Eye Of The Storm

Silence reigned for a while as the two men looked at each other until Howard broke it to explain himself.

"I am heralded as the greatest mechanical engineer in the country along with the title a genius inventor for good reason and have you seen the weapons I provide the country? To put it bluntly they are years ahead of the nearest competition but they are not my finest work. They are enough to beat anyone else out there but not that much. The real stuff I invent I keep to myself and some of the things I am working on have the potential to unleash destruction on an unprecedented scale. Those are too dangerous for any one person to control so I keep them locked away from anyone who would misused them. Although as scientists we always want to break the boundaries and status quo of our understanding of the universe and to pursue all forms of knowledge so that we can leave our mark in history and as businessmen we like to make money off of anything we can, there are just somethings that shouldn't be done. Something as advanced as that is asking for trouble as there is no effective way to counter it, someone with dreams of grandeur and thoughts of conquest would instantly start a war with it. The helicopters I can back as they are advanced but can still be taken out but not the SLAP."

Kane just smiled at him and raised his glass to toast him before drinking its contents.

"No worries my friend I understand where you are coming from. You can see I was very hesitant to share this idea as our thoughts are similar on this topic. I guess I was hoping that you would agree with me on this and you did, but if you thought that we should proceed with production of the SLAP then I would have for the greater good despite my misgivings to defend our countries. You may be keeping your best creations under lock and key but the things I am also keeping hidden away will blow your mind. In a few years if you like they might be ready to show you around but that is for the future not now. I will likewise keep the blueprint locked away as it might be needed in the future if things change. You may have burnt that one but I have the original in a safe place plus I have it memorized."

Howard let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding before smiling at Kane.

"I am glad that I didn't offend you or otherwise sour our relationship with my impulsive action of burning your work right in front of your eyes. I guess it would be like Abraham finally completing his genetic work and having someone misused it and destroy everything afterwards right in front of him and there is no telling how he would react and now that is exactly what I did to you."

"Nonsense Howard. The difference is that this is not my life's work. It is also one of the more primitive things I came up with though I know you think I am exaggerating. Plus friends are aloud to argue and disagree as it shows it is a healthy relationship. Nobody wants sycophants that just agree with them and tell them what they want to hear."

"You are a good and magnanimous man Titan. Lesser men would have terminated our friendship over that. Well now that that idea is off the table what will you do now with the surplus funding?" Howard asked.

"I have recently acquired a radio station that I have named Revolution Radio or just Revolution so now I have the spare funding that I won't be putting into construction of the SLAP I will continue to build on the entertainment industry. I am thinking of buying a few theaters and starting a multi platform entertainment industry from anything on the big screen like movies to the small screen like commercials and singing. Perhaps I might open up a talent agency or acting school. Or not depends on whatever the whim takes me but I think I will. How about yourself?"

"Revolution Radio huh? An interesting name to be sure. Is there any specific meaning behind it or just another of your whimsical moments? I will continue to research technologies and continue to grow my company. I am the number one weapons supplier hut that is only weapons for the infantry soldiers. I aim to build and supply everything to the military, whether it is something as small and innocuous as a button or bullet casing to our tanks, planes or even ships."

"That latter I am afraid. Well actually a bit of both, as if you had listened to the music being broadcast on it then you would understand. I wanted to cause a revolution in the music industry by it hasn't been well received but that was within my expectations. Anything new or requiring change takes time to adapt to so give it a few years and we will see what will happen if I am still broadcasting. If nothing else I can claim that these genre of music were founded on my radio station. It sounds like we will both be busy for quiet some time to come then so this might be our last meeting for a while. In that case we should continue in the revelry and enjoy ourselves to the utmost."

"After the amount of food we have just eaten I don't think there is much room in us for drinking, although that is just speaking of myself. You always seem to have a limitless capacity to put anything that comes within your orbit away and not put on weight, be it food or drink. I can make time next weekend for a fondou place down the road in the next block but after that I really will have to get stuck in to work."

"Sure Howard I can always make time for a friend as I can precious few of them. Now that I think about it I only have you and Abraham. It is hard to find like minded and decent people. Normally it is one or the other and people with our intelligence can be a bit intractable and aloof. It is never too late to make friends once I have achieved my goals. I know the place you mentioned so lets say meet there at seven o'clock?"

"Sure thing, seven o'clock it is."

Kane met with Howard as agreed and enjoyed a lovely meal and as usual Howard brought three women along two for himself and one for Kane but she didn't manage to make a decent impression on him. Sure she was pretty but there seemed to be nothing in her head to hold her ears apart as she was quite thick. This was due to Kane's impossibly high standards of course. She was reasonably intelligent for a women of her time but she had no knowledge or interest in science or other higher forms of learning so talking to her was tortuously boring for Kane whom saw her as a glass vase. Pretty to look at but utterly useless and empty inside. Naturally his performance earned a wry smile and eye roll from Stark as he had expected it.

After that the days turned to weeks, then from weeks to months and Kane felt that there was something obstructing him. There was nothing overt as he has successfully managed to gain contracts to supply both the America and British military with helicopters and all of his other industries and businesses seemed to be doing exceptionally well, however he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in the eye of the storm and was waiting for chaos to unfold. It was an unreliable sixth sense that he had always had which told him trouble was brewing no no idea of how bad it would be or from where it was coming from.

He had done what he mentioned he would to Howard, that was to opened a talent agency and acting school. The problem he was having and it wasn't just in those two areas but across the board, with his hospital and university as well that he opened but he couldn't get anyone to work in them. That is to say he could get people to work in them, but nobody with any reputation or clout. He offered triple the salary they were getting but there wasn't a single person that took him up on his offers. The best way to build up a reputation is to hire the best people in their respective fields so they can teach others and thus have a knock on effect with better quality graduates. That way the reputation of various establishments under him could continue to grow and make things easier going forward. Kane had all the best equipment and knowledge that far, far outstripped the current era. Millenniums ahead as it were, which he obviously couldn't use just yet that would be reserved for those utterly loyal to him, so there wasn't a problem with his educational material. He could use the holograms to interact and teach people but what he needed were the names of current people and the reputation and connections they had to start things off and once things were established then he could implement things differently.

The fact that not a single soul wanted to come or the ones that had shown interest and swiftly and inexplicably changed their minds made Kane think that someone or something was plotting against him. Now Kane wasn't one to suffer in silence and allow people to scheme against him without doing anything about it. Therefore he set about using all of his resources and superior technology to spy on all the people in positions of power and those whom had investments in so called rival companies or had things to lose against him. It was a very long list but it had to be someone in the government or very rich so that narrowed it down a little. For those whom didn't have any crimes to their name or evidence that he could easily lay his hands on he had to get creative and he put everything in several files marked 'just in case' to be stored away in his codex.

Several weeks later after extensive collecting of all the backroom deals and logs of bribery corruption and the like the trouble he was waiting for came knocking on his door.