The Mansion of Men

One family

Two weeks after Vegas came home from the hospital, Arm met with Pete in order to hook the minor family's home system up to the major family's network. Arm was happy for the chance because the last time they'd tried, Tawan had corrupted the files. This time, Arm would be granted full access.

Pol tagged along to do some "research". Arm hadn't argued. Any reason to be around Pol was a plus.

Which was how Pol ended up walking through the guards' quarters, the facilities, the yard, the shops on the edge, the main building, and even the network of tunnels beneath the building. Half the places he entered had never been seen by anyone who wasn't minor family and some of the men grumbled when Pol showed. But he had Pete's say-so and Pete was as good as Vegas, these days.

"You don't have to do that," Arm said into his walkie-talkie. He was speaking from the control room, on the ground floor.

"I know."

"Write the rooms anyhow you want. Who cares?"

"I care."

"You never needed accuracy before."

"They're our people now. I want to know them."

"You're walking through dirty tunnels."

"Imagine the sexcapades that could happen here."

"Somehow, I doubt Khun-Vegas would fuck in a tunnel."

"They'll be reading the stories now. Representation matters."

"What?" Arm asked. "The site is for the main family's complex, alone."

"Not anymore. Wait," Pol said. "I thought we came here to extend the site to the minor family's buildings because Pete lives here."

"Hell no. If Pete wants to read it, he should come home and read there."

"But this is Pete's home now."

"Think of what you're saying. You want me to give them access to our stories."

"They're our people too."

"Secret exits, business deals, main family habits, guard protocol. That's the shit that's in your stories. Not just flimsy sex. And you want to give that to the enemy?"

"They are not the enemy anymore."

"Says who?"

"Says Khun-Kinn and Porsche and Pete. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Arm's finger paused on the walkie-talkie button. Pol never raised his voice at Arm. Not like that. It was incredibly unsettling and made Arm want to pull away and cry.

"What the fuck, Pol?"

"Sorry," Pol said, immediately. "Think of all the people we've lost this year because we were fighting the minor family. It doesn't have to be that way."

"And you think a porn site can erase all that?"

"It wouldn't hurt."

"You want to just... start broadcasting everything to minor family staff."

"Yes. We have to make the first step of trust."

"They wouldn't even know what to do with it."

"They'll learn."

Pol seemed to have a lot of faith in this endeavor. 

"Pol, this could be a security breach. We can't make this decision ourselves."

"I know."

"We'll have to expose ourselves to get permission from Khun-Kinn."

"We already have Khun-Korn's permission."

Arm frowned at his walkie-talkie.

"Did Khun-Korn tell you he doesn't mind the security breach?

"It's not a breach and it was his idea in the first place."

Arm wasn't too sure how he felt about that but that cleared a lot of his issues up. If Khun-Korn was fine with it, then who was Arm to worry?

"Fine. I'll extend it."

"Yay!" Pol said, the smile evident in his tone. "And sorry for raising my voice at you. I'll make it up to you."

Arm scoffed.

"You'd better."