Johan Birch

"Go ahead, Samantha," I nodded. "I'll be along, I just have some things to finish up here first."

"We'll be at the condo," Samantha stood and leaned over the desk for a kiss.

She left the office, and I settled into my chair to read a blue-binder report. The blue-binders always were bad news, and while the news inside wasn't catastrophic, it was still pretty bad. Tara Knight had poached a dozen of my people to come work for her at what used to be the Taylor-Wilcox complex. I had sold off half the buildings I owned in Industry, and evidently Tara had snatched one or two up.

Even though their working for Tara in Industry was technically a violation of their 'promise not to compete' contracts, which said that they wouldn't work for a competing company within eighty kilometers, I wouldn't pursue it. Also in the binder were brief dossiers on the people, seven lab techs and three low-level scientists.

A note from Erin told me that their access to the computing systems and properties was revoked. She was upset at Tara Knight making such a blatant move, which was a slap in her face as well as mine. Erin asked for permission to put all computer terminals into lockdown and revoke the remote work connections to our servers.

I sent Erin an email to leave things business as usual. I didn't want to clamp down on the people who were still working for us. I did tell her to drop the remote logins for the technical specifications for equipment related to solar and the Mars Experimentation Projects. The nitrogenator and crop projects were only in organic memory in any case.

***

Two days later, Hillary stopped by my office. She was there to let me know that she was firing the guard team that was assigned her by the four fifty-seven club. She had heard about the trouble that Tara Knight had been giving me and wanted them away from her. I promised her that I would get a security team assigned to her as soon as possible.

I did share with Hillary that her new personal assistant was also a member of the club, probably sent to seduce her. Hillary replied that she had already seduced Wanda and she was very good at both jobs. I asked if she wanted Petra to read Wanda to see her true intentions, and Hillary told me yes. Hillary wanted to make sure that Wanda was really there for her or to try and divide the two of us.

The following Tuesday interesting news came to me from The Arthur Firm, from the senior Arthur. He had gotten a query from one of the junior partners in the firm saying that Birch America was involved in some illegal and extra-legal and perhaps crimes bordering on espionage, kidnapping and brainwashing.

Arthur told me that he explained to the junior attorney that the firm did indeed have a criminal division and that's what they did, defend against such charges. I asked Arthur if he could tell me who the junior partner was and if he knew that I was the actual owner and just a silent partner? Arthur chuckled. There were only two people that knew I was the owner, and that was him and his brother.

That's when I asked for an appointment. I needed to let him know face-to-face that Tara Knight was behind all of the rumors. To say he was outraged was putting it mildly. Twelve of his clients were conspiring to get his firm to drop another client and had suborned one of his junior partners to assist. While we were debating on what action to take, the receptionist rang through the intercom to let Arthur know that Cherise Foster would like to see us.

Us.

After Arthur agreed to let Cherise come up, he explained to me that she was an ADA for LA County. I told him that Tara was upping the ante, and that someone in his building had just broken attorney-client privilege by telling someone on the outside that I was in his office.

Arthur was not amused.

I told him that the only way to take a chunk out of the legal problems suddenly facing me was to call Anna Forrester. Arthur agreed, saying that he would invite a couple of other people as well. And dinner. We'd have the whole group upstairs in the very big conference room on the tenth floor.

Petra arrived the same time as Cherise, coming over to where I was standing by the windows. "This is a big old mess going on here, husband."

"I'll bet, especially with kidnapping and brainwashing charges coming from the ADA over there."

"Cherise is using her title as an ADA, not the position. She is a member of the four fifty-seven club, and that would be a conflict of interest in gaia's eyes. You're safe from The Laws of Man in this case."

Arthur waved me over toward him, Cherise taking to be a wallflower as I arrived. "How bad is it?" I asked.

"Not as bad as it might've been had you not had the idea to ask Anna Forrester to join our little gathering. She is en route along with Tara Knight."

"Does Anna know what's going on?" He nodded. "What about Tara?"

"I am unsure. If the question of your ownership of this firm arises, it means nothing. I will stress that you are the owner of the firm and not privy to client lists."

"Okay."

"That being said, if your people were to look at court dockets with the name Desmond Till on them, you may be able to divine the names of the people who suborned him. I'm going to fire his ass anyway, and it'll be public enough."

