The conference room door opened, and Andre walked in, half dragging a short and stocky young man with curly black hair and brown eyes, who was wearing a food-stained white lab coat. He was clearly not happy to be there, and was trying to pull away from Andre's grip.
"Status on the reactor Mario." said Aaron coldly, as Andre shoved Mario into a chair.
"We've been over this already Aaron! We need to fully stress test the reactor core and water loops before we can do anything else!" snarled Mario.
Natasha immediately picked up on Mario's body language. Behind his blustering indignation, he was terrified and trying to hide it.
"Andre, leave the room." said Aaron, getting up from his chair.
Andre swallowed and moved to the door. Mario tried to jump up and run, but Aaron grabbed him by the collar and shoved him back into the chair, he tried to struggle against Aaron's grip, but Aaron gave him a vicious backhand across his face.
"Andre, get out. Natasha, zip-tie this filth." said Aaron, his fist closing around Mario's throat, sapping the strength out of him.
Natasha quickly pulled out the zip-tie dispenser and grabbed a zip-tie. She quickly secured Mario's hands behind his back, and then pulled out a second zip-tie and secured his feet to the chair.
"Aaron, wait!" began Mario, but Aaron's fist smashed into his the side of face, almost knocking him to the floor.
"You know, I had observed that you were not in the same league as Harry and James." said Aaron conversationally, as he turned off the conference room lights, and activated the large monitor on the wall, which showed a paused security camera feed from the mine entrance.
"At first, I chalked it up to the belief that nuclear engineering poses a larger challenge than civil or electrical engineering. But then I went over your assignments and textbooks, and realized that a lot of the challenges are not down to engineering complexity, but rather to politics, which meant that you really were not as competent as Harry or James. Then came the incident in your final year, where you asked me to help you come up with a project idea since you had helped me with my game's soundtrack. I practically designed the modular pressurized heavy water reactor that you submitted, which was rejected by the professors, but they still gave you a passing grade. Now why would they do that? Because they knew that it was not a flawed design, but rather it was too disruptive to the status quo. I had hoped that me asking you to actually build it would have given you the motivation to improve yourself." continued Aaron coldly, and then he resumed the security camera recording.
The recording showed a small pickup truck arrive at the mine entrance. A few seconds later, it showed Mario coming out of the mine, with 2 small mining carts, one loaded with lead ore, and the other with a large heavy water canister. He and two other men quickly loaded the canister into the back of the truck, covered it with the lead ore, and the truck drove off, with Mario scurrying back into the mine, clutching a large duffle bag.
Aaron paused the recording, and turned to a pale-faced Mario.
"When you took credit for my reactor design, I thought that I could keep you around as a useful idiot, who could at least oversee the construction. But then, you decided to prove that you were an imbecile beyond redemption by trying to smuggle heavy water." said Aaron, his voice cold and dripping with contempt.
Mario was shaking uncontrollably, his eyes wide with fear.
Aaron switched to another security camera feed which showed the truck from the earlier feed plowing into, and getting caught by the retractable spike strips at the security checkpoint, before exploding in a fireball.
"Natasha, I believe that your first assignment as head of security is to extract whatever information you can from this worthless lump of flesh." commanded Aaron.
"Wait wait wait! There's no need for that! I'll tell you everything!" babbled Mario, his voice high-pitched and panicked, before Aaron socked him again.
"I was willing to overlook your plagiarism in college. I was even willing to just keep you around as a poster-boy for Sirius Nuclear. But when you do something as moronic as invite high treason, then you are past all redemption!" shouted Aaron, his fists clenched tightly.
Natasha could see that Aaron was barely holding himself back from killing Mario with his bare hands.
Mario's actions were not lost on her. He had sold heavy water to unknown parties, which was a major nuclear proliferation risk, and it was only Aaron's spike strips that had stopped Sirius Software from being torn apart by a Federal or even international investigation.
She also realized why Aaron didn't consider Monica as a threat.
Because she wasn't. Aaron had a compound that was a fortress, the industrial capacity to build a drone army, and was working towards having his own nuclear reactors. Sirius Software was not just a two-bit game development company, it was Aaron's fully-integrated multi-industry personal fiefdom where his word was law, and he was judge and jury, and Natasha was not about to let a kid become executioner on her watch.
She pulled out her baton, and flicked it open, the metal rod extending with a satisfying click.
She stepped forward, coming between Aaron and Mario.
"Master Zakhrov, I believe that this ignoramus would not have any useful information for me to extract. I suggest we just dispose of him." she said, her voice steady and firm.
"No! Wait!" screamed Mario, his eyes wide with terror.
"Silence boy! Adults are talking!" snapped Natasha, bashing his face with the baton. Mario sputtered blood, and hung his head.
"Do you still have the wreckage of the truck Master Zakhrov? I believe forensic evidence would be more forthcoming." she asked, turning to Aaron.
Aaron had taken a few deep breaths, and was visibly calming down. "Yes, the wreckage is in the back of the warehouse." he replied, his voice back to its usual cold and Stoic tone.
"Very well. Now how should we dispose of this refuse? Would you like me to make it look like an accident, or would you prefer a more public execution?" asked Natasha. Her voice was steady and calm, but her heart was racing with excitement. She was actually enjoying this.
"I'd like to send a message to whoever is behind this. So, I think a public execution would be more appropriate." said Aaron, his eyes gleaming with cold satisfaction.
"Albrecht Nuclear Systems" coughed Mario, his voice trembling.
"I told you to shut up!" snapped Natasha, slamming the baton into his face again, breaking his nose.
"Have... proof... sale... legit" coughed Mario, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, and urine flowing down his leg.
"If Friedrich wanted heavy water, he would have approached me and the government. He's not stupid enough to try and get you to smuggle it. And why would Albrecht Nuclear Systems employees have suicide bomb vests, cover the canister with lead ore to mask radiation, and then try to evade identification while leaving just enough evidence to incriminate Sirius Software by blowing themselves up? My patience and tolerance has run out. I don't need to send any messages. Natasha, just slit his lying throat." commanded Aaron coldly.
Natasha drew one of her knives, and slashed it across Mario's throat in one fluid motion.
Blood spattered in torrents across her uniform and over the conference room table.
Aaron handed Natasha a box of tissues, took a final look at Mario's body, and walked out of the conference room.
Natasha quickly wiped her knife, and as much of her uniform as she could, and hurried out to catch up with him.