Planting the seeds
"Ho..ly… crap," Carol said, watching the day time talk show, voicing her surprise at the surprise guest that the host introduced.
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"Son of a…", Barry said, covering his face with his hands "of all the people they picked."
"I don't get it," Titus said, looking visibly confused "who is that old man?"
"That's the guy that got Michael fired from his job and caused him to go into a whirlwind of depression," Barry replied, looking at the television "this isn't an interview, this is an ambush. They called him so that they could discredit him on live television."
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"Did you do this?" Carol shouted into her phone, almost causing the person on the other side to go deaf.
"You have to admit that this is the best way to stop Michael without getting involved," Harry said, in-spite of his subordinates loud voice.
"Still, this is low, even by our standards."
"Doesn't matter," said her boss, without a care in the world "the President has had enough of letting Michael run around, doing whatever he wanted so he told me to take care of it and I did."
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"Senator Altman," said Michael getting up to shake the hand of the man that caused his downfall so many years ago.
"Actually its former Senator," corrected the old man, but still shook Michael's hand. The two of them sat on separate chairs while the host (Candace) started asking her questions.
While the Senator explained that he met Michael many times when he was a young boy as a result of his incredible intellect, Michael looked at the balding man and remembered the first word he used to describe him.
Peacock.
At any point in the day, Senator Gary Altman was always dressed in the best clothes money could buy. This of course was his attempt at hiding his weakness of being xenophobic, mindless moron. Altman believed that the best way to deal with problems is a swift punch to the face and used to throw his weight around during missions to aim for maximum destruction. The only reason he was never fired or relieved from any of his positions was because, like any other politician on Capitol hill, he had enough dirt on all the right people, to keep himself nice and safe.
Him being here confirmed one of the many doubts that Michael had.
"If you don't mind Candace," the Senator said, in a respectful tone but he had no such respect for anyone other than himself "if you don't mind there are a few questions I'd like to ask Michael."
"Oh by all means go ahead," said Candace, nodding to him.
"Let me start off with something simple Michael…" Altman said "did you know that one of your known associates frequented a mosque used by Al-Qaeda and later ISIS?"
The audience visibly gasped at this. Michael too had no idea about this information but quickly figured out who it was. His reaction however was one that no one expected.
He started laughing.
Audience in the studio and all over the world were left completely baffled by the response.
"Is that it?" asked he, clearing his throat "that's the best you got?"
"What do you mean?" Altman asked, sounding a little annoyed.
"So my friend went to the same mosque that terrorists went to. Next you're going to tell me he kicked puppies as a hobby before stealing ice cream from children."
"What are you getting at?" Altman snapped, now visibly angry.
"If you look at the time stamps and compare when my associate and the terrorist group went to the mosque, you'll find the only thing they have in common is the mosque itself."
"They could have left messages for one another in a secret place."
"Weren't you part of a Government funded study, showing that the average terrorist is known for carrying out quick shock and awe type plans and not play the long game?"
At this, the Senator moved back a little, his eyes displaying how blindsided that move was.
"I think it's time we go for a commercial," Candace urged.
"Nonsense," countered Michael, relaxing into his chair "I'm just getting started."
"You see Senator, you are the physical representation of what is wrong with this world. You use your imagination to draw two completely separate lives together, then brand one in a bad light, thus forever condemning said person."
"Now it's not your fault in particular Senator, everyone has unfortunately done this and as a result of that we have become less human than we're supposed to be. Fun fact, did you know that for many years, people didn't even lock their doors at night. They went to bed because they knew that they had no reason to fear or hate anyone else."
"Then for reasons unknown, the world changed and not for the better mind you. Now-a-days we're ruled by our first impressions of a person, which is a terribly way of living."
"I'll tell you an example, we've all watched movies or T.V shows about people going to prison and one of their friends would say, 'when you go to prison, first the biggest scariest looking guy on your first day and beat the living shit out of him. That'll assert your dominance and tell the others not to mess with you."
"There was this inmate from Montana penitentiary that unfortunately happened to fit that description. Everyday, this unfortunate man was the subject of violent and sometimes brutal assaults from new inmates for what reason? Because he was a big tall, scary looking man."
"Eventually the man served his time and on his first night out of prison, he went to one of my rallies. Now you've all seen when its over, I walk through the crowds and meet a few of them so that we can talk a little later. I do this to get to know the people a little more. Now it just so happened that I met this man and we spoke. Then I asked him to speak to me after everyone dispersed and the man waited. We talked and talked, eventually coming onto the subject of his beatings and that was when the man asked me something."
"'Why do they hit me?' The man also told me that he knitted scarves in his free time, read books, could quote Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice without fault and help dogs that have lost their limbs."
