The House Part 29

Chapter Three in which Margret corrects Matthew on a few points and proposes an idea that Matthew does not like at all
Margret was slowly becoming addicted to Chai tea. Now when one is listing things to which one can become addicted to Chai tea is probably not in the top ten or even top 100. In fact it probably would not be on many people's lists. But the definition of addiction is when you think you can't survive without something and Margret certainly did not think that she could get through her day without her thrice daily Chai fix.
Margret was drinking Chai when Matthew burst into her room looking much the worse for ware.
“I figured it out!” He shouted, grinning hugely, “I figured it out Margret, I figured it out!”
“Figured what out?” Margret said, taking a long soothing drink of her tea. Allison and Margret had always used to argue over how to make tea. Allison insisted that you put the water in first and then the milk and sugar. Margret said that that was crazy talk and everyone knew that you put the milk in first and then the water and sugar. They would go at it for a good half an hour until Madeline would yell at them that it was just tea for God's sake and could they please shut the heck up about it before she had to kill them with their tea bags? Margret and Allison would then engage in an animated discussion about how you could kill someone with a tea bag until Madeline chucked a piece of fruit at their heads.
“The secret!” Matthew said, still very excited, “Or rather secrets! But I now know how to end the war! We just tell everyone that The Master Computer is manipulating us into a huge world war and then we destroy it! It's so simple!”
“Yeah,” Margret said laughing, “That's not going to work.”
“What?” Matthew said, totally flabbergasted, “Why the heck not? You told me that the secret would end the war! And by the way Margret, Aliens seriously? That is really awesome.”
“Yeah Aliens.” Marget said laughing, “But I think you might be a bit confused. What do you think that the big secret is?”
“That the Master Computer, which is also totally awesome by the way, I mean dude, We have a crazed megalomaniac super computer plotting World Domination in our basement, um...Ladies and Gentlemen can we say Skynet or HAL 2000?”
“Who?” Margret asked as she took another sip of her tea.
“Skynet and HAL 2000.” Matthew repeated.
“I have literally no idea who those people are.” Margret said.
“Seriously?” Matthew said, shocked, “2001 a Space Odyssey? Terminator? Two of the Most Famous Science Fiction films of all time...”
“Never heard of them.”
“Lord Almighty! Have you heard of Star Wars?”
“Nope.”
“Back to the Future?”
“No. but that's a funny title.”
“Inception?”
“No.”
“Star Trek?”
“Not as such.”
“Babylon five?”
“Nope.”
“The Matrix?”
“Never heard of it.”
“Alien?”
“Matthew, can we please get back to the matter at hand?”
“This is the freaking matter at hand! Have you seen Avatar?”
“No! For God's sake Matt can we...”
“Blade Runner?”
“No!”
“Titanic?”
“No!”
“The Sting?”
“Yes, yes I did see that one. Best Science Fiction film I've ever seen. Can we move on now?”
“Liar!” Matthew said triumphantly, “As awesome as it is, the Sting is not a Science Fiction film! You don't even know the difference between a sci-fi film classic and a heist movie classic! Ok that settles it; I'm lending you a copy of The Collected Science Fiction Movie Classics.”
“Fantastic.” Margret said rolling her eyes, “Now I'll be able to say 'Beam Me Up Scotty' as the Foremen shoot me!”
“Actually that line was never said in the original series.”
“I DON'T CARE!!”
“Ok, ok.” Matthew said, holding up his hands in a 'Hey back the heck off' gesture, “What I found out was built because the Founders were a bunch of wimps and they were afraid that aliens were going to take over the world.”
“Yeah.” Margret said nodding as she got up to refill her tea cup, “Do you want any tea Matthew?”
“What kind is it?” Matthew asked, a little warily. He had been asked that question before and had said that yes he did want some tea and had received a cup of something called Irish Breakfast tea which tasted like some had emptied half the milk carton into it. So now he was careful.
“Chai.” Margret said, “I quite like it.”
“Okay.” Matthew said, “I'll try a cup, thanks Margret.”
“No problem” Margret said, handing him a cup of piping hot tea, “Now continue with your story. What else did you find out?”
“Well so after the Founders shut themselves up the President of the United States somehow got into the House and told the people on the High Council that actually the aliens were friendly and they should all come back out into the world. But one of the leader guys, who was apparently kind of nuts, couldn't handle being wrong so he made himself into the Master Computer but then he got stabbed by this other leader person and he died. But as he was dying this protester through a bomb that made the guy's brain go into the Master Computer or something and then the Master Computer took over everything and began to make laws and stuff like that. Then it went ever crazier and it started to plan world domination and it started messing around with the genes in all the babies. So all we have to do is tell everyone what the Master Computer is up to and then we can start fighting it instead.”
“Yeah that won't work.” Margret said.
“Why the heck not?” Matthew asked, disappointed.
“Let me ask you this,” Margret said, putting down her tea cup. “If I had told you that the reason the House exists is because the Founders were scared of an alien invasion and currently we are being run by a supercomputer bent on world domination would you have believed me?”
“Valid point.” Matthew admitted as he took a sip of his tea. It was surprisingly good, more flavorful than regular tea. “So what is your suggestion?”
“The only way to end this war.” Margret said, “is to open the doors to the outside. And the only way to open the doors is to destroy the Master Computer.”
“We get to destroy the Master Computer?” Matthew asked grinning, “That is so freaking awesome!”
“You are such a geek!” Marget said laughing, “But I'm going to propose an idea that you won't like very much.”
“Ok,” Matthew said, nervously, “What is it?”
“I think, actually I know, that two people will never be able to take out the Master Computer.” Margret said.
“Yeah.” Matthew said, nodding along.
