"Yes." Aldrich had offered the treatment to Randall, Elaine's adoptive father, as a means to cure his waste lung. It was an experimental treatment using regenerative variant stem cells - stem cells harvested from the disease immune geists that the news report before talked about - and coaxing a human body to accept them.
A successful treatment healed all diseases, and not just that, it granted the patient an infinitely evolving immune system exactly like that of the geists.
"Arjun's the one that made that happen. Soma, his company, has also developed a fast version of Regenerol that induces short term accelerated healing. A useful health pack for heroes or soldiers.
All from that one discovery.
He made one breakthrough and now he's milking it for all its worth.
Anyways, enough of my bitter rambling here, but Arjun has approached my father with a potential operation to make him truly immortal.
I've looked into the downsides - there's a big risk of turning my old man into a mutated half variant abomination, but maybe that's appealing to him, because he's taking more of a liking to that offer than mine."
Aldrich nodded. So competition had popped up. "What's the proposition here, then?"
"I was willing to go along with my old man's game here, but now, I'm starting to get tired of it." Aarav tapped his fingers absent-mindedly on the desk. "How about we get rid of him a little more forcefully?"
"If your father hasn't written you into his will as his successor, then killing him won't solve anything. It'll just cause a six way civil war between you and your siblings."
"As much fun as that sounds, I'd like to stop having childish fights with my brothers and sisters. I'm not suggesting we go guns blazing, full automatic rambo, napalm in the jungles and bombs in the deserts style American gusto.
I'd prefer something a little more subtle."
Aldrich nodded. "And what does subtle look like to you?"
"You see, once I realized good old Arjun was stepping up his game, I decided to get some of my best teams to create a little something that will make my old man a little more agreeable."
"A mind control agent?"
Aarav nodded.
"What kind of agent is it?" said Aldrich, wanting to know how feasible an attempt was.
"It's about as quiet as you can get. A tiny bio-capsule that, when crushed, releases an odorless, colorless, tasteless brainwashing vapor. Bio-capsule's designed so that it can change its form to stick to nondescript surfaces like, say, the roof of the mouth or the cavity of a tooth, and it's makeup doesn't trigger any alarms.
Harvested from a rare variant deep in the Abyss. Cost me over a billion credits to make on short notice without peeping toms getting in the way.
Damn, thinking about the cost and the sleepless days I forced on my teams is making me more annoyed than I usually am. "
"That sounds effective," said Aldrich. "All you need is a capable person to spread the agent."
"Therein lies the problem, Thanatos." Aarav pointed his cigarette at Aldrich. "My old man's scared of the wind. He's holed up in a tower fortified so heavily it'll survive a few rounds of judgment days, shit, forget judgment day, it'll probably take a beating from from Shiva himself.
He doesn't ever leave his room, either.
Doesn't speak with anyone face to face, only ever through a screen.
No Alter is going to get to him.
And there's a specially made Null device that projects a forcefield which stops any Alter power from penetrating while keeping all his life support medical gear online.
But I happen to know one man in this world who has powers that ignore Null."
"I see." Aldrich nodded. "You're wondering if I'm capable of getting that agent to him with my powers."
"Hell, if you've got a way to brainwash him without my bio-capsule, that'd be nice too. I'd feel a little sour pissing away a billion creds like that, but I can't be choosy here, can I?"
Aldrich thought about this for a moment. His powers did go through Null, but this situation was surprisingly more difficult to get around than he initially thought.
He could not very well just cast magic and bombard the CEO. He had to brainwash the CEO first. And an issue arose there. Fler'Gan's mind control required some level of physical contact.
Either by ingestion or, in the Judicata, sound waves. If the CEO only talked through a screen, it would not work.
There was potential to use the Pursuer to inflict the mind control status ailment, but that was way too forward. The Pursuer was not exactly invisible, even if it could phase through walls. Cameras would pick it up. If the CEO had guards or surveillance, there was no way to avoid evidence of foul play.
"Here's another one of blue's clues to get this good old euthanasia plan rolling here." Aarav leaned back ins his chair. "My old man isn't entirely alone.
He keeps a girl with him as his personal maid. She sucks him off and changes the sheets when he shits the bed. Privileges of being a rich old prick, you know."
"Get to her, then we get to him."
"Bingo. Issue is, this unlucky girl's basically a slave. Never sees the day of light. Gets one day a month to leave that room, and even then, she's got a team spying on her 24/7.
On top of that, she's got tracking chips in her.
And on top of on top of that, she comes back, she gets scanned a bajillion times and sterilized so hard her cunt hairs fall off before she even gets to breathe the same air as my old man.
If we get to her, then it's gotta be done quick enough that the surveillance doesn't notice anything wrong. It's gotta be done with a means that doesn't trigger any scans."
"That's difficult, even for me," said Aldrich.
"Ah, but it does not escape my talents." Vexa's voice spread through the room.
The temperature of the room dropped, and Aarav's cigarette died.
