereds, the only people who can lead the Illuminati to the golden End of Secrecy, yadda yadda. And now he's going to put nearly mindless normals in the Illuminati? The engineereds would slaughter them in a rotating meatgrinder of horrible pain, and the other Illuminati would be quite irritated with the newcomers quite rapidly. Ah. And that's probably why. "Oh, I think I know.."

"Oh, I know how it sounds, it sounds positively horrible for the organization. But you behaved almost exactly as I thought you would. You took steps to remove the problem, you killed just about all the virus, and helped to inoculate the organization from more outside-world members, creating a generally benevolent effect."

"The spread of the belief that all Illuminati should be born native."

"Exactly. And since I knew that you believed it yourself, I knew what you'd do." And it's hard to get worked up about slaughtering sheeple-as-Illuminati if you know it's just for some purpose. "And that's my same goal, more or less. Don't worry, Howard- all active threats to you that I know about have been removed. I killed the one you spared," I didn't laugh out loud- it would have been a bit annoying- but that deserves a BWAHAHAHA anyway. He's being meaner than Howie! "I killed another one who apparently hated you all on his own, and I imagine you can now guess what really happened to Walter." The Operator runs a medical facility full of bioengineered creatures and ethics-free experiments. Whatever happened to Walter, it wasn't pleasant.

"And so you used an enemy of mine to help seal up the place, all without the notice of anyone and all without any seeming relation to you. But why not just tell me?"

"Two reasons- first off, if you knew you had an enemy, you probably would just kill him immediately, and, second, it would add a random factor into an otherwise fool-proof plan. That's why I waited so long to tell you, to make sure the situation was really over."

"Operator, you made a good decision and a bad decision. The whole plan was, generally, a good decision, and its results will allow me to forgive your.. bad decision of not telling me. You should know that I'd go along with any good decision, you were responsible for me." If he knew who I was, he would have gotten the double entendre in that sentence.

"Oh well. Goal achieved. Oh, and before you ask, I never knew all that much about the Bastard Squad and nothing whatsoever about that idiot with that robot." He wouldn't hide information like that. "That's the problem with this place, we don't really know each other, because so much is shrouded in secrecy, false motives, and outright lies.. but that's another large problem for another day." And his palace of engineering is going to help solve that, too, by replacing the Illuminati.

"For a normal-born, you really like to target large problems with giant plans.", I noticed.

"If I find a way to undo this one in the near future, I will tell you. But for now, I just like the idea that we're all having to cooperate because of the actual work being done."

"Very well, Operator. Keep raising the in-born percentage.", I told him.

"As you command." Much like some commands Howard gives me, it's not a command he has any problems obeying. The Operator turned off the screen.

"SO! Turns out that guy's got his own share of plans. I like that. Someone does something other than get in my way for a change.", Howard said, grinning.

"Howard, aren't you feeling a little left out?", Sarah said. "I mean, everyone else has plans.." Howard doesn't need them, and so just looked at her.

"Sarah, what the hell would he plan for? He already has the long-term stuff down.", I told her. "Think about it. I mean, the only things that he doesn't have are solid unity and better technology, everyone's working their ass off for the second and there's no such thing as a plot that can do the first!"

"Well, you could do plots for small gains.. but I see your point. Too much work, too much hassle, too much unpredictability and not enough gravy. Besides, you guys can always just apply more time to something.", Sarah said, nodding slightly. I noticed Paul up on the railing, listening to us talk.

"Yeah.. but frankly, I want to be able to make a plan for something. We all heard him, he didn't know about the loony with the robot. Don't think he'd lie about that." No, not to Howard he wouldn't. "And there's still nothing new on what happened to Brenk."

"Well, since we haven't seen any more impersonation robots or insane dolls, we should probably just assume that that was it.", I said.

