The House part 27

Part Six
The Knowledge Offensive or in which Matthew finds out everything and begins to plan the end of the war

May 4th
Chapter One in which Brien goes a little off the deep end
“Hello Everyone!” Brien sad cheerfully coming into the conference room and looking around at the people seated around it. “How are we all doing today?
“Brien,” Nyssa March said sharply, “Why have you called this meeting? Last time we met you said that quote 'our services were no longer required' unquote. Now you call us back, I think that you should be a man and just come right out and tell us why.”
“I was just being polite.” Brien said still smiling.
“To Blazes with politeness.” Emily February said, “Why are we here?”
“Well,” Brien said, standing at the head of the table “I called you all here to inform you that there has been a deadly, disastrous, and despicable terrorist attack.”
“Really?” Allison asked, “What happened?”
“Who did it?” Emily asked, she still felt like the President even if Brien had removed her from office, “What are you doing to catch them?”
“To answer Emily's question first.” Brien said, “Our intelligence agents believe that it was the rebels and thus we can't catch them. Now to answer Allison's question these terrorists struck us at the very heart of our society, order. They bombed a meeting of our council. Only I and Allison October survived it was terrible, it was tragic, it was terrorism. Allison will you step outside with me?”
“You're insane.” Nyssa said, disgusted.
“Yep.” Brien replied, “And darn good looking too. Allison please step outside”
“I'm not sure I want to.” Allison replied, looking at the other council members who were clearly terrified.
“Allison you definitely want to.” Brien said, “Because everyone here is going to die and they all know it. See how they aren't fighting back because they know they can either die here or I can have them shot and make up some excuse later. I have chosen you as the sole survivor, my partner in crime so to speak Or rather my partner in government.”
“Despite what the public believes,” Brien said playing with his new purple frock coat, since Ben's death he had begun to dress more flashily, “I do not actually enjoy being the sole dictator but I'm also not a team player. I work best and have always worked best when I have a partner. Ben was my partner but now he's dead so I need a new one. And I choose you Allison because I have chosen you to step into Ben's huge shoes. Congratulations, now go out into the hall.”
Allison still looked a little wary so Brien walked up to her and whispered into her ear.
“I'm not actually going to kill them,” He said, “I just want to give them a bit of freight to punish them for their essay about Ben. I am going to get them to promise not to speak out against the Government.”
Allison looked at Brien for a moment and then nodded.
“Traitor!” Emily February screamed as she and Nyssa March jumped at Allison. They smashed into her and all three fell to the floor. Allison yelled and screamed in pain. Brien drew his pistol.
“Get off her, now!” He roared. Neither of the women did as he instructed so he aimed and fired a shot off. Somehow he managed to shoot both Nyssa March and Emily February with the same bullet without hitting Allison despite the fact that they were wrestling with each other on the floor.
“Mighty fine shooting if I do say so myself.” Brien said as he blew smoke away from the barrel of his gun, “Two with one shot, heck yeah, May, Brien May. Now Allison please go out into the hall and stay there.”
“Ok,” Allison said, standing up and brushing herself off, “Thanks for that by the way.”
“No problem,” Brien said, holstering his gun, “Could have happened to anyone, well actually no it couldn't have and it was a problem, so, um, that's ok Now go out into the hall.” Allison nodded and walked out to the hall. Brien shut the door behind her and turned to look back at the two dead bodies on the floor. He grinned nastily and began to speak to them.
“Not so high and mighty are you now Nyssa? Where are your precious ethics now, Emily?” He threw his head back and laughed a laugh that was very different from the laughs that Brien had laughed while Ben was alive. His laugh then was loud and rich and full of life now it was sarcastic and angry. Brien reached under his purple frock coat and pulled out a switch blade. He flicked it open and grinned. He began to walk towards the bodies, still speaking.
“A philosopher once spent his whole life trying to find out if he actually existed.” Brien said, “In the end he came up with 'I think therefore I am' which may very well be a grand way to tell if you exist or not but here is the truth: It doesn't matter. Same with religion, is there a god is there not a god? Is there an afterlife is there not an afterlife? IT DOESN”T MATTER! All that matters is the present. Forget about the future or rather stop trying to predict it. If you do well in the present and plan for whatever the future might bring everything will be fine. But you can't live your life from tomorrow to tomorrow because you will only be disappointed. That's how you two lived, always planning ahead never thinking about anything but tomorrow. Lord, that's why this whole place even exists because The Founders jumped the gun and then even after they saw that they were wrong they STILL thought only thought of the future!” Brien was spitting with fury now and he hurled his knife into the wall. It hit it with a thunk and stuck there, buried deep in the wall.
“That is why this war began!” Brien roared as he pulled the knife out of the wall, “Not because of me or Ben or anyone! It began because of Lucious' utter and complete stupidity. And now I can't end this war by just releasing the information because it would cause a public panic!”
Suddenly, in the middle of his rant, Brien stopped talking and started to laugh. He laughed and he laughed until tears were rolling down his face.
“Burn.” He said still roaring with laughter, “Burn with our dear founders. Burn in the fiery blazes like we all will 'cause that's where we're going. And I blame you because even though you two didn't start the fire you sure as heck poured barrels full of gasoline on it. So now you'll burn in fire for eternity. How the heck is that for irony?”
He shook his head and walked out the door.