"So I'm asking you, all of you here and the people watching at home, if you knew all that information, would you have hit him? Would you have laid a finger on a man who's trying to serve his time in peace?"
The silence Michael received was the answer.
"We are a species that have become so focused on that one flaw a person has that we use that to completely warp our perception of that person. Like the Senator said, my associate went to the same mosque terrorists frequented. I was an internet joke for more than half a year. So what?"
"The fact of the matter is that as long as we stick to the idea of how first impressions are important, we're denying ourselves the opportunity of meeting many amazing people. By not talking to to someone or by judging someone based on the way they look, you are unknowingly creating a cloud of fear in your mind. Thanks to that, everytime you go out of your house you are constantly afraid of everything. And fear is only a stones step away from violence."
"So what are you saying Michael?" Altman spoke, sounding like he heard enough of this lecture "that people should go out and start a conversation with the first stranger they meet?"
"Why not? I do that whenever I'm free or going out to get some food," said he, without hesitation "you cannot imagine how many interesting stories I've heard from the grocer near my apartment."
"Make no mistake though, in this day and age with fear of the different being the only thing that people have in common, what I'm saying will be difficult. People will think you're weird and may even try to avoid you but that doesn't mean give up. Eventually you are going to converse with one person who will go on to do the same and it will keep going till eventually, people no longer have anything to fear from others because they understand that the person walking on the street is not someone dangerous, the neighbor that just moved in is not some homicidal freak."
"This 'understanding and peace' talk sounds like complete nonsense MIchael," snapped the Senator "you make it sound as though if we started being a bunch of weed smoking hippies then the world will magically get better?"
"Like I said, it's not going to happen overnight, it is something that takes a long process. But think about this, what kind of world do you want to live in? A world where we're afraid of everyone and everything, a world where we're taught to hate things just because it's different or a world where you can go to sleep without locking your door and wake up in the knowledge that nothing will be stolen?"
Michael could see how his response left everyone in the room stunned. The rest of the interview had some pretty boilerplate questions which Michael answered without any problem. After that, he met Kelly off stage and he got her a cab while he walked back home.
When he got to the apartment, Michael was greeted by Barry and Monika who expressly said how well he handled that interview and the ambush itself. The trio then sat and had dinner (Barry was notably surprised at how MIchael now ate vegetarian foods like Monika) before getting ready to go sleep.
It was at this time that they heard a doorbell ring. The three of them exchanged confused looks before Barry asked "you expecting someone?"
When Michael shook his head, Barry's expression became serious. He reached into his shirt, taking out a loaded .45 in one hand and a combat knife in the other while Michael took out a pair of riot sticks from the drawer.
Ever since the attack from Essex resulted in the loss of their previous house, Michael and Barry had asked Titus to train them in the event Essex tried to repeat the same trick again. Thanks to that, the two of them developed significantly in hand to hand combat with Michael showing an aptitude for hand to hand combat while Barry was proficient in ranged combat.
Michael inched towards the door while Barry kept his gaze fixed on the door. The two were fully prepared to dodge the haze of bullets that were about to come their way.
"Michael," called a familiar voice, stopping Michael's advance.
"Kelly?"
"Yeah, who else would it be?"
Michael immediately hit his riot sticks in his pants while Barry tossed his weapons on the sofa, hiding it under a pillow while he sat beside it.
"What are you doing out so late?" asked he upon opening the door.
"Well tomorrow you're going to be giving another speech in London so I wanted to brief you on the talking points," Kelly said.
"Kelly its pretty late right now, how about we do that on the plane ride tomorrow."
"But.."
"It's late and I need you to be fresh faced and focused tomorrow because I won't," Michael added, jokingly.
"Alright," she said lowering her head.
"Want me to call you a cab?"
"Nah, I can get one thanks."
Michael then closed the door and headed back to the hall, only to see Monika taking up more than half of the 4x4 grid with a very annoyed look.
"Who is that?" asked she, hands placed on her hips, her tone spoke volumes.
"She's my assistant, pretty much helps out with a lot of back end stuff," Michael replied, taking a seat.
"Uh-huh, yeah hmm sure. You know she's into you right?"
"What?", Michael spat, then turned to Barry who nodded in agreement.
"I'm going with the Missus on this one," added he, "I mean look at the time Michael, the only people that are out this late at night are those looking to score some good stuff or someone looking to score a booty call."
"And she clearly isn't snorting the good stuff so it means she's really into you," Barry added.
"Okay, no that's not possible. Kelly is not interested in me at all, we're work colleagues and nothing more. She even told me she's dating someone."
"Have you met that someone?" Barry asked and Michael shook his head.
"Trust me guys, there's nothing going on there."