I looked over at Petra, and she was already on her phone. I didn't know which way she had 'heard' the conversation, but glad that I didn't have to repeat it. As Arthur and I talked, I took a moment to study Cherise. It was obvious that she was a career woman, so she would have been easily seduced by the promise of children without having to bear them. That was the four fifty-seven club's pitch: Children.

Petra touched my arm, snapping me out of my study of Cherise. She told me that Aysun was in the lobby with some papers I needed. I would need to go down and swipe her through security.

I knew there was some ulterior motive for her sending me down there instead of Petra going herself. Aysun passed over the binder, turning slightly to indicate that Joseph was coming toward the door. Before I could protest to Aysun, Joseph had already spotted us. She gave me a peck on the cheek before she took off.

"Johan, got a minute?"

"I've got a few. I have a conference coming together on the tenth floor, we're just waiting for everyone to show up."

The timing could not have been better. Joseph and I had been standing off to the side when Tara Knight and her adoptive mother Anna Forrester came through the front door.

Joseph turned to see who I was looking at then turned back to me. "Does this have something to do with that scuffle the two of you had a little while ago?"

Tara and Anna passed through security and were close enough to see who I was talking to. The look on Tara's face was one of terror, she evidently thought that I had brought Joseph to the firm. "It was a disagreement."

"So she is messing with you."

"It started out with her needling me to share my solar technology with her. Then she started poaching some of my scientists, and that wasn't really a big deal, either. Then my lead solar scientist fired her security detail, which is a completely different story, and then Arthur called me to ask about some rumors going around his firm."

"Is that where Tara Knight was going?" Joseph asked.

"Joe, this mess here is personal on a high level. I don't want any of this to blow back on you as a producer. Plus, this whole meeting with you and me here was set up by my wife and daughter to make sure you and I met here, now, as Tara was coming in the doors."

That was excellent timing.Somebody needed a kiss for that.

"Also on that list is Ziyat Abadi," Joe added. "She was who I was meeting here today. I sold her a house and she kept me over in the meeting room barely three minutes asking me if I thought models made good actresses. I told her to look me up later and Stephanie would give her a tour of one of my sets."

"Just freaking amazing," I muttered.

"Spill, Johan."

"I hurt Tara Knight's feelings and she's trying to fuck me over. That's what it boils down to."

I opened the binder. The cover sheet listed nineteen names of the four fifty-seven club members tied to that same attorney, Desmond Till. There were brief dossiers attached to tabs, how many surrogates were attached to each member, net contributions in dollars or knowledge.

"What's that?" Joseph asked.

"Possible co-conspirators. Joe, please don't do anything on my behalf, I don't want to hurt your business, okay?"

"You do remember that I have an eidetic memory, correct?"

"You did forget that I know some people who can make you forget?" I asked in a whisper. "Joe?"

"All right. I'll let it go for now," Joseph promised. "But I am coming with you. If nothing else than to scare the shit out of Tara Knight. She's recently been a little too sassy to me and some other producers."

I sighed. "All right."

When we got to the conference room, Joseph snagged the binder Aysun had given to me and peeled off to go talk to Petra. Anna, seeing that I was momentarily available, came over to me. "Mister Birch, I'm Anna Forrester."

"Johan, ma'am."

"Johan, of course. Arthur asked me to come join this meeting, although I cannot imagine why."

"I was under the impression that you were still the leader of the four fifty-seven club."

"And if I were?"

"Then I would ask you to convince your daughter to leave my businesses alone. Also, she's convinced some of her movie-star friends to spread innuendo and involving an ADA to try and damage my personal life. That should stop as well. "

"Really?"

Another thing entered my mind. "Also, if I would do some looking around, I probably would find that your daughter was responsible for me being called on the carpet by a US Senator and two Congresspeople. That was where I had to defend a project previously approved by both the Pentagon and the Senate Armed Forces Committee."

Anna snorted. "Called on the carpet. That's funny."

"It wasn't meant to be, ma'am."

"Yes, I'm sorry. What makes you think that I hold any sway over the club anymore?"

"Well, if you don't, then I would hate to have to escalate this conflict that Tara and I are having. She is trying to convince people that I am responsible for brainwashing one of my close personal friends."

"Why?" Anna asked.

