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Watching the force under his command steadily grow, Ethan felt genuine satisfaction.
Why had Liam Rouse dared to scheme and maneuver against him? Why had the Aurelian Republic once dared to seize Frank and hold him as leverage, so brazenly? In the end, it came down to a single thing. His own strength had not been great enough. If he had thousands of Transformers and hundreds of suits of armor at his back, would the Aurelian Republic still have dared prick at him like that? The reason problems couldn't be solved at the negotiating table was, ultimately, the gap in raw power between the two sides.
Now the only matter in the laboratory left unsettled was the Vibranium.
That was good material. If his armor could all be forged from Vibranium, then the million-volt discharge from before wouldn't have been any trouble at all. He could have strolled through that restricted zone with his eyes shut.
He knew it was good material. But the synthesis method sitting in his head was a genuine headache, and worse, many of the raw inputs the System required were incredibly rare radioactive metals. Without going to the state, he had no way of getting his hands on them.
After going back and forth on it, Ethan still didn't dare call Director Holt. He'd already fleeced the man badly over the Hidden Dragon incident. Do it again, and he suspected Holt might crawl down the phone line to throttle him.
Since it wasn't quite appropriate to ask in his own name, he'd simply route it through someone else.
As it happened, he'd been so buried in New Future's affairs lately that he hadn't had a chance to visit that particular someone.
Decision made, Ethan spent the whole morning working through the specialty shops of Ashford City, buying a large pile of local gifts, then climbed into Bumblebee and pointed it toward the capital.
---
Arriving once again at that residential compound with its extreme security, Ethan felt the familiarity of the place. The soldiers on duty were old acquaintances by now. Seeing it was him, they called Hargrove's residence directly and, after a brief formality, waved him through.
Upstairs, finding the front door standing wide open, Ethan walked straight in.
"Hargrove, your security awareness is dismal. You didn't even shut the door. What if some scoundrel wanders in?"
Hearing the shouting, Edmund Hargrove, seated in a rocking chair, set down his newspaper.
"You brat. Talking just to hear yourself talk. This compound has stood for decades and I've never once heard of anyone bold enough to come here to steal."
Don't be fooled by the old man being past eighty. His voice still carried plenty of force.
"Ha. I was only worried for you. There are a lot of bad sorts about these days. Never hurts to be careful."
Hargrove shot him a look, stood, and walked toward the living room. Ethan, treating the place as his own, plucked an apple off the coffee table, buffed it on his shirt, and started in on it.
"Where's Uncle Julian? I don't see him."
"That boy's got something running in the lab. He's out in the far northwest just now, won't be back until tonight."
Hargrove settled onto the living room sofa.
"Out with it, Mercer. What brings you all this way?"
Seeing the old man cut straight to it, Ethan quickly polished off the apple.
"Ha. Nothing gets past you, as always. Here. Take a look at this first."
He handed over the materials list.
Hargrove took the two pages, drew a pair of reading glasses from his pocket, and put them on. He studied the list for a while, and his brow furrowed.
"You brat. You certainly know how to pick them. Not one item on this list is easy to come by. Some are scarce even within our own borders."
Ethan was all smiles.
"How else would your greatness get a chance to shine, without a bit of difficulty?"
He nudged the pile of local gifts across the coffee table as he spoke. The gesture said plainly: I hauled all this here, you surely won't send me off empty-handed.
Hargrove was left speechless by the boy's shamelessness. He considered it for a moment.
"I can find a way to get these for you. Julian's spent all these years working abroad, and I, old as I am, still carry some weight internationally. Pull a few threads, and gathering these shouldn't be too hard. But the costs along the way won't be small. Be prepared for that."
Ethan nodded. For Vibranium, forget a few hundred million. He'd have paid until it bled him dry.
"By the way. I heard Grandfield University reached out to you?"
Ethan felt a flicker of panic and hurried to profess his loyalty.
"Hargrove, that did happen, but I'm completely loyal to you. I turned him down flat on the spot. I'm kidding. Given our relationship, how could I ever leave you behind and go take a post at Grandfield?"
Seeing the boy's theatrics, Hargrove gave a knowing smile.
"I haven't even said anything yet. Why do you look so guilty?"
Ethan denied it flatly.
"Guilty? Am I guilty? Obviously not."
Hargrove shook his head at the boy's stubbornness.
"If you can manage it, take a visiting professorship at Grandfield."
Seeing Ethan's confusion, he went on.
"The Hidden Dragon program is going to need a good deal of technical staff soon, isn't it? Right now it's only Ashford, and the pressure on New Future isn't much yet. But as time passes and the rollout widens, you'll certainly hit a manpower shortage."
Ethan fell quiet. It was true. With New Future's current headcount, they could handle the power supply for thirty cities at most. Any more than that, and the personnel shortage would become acute.
Hargrove lit himself a cigarette and continued.
"When that time comes, a standing as visiting professor at Grandfield should prove quite useful. For all these years, Grandfield's talent pool has been extraordinarily deep. Its science and engineering graduates are known the world over."
Hearing the old man think so far ahead on his behalf, Ethan felt a warmth in his chest.
"Then should I say something to Dean Sutton?"
"No need." Hargrove shook his head. "I'll smooth things over on that end for you. I don't imagine that old fellow will raise any objection."
Ethan nodded.
Their business concluded, and by then it was getting late. For the thick-skinned Ethan, cadging a free meal was the easiest thing in the world.
After dinner and clearing the table, he didn't linger. Normally he'd have stayed to greet Julian before leaving. But today, eyeing that difficult materials list on the coffee table, Ethan decided the greeting could wait for next time.