"That's all we can do, and that bugs me.", Howard said. He hates loose ends, but I got the feeling that they'd be tied up someday. "Oh fucking well. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

I watched Howie do some research on the Day Operator, not just to verify his statements, but to help to explain them. He looked through the Operator's logged, public journals, which were rather rare, but did contain some interesting, mostly extremely scientific, tidbits of this and that. And then there was this one.

Northberg Day Operator
7/17/99
Re: The Dominator's Creation

\tab It is about time that I wrote this here. Since you are reading this, no matter who you are, you should know that the previous Night Operator and I were less than friends. We were not enemies, either.. but it should be known that we had different agendas. At the time, I took that for granted. I should not have. But everything proceeded smoothly, and so I did not inquire as to his behavior, or the things he was hiding from me. Most of those are of little interest and no consequence, but there is one matter that I must discuss.
\tab The Night Operator attempted to partially sabotage the Dominator's creation. ( Howard and I simultaneously read and gasped at that sentence.) The nature of this sabotage was not directly harmful- in fact, on the surface, it was not a true sabotage at all. It was more of a rushing. When we talked, which was seldom, he would always try to emphasize time and attempt to quickly muddle through it. Looking back, I can see what the plan was. He attempted to make an inferior Dominator.
\tab It took me a deliberate, concerted effort to ensure that everything was done slowly and carefully, and to have the important decisions done during the day. He did not dare contest anything that I did, he pretended to agree that time must be taken, but he was internally frustrated. He would attempt to belittle things, to move them forward.. I will not give examples as that will only take more of my time and bore the reader; if you wish, you can listen to the old recordings of our early talks about this subject. If you require more proof, I can give it to you myself... but this is a thing that I would like to put behind me.
\tab I should have said something about this, but out of my own cowardice, I did not. It is that simple.
\tab Howard, if you are reading this, I apologize. Everything that I can think of, everything that I can list, was done right. I spent all of my time thinking about you; I made sure that nothing was rushed or skipped over. You would probably like to know that the new Operator is far superior in every way to the old.

"Damn.", was Howard's only voiced opinion.

"I don't think he's bullshitting you, Howard.", Sarah said, shaking her head a bit. Had the Night Operator's attempted manipulation happened with Sarah as well? No.. I doubt that. The Dominator would be the place to focus those efforts. Howard read through various pages of very old logs, things between the two Operators, his creation history- and then I realized something. A lot of the time, the Night Operator's haste wasn't just the attempt to stop needed additional development- it was the cue for it! I started laughing as I continued to read, noticing what was going on. Sometimes the old Night Operator, that laughable idiot, would clue the Day Operator in to problems by quietly trying to push the project past them!

"What? What's so funny?" It shouldn't anymore, but it always pleases me when I know something that Howard doesn't.

"Howard.. have you ever heard of the term 'devil's advocate'?", I asked.

"Someone who always argues for the wrong side of something. I think I see what you're getting at."

"Yup. He was helping you, Howard.", I explained. "See that? Every time someone would suggest something to speed things up, he would quietly go for it, every time they wanted to be careful, he would say something mildly against it. He didn't dare go outright, he was fearful for his life the whole time. But every time he said something.."

"..it was the cue for everyone else to realize what was wrong with it.", Howard realized. "You're right. You're absolutely correct. I don't believe this!! That idiot, that absolutely foolhardy twit, was helping the project the whole time! If he wouldn't have said anything.. oh, in this one..", he said, gesturing to the screen.

"..they probably wouldn't have done those tests at all!". I finished. We laughed simultaneously, loudly, and with echo. "I don't believe this shit!", I shouted joyfully, my faith in my engineered abilities higher than ever. "Fool, fool, fool!" Hindsight is definitely 20/20. I wonder how often this sort of thing happens, one guy trying to do something and ending up doing the opposite? That's why people study history.. because they don't want to make similar mistakes. Beating around the bush and playing devil's advocate to a project with an infinite budget isn't what I'd ever try, after seeing this...

I wouldn't have more faith in bioengineering until next month, when we went with Howard to Northberg Educational.