"Because she is having a temper tantrum at the fact that I won't share my advanced solar technology with her. Hillary Milano is a close friend of mine, and an even closer friend of my wife. I would never do anything to hurt her."

Anna studied me for a moment. "I will tell her to back off. Can you ask Mister Bruckberg to hold off on Tara? Please?"

"Yes, I will."

Anna went over to Tara and Petra and Joseph came over to me. "Joe, can you hold off, please?"

"Tara isn't going to let it go, Johan," Petra warned. "Not even for her mother. This thing with the brainwashing story won't hold up anymore, so she's going to put her black-hat on and try to strike at you through our computers."

"Try to?" Joseph asked.

"We have good gatekeepers," Petra answered. "Oh, neat."

Before I could ask Petra what she was talking about, the conference room door opened to reveal Janine Olsen. With a raised eyebrow, she scanned the room until her eyes locked on Joseph, me and Petra.

Janine strutted over to us, making sure she caught the attention of Tara and Cherise. "Joseph, Petra." She nodded to them, then sized me up. "Johan," she purred.

"Shit, Janine." Petra covered her mouth to stifle her giggle. "Did Heather come through?"

Janine held out the folder she was carrying to me, but Petra snatched it out of her hand. "Yes."

"Anybody going to clue me in?" Joseph asked.

I felt bad, he was being left out of the game. "Dirt." I indicated a spot closer to Arthur.

Joseph followed me, handing over the binder that he had just snagged. "Is this dirt, too?"

"You don't normally get to drill down into the lives of your stars, do you?" I teased.

"Johan, I don't even get a chance to watch ThirtyMileZone. Seriously?"

"Not really dirt, just say it's a club roster and we can leave it at that. Please?"

"Okay."

Tara and Anna came over to us, Joseph taking a cue to go stare at the city. "I'm sorry, Johan. Tara here has been a little anxious trying to put things back together. I don't know if you are familiar with our history..."

"Anna, Jaci Stone's wife and widow, Samantha Birch; is an owner of Birch Industries and Birch America is a part of that. I know everything that Samantha Birch knows about the four fifty-seven club. I also was briefed about what happened at Taylor-Wilcox the night Jaci Stone died."

"Yes, I heard those same stories, those were tall tales, indeed," Tara grumbled.

"I believe the version where Miranda Olsen brutally murdered Francine Talbot. Janine was there, Marci Hathaway was there, and I have no reason to doubt them."

"Because they sold you Boulder, Limited for a song," Tara snapped.

"I'd hardly call three billion dollars a song," I scoffed.

Arthur and another man joined us. "Arthur, is this Desmond Till?" I asked.

"We were just discussing his future," Arthur nodded.

"As far as I'm concerned, he shouldn't have a future here. Is there a Promise not to Compete clause in his contract?"

"Five hundred kilometers," Arthur confirmed. "Actually, the decision is yours, Johan."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tara demanded.

Anna gave me a long, hard look. "You own the firm, don't you?"

"Yes, ma'am, I do. Desmond, you're fired, go clean out your office." Desmond looked at me, then back at Arthur, who gave him the 'shooing' motion.

After Desmond left, all eyes were on me. "Both of you know why you're here. You were asked, you came."

"Do tell," Tara panned.

"Leave me alone. Leave my friends alone. Tara, Hilllary truly loves her personal assistant, and I would hate for her heart to get broken. Understand?"

"We do," Anna said. "Don't we, Tara?"

"Yes, mom," Tara sulked.

"We do have a rather large problem here, Mister Birch," Arthur said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Conflict of interest. Miss Knight here decided to try and use your law firm against you, and involved an Assistant District Attorney. We should cancel our contract with Tara's club. I'm not just talking about the nineteen co-conspirators, but all of our clients involved with the four fifty-seven club. There are also some clients that we took on because some member of the four fifty-seven club brought them in and vouched for them, we should drop them too."

Anna paled. "That's kind of drastic."

"Madame Forrester, we've given a lot of leeway to your members in the past. It wouldn't hurt us much to discontinue those special relationships," Arthur countered. "We have been turning away clients for a while, so an influx would take place almost immediately. The firm's profits may drop for a quarter or even two, but we'll make it up."

"I can't just let it go?" I asked.

