LifeShield

Military Snarls

"General Stephens, it'd good to see you again."

His handshake is brusque. "Let's get to it."

After everyone is seated, the general's aide begins. "Mrs Parks. In light of recent events, we would like to expedite the purchase of your product in any way possible. We have been authorized to waive certain documentation requirements. How soon can you be prepared to equip certain elements of the command chain and tactical elements?"

"Zach, can you translate?"

"By command chain, you mean the president?"

The aide hesitates. But the general barks, "Yes, the president. You've unleashed a monster, Mrs. Parks, and the only way to protect him is to make a deal with it. Surely you don't want him assassinated as well?"

Fiona shoves her chair back as she stands. "I have no wish to see any human murdered in cold blood. Though I imagine your 'tactical forces' may misuse the LifeShield just as badly?"

Crimson tinges the edges of his cheeks. "Are you refusing to help then?"

Clenching her jaw, she responds, "By no means. Zach." With the grace of a tigress, she sits back down, crossing her legs to her hands rest in her lap.

Zach says, "We are prepared to place two LifeShield units immediately at a location of your choosing. Each unit can process two people per hour. Between the two, that's 96 people per day, with sufficient supplies for approximately a week of operation. You will have complete discretion over the selection of personnel."

The aide responds, "That's...impressive. But you mentioned supplies?"

"We're ramping production as fast as we can, but can offer priority resupply even over our commercial demand."

"I should damn well hope so," the general growls. "And while we're on that topic, we will also require detailed records on existing and future customers."

"Will not happen!" Fiona snaps

"Oh yes it will! By presidential decree, your...LifeShield has been designated a weapon under the Arms Export Control Act."

"You wouldn't dare."

The general quotes, "Supports international terrorism. Increase the possibility of an outbreak of conflict. You think after those assassination videos that Congress won't back us?"

Fiona's voice is the cold cracking of an iceberg breaking into the sea. "They very well might. But when the world decries a vision of invincible US troops invading other countries, it will cause the very conflict you claim to be avoiding"

"We'll see about that when we return for those records. Until then, I will interpret your 'immediate' offer to mean installation by noon tomorrow. You'll have the locations within the hour. Good day people."

—

With the room empties, Fiona's hands shake, splashing the amber whiskey more onto the mini bar than into glasses. Zach takes the bottle, finishing neatly before handing her a glass. She gulps between shallow breaths.

"You're treading on dangerous ground here," he says.

"I will not let LifeShield be turned into another fucking arms race. But no, he had to go and pull the damn Arms Export Act card."

"The whole thing is spiraling out of control. I know we anticipated issues like this. And I admit you were right about the military procurement caving. But if we try to fuck with the government, we're gonna get squashed.

"He's right about one thing." Fiona twirls her glass before taking the last sip. "Right now, public opinion is killing us. Sales might be skyrocketing, but if people don't see that this will protect them, then we've failed."

"The public launch."

"You heard him. Do it while we still can. And code blue."

Zach pours himself another. Offers to Fiona. When she shakes her head, so he corks the bottle. "I can agree with you on that. But selling to other governments. After that, you'd be insane."

"It's the only way. I thought I'd made that very clear."

"Oh you did. Wars become meaningless. Happy new world without fear. You make people dream, Fiona. But we we live in the real world, and have to deal with it."

She smiles, "Or change it." She stretches her glass out for a refill. "One more bet?"

He arches his eyebrows. "For?"

"All or nothing. Back me for a global launch. All out distribution. Either I'm right and it works. Or it flies to pieces, and I resign as CEO. Then you can be the voice of reason with a convenient scapegoat for whatever you need to do."

She watches the emotions wash over his face, desire, angst, fear, churning alongside his steady thoughts of strategy. In the beginning, it'd been a close race for CEO. His business acumen, proven track record, and connections into the government channels made him the clear favorite. But she'd led the research, she'd made it work, demoed the concepts to private investors, got their funding. She chuckles. Some had said they'd finally given the CEO title to her just to shut her up about how it'd change the world. Regardless, Zach had taken the blow gracefully, supporting her while still making his own view clear.

And who knows, maybe he's right. If so, then he deserves his own chance to make it work.

Zach holds his glass in the air, he twirls it, as if studying the light reflecting through it. He meets her eyes over the rim, tilting it towards her, "Alright. Agreed. All or nothing. Let's see how the cards fall."

Their glasses click one last time.