Page 59 of Dark Awakening: New World

As the cook walked in with a tray laden with dishes, his usually confident demeanor was tinged with a hint of nervousness. He served Jacki first, then Kian, Brandon, and Kalugal last, following the instructions Kalugal had given him beforehand.

Poor Atzil had been fretting over the vegan dishes he'd prepared for Kian, and Kalugal hoped his cousin would be kind in his assessment.

Once everyone had thanked the chef and he departed, Kalugal lifted his glass. "To family!" He clinked his glass with Jacki's and then Kian and Brandon's. "Bon appétit."

He watched Kian take the first bite of whatever the thing on his plate was. "How is it?"

"Delicious," Kian said. "Decadent."

Brandon cast a glance at the dish. "I love polenta with wild mushrooms. I always order it at Maria's."

Kalugal chuckled. "Thanks for telling me what this dish is. I could smell the mushrooms, but I didn't know what that yellow thing was."

After the first course was done, Brandon leaned back with his wine glass in hand. "I would like to hear more about InstaTock and your vision for its future."

Kalugal had been waiting for this opening. "Well, my original plan was to use it as a steppingstone to take over the world." He paused to wink at Kian. "But I've changed my mind. I decided that the world was not worth conquering. Who needs that headache?"

He'd expected Brandon to laugh, but instead, the media specialist nodded solemnly. "Couldn't agree more, and it seems that Kian shares your opinion. On the way over here, he was talking about taking the clan to Mars and abandoning Earth to the mercy, or rather the lack thereof, of the Eternal King."

Brandon said that with such a straight face that Kalugal wasn't sure whether he'd been serious or jesting. It was probably the latter because Kalugal had never heard Kian talk like that. The guy might be paranoid, but he wasn't fatalistic or nihilistic.

Affecting a horrified expression, he turned to his cousin. "Kian! I'm shocked. What happened to your unwavering dedication to humanity?"

Kian rolled his eyes, but Kalugal could see a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. "It's been a trying few weeks," he admitted.

Seizing the opportunity, Kalugal leaned back. "Finally, you're seeing things my way. As I've been saying, humans are sheep. They are too easy to manipulate and control, so it's better if someone who wants what's best for them is in charge rather than letting some crazy billionaire with a bizarre dystopian agenda do it and kill millions because he wants to depopulate the planet."

"Right." Kian smirked. "You know what I think of that. No one person should decide what's best for everyone else. It should be a democratic process."

"Pfft." Kalugal waved a dismissive hand. "As if the sheep know what is good for them. A democratic process just means that the same billionaires pay for the campaigns of politicians who know how to look distinguished, say all the right things, and make promises they have no intention of delivering on. The system is rigged. You know it, I know it, and Brandon knows it, so why pretend that it's a sacred cow?"

37

BRANDON

At first, Kalugal's words resonated with Brandon, but he wasn't ready to give up on democracy just because the system was rigged. It needed to be fixed, that was true, but it didn't need to be replaced by an autocratic rule. That was never a good idea.

Any student of history should know that, but Kalugal was a young immortal, and his education was probably lacking. He was an extremely smart guy, but he might have focused on other subjects and hadn't studied history and politics in depth.

Brandon didn't have formal education in those subjects either, but since his job was to spread positive influence to the world, he had read extensively on both subjects. It wasn't an easy task to discern truth from propaganda or to remain objective when a particular historian happened to be very persuasive, but Brandon had developed a few simple rules to help him in the sifting process.

The easiest litmus test was to look at the results. So far, democratic regimes produced the highest quality of life for their citizens and the least suffering. Human rights were largely respected, and people felt safe. That didn't happen in totalitarian regimes, whether they were based on ideology or religion, which Brandon considered to be the same.

It made no difference what the belief system was as long as those who had put themselves in charge could use it to control and abuse their citizenry with impunity.

Given Kian's shifting expressions, he was probably doing a similar analysis, and Jacki looked like she had heard the argument before and had opinions about it but wasn't going to voice them in the name of showing solidarity with her mate—at least in public.

Before any of them could respond to Kalugal's statement though, Atzil appeared with the main course, effectively pausing their conversation.

The chef lingered by the table, waiting for Kian to taste the dish he had prepared for him and watching for his reaction.

"This is excellent, Atzil," Kian said. "Thai cuisine is one of my favorites, and you have gotten the flavors perfectly."

Atzil puffed out his chest, beaming with pride. "Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy it."

"You made his day," Jacki said as Atzil retreated to the kitchen.

"I meant it." Kian dug into his curry.