The House Part 17

February 3rd
Chapter One It Happened one night Part One: Romance
“I,” Allison said, reading off her notes, “am pleased and proud to announce that we have retaken Floor 58 from the rebels. Seventeen of our brave troops died during the final push and their sacrifice will not be forgotten! We are currently planning a monument to be built of Floor One after the war has ended.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in and then continued.
“Tomorrow Brien May will make a very important announcement. The past few weeks he, Prime Minister September, and President February have been working hard to find a system with which to try the leaders of this revolution. They will make their final decision tonight and then announce it tomorrow. Until then I bid you all farewell.” She closed her notebook and walked away from the podium.
“Well done.” Ben said to her, “You did very well.”
“Thank Ben.” Allison said, “Do you know where Brien is? I need to talk to him.”
“I think he's in his room.” Ben said, “I'll help you find him.”
They walked together to Brien's room where Ben rapped on the door.
“Brien?” He called, “are you in there?”
“Hold on.” Brien called back, “Be there in a sec.” Ben and Allison waited for a moment while some peculiar bumps and bangs came from inside the room. Allison raised her eyebrows and Ben laughed.
“I honestly have no idea what is going on in there.” Ben said and Allison also laughed.
“Maybe he's making a bomb that will win us the war.” She suggested, “A massively destructive one.”
“Somehow I doubt it.” Ben said, “Brien isn't really mechanically minded that way.”
Finally Brien opened the door. He was wearing an old shirt that was ripped and stained.
“Sorry about the wait.” He said, “I was painting and I don't want anyone to see the picture until it's done.”
“Since when do you paint?” Ben asked, a little suspiciously.
“Since the war began.” Brien said, innocently, “It helps relieve stress.”
“I wanted to ask you a quick question.” Allison said.
“Shoot.” Brien said gesturing for Ben and Allison to sit down.
“I want to propose an idea to you.” Allison said, sitting down across from Brien.
“Ok.” Brien said.
“I want to film and stream a High Council Meeting.” Allison said, dropping the bomb.
“Um,” Brien said, “No. Thanks for coming. Do come again.”
“Come on Brien!” Allison said, “It would do wonders for our public image.”
“No.” Brien said, “The security risk is too high.”
“We could make sure that we don't talk about anything really important.” Allison said, stubbornly, “But then we could say 'Hey we let people see what we do why won't the rebels do that?'. It would be a PR coup! Ben back me up.”
“Actually,” Ben said, “I kind of agree with Brien.”
“What?!” Allison said, throwing up her hands, “Why?!”
“Because,” Ben explained, “It could backfire horribly.”
“How?!” Allison demanded.
“Well,” Ben said, “Let's say that we do what you suggest, ok? We don't talk about anything important and then we make a statement about how come the rebels won't stream their council meetings, ok? Now the rebels say 'hold on a second, you guys never talked about the war. Either it was just a publicity stunt or it was a fluke meeting. Do it again.' So to avoid the massive public humiliation that admitting it was a publicity stunt would cause we do it again. And this time we talk about the war but, to negate the security risk, we give false information about our plans. We pat ourselves on the back thinking that it was a job well done. But then the rebels issue a statement. They say that the plans that we gave were wrong. So, they say, it was either all a publicity stunt or a counter intelligence operation. Either way the public stops trusting us. Everything that you say, everything that you announce will be suspect. We will lose all credibility. You see the problem?”
“Yeah,” Allison said morosely, “I just thought it was a good idea, publicity wise you know?”
“It was,” Ben said kindly. He was quickly learning how to deal with Allison's sharp mood swings. “It just needed a little more thought. Now why don't you go and think up an even better idea and leave me and Brien alone to talk, ok?”
“Ok.” Allison said and left the room.
“Lord.” Brien said laughing, “She's worse than me.”
“Brien,” Ben said seriously, “I am really truly sorry about all those things I said, it was stupid,”
“Oh forget it.” Brien said, “Come here.” Ben walked over to Brien and they embraced.
“I love you, you know.” Ben said, “No matter what I say sometimes, I do love you.”
“And I love you too.” Brien said. They looked deeply into each other's eyes and then their mouths met. They kissed once, twice, three times.
“I love you so much.” Ben said, sniffling a little.
“Shh.” Brien said, putting his finger to Ben's lips, “Don't talk.” They kissed again.