"So, what do you think?" Valentine asked her.

"Of your idea or the pizza?"

"Either one."

"I like them both." She replied simply. "May I ask a question, though?"

"Yeah, of course!" He'd expected her to agree with him, any rational person would, but most of the people who worked for him were tongue-tied in his presence to give any valuable input.

"How will you stop people from talking? People usually do, especially celebrities and scientists."

"Yeah, I thought of that. See, if I talk to someone and they don't agree with me, I'll just…keep them safe here until the day comes."

"We're going to kidnap them?"

"Well, sure!"

She gave a bemused little laugh. "It'll keep them from blabbing, that's for sure. But what about the people who do agree with you? I'm sure at least one of them will either lie to you or slip up later. And if they do, we can't get to them, until it's too late."

He sighed. "You think people would do that? I'd hate that."

"Well, we'll just make sure they don't." She rose from her chair and started for the door. "I'll sleep on it. And thanks for the pizza, by the way."

She certainly was enigmatic, Valentine had to admit to himself. While he'd told her about his plan for the rebirth of humanity, she hadn't given any sort of reaction positive or negative, yet she'd immediately started making suggestions of her own. He took that as a good sign, obviously she was loyal without being too passive. He needed more of that from he people who worked for him. Sometimes it was even hard to tell whether his ideas were good or not, since both his employees and the media hadn't challenged him in years. Then again, all of his ideas had been good, he told himself, so there was never a reason to worry.

He got up the next morning and walked downstairs to find her Gazelle at the bottom of the stairs wearing the same black and white outfit from the day before and clutching a smart black clipboard.

"Hey, Gazelle, lookin' good."

"Mr. Valentine." She smiled and inclined her head slightly. "I was thinking about that matter we mulled over last night, and I think I may have come up with a solution. Just let me know when you'd like to discuss it."

"Well, I don't see why we can't talk about it over breakfast." He ushered her into the dining room, and enjoyed her look of pleasure at the massive stack of pancakes gracing the middle of the table.

"All right." She sat down and placed the clipboard on the table. "Now, I obviously don't know all the details, but you're the technology magnate, so I assume you can come up with something. But you said that the…chosen ones would be equipped with a chip to block the transmission from the phones."

"Yeah, as soon as we're done figuring out exactly how the transmission will work, we'll start working on the chip."

She nodded. "What I'm thinking, then, is that you put a bug in the chip that'll alert you when the wearer says certain key words, Valentine, global warming, doomsday, V-Day, whatever. Then once you've been alerted, you can listen in on what they're saying more closely. If it's an innocuous conversation, you can ignore it, but if you realize they're going to give you away, you activate a tiny bomb or something you've implanted in the chip that'll kill them on the spot, along with the people they've been talking to."

"Now that" he paused, at a loss for words "that is the most fucked up shit I have ever heard!"

"So, you like it?"

"Like it? Hey, listen, you wanna be my personal assistant as well as bodyguard?"

"Will my salary double?"

"Triple"

She gave that real smile again and reached for a pancake. "I accept, Mr. Valentine."

"And you know, Gazelle, you don't have to wear that uniform every day. You can just wear jeans and a T-shirt if you want"

She raised an eyebrow. "Do I look like I own jeans and a T-shirt"?

They made some small talk about the weather and the world domination plan before going to his main business office. He was proud to note that the people who worked for him only paid Gazelle's legs a minimum of attention, usually a long glance at most, but then again, her haughty poise would prevent anything else. He gave her a tour of the building, which boasted a gym, game room, and bowling ally for all his employees, and introduced her to everyone she needed to know. Finally, he took her into his office and showed her the files relevant to their plan. She read carefully, going back and fourth between pages for clarification and asking Valentine about any discrepancies in data. By the time she was done, she'd come up with numerous suggestions, not to mention critiques. By the end, he was exhausted but grateful. That girl was a godsend, a knife-legged godsend, and he congratulated himself on making the right decision, as always.