A burly and tall man with a short cut of gray hair pushed the button on his lighter and lit his cigarette. The sweet smell of the Ariguarian Sharna plant filled the air as the old-but-tough-looking man breathed in the stimulant substances from the burning of the plant. The door to the room opened and in walked President Alamore, sleep-deprived and weary. He sat down across from the man with the cigarette and next to his Secretary of Defense, Giff Gray.

"Hello, Roy" the president said to the bald man, who nodded back at him. "I have a pretty serious matter to discuss with the two of you. I've reached a pretty hard decision" the president said. "After speaking with top civilian advisors and generals and even several admirals within the elven armada, I have decided-" he swallowed "that we have to destroy the Network and eliminate the nuclear frigate orbiting Zenithala."

"Are we prepared to deal with the security threat that would put outworld in?" Gray asked him with a genuine sound of surprise in his voice.

"No" the president said not bothering to do any sugar-coating on the situation at well. "We will have to cede of the border worlds on the crescent, and maybe more for sure."

"That's a pretty high price to pay" Gray remarked. "What will we be getting for that?"

"Princess Zorthia's reign is hanging by a thread. None of the admirals I spoke to expect her to last even another month. The princess-to-be may see us as enablers or even allies of the Network and might not be willing to work with us and a defeat of this Network would be a nice coronation gift to smooth things over."

"And more importantly" the president continued, "the Network might be even more popular among outworlders than either the Union or the Kingdom and we still don't understand where its interests are. I strongly suspect they are working against Union interests and that they played a role in the revelations about Icarus Beed's ship just to embarrass me and my grandfather. They might very well be the biggest threat we face."

"We can manage that without getting our finger prints on it" McGrath said grinning and blowing a puff of smoke. "At least to the people we don't want to know."

"How can you do that, Roy?" the president asked.

"We can use Agent Greene and Agent Rall to lead us to them."

"I don't know where they've gone" the president said. "Agent Greene never made it to Quildalar for his questioning. That's another fire I hope we can put out before the coronation. There are some people in the armada and elven intelligence that are unhappy about it."

"We will use Captain Rall of course" Roy said. "He can lead us to them."

"That could work" the president said nodding his head. "Though I would be cautious that his loyalty to his sister might get in the way. I know he's not telling me everything he knows about Rall's and Greene's involvement with the Network."

"We need not worry about creating any loyalty conflict, Griffin" Roy said throwing his cigarette away and rubbing his hands together. "I've been waiting to have this very conversation with you for a while and I have something cooked up that will work"

"Just be discrete about it, Roy" the president said. "The last thing we need right now is to make any noise. As you put it, keep the fingerprints of the Union and the CIA off of this."

"Of course, Mr President" Roy said with a big smile on his face, revealing his golden prosthetic teeth in his mouth.