"You could, Johan, but the exercise of any action after the fact could be construed as blackmail. 'You be good or else' is what the theme would be."

Tara started to say something, but Arthur held his hand up. "I can get an attorney to advise you, Miss Knight."

I looked over Tara's shoulder at Petra. 'Let it go,' she mouthed to me.

"Arthur, I'm not going to call it a conflict of interest. My 'nice guy' button hasn't been broken just yet," I said.

"Very well," Arthur nodded. "Good day, you three."

Anna and Tera went for the doors, picking up Cherise on their way out. Minutes later, a catered dinner made its way into the room.

The five of us chatted like old friends, which we kind of were. Unmentioned were the two folders sitting on the other side of the table.

I was talking to Joseph about his next movie project and what the premise was when my phone rang. That instantly caught Petra's attention because my phone never rang when we were together, she was my call-filter. I pulled it out and looked at it, seeing that it was a sat phone call from Akira, my AI. I hit the button to connect.

"Sir?' Akira's slightly tinny voice said. "Our system is under attack."

"Are the systems secure?" I asked.

"All of my siblings have closed the doors behind them." That meant that the artificial intelligences which were the gatekeepers of all my main systems were offline. The systems were secure, but if the problem wasn't solved soon, all remote work would suffer.

Akira was a special case because she had a dedicated line to me everywhere. Her home was in the basement of the Birch America headquarters in Los Angeles, but she had a global reach. If for some reason she couldn't reach me through the civilian internet, there was a dedicated satellite linkup for her to reach me.

"Keep me apprised," I ordered. The line closed. "Seems like Tara put her black hat on after all," I announced.

"That takes me off the sidelines," Joseph said. "I won't do anything to hurt Tara's career, or the careers of her friends, but I won't help them."

I gave him a good handshake. "See you later, Joe."

"Yep."

"Johan, you know that if she gets caught and charged, the firm can't refuse to defend her because you own it," Arthur cautioned.

"I'm thinking that we can work something out without all the legal shit. No offense."

"None taken," Arthur smiled. "I don't need to know any more." He also got a handshake before he left.

"Our phones aren't working on the encrypted networks," Petra said. "Tara knows what kind of system we use and knocked them out."

"You didn't sense anything from her when she was here?" I asked.

"No, maybe Anna gave her a tongue lashing and that set her off," Petra said. "And you stop that dirty thought shit, Janine."

I chuckled. Janine had probably keyed on 'tongue lashing' and had a whip or paddle thought. "We need to go to headquarters. Akira's there, and we can contact the rest of the arrays through her," I announced.

"Good idea," Petra nodded. "Janine, we'll drop you off at the BSP building on the way."

"Okay," Janine pouted.

The building that housed the offices of Brookstone Pointe was dark and foreboding. The parking garage entrances were open, and people were coming out and getting into waiting cabs.

"I hope there isn't anybody in the elevators," Janine sighed. She got out of the car and went to talk to some of the bystanders. She came back to the car and rapped on the window. "Can I hang with you guys?"

Petra looked at me, I could tell Janine was scared. "Where's your driver?" I asked.

"Before I went into the Arthur building, I kinda told her to take the night off," Janine admitted.

"Of course you did," Petra sighed.

"Protocol is for everyone to fall back to The Hills if something like this happens," Janine explained.

"Hop in," Petra unlatched her door. "Dial back on the dirty thoughts, Janine, I already feel like I've gotta take a shower," she snapped.

"Yes, ma'am."

An echo in my mind, Janine's voice: Yes, ma'am.

The eight blocks surrounding my building were dark. This was probably Tara's attempt at psychological warfare. If there was some way that Tara was watching us, I knew she would be pissed that my building was still lit. The black spaces of the building were covered with generation three solar panels, making sure I wouldn't be without power.

"That's impressive," Janine commented when we go out of the car. "This is all your solar?"

"Yes, all generation three. The panels themselves store the power until it's needed. The building is less than thirty percent grid powered during the day," I replied. "Hillary helped a lot in this design."

"No wonder that bitch Tara is so hot to get her mitts on it," Janine grumbled.

"You're not a fan?" I asked.

"When Jaci Stone was declared missing with no hope of return, Tara was banging on our door the next day," Janine admitted. "I've told you this already, right?"