Extraordinary Mistakes II - Blood Ties

Aligned interests

The members of the Council take their seats, and the meeting starts on time. The President of the United States is not present today.

"Report, please." Edward asks.

"Their memories are gone. We'll try a new approach starting tomorrow," Marianne says.

"Are you telling me that after several days of work, there's nothing usable there, Marianne?"

"Yes, sir, I-"

"Actually!" Aymee gets up behind Marianne, whose light, blue eyes turn darker, "if we want, we can have access to the deviants' forum. Maybe there's something there."

"Deviant forum?" Edward's eyebrows raise.

"Yes, sir. It's an online platform that the terrorists and deviants who support them use."

"Laurence, why was I not informed about this forum earlier?" Edward faces him.

"This is news to us, sir. I'll look into it with Ms. Ortiz."

"News to us... we can't afford any surprises." Edward sighs, "Laurence, find me something useful in that forum. Saif, keep circulating the van around. Miss Ortiz, wonderful job."

Their meeting ends and Padma asks for Saif to go with her so they can talk.

"Sir, I was thinking, Ikubor is really looking forward to working full time with us in this lab too."

"Padma, Edward doesn't want 'the retard anywhere close to what we do'. His words. Not even Marianne can hire him. Our orders are to erase his memories after he finishes this."

"But, sir..."

"Padma, there's no room for discussion. Maybe we can get him a nice financial settlement. I can ask Edward for it and see if he'd be open to it, but that's it."

A few days later, the Council meets before lunchtime, once again without the participation of the president. They take their seats and begin the meeting.

"Laurence, what can you tell us about the forum?" Edward smiles at Aymee.

"The oldest posts date back to the beginning of the Great War. Stephanie Williams is likely the one responsible for this work. Considering the ability of En Nagoyan, it isn't that farfetched that she's continuing to improve it."

"Én truly was talented. Such an over-achiever!" Madeleine adds.

"Madeleine, people like her are dangerous. The Institute failed there. She was radicalized and joined the terrorists. You have to make sure no one else does the same. You have to pay more attention to your students." Edward says.

"Edward, considering the number of the students that we have, one having joined the movement is not significant. There's no failure there, but I'll keep an eye open and see what I can do about it." Madeleine asks her advisor to devise a plan.

"May I continue, sir?" Laurence asks.

"Go ahead, Laurence."

"We have compiled the available data, downloaded everything. Our computers are running it nonstop. However, nothing can pinpoint a location of the hideout. But-"

Edward slams the table.

"But-"

Edward slams again.

"Stephanie Williams developed a code that we couldn't reach. The Five were so well hidden that Thomas here couldn't find them," Edward gets up and stomps around the table, placing his hands on Thomas' shoulders, "the mental controller," he goes around again and places his hands on Aymee's shoulders, "the Williams' boy, like mother like son, erased his memories so well that our mental controllers can't find them. We have an entire institute filled with deviants with abilities," he places his hands on Madeleine's shoulders, "and the one that could actually do something useful now, this Chinese girl, is with the terrorists. At least, the retard is still with us. Imagine if he had left too. We wouldn't even have our guests."