“That means that we have to bring more people in to the secret.” Margret continued.
“That's logical.” Matthew agreed, “Marc would be good and maybe Ava. Lara too, we could need some medical attention”
“Matthew,” Margret said, “We need the best if we're going to do this so, and I know you're going to hate this.......but I think we should contact Brien May and Allison October.”
Matthew burst out laughing.
“Dude,” he said, still laughing, “That was fantastic! The buildup and then the pay off! I applaud you with vigor! That was hilarious!”
“Matt,” Margret said, smiling thinly.
“Yeah?” Matthew replied, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
“I wasn't joking.”
“What?”
“I seriously think that we should ask Brien May and Allison October to help us take out the Master Computer.”
“Are you serious?” Matthew asked, dumbfounded.
“Totally.” Margret said stonily.
“Then I think that maybe you need to up the number of sessions that you have with Lara because that is crazy talk!” Matthew said, jumping out of his chair and beginning to pace. “Brien May killed Tom! Lord, Brien May killed the High Council! He's a madman! He is a homicidal freaking maniac!”
“But he is also a very skilled fighter and, I'm pretty sure you don't know this about him, a very liberal political thinker.” Margret pointed out, “He is an idealist forced into a realist's clothing. I think that he would be willing to put aside his feelings about us and the revolution to take down The Master Computer.”
“Those are good points,” Matthew said, “Might I counter by saying that Brien is a homicidal maniac!!”
“He's not.” Margret replied.
“He killed Tom, he killed the High Council,” Matthew said, “both for no real reason. I don't know about you, but where I come from we call that type of person a homicidal maniac!”
“We don't actually know that he killed any of those people.” Margret said reasonably, “And if he did he was probably just crazy from grief. He and Ben were very close friends.”
“Seriously?” Matthew asked. He would not have thought that a calm, kind, and reasonable guy like Ben September would be friends with a mean, nuts, and extreme guy like Brien May.
“Yep.” Margret confirmed, nodding her head up and down causing strands of her hair to start to escape its hair tie. She sighed and pulled the ties out of her hair. It fell down almost to her shoulders. “They've been really close friends for years. In fact, they were roommates for a long time.”
“Really.” Matthew said, laughing a little to himself, “I would never had suspected that of either Brien or Ben. As a matter of fact I wouldn't have thought that Brien had any friends.”
“He was really close with Brien.” Margret said, “And he was also friendly with the old President of the House, before Emily February, what was her name?”
“Lynda August?” Matthew suggested.
“No, remember she only served like a month and a half.” Margret said shaking her head. “It was the person who was before her who served for years and then retired. She died about a year ago.”
“Oh,” Matthew said snapping his fingers, “You mean Susan March.”
“That who it was!” Margret said pointing at Matthew, “Thank you Matt.”
“No problem.” Matthew said, “It's just your old age getting to you.”
“Yeah,” Margret said, “Because I'm what? Like Ten Months older than you?”
“Yep.” Matthew said, laughing.
“Anyway,” Margret said shooting Matthew a dirty look. “As I was saying, Brien was friends with her up until her death. He was actually very annoyed when Emily February got the job. He was fine with Lynda being President because she had been on the council for like fifty years, I'm not even kidding, and he thought that she had earned the job. But then after she died he thought that, since he was Chief Legal Consul and doing a really good job plus the fact that he was so close to Natalia that he should get the presidency. But somehow Emily February beat him out. He knew that he couldn't work with her as Chief Legal Consul so he resigned about a month after losing the presidency and started working with the Foremen leadership along with Ben who had been working with the leadership for years. By all accounts he totally re-energized them and made them a force to be reckoned with. When Christian October retired every knew it was either going to be Brien or Ben who got the job and Ben stepped aside and told everyone to vote for Brien. That's how he got the job.”
“I used to wonder.” Matthew said.
“Well now you know.” Margret said, “Emily February had replaced Brien with Nyssa March, one of her really close friends, and immediately she and Brien didn't get along. They disagreed about everything. Just as Brien and Ben were political partners as well as friends so were Nyssa and Emily. In Brien and Ben, Ben was the diplomatic one and Brien was the one with the fire. In Nyssa and Emily, Emily was the strong leader who rose above politics and Nyssa was the one who worked behind the scenes and wasn't afraid to fight dirty. Brien resented her for having the job that he loved so much and Nyssa saw Brien as a major political threat. It is actually because of Nyssa that everyone thought and still thinks that Brien is a crazy gun toting megalomaniac, she was a master of spin.”
“Hold on just one second.” Matthew said holding up his hands, “How the heck do you know all this? You were only a 16 for about a year! How do you know all this gossip and behind closed doors political stuff?”
“I was the youth rep for the council for like three years, remember?” Margret said, “In fact, I was the last one. After I became a 16 and had to resign they didn't replace me.”
“That's right you were.” Matthew said, “Lord, that had totally slipped my mind until just now.”
“Anyway,” Margret said, “Returning to the subject at hand, Brien May and Allison October would be very valuable additions to our little attack force.”
“I still don't like it.” Matthew said, shaking his head, “But if you think that it is really that important that they are with us...”
“I do think that it is important, maybe even vitally important.” Margret jumped in.
“Then I guess you should just ask them.” Matthew sighed, “I'll ask Marc and Lara. Do you think that we should ask Ava?”
“Yes I do.” Marget affirmed “but no one else.”
“Ok.” Matthew sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, “Go do whatever it is you're going to do to get them on board and I'll go talk to Marc.”
“Ok,” Margret said, standing up as Matthew did, “I'll talk to you later.”
“Bye.” Matthew said and walked out of the room
Margret sighed, took another drink of her tea and picked up the phone.