Chapter 186

My real breakfast was ready shortly after I finished the sandwich. I tried to make it seem the food had my full attention, but it really didn't. I kept flashing from worries about the baby revelation to worries about the news Argent had brought back with him. When I finished eating I got a refill for my coffee mug and then went into my office.

Argent was already there when I entered.

"John, I'm glad to be back and it's good to see you," he said.

"I'm glad to see you also, Argent. How was your trip?"

"The trip there and back was fine, the difficulties were all in the endless meetings. I must say your message to me caused more than a little excitement," he said.

"I had plenty of excitement of my own while you were gone."

There was what some would call a pregnant pause then. I'm sure Argent was expecting me to go into detail about what happened, but I didn't intend to. With Ralph's help I had finally come to realize they had access to video of everything which went on here and if Argent was curious about it he could just fire up his TIVO or whatever it was and take a look for himself.

I did know enough about negotiating to keep my mouth shut and wait for him to say something now. I'd already decided this was going to be a negotiation session if he had changes in mind for my situation.

"I hate to have to bring this up, John, but those who are my supervisors have instructed me to make some changes here," Argent said, finally.

"What changes have they asked you to make Argent?"

"We will have to close what you are calling the residence cave and the celebration cave. They have also instructed me to remove the sawmill. We will do it with an earthquake.

"We can start it slowly with just minor tremors and when everyone has left the caves we will allow enough damage to convince your people they are no longer safe.

"After all of their things have been moved back across the river we will finish collapsing the two large caves. Since only a few besides you know of the sawmill we will just remove the equipment and remove the memories from all the others who know about it."

"So you intend to ruin the new homes you have given all these people and cause them to move again during the winter?"

"I know it will be inconvenient, but I'm afraid there is nothing else to do," he said.

"I'm afraid you, or someone supervising you have lost their mind. You will do no such thing. As far as I'm concerned you can just go back to where ever you came from and stay there. Just leave me and my people alone."

"I can't believe you would turn on me after what I've done for you John," Argent said.

"I'm not turning on you, Argent. You and your people have turned on me. I still don't know what the purpose for this whole experiment is and I no longer care. I'm not as stupid as you seem to believe though, and you aren't nearly as clever as you think you are. No matter what the grand design you have in mind is, I do know you are watching everything that goes on here."

"That is true, we have thousands of video and audio acquisition devices here. You should not let them worry you though," he said.

"I'm not letting them worry me. Ralph, can you return Argent to his ship and cut all communications between this planet and the ship for the next forty-eight hours?"

"We can, if it is what you want, John," Ralph said, and I assumed from the shock on Argent's face it was the first notion he had that Ralph, Phil, Frank, and I were having intelligent communication.

"It is what I want. Maybe Argent and his superiors will have a better understanding of our new relationship after the forty-eight hours are over. Goodbye Argent."

Ralph did his job then. Argent faded away before the startled expression left his face. Ralph and I were alone in my office.

"What do you think of my tactics Ralph?"

"You have hit on exactly the weakest point of their position. I didn't realize you had such a good understanding of your place," he said.

"Humans can read between the lines as well as any I suppose."

"I don't understand. What does read between the lines mean?" he asked.

"In this case it means after praising me every time something exciting and out of the ordinary happened, Argent should have known I would know seeing these acts was very important to him.

"I am able to draw a few conclusions without having things spelled out for me. They wouldn't have thousands of video and audio devices if they didn't want the information the devices collected. I wasn't sure you could cut them off and if you hadn't been able to I don't know what my next move would have been. When you told me you could I knew exactly what to do."

"I'm sure this is a show of force they could never have imagined. I don't have to speculate about the effect it will have since I know exactly what they want out of this experiment. Their attitude will be changed significantly when Argent is allowed to come back."

"Should I let Argent come back or should I demand a different person, perhaps with more authority, to negotiate?"

"Argent will be your best choice. He truly didn't want to do any of the things they tried to force him to do and he warned his superiors you might rebel. They decided you had no means to resist their will," he told me.